VIA and GO trains rocket by at regular intervals, so a lot of land near the tracks is deemed unsuitable for residential use. Public flower and vegetable gardens? That’s another matter.

The pedestrian/cycle tunnel leads to Monarch Park on the other side. It was refurbished last year and the raised beds were installed shortly after. Every bed was in use when I visited today.
A trackside path connects the Woodfield Rail Garden to Coxwell.

New bump-out curbs
Cars will park too close to corners, obstructing visibility at intersections. That’s bad news, since cars don’t really stop at stop signs. What to do? Fines and lectures don’t help, but bump-out curbs do. Many are being installed on residential streets.
Similar constructions slow speeders by installing asphalt bumps (sleeping policemen). Next will come separated bicycle lanes, flanked by curbs, not just painted lines. Bicycles behave badly, too. They need to be penned up, away from cars and sidewalks.
It is much more effective to control machines than to try to control drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.
(I refer to “cars” and “bicycles” as if they were in their own control, because much of the time, they are.)

Publishing ebooks has stoked interest in John Robert Colombo’s many books on the writings of Sax Rohmer. Click the image or this link to read William Patrick Maynard’s very good summary of JRC’s contributions to Rohmermania.
Let it be noted that the author of the praise is a significant Rohmer writer himself. This, from the bottom of the Black Gate web page:

William Patrick Maynard was authorized to continue Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu thrillers beginning with The Terror of Fu Manchu (2009; Black Coat Press) and The Destiny of Fu Manchu (2012; Black Coat Press). The Triumph of Fu Manchu is coming soon from Black Coat Press.

A rather maniacal-looking bronze Al Waxman borrowed my hat to pose with Anna and Thorne on the last day of their Toronto visit. We took advantage of a sunny day to poke around Kensington Market after lunch at the famous Free Times Café.

This lovely little pineapple, about 6 inches tall, was made of coloured paper by one of the nuns at the Jing Yin temple. Such things are sold there to raise funds and we were told that we would be making the nun happy by admiring her work.
Because pineapples are golden in colour, they symbolize wealth. This one belongs to Danica.

We went over to Brimley Road today, to show a 3-year-old Buddhist temple to Thorne and Anna. It is modelled to resemble the great Forbidden City on Tiananmen Square. Danica and I saw it inside and out during Doors Open a couple of years ago but we weren’t sure we’d be able to enter today. But yes! Shoes off and in we go. No pictures allowed inside this time though.

This is the stone carving leading up the front stairs.

Thorne taught us how to distinguish the male lion figure from the female. No, not using the obvious method you are using, observant one.

The male lion has a ball under his paw, the female a cub. So now you’ll be able to tell them apart, even when the sculptures are not anatomically correct.

Rather astonishing video from Russia ….
http://youtu.be/QSZmV_3Lm_A
A surprising concert …

Not bad for one day. Anna and Thorne are here for a stay and Thorne’s sister Denise is here from Ottawa with her husband Dennis, visiting their kids (son Ryan and grand daughter Mia) who live in Toronto, too. Another son, Shaun lives in Mississauga with his lady Anita.They joined us at the dim sum table. Third son Darin from Milton couldn’t make it and Ryan’s wife is away in China right now.
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We started off from Ryan’s condo, had lunch at Harbourfront (The Pearl is excellent) then split up for the day. Dennis, Denise, Ryan and Mia braved Carnival weekend crowds to board the ferry to Toronto Islands. (a 15 minute ride and not too bad waiting, they report)
Anna, Thorne, Danica and I went to the Royal Ontario Museum to see the blockbuster Forbidden City exhibit. (Well worth seeing, we report)

I signed up for a free online course on Linux some months ago and it starts today. They say that if you want to stick with something, tell everybody that you’re doing it and your resolve will be strengthened.
Linus Torvalds released his ubiquitous operating system, free to the world, in 1992. About 2,000 developers in about 500 companies around the world contribute code, maintenance and patches. In fact, it is the largest software project in the world and at least half of the internet runs on it.

This little movie is in the first part of the course. Not too hard so far! 🙂

This 1982 gouache just got a new matte and frame. It hangs in Danica’s office. Helen painted it when she returned to Vancouver Island after a visit with us in Toronto. It was inspired by her memory of a rainy day at the College and Yonge subway exit.

Whenever I see a solo female figure in Helen’s art, I take it to be a kind of psychological self portrait. Here, a lone woman has her head down as she climbs against inclement weather. It’s not too hard to see how an artist might identify with the image.