Christmas at Our House

Christmas is going to be modest this year. 

So hard to grasp that we won't be visiting our family and friends. 

This Christmas Bill and I will be staying in our bubble of two. (A friend sculpted this portrait of us thirty years ago. The resemblance remains uncanny.)

We love Christmas trees but for some reason we have never had one ourselves. But we do have a box of Christmas decorations.

Tradition dictates that they go on our over-wintering bay tree and our rosemary bush.

Late November at Santa's Workshop South finds Number One Elf William Kimber drawing this year's Christmas card.

Later I filled our display shelves with some of our favourite Christmas books and cards and records.

This year we found a new place for our box of lights and our Christmas angel. We have had the lights for more than thirty years and have never taken them out of the box. We just pull out the cord, plug it in and the rows light up.

The angel was at the top of my parent's Christmas trees all through my childhood and teenage years. When I left home to go to the big city my mother gave it to me.

Early December at Santa's Workshop South finds Number One Elf William Kimber at his desk writing greetings on our newly printed Christmas cards.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Inside the greeting goes "Let's 'ZOOM' into 2021 in hopes of a better year!'

There are clementines. It must be Christmas.

We'll leave you with the skittish poodle we met a few days ago. Dressed to the nines but nowhere to go, just like the rest of us.

"Margaritas to go" -- Autumn in Kensington Market

When John and I visit the market we often tie-up our bikes on Dundas and walk up Kensington Avenue.

We've been shopping at Courage My Love for four decades at least. Still has great vintage stuff.

We love the shabby/elegant gates and fences along the street

and  this scratchy, eroded graffiti.

It must be cool to live in one of the funky homes hidden in the alleys.

We never visit the market without picking up some produce at the Kensington Fruit Market on

 St Andrew Street.

In the mood to discover your future?

Even the cows in the window of Global Cheese are wearing masks.

At Baldwin Street the Market has a small-town feel.

The House of Moses! This is my capture of the shop

and here is John's much more psychedelic version.

We think the baguettes at Blackbird Baking Company are as good as the ones in Paris. John also loves their Pullman loaves for toast.

Cheese Magic -- our favourite cheese shop.

Mare Pizza is situated right across the street

The thin, crisp crusts remind us of Roman pizzas. That's John picking up our slices.

One Sunday at Pancho y Emiliano we saw this great offer. Why resist?

Pupusas features several take-out counters of South American treats. Tacos or churros anyone?

Go to Bungalow for in mid-century furnishings and clothing.

Slogan of the Hotbox -- "... SERVING POTHEADS SINCE AH... I FORGET".

Go to Carlo's House of Spice for coffee, nuts, dried fruit and a host of herbs and spices. Did I forget anything?

Painted garage on Augusta

Do stop at Bellevue Square Park and check out these plaques. On the left is a map of Kensington Market and on the other is a history of the neighbourhood.

 At the bottom of the park, Wales Avenue meets Augusta with this display of fabulous market architecture and shops. 

Do visit!

A Second Wave of Postcards

New photographs of movies -- postcards from our hours of pandemic movie watching. Bill and I are OK. Awaiting the Second Wave. Getting through the days. Movies help.

"Believe it or not you mean a lot to me." -- Nora Gregor in La règle du jeu (Rules of the Game), Jean Renoir, 1939.

"I don't like compliments." -- Jean Marais as the beast in Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) directed by Jean Cocteau in 1946.

"You're harsh for a happy man." -- Maurice Ronet and Hubert Deschamps in Louis Malle's Le feu follet (The Fire Within), 1963.

"It's like you don't care about anything in life." -- Isabelle Corey in Bob le flambeur (Bob the Gambler), directed by Jean-Pierre Melville in 1956.

"Living is hard" -- Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan in Marcel Carné's Le Quai des Brumes (Port of Shadows), 1938.

"The pain and loneliness of death frighten me." -- Yûzô Kayama and Toshirô Mifune in Akira Kurosawa's  赤ひげ (Red Beard), 1956.

"...but I've got lots of imagination." -- Alain Delon in René Clément's Plein Soleil (Purple Noon), 1960.

"The hard part is to set out." -- Charles Le Clainche in Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (A Man Escaped) directed by Robert Bresson in 1956.

"You saw no one disappear yesterday?" -- Didier Després in Bruno Dumont's very strange Ma route (Slack Bay), 2016.

"Let your elders lead the way." -- Banlop Lomnoi in Apichatpong Weerasethakul's wonderful Satpralat (Tropical Malady), 2004.

"And now go in peace." -- Jean-Paul Belmonodo in Léon Morin, prêtre (Leon Morin, Priest), directed by Jean-Paul Melville, 1961.

Simone Weil: The soul's love of beauty is the trap God uses. -- in Roberto Rossellini's Viaggio in Italia (A Journey in Italy), 1954.

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More posts like this: 

Thirteen Postcards in a Pandemic, May 2020. 

A Third Wave of Postcards, March 2021.

A Fourth Wave of Postcards, January 2022. 

 

Rogue Wave on Ward's Island

This week our friend Shelley Savor suggested we join her for a visit to "Rogue Wave" -- an outdoor art show on Toronto's Ward's Island. 

Bill and I liked the idea of an adventure on the island. It would make a nice break from the COVID-induced tedium.

About a dozen people rode the ferry to Ward's Island. When we arrived we had the island more or less to ourselves.

Visitors are greeted by Mitchel Fenton's Bring on the Next Wave. Great title! Ward's Island and the other Toronto Islands have seen flooding in recent years and of course we are all hunkering down for the next wave of the pandemic. 

We sat for a moment by Gera Dillon's Caught in the Net of Time and enjoyed our view of the city.

Shelley had a map with the locations of all the art. She led us through the charming streets.

Ward's Island is like the loveliest of enchanted villages. 

We loved Barbara Klunder's collage made of buttons. A skull is always appreciated in October.

It was a perfect autumn day and we had all the time in the world.

Erratic Revisited by Gaye Jackson -- mounted in the window of her cottage?

No trip to Ward's Island would be complete without a visit to the Great Ark of First Street. It is coming along nicely.

The walk to the Ward's Island Beach took us by this lovely stand of birch trees.

So many summers we have walked in bare feet over hot sand to this beach!

Was a windy day and Lake Ontario was in a wild mood.

OMG -- some fool was parasailing. Godspeed!

This turtle was guarding the entrance to the boardwalk that runs along the south coast of the island. A Ward's Island native warned me, "It's a snapper. Watch your toes."

The wall of vegetation along the boardwalk was thrillingly rich and colourful.

We noticed a papier mache devil hanging from a tree.

So we parked our bikes and wandered into this field of reeds.

The devil and this head are the work of Shadowland Theatre.

We were charmed by this decorative masonry -- With the Flow -- by Kathleen Doody.

Shelley particularly wanted to see this painting by Irina Schestakowich. It is called A Place We Cannot Seem to Get To -- lovely. Puts me in mind of Matisse.

Don't miss The Anatomy of Fear by Bruce Smith. It is set in a lovely garden.

We had some extra time before the ferry left for the mainland. A friendly mallard couple kept us company as we bid adieu to our mid-week adventure.

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Rogue Wave continues until October 25th.