Rus in urbe

I'm going to be posting several more photos on this theme, so I would like to make it clear that, sketchy as some of these efforts to bring the look of the country into the city may appear. I love them all. In a city whose buildings are as blandly coloured as Toronto's, any display of colour I regard as a friendly gesture intended to make my life more enjoyable. I also find this display more enjoyable than those leafy squares in London surrounded by fences with locked gates and with barbed wire on top. That ain't nice. I also like how the shadow looks like the front end of a streetcar. There's a streetcar line about a block away, so it's as if the cars were casting their shadows a block north.

Another view of the doggie fountain, this time in the sun. The earlier view is in the note at top left. The park was recently renovated by Claude Cormier + Associés.

Lake Ontario is out of shot to the left, and Ashbridges Bay out of shot to the right.

Another one I think looks more interesting big, but again that could just be me.

St. John's Lodge (1812, John Ruffield) and Gardens (1994, Colvin and Moggridge Landscape Architects). Re-post.

An old photo re-edited. The women are on the roof of the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto.

Pearl St., Toronto, with Adelaide St. W. in back.

Kensington Gardens, London. The memorial was completed in 1875; it was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, and the statue of Prince Albert is by John Henry Foley. In the background is Royal Albert Hall, opened in 1871. It was designed by Capt. Francis Fowke and Major-Gen. H. Y. D. Scott of the Royal Engineers; the dome was designed by another engineer, Rowland Mason Ordish. The PiP has a view from the other side of the memorial.

I prefer the larger version. If you would like to see if you prefer it, too, type Z or click the pic.