A Tomato From Canada

Our Allotment gardeners, Nancy and Rebecca, slipped us this plump brown heritage tomato yesterday. 

Bill and I cannot wait to slice this up and marinate it in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, raw garlic and the last of the basil from our balcony.

Place your Mark on Paradise

Last Monday John and I rode down Cameron St on our way to Queen Video. We noticed some young people putting up an installation. We stopped so I could take a picture.

I immediately decided that I would return later in the week to see the finished mural.

When I returned on Friday, the installation was complete and a sign at its centre said that it was called "Make Your Mark on Paradise". It's apparently a community mural created by ArtStart, a community art group.

ArtStart has teamed 5 local young people with professional street artists from Canada and Brazil to create art in underused spaces with abandoned materials. Here is a detail of the north end of their mural.

And here is the south end. It's wonderful to see environmentally-friendly artwork being created in downtown Toronto. It reminds me of the "peoples' projects" of the early 70's. 

Visiting Reta

Last Sunday John and I visited my mother in St Catharines. Each time we visit we like to walk a new route to her home from the bus station. This time we walked along the Victorian townhouses of King Street.

King Street truly has some lovely old buildings like this one that is now a YWCA.

We peeked into the window of Ivan's Barber Shop on Court Street before walking towards Welland Avenue. John loves traditional barber shops and has decided he wants to get his hair cut there soon.

We loved this ghostly white house in a dramatic setting where Court St meets Welland Avenue

and this classic car-wash further along Welland Avenue.

Reta had lunch ready for our arrival. After eating we like to settle in to watch a DVD, share some wine and chat. Here Reta and I are trying to rationalize the generally unlikeable characters and confusing scenarios of Something Borrowed. In the end we three agreed that we'd enjoyed the flawed movie.

We always take Reta out for dinner after watching our movie. Check out the storm clouds gathering as we walked along the Terry Fox Trail to a favourite, local restaurant.

We arrived at Coppola's Italian Restaurant just as the storm was about to break.

As the rain poured down outside we settled in to a table to enjoy Coppola's Vegetariano pizza and a shared chocolate bundt cake for dessert. Happily by the time we'd finished eating the downpour had ended.

As usual after eating we visited the Buns Master on Carlton Street so that Reta can buy some bread and local fruit and vegetables. As we left with our purchases the skies were looking threatening again.

We scurried along Rodman St back to Reta's place before the next storm cell arrived and headed off to the bus station for our return to Toronto. The weather certainly added visual drama to this visit with Reta!

Peggy Lee: I Only Have Eyes for You

We are thrilled by Peggy Lee's version of this song. Lee is one of our adult role models. Please remember to double-click to see full-screen.

Sunday Bird Market

After visiting Sainte Chapelle on the Île de la Cité the last Sunday of our stay in Paris, Bill and I visited the bird market on the island. Bill caught this portrait of one of the sellers.

The birds certainly were beautiful in their tiny cages.

Hard to imagine them not going a bit stir-crazy, though, having only each other to talk to.

These fluffy, feathered friends reminded Bill of Big Bird. What ARE they?

If you click on this picture you can see the birds move.

Paris Metro

John and I love the Paris Metro. It is an efficient, inexpensive way to get around Paris. It is always a pleasure to enter one of the Art Nouveau entrances designed by Hector Guimard.

Some stations send you into the depths below the city. Here John has caught me descending into the Saint-Michel station.

The Paris buskers are of a higher than usual calibre. John captured this string ensemble of young musicians entertaining the commuters.

Most stations are streamlined and clean, with curved walls

lined with advertising gods and human travellers.

Parisians are fun to watch wherever you find them.

Climb aboard and find a seat

to be whisked off to your destination.

Wherever we come back up into the City of Light is sure to be an adventure.

We loved the Palais-Royal stop with its playful, modern exit decorated in huge, glass beads by Jean-Michel Othoniel whose work was being shown at the Pompidou Center during our stay last May.

Slow Club's Two Cousins

Bill and I found this British video today on Andrew Sullivan's The Dish. Two Cousins features dancers Ryan Francois and Remy Kouame. A class act!

Paris Apartment 2011

Bill at the door of our 6th floor apartment in Paris.

He walks into the living room, hangs up his hat and bag,

and relaxes on the sofa/bed to read some Moravia.

I read Colette's Cheri novellas-- so gripping, so vivid!

In the afternoon, Bill usually enjoyed a power nap while I processed my photos of the day,

 and then he would wake up to our totem animal, our landlords' little leopard rug.

The Daro's kitchen is a model of functional organization. We loved it!

We had so much fun equipping our kitchen. Here's a view of our larder with coffee, olive oil, wine, potato chips, almond cookies and spaghetti. Just the necessities.

Bill enjoyed cooking in the galley kitchen. I wish you could taste these pork chops,

or these roast chickens with boiled new potatoes, which we bought at the Richard-Lenoir market,

or how about this aglio e olio pasta (olive oil, garlic and parmigiano cheese) and, of course, a green salad and a demi-baguette.

Our host, Bruno Daro, and his wife Julia, designed the state of the art bathroom.

Our friend in Toronto, Shelly Savor based one of her linocuts on one of Bruno's photos. We bought one for the Daro's and mailed it to them. They had the print framed and put it in their bathroom.

Here's a jpeg of our copy of Shelley's "Salle de Bain" print so you can see the wonderful detail she incorporated. Hand-painted too! We can't thank you enough for sharing your pied-a-terre, Bruno and Julia!

Parisian rooftops

John and I were fascinated by the views from the windows at the Daró apartment last May in Paris. I liked these chimneys and their treatments seen out the kitchen window.

But our favourite view was  from the hall window, especially at night or sunset. That's the Beaubourg on the horizon toward the right.

The rooftops further to the right often made a dramatic silhouette.

Our little slice of dusk. I think this shot looks like a scene from the animated film Les Belles Soeurs de Belleville. Fun.