Wednesday, July 22, 2026

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.






 

Monday, July 20, 2026

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.




Thursday, July 16, 2026

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.
 

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Bumper crop of cherries


Lots of cherries from dwarf tree - I only had a few last year, but this year another tree near it bloomed, so it got pollenated by another variety, which it needed. Sour cherries. Not a lot of Japanese beetles this year.
 

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Colourful sailboat, Toronto, 1990s




Colourful sailboat that was moored at the foot of Yonge Street, Toronto, in the 1990s.