Sculpture Saturday

 Sculpture Saturday

July 2021 - Toronto ON

I was walking to Dundas St. when I came across a new Homeless Jesus outside St. Patrick's Church on Mc Caul St.

Photo of church taken in 2015.

When I was Naked 2019 by Canadian Timothy Schmalz

In this piece Christ is portrayed as a homeless man naked and clinging to a piece of cardboard to keep him warm. Based on Matthew 25, “When I was Naked” confronts our prejudices against the impoverished and compels us to look deeper for a glimpse of the divinity and dignity within them.

The St. Patrick’s piece is the fourth church to have a When I Was Naked sculpture. It has also been erected at St. Peter in Chains Basilica in Rome, St. Peter in Chains Cathedral in Cincinnati and Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Detroit.

What these sites share is they are in the heart of their cities, locations Schmalz says that can showcase his art to people “where they would least expect it.”

“It’s a perfect opportunity to preach with sculpture. It’s right there in the heart of the city.”

As the bottom of the plaque states St. Patrick’s has a long connection of working with the poor. For more than 30 years it has hosted the Out of the Cold program to house and feed homeless during the winter months. Street Patrol runs out of the parish and for the past dozen years has done high school retreats on social justice and service, among others. 

Click here to see three other Homeless Jesus that we have seen. Kitchener ON, Austin TX and Toronto U of T.
Toronto St. Stephen in the Fields 2018

Toronto St. Paul 2018

Florence Italy 2019

My Recipe Box - Mom's Recipes

Christmas 1979 my mother made me an album of recipes. These are some of them in her handwriting.

T is for Tuesday Signs

 T Stands For is hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard

Joining Tom at Signs2.

Random-osity

Random coffee signs around Toronto.

Tuesday Treasures

 Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

Travel Tuesday

Our World Tuesday

Image-in-ing
My Corner of the World

Postcards

Toronto ON

Click here for a history of Toronto lane naming and a list of other lanes with neighbourhood descriptions. That post is a work in progress, and gets updated frequently.

This week we're in Riverside, taken last fall.

Baseball Place Lane

I'll have to go back and see if they've put up the permanent sign.

Baseball Place originally existed in generally the same location at the proposed private lane until approximately 1913. Baseball Place along with Queen Street East provided access to Toronto’s first baseball stadium – initially the Toronto Baseball Grounds which later became known as Sunlight Park. The stadium opened on May 22, 1886 and remained in operation until 1913.

Sunlight Park was the first baseball stadium in Toronto. The all wood structure was built in 1886 at a cost of $7,000 by the International League baseball team the Toronto Baseball Club (renamed the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1902).

It was initially known as the Toronto Baseball Grounds. It stood south of Queen Street East, west of Broadview Avenue, north of Eastern Avenue, on the east side of the Smith Estate near the Don River, and had seating for 2,200 spectators, including a 550-seat reserved section. Cost of admission was 25 cents.

The stadium's grand opening was held on May 22, 1886 for an afternoon game against the "Rochesters" of Rochester, New York competing in the International League.
The following year the team won Toronto’s first baseball championship behind the heroics of Ed “Cannonball” Crane.(The plaque, unfortunately, is a decade off in its date for Cannonball’s feat.)

Cannonball Crane was a large man, a power pitcher who played in the major leagues for most of his career, but following a bad season in 1886, he could only catch on with Toronto’s minor league team. Here he revived his career with a 33-win season and a .433 batting average.

His greatest moments came on September 17 and 18, 1887, in the league championship series against the team from Newark, NJ. On Saturday, Crane pitched both ends of a doubleheader, winning the first easily, 15-5. In the second game he drove in three runs in the eighth inning to send the game into extra innings, then hit the game-winning homer in the eleventh for a 5-4 victory. The next day he also pitched his team to a 22-8victory to clinch the pennant.

Cannonball went back to the majors, but baseball continued at the park. In 1893 the stadium’s name changed to Sunlight Park, in honour of the soap flakes brand manufactured in the Lever Brothers factory behind the outfield fence. William Hesketh Lever, the founder of the Lever Brothers company (with his brother James), was known for his advertising acumen as much as for his manufacturing skills.



Sunlight Soap was Lever Brothers’ first branded laundry flake product, launched in England in 1884. When Lever opened his Canadian factory at Eastern and Broadview in 1893, he saw an opportunity to link his product in consumers’ minds with the clean, white uniforms of baseball players, so applied the brand name to the stadium next door.

The Canucks played in the park until 1896 when new owners moved the team to their new Hanlan's Point Stadium. The park was used for local baseball, football, and lacrosse leagues until well into the 20th century (1913), when encroaching industrial uses predominated.

Click here for the next stage of Toronto baseball on The Islands at Hanlan's Point.

Wordless

 Wordless Wednesday Wordless Be There 2day

2020 - Toronto ON

Monday Mural

 I'm linking up at Monday Mural 

June 2021 - Toronto ON

Emily May Rose and her iconic raccoons at the Sheraton Centre (closed, under renovations).

Ponder

 One Word Sunday

Paris France

Art Square

 Linking up at Marg at The Intrepid Reader 

Weekend Coffee Share

Once Upon a Time 7 21

Sunday Salon

Hearth and Soul Link Party

Sherry's Pickings

What's On Your Plate (Monthly)

July 2021 - Toronto ON

Dundas St. West Toronto

We have entered Stage 3 this week and valet service is now restored in our building for residents only at the moment. Building amenities are opening such as the pool, gym,library.

My favourite Stage 3 City rule:

Bathhouses and sex clubs can also operate at up to 25 per cent capacity for indoor events. Patrons must also keep a distance of two metres “except when physical distancing cannot be maintained while participating in the activities for which patrons normally frequent such an establishment,” the rules state. Similar rules apply to patrons for mask usage.

Sign at a local strip club it also says No vaccine No entry:

No point in going anywhere last weekend as the Gardiner was closed for repairs. No problem, we don't usually venture out on weekends. But it was so quiet! Saturday was a gorgeous day after all that rain and I even sat on the balcony. Sunday was another washout.

Monday we tidied up as we had a designer coming to look at the bar area we want to install. We came up with a plan, and install dates are booking out in November thanks to the lockdowns.

Tuesday John headed out with a friend for their annual Wooden Sticks golf day with dinner included.

 I had a haircut booked WOO HOO! I had time to kill before my appointment and wandered underground in the financial district. You can feel it coming back to life, although the big banks have not yet announced when they will reopen their towers to staff. Smaller firms are slowing allowing workers back.

I had a great time catching up with my stylist after eight 8 months!! They have not been allowed to open since last November. Even now, since the office towers are not yet back to work (they are in the heart of the financial district) they are only working four hours a day per stylist, closing early and no Sunday opening.

From there I headed to the Eaton Centre to Bed and Bath Works to stock up.

I also went to some other stores, nothing bought, and stocked up on truffles at Lindt. While I waited for the bus I had a Frappuccino at Starbucks on the patio, the skies opened but the rain passed quickly. John got it on the golf course but they were told to return to the club house, it passed quickly as well.

Wednesday we had plans to head out at 10:30. I had it in my head to check with John that his license sticker hadn't expired. Since the pandemic started they have stopped sending out notices. Sure enough it was March 2021, oooops. So we came back up and he renewed online. Then the printer wouldn't print so we put it on a USB key and took it to the shop downstairs and had it printed in case he is stopped.

By then it was 11:30 and traffic was bumper to bumper on the DVP so we said screw that and drove back to the west end. We stopped for gas, had a burger at Burger's Priest, went for fruits and vegetables (bonus it was seniors' day) at Lanzarotta's, not impressed with their prices lately and they weren't carrying a lot of local produce! 

And picked up John's latest Scotch of the Month from the post office.

John had a parcel at the loading dock, an early birthday present for me us. Engraved brandy glasses.

John's weekly golf was moved to Thursday. 

Gorgeous colourful outfit outside Union.

I went to Collage Park, Winners and Farm Boy. Produce was all local and prices were great.

Had to buy these colourful scallions!

Friday John also golfed. I decided to go to Kensington Market. 

Union Station food court was open!

Mask of the Day Award.

Chinatown - Dundas St. West

Construction hoarding on Dundas West.

Javid Jah

Never knew there was a city pool right here on Dundas.

Housed in retrofitted shipping containers, Market 707 is Toronto’s most unique street food and retail market. This space brings together local entrepreneurs serving up more than 10 types of delicious international street food, along with unique goods and services to create an urban food and shopping environment unlike any other. 

First day of indoor dining and Kensington Market was gearing.

Yet another cannabis shop. I featured the Elicser mural on the inside wall here.

This was Zimmerman's Fairland grocery store opened in 1953 and now Kensington Market's first (but not last) legal dispensary.

Ozzy's Burgers.

Funny votive candles in Blue Banana.

I will definitely be trying this place out!

St. Andrew St. I've never walked down.

Anshei Minsk (formally Beth Israel Anshei Minsk, informally the Minsk) is a synagogue in the Kensington Market neighbourhood. It was founded in 1912 by poor Jewish immigrants from what is now Belarus (mostly Minsk), which at the time was part of the Russian Empire. The current Byzantine Revival building was completed in 1930.

The congregation has had only three full-time rabbis: Meyer Levy (1916–1921), Meyer Zimmerman (1940–1954), and Shmuel Spero, who has served from 1988 to the present. It is the only Orthodox synagogue in Downtown Toronto with a full-time rabbi, and the only one that holds daily services.

Another mention of a Zimmerman? A relation?

Interesting house on St. Andrew with gorgeous gardens.

Chinatown busker.

At Spadina and King, part of the Scotiabank CONTACT exhibit.

Exploring questions of race, gender, culture, class, and their complex intersections, Frida Orupabo fuses together varied sources of archival materials to question colonial and modern representations of Black womanhood. Positioned on the façade of a Victorian-era building, monumental images by the Oslo-based, Nigerian Norwegian artist portray Black women’s bodies as sites of knowledge and empowerment.

SOPHISTICATED SHAKERS

I chose the Spiced Mule from the LCBO early summer magazine. This was very tasty.

COOKING

Saturday easy mozzarella chicken with penne and fried mushrooms.

Sunday coconut shrimp, calamari,  ordered Swiss Chalet chicken.

Monday Asian lemon chicken  slow cooker beef stew

Tuesday John had dinner at the golf course.

While I had a pork chop with carrots and turnips.

Wednesday I tried firecracker shrimp with salad since we had burgers at lunch. I went a little overboard with the siracha as I was thinking it was the chili sauce. Definitely a keeper as John said. 

Thursday doner kabab I used veal and we had pita, Farm Boy tzatziki (good but not as good as I gave at the Market), tomatoes, onions and lettuce. And hot sauce!

Friday steak and loaded baked potato. But the potatoes were still a little hard so we chopped them up on a baking sheet and mixed them with the broccolini, sour cream, butter, scallions and cheese and it worked well.  

WATCHING

Masterchef Australia 2021 - WOW I didn't see that ending coming! They were all incredible. Congrats to Justin!

We went back to The Underground Railway.

I finished Mad Men.

READING

On my laptop Vij's Indian: Our Stories, Spices and Cherished Recipes

Vikram Vij (born 1964) is an Indian-born Canadian chef, cookbook author, and television personality with restaurants in Vancouver BC.

He mentions panch poran just as The Curry Guy did this week so I will definitely require a trip to India Town.

On my phone The Missing Hours, turned out to be a really good read with lots of twists and turns I didn't see coming.

On my tablet Exit, intriguing subject. I had read an earlier book dealing with the same subject, helping people die, but this was much better.