Category: Uncategorized

Both Danica and I are pretty green as bike riders, but I’ve been out for a few more rides. Today, she rode for more than two and a half hours… much more than I did on my early rides.

The Spit is a manufactured headland that juts out into Lake Ontario, about a 20 minute ride from our place. What a gift! It’s all natural vegetation, not park landscaping and it’s full of butterflies and snakes and crickets and critters. Birdwatchers with binoculars were out today, as were joggers, hikers and other cyclists, but it wasn’t crowded at all.
The Spit is open to the public on weekends and holidays, but is used by construction trucks during the week because the process of extending the headland is still happening. Loads and loads of clean fill are added constantly.
And here’s a surprise… even on weekdays, the public can use the Spit after 4:30 p.m., when the trucks go home for the day.

Twelve hundred unpainted bicycle frames with wheels are piling up in front of City Hall’s Nathan Phillips Square, being readied for installation of Ai Weiwei’s art installation, Bicycles Forever.
It’s one of over 100 art events planned for Toronto’s Nuit Blanche. Friday, October 5th until the wee hours of the 6th.

Room after room is filled with marvellous colour, amazing patterns, exquisite craftsmanship and Mayan culture. Too much to show you more than a tiny fraction. These are shots I made with a handheld camera in available light. No flash allowed.

The Textile Museum is small enough to enjoy without strain and it’s very well laid out. Lights go up when you enter a room, then dim again when you leave. The Guatemalan floor has many, many pieces to admire, but there is another floor with even more (and different) subject matter. Right now there are rooms about storytelling on fabric and displays of contemporary art in textile, done by Métis designers.
Would you like to see a bit more Guatemalan colour?

That’s Sandy in the middle of the shot, looking out at us. She’s reacting to lines being delivered by the stars of Dine Her, a zombie thriller comedy by RealSpace Theatre. It’s a dinner show performed right in the George Street Diner.

Sandy is the show’s publicist and she got us into the dress rehearsal. It’s a lot of fun… highly recommend it. Don’t worry about the SOLD OUT ticket situation. Rumour has it they’ll be doing more shows around Halloween.

Countries that do not use the metric system

Where Google Street View is available

Peter Sever forwarded a message with a whole raft of similar maps, many U.S.A.-centric. The ones above were the first two. If you’d like to see them all, drop me a note and I’ll forward Peter’s message to you.

Photo of Bill and his bike by Danica. Top of Woodfield Road
The shortcut to Monarch Park was closed for a while, but is back now, spiffier than ever. What we learned on our bike ride today:

1. Hills down to the tunnel are fun.
2. Hills up from the tunnel are not.
3. Next time, walk the tunnel and leave the bike at home.

Yesterday we learned:

1. Riding bikes on busy streets with cars is not fun.
2. Riding on car streets with bicycle paths is better, but still not fun.
3. Riding to bicycle-only paths is best done via quiet side streets.
4. Bicycle paths (no cars) are great!

Its easy enough to notice how people behave differently toward us, depending on what we are wearing, but the effect on our own behavior is less apparent.
Good to be aware of, but it’s neither a good thing nor a bad one, as I see it. Fewer mistakes by lab coat-wearing medicos, on one hand, loss of critical judgement in some uniform-wearers, on the other.
As usual, Shakespeare got it right. “All the world’s stage” and we players tend to perform our parts according to the costumes we are wearing.

I know this is getting repetitive, but framing pictures is taking up most of our time these days. It’s never boring, because there is so much range in the styles and subject matter, it’s hard to believe they are all by one person.

Dune in Iran by Helen Andersen. Image 10″x15″
Helen and Raabye lived for some months in the eastern part of Iran, when Raabye took a contract to do accounting for a lumber company there.

Hawaiian Tikis by Helen Andersen. Image 10″x14″
When Helen and Raabye went to Hawaii, which they did several times, Helen took her paints along and her interest in aboriginal art. I like this one for its composition and for the sense of airy light it conveys.

Mill Tailings Holding Dam _ Salmo, by Helen Andersen 11″x9″. 1980. Watercolour
Although it looks completely different from the two pictures above, it is quite representative of the way Helen handled B.C. landscapes throughout her career. Her interest in industry was a common theme, too. Sawmills, tugboats, fishing boats, construction sites and farm fields figured frequently in her work.

How does a thoughtful fellow spend his time on a rainy day? If you’re Lloyd and you’ve been reading about mass shootings in the news, you dig deeper and find different ways to look at the problem.
Murder by Gunshot ‐ USA and Canada
A person is 7 times more likely to be murdered by guns in the USA than in Canada. Interestingly, your odds are increased to more than 40 to 1 if you are in the United Kingdom compared to USA.

Old West End Houses – Vancouver, by Helen Andersen, pastel on paper, 1967. Image size approx. 17″x12″
I like the bright colours and the composition in this newly matted and framed picture. Pastels can hold up surprisingly well, even under less than favourable storage conditions. Such a delicate medium, but still very fresh looking 46 years later.
One thing I discovered while removing the old matte… the archivists are right. NEVER use masking tape to attach paper artwork to its matte. The adhesive from the tape seeps into the paper and stains go right through. Luckily, on this one, only about a quarter inch all the way around was affected. The new matte hides the discolouration and now it is held in place with acid-free tape on the top edge only.