Tuesday Treasures

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.
Travel Tuesday
Our World Tuesday
Image-in-ing
My Corner of the World


December 2019 - Toronto ON

Say goodbye to another eerie-yet-powerful ghost sign, Toronto.

Crews were spotted giving a fresh coat of paint to the east-facing wall of the old Maclean Building at 345 Adelaide Street West on Monday, effectively erasing an historic painted sign that dates all the way back to the early 1900s.



November 2018 - Toronto ON


Hugh Cameron Maclean - younger brother to John Bayne Maclean, publishing magnate and founder of Maclean's Publishing Company (later known as Maclean-Hunter) - began his career as a typesetter at a young age. He ran away from his childhood home in Crieff, Ont. to find excitement in the big cities of Toronto and New York, earning a living by apprenticing at a variety of printing houses. By the time his brother entered the publishing game Hugh was already an experienced printer and John brought him on board as his partner.

However, this partnership did not last. When Hugh's wife died at the turn of the century and disagreements over advertising caused a rift in the brothers' relationship, Hugh sold his share of the company to John and moved west. Over the course of the next eight years the young Maclean moved from printing to publishing and upon his return to Toronto, created Hugh C. Maclean Publications and finally, in 1914, built the Hugh C. Maclean Building at 345 Adelaide St. W.

With a home for his new company in place, Maclean would finally stay put for the first time in his adult life. The Hugh C. Maclean Publishing Company stayed at 345 Adelaide until Hugh's death in 1949; five years later his company built a modern printery at Don Mills.

Click here to see another Maclean-Hunter building at University and Dundas which was planned by John Maclean as his head office.

Foto Tunes

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.


La Mujer Mazatleca was created for the women of Mazatlán. This bronze statue was smelted in Mexico City to celebrate the women of Mazaltlán, locally reputed to be the most beautiful in the world. Gabriel Ruis, a composer from Jalisco, unveiled it. He is famous for writing a number of songs celebrating this coastal city, including "Mazatlán", "Nights of Mazatlán", and "Secret from Mazatlán."

Sung by an ex-pat in a local hangout for ex-pats, and we've never been in there, despite the number of times we've walked by.

Mazatlan

Click on link below video if the video doesn't work.

Monday Mural

I'm linking up at Monday Mural


September 2017 - Lincoln NE

Week 1 Pop Art

Trevor Carpenter Photochallenge
2019-20 Week 1 Pop Art – Andy Warhol style: By Klaus Deisenberger.

This week challenge is to produce an image in the style of Andy Warhol’s Pop Art.

Feet

One Word Sunday


April 2019 - Toronto ON

We are lucky to have the Bata Shoe Museum here in Toronto. I go there at least once a year.

Part of their permanent collection.

inSPIREd Sunday

Sally and Beth host inSPIREd Sunday!  


May 2019 - Pisa Italy

The Pisa Baptistery of St. John is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical building. Construction started in 1152 to replace an older baptistery, and when it was completed in 1363, it became the second building, in chronological order, in the Piazza dei Miracoli, near the Duomo di Pisa and the cathedral's free-standing campanile, the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. The baptistery was designed by Diotisalvi, whose signature can be read on two pillars inside the building, with the date 1153.

The portal, facing the facade of the cathedral, is flanked by two classical columns, while the inner jambs are executed in Byzantine style. The lintel is divided in two tiers. The lower one depicts several episodes in the life of St. John the Baptist, while the upper one shows Christ between the Madonna and St John the Baptist, flanked by angels and the evangelists.

The interior is overwhelming and lacks decoration. The octagonal font at the centre dates from 1246 and was made by Guido Bigarelli da Como. The bronze sculpture of St. John the Baptist at the centre of the font, is a work by Italo Griselli.

The pulpit was sculpted between 1255-1260 by Nicola Pisano, father of Giovanni, the artist who produced the pulpit in the Duomo. The scenes on the pulpit, and especially the classical form of the nude Hercules, show Nicola Pisano's qualities as the most important precursor of Italian Renaissance sculpture by reinstating antique representations: surveys of the Italian Renaissance often begin with the year 1260, the year that Nicola Pisano dated this pulpit.

Constructed on the same unstable sand as the tower and cathedral, the Baptistery leans 0.6 degrees toward the cathedral.

Originally the shape of the Baptistery, according to the project by Diotisalvi, was different. It was perhaps similar to the church of Holy Sepulchre in Pisa, with its pyramidal roof. After the death of the architect, Nicola Pisano continued the work, changing the style to the more modern Gothic one. Also an external roof was added giving the shape of a cupola. As a side effect of the two roofs, the pyramidal inner one and the domed external one, the interior is acoustically perfect, making of that space a resonating chamber.

Click here if the video doesn't work to listen to the amazing acoustics.

It is in fact the largest baptistery in Italy standing at 55 meters and with a circumference of more than 100 meters. To put this into perspective it would take at least 50 people to embrace it.

Christmas Fare

2018 - Mazatlan Mexico

Well, it certainly wasn't a white Christmas here in Toronto this year. Temperatures were above normal and the little snow we did have melted away before the weekend.

Saturday and I made a lemon cheesecake with lemon curd to bring to my cousin's for our Christmas sleepover.

John cooked our traditional breakfast at my cousin's, bacon, eggs, black pudding, mushrooms and home fries.

We got home early afternoon on Sunday.

Monday we met friends for lunch at O and B's, where we all had the flat iron steak and fries!

We got our first new $10 bill, first woman and first vertical bill. Click here the Bank of Canada description.

The bill features civil rights activist Viola Desmond — the first Canadian woman to be profiled on a regularly circulating banknote — on one side.

The first vertically oriented banknote in Canada, the design also includes an artistic rendering of Halifax's north end and waterfront, where Viola Desmond lived and owned a beauty salon.

Also depicted is an eagle feather, which the Bank of Canada says represents the ongoing journey toward recognizing rights and freedoms for Indigenous people.

On Nov. 8, 1946, Desmond took in a movie at the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow while her car was getting fixed. When she refused to leave the whites-only section on the main level of the theatre, Desmond, 32, was dragged out by police and jailed. Black people were only allowed to sit in the balcony of the theatre.

Past the Dog Fountain as we headed to the market to get a turkey, sausages and flank steak.

Mural on the back of the Flatiron building.

Tuesday, Christmas Eve, and we did a quick run to get vegetables for Christmas.

Before we left, at 10:30 AM. we saw this out our window. The Toronto Police Service Holiday RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere) campaign had a checkpoint on an exit ramp, nowhere for anyone to run! The red car is pulled over and the orange jeep will also get pulled over.

We decided to use our grill to cook our dinner.

Prep: flank steak, sausages, mushrooms, potatoes, peppers, onions, cheese.

Christmas Day and we only took a very bad photo of our trifle based on my mother's recipe but with gluten free lady fingers.

The rest of the week was spent at home relaxing, other than helping a friend in the building.
We ate lots of leftovers.

We watched our fair share of movies this week, bingeing on several afternoons.


Two Popes very loosely based on true events, however fascinating
6 Underground
Triple Frontier
The Laundromat  excellent Meryl Streep based on the Panama Papers scandal
The Operative
Santa Fake hokey but who could resist Irish (American) songs and Christmas carols.
Acts of Violence
Operation Finale
And of course we watched both Home Alones!!! And watching our individual favourites.

BOOKS

September 2019 - Dundas St. Toronto

I am still reading Origin, didn't really get into it this week.


LINKING UP WITH
Beth hosts Weekend Cooking where you can post anything food related.
Sunday Salon
Seasons
Say Cheese
Monday Walks
Monday Morning Blog Club