Bach Walk 2017

I guess I missed last year's Bach Walk, the annual celebration of J.S. Bach's birthday. I'd forgotten!
Anyway, I was able to make it this year, and it was another afternoon of lovely music by one of the greatest composers who ever lived.

It took place in the Bloor St. West neighbourhood of The Kingsway, starting at the lovely All Saints Kingsway Church.
I've been in this place a couple of times, with the Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir and the Burlington Male Voice Choir, both times as part of celebrations of St. David's Day (patron saint of Wales), around March 1.

I also like the style of the building. It's a real "English" church, with the square tower at the transept, and the large Gothic windows. There is some beautiful stained glass in the windows - modern (the church was built in 1957), but in the Gothic style. The place makes me think of the many churches the TWMVC sang at during our tour of Wales a few years ago.

Here are a couple of views of the interior of the church, first from the balcony at the west end, looking at the choir area. Performing here doesn't give you this view!

And, from the same area, a view of the ceiling trusses, once again reminding me of some of the churches - and larger houses - in England and Wales.

This is the organ that was played in the first of the concerts. It's a Casavant Freres organ, installed in 2009, and as you can see, it can be moved around in the choir loft!

And, the view a performer gets of the church, taken from the east end, in front of the organ.
As you see, the finishes here are wood, stone and plaster, giving the place great acoustics. So, it's nice to sing here, and it must be good for an organist also!
We were quite fortunate with regard to acoustics in all the three churches we visited this day.

Here's the first musician of the day, a young lady named Stefani Bedin. She played a Prelude and Fugue, and part of a Trio Sonata, all very challenging pieces. Her feet were certainly kept busy on the pedals.

About 12 minutes' walk from there was the Kingsway Baptist church, also fairly modern, dating from the 1940s.

My camera kind of overcompensated for the cloudy weather...

Here are some views of the inside of this place. It's fairly similar to All Saints, with plaster and wood finishing, and only a modicum of carpeting - the enemy of good acoustics.

Again, similar ceiling trusses to All Saints...

But a nice feature was this small, colourful rose window over the choir loft.

Here's the organ, another Casavant gem, this one installed in 1964...

...and finally, a view of some of the organ pipes. Behind the slatted wood are what are called "divisions," the one here being the choir division, presumably a simulation of human voices. There is a matching one on the right, which I think is the brass division, but I'm not sure.

You may notice the Gothic arch around the rose window. There was a stained glass window there at one point, but when they installed the organ, there was no room for it and all the organ pipes - hence the rose window. I think it works.

Here are some of the performers for the mostly vocal pieces that were performed here.

Soprano Jennifer Krabbe and tenor Matthew Dalen perform the "Domine Deus" from the B Minor Mass...

Flautist Nancy Foster is at right, but obscured by the lectern.

...and baritone Daniel Thielmann performs a recitative and aria from the St. Matthew Passion.
They were accompanied by Mel Hurst, the organist at Humbercrest United (not visible, unfortunately, behind the organ at left).

Then, the audience (numbering at least 200 by this time) was invited to sing along with the chorale, "What God Resolves, He Will Achieve." We were even given the sheet music for it (in English)! That was kind of fun.


The final place we went to was the beautiful Romanesque Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, a short distance from Kingsway Baptist.

Once again, a little overcompensation by my camera...

I had been to a noon-hour organ recital here some time ago, and was struck by the amazing interior of this church. I'll show you what I mean...

First, the nave is quite breathtaking, with rows of Roman arches leading to the altar...

... and looking back, the only view I could get of the organ (also a Casavant, from 1965, with organist Manuel Piazza preparing for his performance). There is also a lovely rose window at this end, which you saw in the outside view of the church.

What's most striking about this church is the mosaic work all around the upper walls. At the lower part of the pic, you can see the text, which goes all around the nave above the arches. It's the "Stabat Mater," which describes the weeping Virgin Mary standing at the cross where Jesus is being crucified, and gives the church its name.

Above that you see a mosaic of the scourging of Jesus. There are different scenes from his life depicted in these mosaics, like the birth, raising the dead, etc.

Also remarkable in this church is the use of marble in the pillars, as well as more mosaics on both sides of each of the arches.

And I was also struck by the mosaics on the underside of the arches. As you see, some are made of a reflective material that catches the light, to great effect.

Again, the camera made it a little lighter than I would have liked, but you get the idea.

Mr. Piazza also did a terrific job, playing a chorale, and a Passacaglia and Fugue, the latter very challenging, but of course, sounding gorgeous in yet another acoustically perfect setting.


Afterwards, the audience was invited to a space across the street owned by the church, for birthday cake and punch, with a toast to the great composer on the occasion of his 332nd birthday.
I asked one of the organizers where next year's celebrations would be, and he said they were trying to decide between the north part of the city and another setting downtown, as they had two years ago. He could only advise me to keep my eyes open, and I certainly will.


I really treasure these Bach Walks. I am a long-time admirer of his music, and these occasions give me a chance to hear, as well as learn more about, his amazing (and copious) body of work. And, what a great way to spend an afternoon!

Toronto Light Fest

A couple of weeks ago, I took some time on a cold winter's evening to visit the Light Fest at our unique Distillery District.
There were some amazing installations, and I was able to capture several of them with my camera. Some are sculptures, but many feature movement, so I was glad to have a video function handy.


It was snowing that evening, and there were two big spotlights on the grounds, and I was captivated by how the flurries moved about in the bright light. First, I got a couple of still pictures, that actually turned out better than I thought they would, capturing the frenetic movement of the windblown snow quite nicely:

And, from Mill St., I took this video, framing it against the apartment building in the background for contrast:

In Tank House Lane, there was this eye-catching sculpture, entitled Digital Origami Tigers, from the Lava group out of Australia:

And, here are some more of the pieces, in no particular order. With one exception, the rest of them will be videos.

One of the more striking pieces was mounted on top of several of the buildings, and is by Angelo Bonello of Italy. It's called Run Beyond:

Towards the east end of the area was this terrific piece by the Venevidimultiplex Studio of The Netherlands, entitled The Uniting Lightstar:

This piece by Studio Toer, again from The Netherlands, has kind of a whimsy about it, and is called Social Sparkles. It reacts to the movements of passersby, and seems to consist of hanging wires with LED lights at their ends, that appear to dance about from charges of electricity:

Moving into Gristmill Lane, you see this sculpture, Bands of Friendship, by Vikas Patil and Santosh Gujar of India. The circles of light change colour continuously:

At the south end of Trinity Street is this installation by the OGE group out of Israel, called Angels of Freedom. Viewers are welcomed to stand under the halo of one these "angels," while they constantly change colour, and get their picture taken:

At the east end of Tank House Lane is another constantly-changing piece, entitled Our House. It's by Tom Dekyvere of Belgium:

Also in Gristmill Lane is this piece by Canada's Ryan Longo, called Reactor, made from steel, and with constantly-changing lights in its interior:

In this area is also this imposing 40-foot-tall sculpture by Michael Christian of the U.S., entitled simply IT.
If, er, it seems familiar, the sculptor was indeed inspired by the terrifying tripod alien vessels of The War of the Worlds:

In the same area is this bright piece by the LightForm studio, again from The Netherlands, called Infinite Support.
Viewers are invited to step in and sit down in the piece, which then reacts with different colours and light patterns, assisted by infinity mirrors:

But for me, the most breathtaking installation was this piece, also in Gristmill Lane, A Dream of Pastures, by Canada's Studio F Minus.
It's also interactive: viewers can sit at the stationary bike, and as they pedal, the piece is activated, producing a kind of shadow-play moving picture on the wall behind. It's very striking.

(I would have shot more of this piece, but my camera literally ran out of memory here!)


I may well come back to this place, just to get a better look at some of these wonderful pieces, particularly that last one.
The exhibition is running for four more weeks (as of this date).
It was quite cold and windy that evening, which limited my willingness to stay outside too long. I was grateful to be able to slip into Balzac's Coffee for a hot beverage and snack, I can tell you.

Thoughts on Other Musicians We Lost in 2016

Happy New Year!
Well, let's hope there aren't so many losses this year as in the annus horribilis that was 2016.

Previously in this blog, I've written (sometimes rather extensively) about musicians who were particularly important to me personally:
https://aproposno.blogspot.ca/2016/01/thoughts-on-david-bowieparti.html https://aproposno.blogspot.ca/2016/04/keithemerson.html
https://aproposno.blogspot.ca/2016/04/george-martin-true-fifth-beatle-and-more.html

For this posting, I'd like to chat about some musicians who may have been less important to me on a personal level, but still gave me food for thought on their passing. In no particular order, then:


Greg Lake

Yeah, this was quite a shocker, with the ELP/King Crimson bassist/vocalist passing from cancer at 69, the same as David Bowie.
Though I came to King Crimson in kind of a backward way (the first KC LP I bought was 1973's Lark's Tongues In Aspic, and I didn't hear the original lineup on In the Court of the Crimson King and In the Wake of Poseidon until years later), I certainly appreciated the skill the young Lake displayed on those early albums. His fluid bass playing and dramatic singing were an asset to the rather bombastic sound the group was producing at that time.
As Crimso moved to a leaner, even more improvisatory ideal, culminating in their mid- '70s peak with the Robert Fripp/John Wetton/Bill Bruford core, Lake's style may well not have suited them. In any case, the formation of ELP with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer was the ultimate made-in-heaven match. The skillful bass and vocal styles I mentioned above really suited their music.
Lake took on producer duties for their albums, as well as writing the lyrics for all their albums, until Brain Salad Surgery, when, interestingly enough, King Crimson's OG lyricist, Pete Sinfield, took the reins.
As I mentioned in my Keith Emerson posting, a song like "Lucky Man" wouldn't have had the same effect without Lake's idea to put a heavy reverb on it. On any of their albums, the sound is always clean and rich, and that's due to Lake's producing talents.


Glenn Frey

I've never been a big fan of the Eagles, so let's get that out of the way. However, there can be no denying their pervasiveness and influence.
As a teenager in the 1970's, you couldn't go into a store, for a drive with a buddy, or listen to the radio for any length of time without hearing "Take It Easy," "Life In the Fast Lane," "Peaceful Easy Feeling," "Lyin' Eyes," "One of These Nights," "Hotel California," etc., etc.  When songs (or movies, or TV shows) are that ubiquitous, I tend to shut them out, or even develop a level of contempt for them. But perhaps, subconsciously, I did appreciate the craft of the songs, their hooks and harmonies, even if they didn't affect me emotionally or personally.
So imagine my surprise when a friend lent me a DVD of an Eagles reunion concert from a few years back (the Farewell I Tour), and damned if I didn't know every single song they played. And not only that, found myself enjoying them, too!
I guess there had been a long enough time away from the songs for that appreciation I mentioned to take hold, and work its way into my mind. Especially moving was bassist Timothy B. Schmit singing "I Can't Tell You Why," a lovely tune which I hadn't heard, literally, for decades.
(Frey also had an acting career, in several movies and TV shows, but I'm sure you'll forgive me for putting those into the "don't quit your day job" category.)


Leonard Cohen

Once again, I admit, I'm not that heavily into Leonard Cohen's music, but that's only due to a lack of effort on my part. It seemed only when other musicians, like Jennifer Warnes or Joe Cocker, did covers of his songs, that I appreciated them. Perhaps it's that famous Canadian inferiority having its insidious effect.
In any case, I only know a few songs, like "Suzanne," "So Long, Marianne," "Bird On A Wire," and of course, "Hallelujah," a song that's been covered and performed hundreds of times. As it happens, it's also one of the most popular songs that the Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir, of which I am a member, does in their concerts. It's quite astonishing to look out into the audience and see so many people singing along, not just with the well-known chorus, but the verses as well!
In the appreciation for his music, some may forget that Cohen was also one of the country's foremost poets and authors. I've read some of his books of poetry, and many years ago, his novel, Beautiful Losers. It's been a while, but I do remember the book being rather audacious, with stream-of-consciousness passages, as well as satirical takes on popular culture, like "The Insult That Made a Man Out of 'Mac'" bodybuilding ads that were so pervasive in comic books at the time.
It was certainly gratifying for this Canadian to hear the worldwide expressions of condolence when he passed away last year.

Prince

And, yes, here is another case where I'm not too familiar with the songs, but cannot deny their influence and ubiquitousness.
This was another musician that I kind of started off on the wrong foot with. Working at a record store in the early 1980s, I handled several of his early LPs, but particularly remember the cover of Dirty Mind, which featured Prince dressed in a short, wide-lapelled, studded leather jacket and thong - and that's all - gazing at the viewer. The word was that he was popular with the gay subculture (for such it still was at that time), so I never cared to know more about his music.
Then, along came Purple Rain, and he was everywhere - music videos were at their peak, and his sexual provocativeness and personality were pretty controversial, and not a little divisive. I did have a copy of the Purple Rain soundtrack (and saw the movie - see Glenn Frey, above), and watched a broadcast of one of his concerts, and had to admit, he had a pretty unique sound. And. yes, the electric presence of percussionist Sheila E. in the concert broadcast didn't hurt, either.
Ultimately, the way he manipulated sounds, and his restless exploration of different genres, meant that no one else sounded like Prince, and that's as high a compliment as you can pay to any musician. When someone so talented and productive dies, and they're younger than you, that's an even more profound loss.


So, let's hope my postings for this coming year will be on the occasion of happier events than those of last year. We've already gone two weeks with no bad news, so keep yer fingers crossed!

Shingles - A Fond Look Back (Not)

About a year ago, I was going through the last phase of a case of shingles.
If you follow me on this blog at all (if not, you can see the post at https://aproposno.blogspot.ca/2015/12/my-fortnight-with-shingles.html), you know that it was a hell of an experience, and one I won't soon forget.

Oh, did I say won't forget? Ha, funny story...

I recently re-read the posting, and was astonished at how much I did forget. Interestingly, a lot of it was about the worst aspects of the illness. I had largely not thought about the flu-like symptoms; aches, fever, chills, exhaustion, loss of appetite, etc. There was also itching, neuralgia...well, read the post.
But the thing that really jumped out at me was the major swelling of my left upper lip, and how difficult it made eating and drinking. My mouth was literally swollen half shut. What a thing to forget!

You hear stories about mothers who forget the pains and  discomfort of childbirth a while after the event, which gives them a chance to focus on the care and rearing of their child. Perhaps these are only anecdotal, but there may be a kernel of truth in them. I was certainly surprised by how much I'd forgotten.


Well, it is a year later now, and I certainly haven't forgotten the entire experience - because there are still after-effects. They are diminishing, but only at a snail's pace, and I don't frankly know whether some will ever go away.
In general, the left side of my face is still affected, most especially my left upper lip, which still has some numbness, though, again, it's better than it was. Still a weird sensation when I'm shaving, though.
Along with the numbness, oddly, are both itching sensations, and occasional pinprick-type pains. The latter two are also common through the whole area that was affected by the illness; upper lip, left nostril, cheek and eye. I will occasionally feel such an intense itch at my left nostril or eye that I must rub or scratch right away. At times, the area feels akin to scar tissue; in cold air, the skin feels tight and dry.

Minor stuff, relatively speaking, to be sure. I was fortunate, I suppose, in that the affected area was someplace I could see, and that the symptoms weren't as bad as some I've heard about. Still, as I said, I looked like hell for two weeks, and spent much of the time alone, so it was no picnic, either.

Perhaps, as I said at the end of that post last year, it's oddly appropriate that it happened near the Christmas season. It gave me an appreciation for the good general state of my own health, and an empathy for those who - through no fault of their own - can't get over their ailments, and must find their own way of coping.

I guess I'm fortunate in being able to put my thoughts in writing - it is a rather effective way of focusing your thoughts, and exploring your feelings and memories. That's certainly been my experience over the last couple of years of doing this blog.


So, for another year, best of the season to all. Thank you for reading my posts.



(P.S. There have been so many losses this past year of so many people I admire that I may be compelled to do some sort of "year-in-review" entry before January. We'll see.)

Relief(s)!

When they started renovating the Broadview Hotel in the Riverdale district, I began to take note of some of the unique features of the building.

I was particularly struck by the whimsical terracotta reliefs that adorned two sides of this neo-Romanesque building, and feared that they would be lost in the reconstruction. Given the rapacious pace of the construction taking place in the city, and the fact that many builders will barely leave a mere facade of the original building in their wake, I was hoping for the best.
Having seen what's left of the lovely Westinghouse Building at King and John (two walls!), I braced myself...

Happily, almost all the original building has been left intact, as you can see here:

It looks good as new!

The only noticeable change is to the northeast corner of the building, where they've added a glass-and-steel annex (and some contemporary signage), and changed the look of some of the ground-level windows:

Apparently, the glass atrium will include a rooftop bar!

But, I was happy to see that the reliefs were still intact, and also look brand-new.
So, starting with the east side of the building, here they are, in no particular order:

The theme of  most of them seems to be "weather:" there are many depictions of wind, suns and moons, with the notable exception of this first one.
It appears to be an elephantine figure, complete with tusk and trunk:

And the next one, which depicts a human form, though it's hard to say what specifically. It could be a native figure, with long hair, a headband and feathers, and strange markings on its face.
Or, it could simply be an imaginary being, a "wild man," if you like.
The one similarity in these, and in most of the reliefs, is a three-pointed floral or leaf motif. Make of that what you will...

Then, there is another human-like figure, who appears to be controlling wind blowing out of its mouth - or, is it a heraldic angel?

Next, in two separate panels, the faces of the sun and moon. The sun is all brilliance, while the moon is surrounded by stars and clouds. As do night and day, they gaze at each other.

Here, on the left, is a crescent moon, seeming to blow wind from its mouth, in that three-cornered pattern I mentioned, opposite face of a bearded male, with a long moustache that flows out to end, again, in the three-cornered floral motif.

Finally, over another pair of windows, is a rising (or setting) sun at left, and at right, a rather demonic-looking figure, which is either causing a wind, or has a very long tongue! In either case, the three-cornered pattern is seen again:

Add, moving to the south side of the building (facing Queen St. E.), there is another crescent moon face, this one also seeming to produce winds from its mouth.
Note the three-cornered pattern again!

This single-panel relief was the most detailed, and oddest, of them all. At left is another old-man figure, with a similar flowing moustache to the one on the east side, culminating once again in the three-cornered pattern.
At right is a different male face, which appears to be that of a sailor of yore, with kerchief around the head, and a prominent earring.
One can speculate about the meaning of this one fairly freely: when this place was built, in the 1890s, did the south wall have a clear view of Lake Ontario, so that the sailor appears to look out over it? Does the left-hand figure represent some kind of "weather god"?

Nearby are twin panels with representations of winds blowing in opposite directions. The three-cornered floral pattern abounds here:

Then, another "sun" figure, with eyes looking left, accompanied by the recurring pattern:

Finally, something really odd: a leonine or canine head, which appears to be holding a double-ended representation of the floral motif between its teeth!

Well, it was nice to see that this venerable building was left intact, for the most part. I felt it would have been a shame for there to be too many changes made to it. Mainly, I breathed a sigh of - wait for it - relief at seeing these grotesques maintained in their original glory.

The interior of the hotel is still being worked on. apparently, and will not be open for business until next year. But it was great to see a developer leave well enough alone. Here's hoping others will follow their example.

A Little Touch of Blanche in the Nuit! Oct. 2016

I was unable to get out to this year's Nuit Blanche, unfortunately. If you follow this blog, you know that I'm a member of the Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir, and our first concert of the season was on the afternoon of Sunday, October 2. It was way out in Mount Forest, which necessitated an early rise on Sunday to hitch a ride with a fellow chorister. It also meant that Sunday chores had to be done on Saturday instead, so I couldn't work in hours at Nuit Blanche along with everything else.

Happily, there were a couple of extended installations at Nathan Phillips Square in downtown Toronto, and I got out on the 9th to catch those. They were pretty spectacular, so I will make a brief blog entry on both of them.


One was by "Director X," and was entitled Death of the Sun. It was a video projection of our sun inside a huge globe set on a pedestal in the middle of NPS.

As we all know, our sun will go nova, then burn out, according to science, in about four billion years. This installation is a speculative representation of what that will look like. I took some videos to show how the projection presented these occurrences, kind of in really, really fast motion.

The sun gets darker as it cools:

Then, goes nova, turning white-hot:

I got a series of pics during this phase (better resolution than the last vid) that show a constantly-changing surface of swirling gases:

And, finally, the sun goes dark, likely becoming a black hole.

Pretty amazing work!


The other installation was Floria Sigismondi's Pneuma, another spectacular video display, this one projected on a wall of water jetting out from the pool at NPS.
The vid will give you some idea of what it was like:

(Apologies for the vertical flare at some points - I unfortunately shot the vid against the projector lamp - my bad.)

And, here are some pics to show more of it:

As you can see, it was pretty cool.

I was sure glad to be able to see these wonderful works of art this time around. I've had schedule conflicts with Nuit Blanche due to choir commitments in past years, so, fingers crossed, it doesn't keep happening.
Looking forward to Nuit Blanche 2017!

Summertime at Tommy Thompson Park

Wow! Fall sure hit fast! Well, here's a reminder of summer, courtesy of a nice day spent at Tommy Thompson Park/Leslie St. Spit back in July.

I had been to the park a couple of years ago, but didn't get right to the end of the spit, and this time, I wanted to get it all in. It is about 4 1/2 kilometres long (each way), so I knew it'd be a challenge to walk, but probably worth it - and I was right on both counts.

I couldn't have picked a better day for it. It was clear and sunny, hot but not too hot - just about the right temperature to be on the lake, in other words.


So, small map in hand, I started off from the staff booth at the north end. You notice that the growth here is mostly tall weeds and small trees.

 After a bit, some features of Toronto's skyline come into view. This is surely the only area in Toronto where the smokestack of the Hearn Generating Station appears taller than the CN Tower!

 A little further on, you come to the Outer Harbour Marina, with boats at anchor, and the CN Tower and bank buildings way in the distance. You're looking approximately west-southwest at this point.

 This stretch of the park is called The Neck, and is very narrow, so when you look in the opposite direction, you get a clear view out to Lake Ontario.

 There are several lookout points along the paths here, and this is one, though I didn't take a pic from there. Still, from where I was, you get a great view of the harbour, marina, and a lot of Toronto's skyline.

Continuing along, you get past the marina, and see the full Outer Harbour, with even more of the city skyline visible.

From here, continuing along the shared bicycle/pedestrian path, you will see that the vegetation is higher, and the trees much taller than before.
There is a pedestrian-only path parallel to this one, running along the lake side of The Neck, which we'll see later.

 At this point, we begin to see the first of three "cells," wetlands and ponds that have been shaped out of the landscape for the park.
This is probably the beginning of Cell One, the wetland.

 More of Cell One, with part of Cell Two, the smaller of the two ponds, visible in the distance.

Then, you come upon Cell Three, the large pond. This is from a distance. As we get closer, we'll see that it's quite large.

 Here is a closer shot of Cell Three that shows how large it actually is.

 Next, the path slopes down to the pedestrian bridge, which spans a complete break in the path, and is about midway along Cell Three.

 You get some great views from the pedestrian bridge!
First, looking across Embayment C, there is a full-on view of the city skyline...

 ...and, looking the other way, towards Lake Ontario, here's the view across Cell Three...

...then south, and the rest of Cell Three.
As I said, it's quite large.

 Past the bridge, the view is of the south end of Embayment C, with Peninsula C jutting out at left, and again, the skyline in the distance.

 Still going southwest, the paved pedestrian/cycle path continues through even taller growths of grasses, brush, and trees.

 As you go along, you see on the left this smaller pond, called Triangle Pond. There isn't much high ground around it, so it's difficult to get a really good picture.

 Getting closer to the end of the spit, you can see the path rise, into the Toplands, where the lighthouse is located.

 From here, the path becomes pedestrian-only, and leads to the highest point in the park.
You can see the lighthouse in the distance.

Here are two views of the lighthouse, complete with antennae, foghorn, satellite dish and solar panels.

 Looking down from the lighthouse, you see this path that leads to the shore, and Lighthouse Point. It's also referred to as Vicki Keith Point, after the Lake Ontario swimmer. Don't know which name is used more, though.

On the way back down the hill, and looking northeast and out to Lake Ontario, there is this large cove. The area in the distance is called The Flats.

And, in the opposite direction, another great view of the skyline. This was taken with the camera's zoom, to get the view I wanted. As you can see, it was a great day for sailing!

And, at "ground level," something I hadn't seen in a long time - snapdragons!
As a kid growing up in a small town, and on farms, I used to enjoy pinching the "jaws " of these flowers, giving the effect that they were opening and closing- hence the whimsical name.

Looking up from this level, you can see the very top of the lighthouse, just above the trees.

Moving down to the shoreline, I came across this collection, made by some anonymous person, of broken ceramic tiles, and some whimsical poems written in honour of them, and of this area of the park:

Looking northeast again, you can see that this entire shoreline consists of construction/demolition rubble of various types.

And, looking east out over the lake, more evidence of what a perfect day it was for sailing and boating...

These north and south views show that there is actually a rather precipitous drop of three to four feet down to the shoreline in this area - not to mention some pretty nasty bits of rubble at the bottom!
I considered jumping down to explore the shoreline more closely, but couldn't see a way to get back up, at least not without having to take a long detour.

I kind of had to take a pic of this rather lonely-looking bit of concrete stairs lying in the tide.
I had some slightly melancholy thoughts about where it came from - an apartment building? office building? Had children run up and down it in play? Office drones trod there in the course of business or perhaps a fire drill? Anyway, there it was, being slowly reclaimed by nature. (Sheesh - who's the poet now?)

Turning around from this area, the only view of the city skyline you get is the CN Tower - the pic again taken with the camera's zoom.

I continued northeast along the shore now, towards The Flats, and the entrance to the East Cove, which you can just make out in the distance, about the middle of the pic.

And, here is the East Cove, where several pleasure/sailboats had anchored on this glorious day. There was music playing, and some of the folks were diving off the boats for a swim.

(Walking the the trail past the East Cove, I saw a small, furry animal come out of the long grass, and speed across the trail to the brush on the other side. I thought it was an otter, but the guide back at the staff booth told me that there are wild mink in the park!)


I then got onto the endikement on the east side of the spit, and went back north, passing Cell Three again, this time with the city skyline in the background, and ducks and geese on the water.

The pic is taken with zoom to get a better look at the birds.

Continuing along Cell Three, you begin to get full views of the skyline again:

Regular camera view for this one.

Then, you approach Cell One, the wetland.
First pic taken from south of it, second from beside it.

And, a more southerly view of the wetland. I sat down on a log here for my first break of the afternoon.
It was pretty interesting to stop here, because the area looks quite bleak, but in the whole afternoon, I never saw as many birds and critters in one area as I did here. It must be the most "natural"-seeming area of the whole park!

Slightly north of this area, and on the lake side, is this large mound. Judging by the smooth slope you can see in the second picture, I'd guess it's still being used for dumping brick, concrete and tile rubble

I got a closer view of some of the tile on this mound. Just to right of centre, there appears to be a pice of marble, and to its right, a piece with a polished surface.

Here are three views from the top of this mound:
The first is looking southwest, and the swampy-looking area of Cell One:

Next, looking southeast, and the shore of Lake Ontario:

Finally, north, along the neck, and the lake shore:

Finally, I thought I'd get a shot of this piece of brick, made by the Hanson company, which is headquartered in Burlington:

Continuing north along the neck, we're back to the wetlands area of Cell One.
I stepped off the main path, and was going along a small trail nearer the water to get a better pic of the marsh here.

Well, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but this beautiful brown rabbit!
I was about ten feet away so as not to disturb it, and used the zoom to get these pics.
I'll just let you enjoy these on their own...

Then, I had a brainstorm. Why not take a short video of this amazing creature?
Here it is - now, bear in mind, I was using the zoom, so it's a little jumpy in parts. But it was a real thrill!

And, farther along the trail, darned if another little critter didn't come out of the grass:

And, yet another one!

This one was hungry!

Still shaking my head, I continued north, to the top end of this marshy area, and got a couple of pics of the whole pond from a point looking south.

As I mentioned earlier, there was an unpaved pedestrian-only path along the neck, and this is what I followed north for the rest of my walk.

That's my shadow in the bottom right there. As you may guess by the shadows, the afternoon was getting on.

From there, the skyline comes into view again, and I got this pic with the camera's zoom:

You're very close to the lake shore on this path, and there were lots of geese and ducks enjoying the water.

And, in the last view looking north, you can see how the shore consists of these rounded rocks, as well as bits of concrete and rebar.
I stepped onto these rocks to get this pic, and stumbled a bit - they are wobbly, and can be treacherous!

And, finally, a last view of the marina, and the skyline in the background (also taken with zoom):

This was an awesome walk, and the perfect day for it.

More long, hot summers are coming, and though I'm no fan of really hot weather (especially coupled with humidity), I hope to find more days like this in the future to explore this amazing wildlife area, only a short distance from where I live, and pretty convenient to downtown, too.
There are certainly areas I didn't explore, wanting to take the whole thing in this time around, so I'll come back here again to see how this area is changing and growing.
Till then...