Winter in Niagara-On-The-Lake

Location: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada
Address: 6 Picton Street
Date: December 2019
Website: www.vintage-hotels.com

  The town of Niagara-on-the-Lake is a beautiful place all year round.  One of the most magical times is during the winter season.  We have visited a few times during the ice wine festival as well as to see the Christmas lights.

  One store located on Queen street celebrates Christmas all year round.  Just Christmas has everything you could need for holiday decorating.  Even a C3-P0 wearing a scarf to keep him warm.

  Right next door to Just Christmas is the court house and in the middle of the street stands the memorial clock tower.  They both look nice all lit up during the night.

  Out front of the court house stands a mailbox marked Letters for Santa.  You can put your Christmas wishes inside.

  Two toy soldiers stand guard outside of the court house keeping a watchful eye on everyone.  You had better not be naughty while mailing your letter to Santa.

  On the next block stands the Prince of Wales hotel.  The Victorian hotel has seen many winters since it was built in 1864.  It looks lovely in a small blanket of snow.

  As you enter the Prince of Wales to warm up you are greeted by another toy soldier.  This one is most likely a member of the royal guard.

  The lobby of the Prince of Wales is always inviting.  At Christmas time the sculptures and stained glass are joined by poinsettias, wreaths and decorations.

  Looking out the window across the street at snow covered Simcoe Park makes us feel like we have entered a warm, fuzzy Christmas movie.

  Out front of the hotel a trolley arrived to keep guests warm while they travel around town.

  Around town you can visit the gazebo that sits beside Lake Ontario.

Enjoy the solitude of an empty road surrounded by snow covered trees.

  And of course warm up a bit while you enjoy some ice wine at one of the many wineries found in the region.  Niagara-on-the-Lake truly is a winter wonderland.

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Map of Our World
Niagara-on-the-Lake
Simcoe Park
Just Christmas

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Post # 272

Bay Christmas Window Robots

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: 176 Yonge Street.
Date: Nov 2019
Website: www.hbcheritage.ca

  Every year Torontonians look forward to the unveiling of The Bay's Christmas windows on Queen Street.   For many years you could see a glimpse into Santa's workshop.  In 2016 the forest creatures took over.  This year marked the beginning of the rise of the machines.  As we do every year we went downtown to see what was being displayed.

  The first window showed a group of cute snowmen making snow angels.  As the snowmen waved about in a bed of snow, behind them we can see machinery leading to Santa's factory.

  The next window showed a robot arm filling boxes with candy canes as they pass by on a conveyor belt.

  A toy soldier stood guard between the windows.  We moved past him to see what the next window had to offer.

  The next window had several robotic arms filling boxes with teddy bears and other toys.  Some of the boxed animals looked like part of the enchanted forest display from last year.  We hope they were off to be loved by some children.  One of the robots was giving a high five up against the window.  A child pushed the high five button and the robot turned and then stopped.  Ahh machinery!  Looks like time for a reboot.

  The next window had ornaments either being built or transported.  There were ornaments going every which way.  A giant hand (see photo at top of post) had grabbed one of the ornaments between its fingers.

  The last window featured a computer that was scrolling through names.  Even Santa has embraced technology to get things done faster.  The computer appeared to be checking who was naughty and who was nice.

  By the look on its face we think the computer found a naughty one!

 

  For those of you who prefer your Christmas a little more warm and fuzzy, don't worry.  Just inside The Bay store we found a plaid bear and a plaid moose trying to blend in with the mannequins.

  Around the corner of Yonge & Queen, Saks also had Christmas windows.  We found a few bunnies hiding in the snow.

  We also saw what looked like either a weird little polar bear or a very plump ermine.   While technology tries to take over Christmas, we are glad we found a few of nature's creatures to fill us with some Christmas joy.

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This location is near Queen subway. Visit other Toronto TTC stations.
 
Map of Our World
Christmas Windows At The Bay

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Post # 271

Portage & Main

Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Address: Portage & Main Street
Date: October 2014
Website:  history.bmo.com

  Portage & Main is possibly the best known intersection in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  On Sunday, November 24th the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won the Grey Cup after a 29 year drought.  Winnipegers flocked to the intersection to celebrate their Canadian Football League victory.  We found ourselves standing at this intersection back in 2014.

  On one corner stands the Bank of Montreal building.  It has been there since 1913.  In front of the bank stands a monument to Bank of Montreal employees who died in World War I.  The statue is modelled after Wynn Bagnall who worked for BMO, went to war and was lucky enough to return to continue working. 

 
  To cross the street you need to take a pedestrian underpass. Once on the other side of the street we encountered some more sculptures.  The first sculpture is called Tree Children and shows four children playing in a tree.  The intersection of Portage & Main is often said to be the coldest and windiest intersection in Canada.  It wasn't too cold but it was windy when we arrived.  Hold on tight children!

  The next sculpture depicted a herd of caribou which are no strangers to wind and cold.  The caribou are navigating the fast moving waters of a river.

  The sculpture is called Seal River Crossing.  Seal River is located in northern Manitoba but thanks to artist Peter Sawatzky we can witness the caribou migration at a lower latitude. 

  The final statue we encountred was called North Watch.  North Watch features a man wearing big boots, sitting and supposedly keeping watch.  The sculpture is created by Ivan Eyre and is similar to another of his sculptures called Icon North.

 The main difference between the two sculptures is that North Watch features a dog which sits behind the man.  The dog is also keeping watch.  One thing we noticed about this sculpture is that the man is facing south.  We wondered if the sculpture had been placed the wrong way around.  We figure that the artist intended the man to be watching from the north.  When visiting Portage & Main be sure to dress warmly and prepare to be blown away.  If not by the architecture, history and sculptures then certainly by the wind.

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Map of Our World
Tree Children , Seal River Crossing , North Watch
BMO Building (Portage & Main)

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Post # 270

Detritus

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  677 Wellington Road West
Date: October 2019
Website:  www.toronto.ca

    Salt both preserves and corrodes at the same time.  The city puts salt on the roads to melt ice, but it also does damage to boots and the roads themselves.  You are more likely to drown in salt water because the salt causes dehydration.  Nuit Blanche comes to Toronto once a year and one of the projects for 2019 was called Detritus by artist Jonathan Schipper.  Detritus means small particles broken away from a mass, much like the salt filling a City of Toronto storage dome.
 

  One of the great things about Nuit Blanche is that you often get to explore places you would never be allowed on other evenings.  Toronto stores its salt for winter inside gigantic domes.  For Detritus we were allowed to venture in and it felt like we had entered another world.

    Looking up at the dome in the middle of the night, it felt like a spacecraft was coming down on top of us.

  The artist had a laptop computer set up at a little table and was using a 3D program to control equipment that was slowly building things out of layers of salt.  The creations would start to deteriorate as the night wore on.

  Most of the salty creations looked like a castle was slowly being built on a salt covered hillside.

   A pathway leading upwards had been packed down into the huge mound of salt.  We double checked what shoes we were wearing and headed up.  We half expected we might slip away into the salt as if we had stepped into quicksand.

   Some other people had already gone before us so we ventured to the top.

   We made it up to the top and realized that we could start to taste the salt in the air.  We looked down as the artist continued to work below us.  We wondered how he could spend 12 hours inside this dome.  Some caution tape kept us back from the edge where we might cause a salty landslide that would destroy his creations.  It was time for us to move on to the next Nuit Blanche exhibit.  Goodbye salt! See you this winter on an icy road somewhere in the city.

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Map of Our World
Detritus

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Post # 266

Everyone Wants A Free Baby

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  100 Garrison Road
Date: October 2019
Website:  www.toronto.ca

Who wants a free baby?  Everyone does apparently.  Nuit Blanche returned to Toronto on Oct 5th to 6th for another evening of artwork and performances.  Our favourite exhibit was the very entertaining Everyone Wants A Free Baby!  A cannon was fired about every 20 minutes.  Inside the cannon was a baby in a parachute.  Nuit Blanche runs from 7 pm until 7 am so that means around 36 babies were launched throughout the night.

  We arrived just as a baby was being launched.  The crowd shouted "Baby! Baby! Baby! "  The baby floated into the sea of people.  We then visited some other exhibits in the area and returned to fully experience the next launch.

  Dramatic music was played and a baby was brought out.  The baby was attached to its parachute and then the parachute was folded up carefully so it would deploy when needed.  Next, the baby was carried over to the cannon where it was inserted.  For some reason Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic was played while the cannon was cranked into position.  A man then came out and ranted. His rant included some French accomplishments that may or may not have been significant.  Finally he shouted,  "This is my amazing atifice.  I want to show you my genius!"  The cannon fired and the baby was launched into the crowd.

  We had chosen the perfect spot to stand.  The chute deployed and the baby slowly fell towards the ground.  It was right above us and we reached out to grab it.  As soon as we touched it, someone ran into us aand snatched the baby.  They then ran off into the night.  The word from other audience members was that the baby snatcher had been trying to get a baby for some time now and was growing more and more determined.  Finally success!  Adoption is usually a difficult process but tonight babies were falling from the sky much like how they are delivered by the stork.

  The babies looked kind of like homemade Cabbage Patch Dolls.  This doll from an earlier launch also found a good home and the couple even posed for a few celebratory photos.  The only thing that would have made this show even better was if they had a little baby nursery set up so you could see all the babies waiting for their turn.  "We have to come back and see little 4:20 AM, look how cute he is."

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Map of Our World
Everyone Wants A Free Baby

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Post # 265