Kalamazoo Regional Psychiatric Hospital

 I wondered for years what this was - it's a water tower for the Kalamazoo Regional Psychiatric Hospital, built in 1859, with the tower going up in 1895. Taken from Interstate 94, on my way back to Canada, Fall 1993

 

Coronado Historic Site

Bernalillo, New Mexico, 1993. This is the site of the Tiwa Pueblo of Kuaua, settled about 1325

Craftsmen selling carvings

I remember stopping by the road to talk to a biker named John and a linesperson named Pedro. John was smoking a pipe on his Harley and said sometimes the border brings out the worst in both cultures.

 

Cleo Laine at Elora Quarry, 1997, not a good picture

Great concert - she was on a raft in the middle of the Elora Quarry where the 2017 movie adaption of Stephen King's It filmed the diving scene. Unfortunately darkness was falling and I was using a telephoto without a flash.

 

Giant puffball at Guelph Lake

 

Giant puffball, Guelph Lake Conservation Area. Someone had left this by the dam. 1990s. Calvatia gigantea, Vesse-de-loup géante. These are edible but don't keep for very long so the best way to keep it is to slice it and fry it and freeze it. 

Church and rainbows

The original St. Elias Church. 10193 Heritage Road Brampton, Ontario, probably 1998. The church was destroyed in a fire in April 5, 2014, but has been rebuilt (uncropped view)

Teasels were introduced to Canada to raise the nape on woolen goods with their spikey heads. They are now a common weed.

 

Ontario Handgun Championships

 I went to a gun club near Kitchener, Ontario for a story in the mid-90s. It was really hard back then to get a pistol permit in Canada, and now there's a freeze on new purchases unless you're in a club that does training for events in the Olympics. A psychology professor from U of Waterloo invited me. He did say he was in a bit of minority  as an academic gun owner. It surprised me that in freestyle shooting they all weren't shooting .22s, but some people preferred larger calibres.

Pressed flowers

I don't know how these came into my possession - they are pressed plants with notes in Danish from 1946 and 1950 - they were in a folder with a dedication in English that said they were given by a mother to her daughter, both with typical Danish names, in 1979, and another note, probably in the daughter's handwriting, saying how she wanted to mount them for display, but which obviously never happened. They tell a story of a childhood hobby, migration to another country, a gift to a daughter born there, and what else? They had to have gone to a book sale or something for me to have found them, I think in a second hand comics emporium that was on Macdonell Street in Guelph in the 90s. There is a retirement home started by Danes south of Guelph in Puslinch called Sunset Villa, which also has a campground and a restaurant.