Whimsical Windows and Delirious Doors

I'm posting over here this week!

September 2011 - New Bern North Carolina

Monday Mural

I'm linking up at Monday Mural hosted by Oakland Daily Photo.


May 2013 - Toronto On


We found it by accident! It's on Dundas East just west of Carlaw.
It's done by a German duo called Herakut and is the fifth mural of their giant storybook project.
The German duo delivers this amazing new piece featuring Jay and his creative spirit.
The mural reads “Was it the most glorious or the most monstrous moment when Jay met his Creative Spirit?”

Dreaming of France

The rules for this meme are: Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
Maybe we can all satisfy our yearnings for France, until we get there again.

August 2012 - Paris France

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I'm joining the Scavenger Hunt Sunday sponsored by Ashley.

The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate.
2. You’re encouraged to take five new photos this week for the challenge. Creativity is also encouraged!
3. If you get stumped, you may use one photo from your archive (although I’m not too strict about it – I do my best to take fresh shots).
4. Link up here on Sunday (or Tuesday at the latest) – you can use the button above.
5. Leave comments for at least five entries around yours (with so many new participants each week, it’s the only way I know to be inclusive
6. Have fun!

1. Cool Colors
2. Leaves
3. Iced Beverage
4. Cooling Off
5. Raw

My photos for this week's challenge were taken over the last couple of weeks.

Cool Colors - Taken Saturday at the Six Nations Pow Wow in at  Chiefswood Park, on the grounds of the former Estate of the Mohawk Poetess E. Pauline Johnson, at the Six Nations of the Grand River Community.

Leaves -  GF's garden

Iced Beverage - my current favourite Tim Horton's Orange Tangerine real fruit smoothie with yogurt.

Cooling off - a couple from along Lake Ontario

Raw - I was stuck on this until I looked through my recent photos and realized I had taken a photo of the ground turkey with kale mealballs before I cooked them.

inSPIREd Sunday

Sally hosts inSPIREd Sunday!

March 2013 - Sedona Arizona

Song-ography

Here's a new fun meme to join! You'll Shoot Your Eye Out rules are:

1.  Would be kinda cool if you would link back to my blog somewhere...ANYWHERE
2.  Would be kinda cool if you "followed" me.  Not to the bathroom or anything creepy...just here in blog-land.
3.  Please link up using your permalink URL.
4.  Photos MAY or MAY NOT be recently taken.  Heck, sometimes you might see a song title and think "I ALREADY have an amaaaaaaazing photograph for that song title!"  No reason you shouldn't use it.  Amazing is amazing regardless of when it's taken, right?
5.  Would be kinda cool if you'd visit some of the other participants and leave a kind word or two.  I'm from Philly, and you KNOW we have a rep for being the kindest and friendliest peeps in the world :)
6.  You may have one photo,  or drop a photo bomb of photos in your link up post.  Just please make sure your photo(s) are an interpretation of the song title for the week. 
7.  Link-up will be available beginning Sunday mornings.
8.  Tell lots, and LOTS of your blogging friends so I don't feel like I'm sitting at the school lunch table all by myself on Sunday morning.  I don't want to be a "Lonesome Loser" and have to post a photo about it.Got it?  Sunday, link up, song titles, photographs that are interpretations, a mash up I'm calling Song-ography, be there...YO.

This week's prompt is:

Here Comes The Sun - George Harrison and Friends

November 1999 - Kauai Hawaii

I selected my photo as soon as I saw this week's challenge. I knew I had very few photos of the sun coming up but have loads of sunsets. This was on the island of Kauai in Hawaii and this is the sun rising over the ocean.

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes 

 Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here

Calgary Alberta

July 2013 - Calgary Alberta

The Bow is a 158,000-square-metre (1.7 million sq ft) office building for the headquarters of EnCana Corporation and Cenovus Energy, in downtown Calgary, Alberta. The building is currently the tallest office tower in Calgary, and tallest in Canada outside Toronto. The Bow is also considered the start of redevelopment in Calgary's Downtown East Village. It was completed in 2012 and was ranked among the top 10 architectural projects of 2012 according to Azure Magazine.

A 12-meter sculpture, created by Barcelona-based designer Jaume Plensa, Wonderland is a bent-wire portrait of a young girl's head.

Sepia Saturday - July 27

I'm posting at Sepia Saturday today.

The suggested theme is:

187 : This theme originated from an idea by Wendy, Kathy, Martha, Marilyn and others on the Sepia Saturday Facebook Page. Bibles, books, and all manner of old family keepsakes could fit in with this theme.

This case has been the holder of our family memorabilia since I won it in 1958. It contains photos,cards, obituaries, wedding invitations and all sorts of other special items.

My sister's gloves pinned by my mother.

A medal which was pinned in our carriage in Dublin. UPDATE Bob Scotney asked what the carriage looked like so I have added a photo below.

Does anyone remember melody cards? It is a birthday card which you could play on a record player.

"Melody Cards" were popular in the late 1950s. These took the form of an oversized rectangular postcard with the usual address and greeting space on one side and an illustration on the other. The illustration was overlaid with a transparent plastic material into which the grooves were embossed for the recording which was usually musical as the name implies. They typically played at 45 RPM. It was not recommended to write on them with a ball point pen, but these were not all that common at the time.

My grandmother's prayer book which she gave to my father on his wedding day.

Nova Scotia and PEI 1990

NOVA SCOTIA AND PEI 1990

This was our first trip to the Maritimes. We knew we were moving to Toronto in the new year so decided we should visit Nova Scotia and PEI.

This is mainly a photo (pre-digital) dump as there is little I remember other than the amazing food!! Pre-digital meant worrying about running out of film, and the cost of processing film, so we didn't take as many photos as we do today and getting the best shot!

August 1990 - Nova Scotia

Halifax

The city of Halifax was founded on June 21, 1749, by British officer Edward Cornwallis. It was established as a strategic military stronghold to counter the French presence at nearby Louisbourg.

Long before Europeans arrived, the Mi'kmaq people inhabited the region and called the area Kjipuktuk, which translates to "Great Harbour".

The settlement was named after George Montagu Dunk, the Earl of Halifax, who served as the president of the British Board of Trade and authorized the colonization funding.

 Halifax was one of the British Empire's early experiments in deliberate town planning. The streets were intentionally designed on a strict grid sloping steeply downward from Citadel Hill toward the water, ensuring the military could easily defend the harbour from land attacks.

The printing press brought by the early settlers led to the publication of the Halifax Gazette in 1752, making it the first newspaper ever printed in Canada.

Halifax is a city defined by its deep maritime roots, wild weather, and rich history. Home to the legendary donair and the iconic Citadel Hill, it offers a perfect mix of lively student energy and historic charm.

Oldest Ferry in North America: The Halifax–Dartmouth ferry has been operating since 1752, making it older than Canada itself.

Record-Breaking Blast: In 1917, the Halifax Explosion—caused by two ships colliding in the harbour—was the largest human-made explosion prior to the atomic bomb.

You're Never Far from the Ocean: Wherever you are in Halifax, you are never more than 30 minutes away from the sea.

Alexander Keith's Brewery complex, which was founded in 1820 and is one of the oldest commercial breweries in North America.

The Halifax Citadel National Historic Site is a massive, star-shaped 19th-century British fortification perched high atop Citadel Hill in downtown Halifax. It is the city's most iconic landmark and the primary reason Halifax was founded in its specific location.

The Halifax Public Gardens is a stunning 16-acre urban oasis recognized as the only surviving authentic Victorian garden in North America. Formally established in 1867 (the year of Canadian Confederation), it is located right in the downtown core.

Annapolis

Annapolis Royal was Nova Scotia’s first capital before Halifax was founded in 1749. Located about a two-hour drive west of Halifax in the scenic Annapolis Valley, this small waterfront town is home to the first permanent European settlement in North America north of Florida (established in 1605).

While Halifax has a Victorian garden, the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens is a 17-acre paradise that showcases more than 400 years of Canadian history through horticulture.

Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, is the James House Museum, located at 12 Queen Street. Operated by the Bridgetown and Area Historical Society, it is housed in a registered Provincial Heritage Building built in 1835.

Blue Rocks is a picturesque, historic fishing village located on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada.

It sits just an 8-minute drive east of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Old Town Lunenburg.

The "Blue" Rocks: The community gets its name from the striking blue slate rock formations that line the coast and frame its sheltered harbor."Little Peggy's Cove": It is frequently described as a quieter, less crowded alternative to Peggy's Cove, offering an authentic glimpse into a working Maritimes fishing hamlet.

Peggy's Cove

William Edward deGarthe was born in Helsinki, Finland. He emigrated to Canada in 1926, moved to Halifax in 1945, and eventually settled permanently in the beautiful village of Peggy’s Cove in 1955. He was a painter and sculptor, his artistic work devoted to maritime subjects after his move to Peggy’s Cove. His “Fisherman’s Monument” was sculpted out of a 100 foot granite face of rock below his home. It depicts thirty-two fishermen and their wives and children enveloped in the wings of a guardian angel. The sculpture and his home (now a museum to his work) were donated to the province of Nova Scotia after his death.

Old Town Lunenburg is one of only two urban communities in North America designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Established by the British in 1753, it is celebrated as the best-surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement on the continent.

Mahone Bay is a picture-perfect maritime town located along the South Shore, just 15 minutes north of Lunenburg and roughly an hour from Halifax.

The Three Churches: This is one of the most photographed vistas in Canada. Standing side-by-side along the edge of the harbor are St. James' Anglican, St. John's Evangelical Lutheran, and Trinity United. Their steeples create a perfect reflection on the water on calm days.

"Chester Rope" most famously points to The Rope Loft, a historic waterfront restaurant and pub located at 36 Water Street in the seaside village of Chester, Nova Scotia.

Rather than a modern manufacturing facility, it is one of the oldest and most celebrated heritage buildings on the South Shore.

Built From a Privateer Ship: Constructed circa 1813, the solid oak building was actually built using the salvaged, hand-hewn wooden beams of the famous privateer ship Teaser, which burned and sank in nearby Mahone Bay during the War of 1812.

Over its 200+ year history, the building has served as a storage warehouse for fish, coal, grain, and maritime rigging gear (hence the name "Rope Loft"). It was also rumored to be a frequent drop-off hub for illegal rum-running and smuggling operations.

Digby is globally renowned as the "Scallop Capital of the World". Located on the picturesque Bay of Fundy, the town is celebrated for its world-famous sweet scallops, thriving commercial fishing fleet, and proximity to premier North American whale watching.

Grand-Pré is a historic rural community. Located at the eastern edge of the beautiful Annapolis Valley, it is world-renowned as a powerful anchor of Acadian culture, history, and agricultural triumph.

The Acadians: French settlers founded the community around 1680. The name Grand-Pré translates to "Great Meadow".

The Great Upheaval (Le Grand Dérangement): In 1755, Grand-Pré became a central site for the forced deportation of the Acadian people by British authorities. This tragic event scattered thousands of Acadians across North America.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) is the famous American poet who single-handedly put Grand-Pré on the global cultural map.

In 1847, he published Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie, an epic romance that became an instant international sensation and immortalized the tragedy of the Acadian people,

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Anne of Green Gables

Brackley Beach is a popular beach destination located only 20 minutes from Charlottetown with majestic dunes, clear water, and miles of pristine sand.

Cavendish Beach

Cavendish Mac Coubrey's B&B

CHARLOTTETOWN

McKinnon's Pound.

Dalvey

Malpeque

Montague 

North Rustic

Point Prim

SOURIS

Every Saturday afternoon during the summer months less than a dozen Anglicans gather in St. Alban's Anglican Church in Souris for services. This Saturday the services were led by Richard Ball, a lay minister. The church, erected in 1980 to serve approximately 70 parishioners  sits near site of the original church adjacent to Church Street in the town and close to the edge of a cliff bordering Colville Bay. The first church was built in 1895 under the leadership of Rev. E.T. Woollard. Before that, services were held in a private home. It was closed in 1919 and later demolished. The land was sold for $300 together with part of the churchyard after the Second World War.

SUMMERSIDE

Woodleigh Replicas was a park of miniatures situated in the rural community of Burlington outside Kensington, Prince Edward Island on a 30-acre site. The visitor attraction opened in 1957 and closed in May 2008.

Me!

Point Prim, from the air.