flying in

On my way home last night, I stopped for gas. As I got back into my car and had my hand on the ignition key, something blew onto my windscreen. I thought at first that it was a bit of paper towel flying in the wind. The colour was the same, and it was a windy, rainy night.

On closer inspection I realize it is a giant moth of some sort. 

I take several pictures, with and without flash. And somehow feel a need to share the moth with the woman pumping gas beside me. "Oh, really" says woman, who immediately turns back to watching the numbers on the gas pump, obviously not the least bit interested. 

After trying to gently push the moth onwards, and feeling that he has his feet firmly suctioned to the windscreen, he suddenly flops over on his side, much like a cat will do when exhaustion takes over and a nap is needed. I thought he had keeled over and died. He could have been injured from the impact - a concussion, maybe. Though he was probably blinded and confused by the bright lights of the gas bay.

Another gentle touch to see if he moves on his own and he straightens up again and spreads out his wings. 

Two teenaged boys walk over and they are quite interested in the moth.

One also takes pictures, with the other respectfully asking "can I touch it?"  

I'd never seen anything quite like this before, and neither had they, which makes me feel slightly better about my ignorance. He has a fat furry body and lovely eyes. 

Though, as I look later at the uploaded pictures I wonder about his antennae. It seems there's only one and he must be able to fold it back out of sight.

I get back in the car, and wait a moment or two, hoping he will fly off. He doesn't. So, ever so slowly, I drive out onto the street until eventually the wind picks him up and he disappears into the night. (thankfully, before I get on the highway)

When I get home, I'm pleased that enough of my pictures were clear enough to be able to identify the creature from other images of 'moths in Ontario'. Turns out he is an Antheraea Polyphemus Moth. One of our largest and most beautiful silk moths. The adult has a wingspan of about 4-6 inches and its most notable feature are the purplish eyespots on the hind wings. It's from these eyes that it gets its name Polyphemus - the giant son of Poseidon and the Cyclops Thoosa of Greek mythology. And he is a she. The males are much less pretty.

It's hard to fully see the giantness of this creature, so here is a picture I swiped off the internet with a quarter as a comparison.

Sadly, I also learned that the Polyphemus Moth only lives for about four days. I hope her eventual death was peaceful. Or at least quick.

On the Way
Our World Tuesday
Saturday's Critters

in aisle 25

It was all quiet on Carlton Street in front of this shrine on Friday afternoon, but Wednesday morning was a different story. People actually started lining up on the street on Tuesday night to be first to enter the new Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens (MLG) when it opened at 8AM on November 30th. Almost exactly 80 years after its original Grand Opening as a hockey arena and home to the Toronto Maple Leafs (until 1999)

Now, it is a grocery store.

I had to see it when it was still all bright and shiny new

(and in full disclosure, this was only my second time ever being in this place of so many memories)

It is a store with special touches












and a giant Amazing Wall of Cheese

and a popular sushi bar placed at the outside wall with windows onto the street for some great theatre

When it was first announced that a grocery chain had bought this iconic building, there was much gnashing of teeth at the effrontery of it all. MLG is considered a hallowed shrine. It was not only used for a beloved hockey team, but was also the venue for many other sporting events, not least for wrestling and boxing. Then there were the concerts - Elvis and the Beatles among them. 

This new store is actually full of mementoes of these events. From the pictures on the pillars to the old posters on the walls and even the cafe tables are a collage of old sporting event memorabilia shots.

At the entrance is a collection of the old chairs from the arena painted in blue and (artfully?) arranged on the wall in the shape of a maple leaf. The original walls were left exposed and one can still see the imprint of the risers next to the new escalators. Further up and not yet finished will be an athletic centre and a new hockey rink for the nearby university. This building and its owners has also been riddled with controversy over the years, which just adds to the legendary status and the controversy continues (but I won't bore you with details. google it if you are really interested)

This is as much a tourist attraction as a grocery store for a badly needed vibe in this area and there were staff galore handing out maps and brochures and guiding you to see the sights. Halcyon, who was with me, desperately wanted to get a picture of their specially designed t-shirts, but everyone declined (bosses were likely watching carefully on the security cameras) but I managed a covert shot of these two poor sods in1930s newsboys outfits who wandered around handing out free bags and colourful brochures for the special events being held.

and then there is aisle 25.

where near the end, surrounded by soy sauces, is a red dot.

this folks, is the very spot of centre ice. 

seriously, next to the amazing wall of cheese, this was possibly the biggest attraction

and as you can see by this large billboard (interestingly seen across the street at Church and Carlton) 

this was a major, show stopping event.

it wasn't that bad after all

Part of my newspaper route involves door to door deliveries in apartment buildings. Often when I am walking the halls, I will read the front page or flip through and glance at the headlines in the other sections. Sometimes, something interesting will catch my eye and I will try to remember to look it up online when I get home (I hate slowing down when I am in a good stride and besides, with an armful of papers it is difficult to search inside to see how long an article is and to read it).

Today there was a story about the new proposed animal control bylaw and last night's public meeting specifically regarding cats and licensing and what to do with strays, etc. Below that was a box that usually has other stories you can find inside the paper and on-line. That headline read "PEORIA SENDS DOGS UP RIVER. FOR A PHOTO GALLERY OF DOWNWARD DOGS GO TO .... I thought, how horrible! Then I wondered what kind of photos they had. Probably just of the river. Then I wondered where the heck Peoria was. The only one I knew was in Illinois. I figured this must be one of those small towns that had been swallowed up in merges with other smaller towns and given a new name that no-one ever uses.

Now granted, I am usually on auto pilot when I am wandering these hallways and I have been known to humorously misread headlines.

So when I got home and checked it out, it all made sense.

The local CFL team are the Tiger Cats, more commonly known as the Ti-Cats. Or, especially in the print media, just the Cats. The local AHL team are the Bulldogs. Or, in the print media the Dogs. I don't follow sports, so you can see where confusion might set in. Though, this much I knew, I just keep forgetting. And, it seems Peoria really was the one in Illinois and with further investigation I discovered their team is known as the Rivermen.


So, really, that was a very clever headline.

*I am sure, at some point there has been a headline that read
  it was reigning cats and dogs last night

cruisin'

The season of Cruise Nights is drawing to a close.

It is an expensive hobby, keeping these old classic cars in good condition, only to be driven to various parks and parking lots for the sole purpose of showing off. Many times, you'll see a car pull into a spot, the owner get out and set up a lawn chair, then sit in it reading a book. At a quarter to eight, they pack up book and lawn chair and drive off. Other people are more engaging. Many seem to meet up with friends and fellow collectors they know from the circuit. 

Still, I enjoy these nights of admiring and sighing at the designs of older models. I don't know a lot about cars, but I am learning. I take photos and look up the history and stats on the internet when I get home. For the most part, you often see the same cars (not literally the same, but the same makes) and I can now recognize when there is one that is a rare colour or has a slightly different grille. 

To amuse myself, I try to get creative by concentrating on different aspects of the cars each time. (one can only have so many pictures of cars that one has no idea what to do with.) One time it might be the tail lights and fins, another time the door handles... I still have to work on getting good shots of the dashboards. I don't generally decide what the focus will be until I get there, but with this last cruise night at Pier 4, I was a wee bit disappointed when the old police cars that were to be on show materialized in ... one car. From there, I chose to focus on photographing the make and model names.

a Studebaker Commodore

It wasn't intentional, but once I had sorted and cropped and uploaded them onto this post, I realized they all were joined letter font.

SundayStills, where we could post anything we wanted.....

freezing

The original plan was to be in Rochester for an event yesterday.
I chose instead to visit the dentist.
Thank goodness.

Police closed Interstate 90 Thursday after a truck jackknifed and vehicles became backed up and buried in blowing snow, State Trooper Daniel Golinski said. Drivers also were stranded on a 3-mile stretch of Interstate 190.

Though parts of I-90, better known as the New York Thruway, were reopened by midday, an 11-mile stretch remained closed as darkness fell. Traffic, mostly big rigs, was backed up for about two miles in the eastbound lanes and a mile headed west after sunset. Authorities expected it would take several more hours to clear the mess

Oddly this band of lake effect snow (that Buffalo gets every year) was barely 3 miles wide.

But, if I can put off something, for a day, a month, a year or two, I will. So I put off going to this event in Rochester for another week because I really could not put off the dentist any longer. In fact, I was almost looking forward to going, if only for the release of the nagging, intense, sharp needle pain in my tooth. Surely, the freezing needle could not be worse.

Turns out, those needles are not nearly as bad as my memory tells me they are. I specifically chose this dentist because he was available when I had an abcess and because he used nitrous oxide - the great laughing gas. Then one time, he decided that since what needed done was such a small job he would just freeze it, and somehow the gas was forgotten. He puts some sort of tropical topical gel on that this time tasted suspiciously like banana pudding. This was way better than the usual tastes of bubblegum or mint. I haven't liked bubblegum since I was eight and I have never liked mint. Which makes buying toothpaste a rather long, unpleasant exercise. Not far off having to taste the toothpaste. And the unfreezing experience isn't at all as I remembered it, either. In fact, there was nothing to it. I dribbled a bit when drinking, but nothing out of the ordinary, really.

All in all, far better than freezing in a cold car on a thruway for 21 hours.

SundayStills - figurines

When I was in high school, we went on a school trip to Spain. It was my first trip without the parents and my first to continental Europe. I must have asked my mother if there was anything Spanish she would like me to bring back. All she said was do not bring any of that Lladro. I'm not certain I knew exactly what Lladro was, but she showed me those elongated figurines in a jewellery store and I understood.

But as soon as I saw her, I had to have her.
the face with her so delicate, perfect nose

the downcast eyes below exquisitely arched eyebrows

the hand, with the one finger, ever so gently holding on to her shawl


the detail of her shawl

...and the lovely calla lilies. two have broken stamens from the attempts to keep them clean.
I found out later that my mother didn't like callas, either.

But this figurine was for me. I fell in love with my 'Maria'. I later had fanciful ideas of collecting more, until I found out how much they cost outside of Spain. I still dream of finding her a companion.

And of going back to Spain.

balance

Sometimes, when life gets too busy or unpredictable, you need to slow yourself down and rebalance. Some people self destruct, others become introspective. Some go for long walks or take a canoe out into the wilderness to think about life. Some people do yoga to relax and find an inner peace. Others may get creative with knitting or painting to calm their nerves.

Some get right into the middle of a river and start balancing stones.
I had heard about these sculptures before, in different parts of the city over the years, mostly in the east or west beaches

last weekend, these stone sculptures appeared in the Humber River in Toronto.

Artist Peter Riedel likes the impermanence of his sculptures.

"Just like people in life, my creations can easily be knocked down. Like so many things in life, the balance isn’t always up to us. We think things are perfect and balanced, but sometimes life has surprises for us too" He said. He likes that even through the stone creations may fall apart, they become a clean slate from which to create again.

expect major delays

I had a reason to be in Toronto today. Downtown, though not exactly near the 'perimeter'. Still, I wanted to see it for myself. I wanted to see just how my tax dollars were looking.

They were looking rather oppressive, to say the least. Very forbidding. Which I guess was the point. Except that, as we all know by now, many of the 'forbidden' are residents, workers. Tourists. Baby trees.

It also looked ugly. So very ugly. Which wasn't the point. What a way to showcase the city to the world. Thanks, Steve.

I so desperately wanted to take a picture or two, but after seeing at least one poor sod being intimidated into having to delete his photos from his camera and having to show my ID when I pulled out my camera, I decided I didn't need my own pictures. Though, technically, the police can't force you to delete your photos. There is even a flickr account of the CBC I have now found where you can upload your G20 photos.

If you are not aware of the insanity around this G20 security enforcement you can read up on it at this frequently updated Globe and Mail site.

Once you are familiar with the insanity of this billion dollar shut down of Toronto there is a satirical twitter account if you are interested. Apparently, even the police find it amusing.

This would be so endlessly amusing, if it weren't costing a billion dollars.

And inconveniencing so many ordinary people.

a tease

I went for a walk the other day.

Found a house for sale.
Pretty, no?

You haven't seen the view yet.............

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and this was on a cloudy day

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what I like to see

When I was about 12, I got my first pair of glasses. I distinctly remember sitting in our living room and staring at the wallpaper - the flocked wallpaper (well, it was 1970) and realizing I could see the gold flocking. I could actually see the furry swirls raised from the rest of the wallpaper. It seems so obvious, but at the time it was new and exciting. I would sit on the chesterfield and bob my head up and down to see the difference in my improved eyesight. And I'm not even that blind. For more than 30 years I had the exact same prescription. The frames changed. The size of the lenses certainly changed. But the prescription, not a bit. I only needed the glasses for distance and even then, not all the time. I was always losing them at school. So I eventually stopped wearing them unless absolutely necessary. As a result, when I did wear them I was amazed all over again at the clarity and detail.

This all changed about 6 years ago, coincidentally just in time for our provincial health plan to delist vision care. I started having trouble reading those big signs in the middle of the grocery aisles to say what was in each aisle. Worse, I realized that I would be holding the boxes of cereal at varying distances to get the right angle to be able to read the information that is so vital to be included that it is in the tiniest font size available. It turned out my regular prescription needed to be stronger. AND, I needed reading glasses. Bifocals were recommended. I bit the inside of my cheek and tried not to shed any tears. I went home with new, stronger, prescription distance glasses and a pair of invisible bifocals. I sat on the chesterfield and bobbed my head up and down (I was told to do this, to get used to them) to watch television and read a book at the same time. This time, it wasn't so exciting. It was more dizzying than anything else. Then, the invisible line bifocals were almost the same style as the distance ones and within a matter of weeks I had trouble knowing which were which.

I ended up later getting another pair of reading glasses. I keep magnifying glasses in every room because that is so much easier. Except for reading books. I still need to work on that. And now I need another, stronger, prescription. I get headaches whenever I try to read the newspaper or a magazine. I find I check out the print before I even consider buying or reading a book. I can't get away with not wearing the glasses any more. All those blurry letters make my head spin, my eyes water, and scare me even a little. I hate to see anything out of focus. When I upload my photos I spend hours scrutinizing each one to determine the one that is the most in focus.

My mother had macular degeneration and for the longest time she struggled with doing the crossword and knitting as her eyesight deteriorated. I have no idea how she did it. Sheer determination and pig-headedness, most likely. Instead of biting my cheek, I had to bite my tongue to stop from complaining about my needing new reading glasses after 30 years. I maybe don't like anything to be out of focus, but I still have the opportunity to fix that. For the time being.

In the meantime, I have to take a blurry, out of focus photo for my new team blog lens.us.together. It is an unbelievably difficult challenge. I could just take an out of focus shot, but there would be no meaning to that. I need to find one that has a reason for being.

one photo out-of-focus is a mistake,

ten photos out-of-focus are an experimentation,

one hundred photos out-of-focus are a style.

~author unknown

please, no, don't change

So, hands up all who have received their new IKEA catalogue.
Have you looked through it?
Thoroughly?
Did you notice the changes that were made to the design of the catalogue?
Do you feel the "lack of warmth" in the new typeface?
No?
Well, it seems many people have noticed and have gotten their knickers in quite a twist over it. There is even a petition going to have the font changed back from the 'new' Verdana to the 'old' Futura. Actually, it was IKEA's customized version of Futura, which they have used for almost 50 years and has been an "integral part of their branding".
So much outrage over a font. Though, mostly, it is from people who are really, really into fonts and typefaces and graphic design who feel it is "a sad day" and are "horrified" by this shift. You can read all about their anger and angst here. But be warned, there will be more details about the significance and intricacies of various fonts than most of you (I'm guessing, though I may be wrong) will ever care about. I actually found it interesting, even though I didn't understand a lot of the details. IKEA says they changed it to blend with the web so that their online catalogue will match their printed catalogue. They also say that most people won't even notice the change and are surprised at the backlash.

Which makes it seem like they are saying it isn't important. Design isn't important? For a company that prides itself on innovative design? That is now using what some consider the most basic (and inelegant, when writ large) font available. Ah, but it is a free font, provided by Microsoft. Except all signs must now be changed... so, the cheap change does not come so cheap.

On Aug. 26, a Romanian design consultant started an online petition to get Ikea to change its mind. There are already almost 4,000 signatures! To add yours go here.
Wikipedia even has a page (that may be deleted soon) about this called Verdanagate, as well as a page on the catalogue.

Now the real issue for the rest of us may be that they are possibly gearing up for an end to their printed catalogue, which would be a shame. It is the most printed publication, surpassing the Bible and Harry Potter. There was a time when I had saved every one for over 10 years. I think I got tired of packing them up every time I moved and eventually got rid of them. On a rainy Saturday afternoon with nothing better to do though, I did like to thumb through the old ones and reminisce...
see here for a museum collection IKEA catalogues.

The most interesting part of this story is that IKEA has been around for 58 years! FUTURA VERDANA COMIC SANS

Though this wit thinks it will not last much longer!

And on this site you can find a 1965 version of the catalogue.

Now, I think I'll head out for some strong Swedish coffee and a look at some Sultans, Leksviks, Erdslevs, and maybe some Färgkrik.

(P.S. this font is Trebuchet)