August 4, 2009
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Another walk in my ‘hood.
After showering from my workout, I decided to hang out at a local park to enjoy the sun and fresh air. I brought along my camera and a book to read. The park was packed with many people enjoying the last of a long weekend. There were many people playing football, tossing frisbees, playing softballs, walking their dogs, cycling, eating, sleeping and just lounging around. I only read a few pages and decided to walk around.
I saw these big white chairs. People would look at them carefully before sitting down. They must be relatively new.
This was a first sighting for me at the park. It’s nice to see a park getting so much use by the community.
I walked along Dundas, just west of Bathurst. It has a large Portuguese community here
but it’s changing. It’s always interesting watching neighborhoods growing and changing.Now I know most of you don’t remember the Grateful Dead. This is a barbershop.
There are a lot of old style coffee shops here but here’s another one “The Communal Mule”
I noticed this house with a small front yards that was exploding with flowers.
Here’s another coffee shop, notice the coffee pot above the door? This one is called Ezra’s Pound.
I also noticed another store selling these.
These are just waiting to be renovated. Just across the street were some relatively new developments.
A Buddhist temple and an Ukranian Church just steps away from each other.
The Oak Leaf Steam Baths. (uhm… nope, I haven’t been inside.)
Some bar stools were being held captive at this store.
I love this sign – it’s just so simple.
That’s probably the first time I’ve had 3 entries in one day. I missed it by 27 minutes.
Comments (40)
wow cool…i don’t think i’ve been to this part of town…
@onmovement - it’s pretty interesting and all accessible by public transit.
Nice to have a glimpse of your neighborhood. By the way, that black and white bar stools are quite pricey, 50% off would be a very good deal! The steam bath store looks quite interesting, they’ve been there way before anyone of us were born, oh my! They must be doing something right all along, I suppose?
How are we to explain and make sense of this sudden explosion of blogging creativity?!
Was it the work out? Or that sudden sense of envy with the younger dudes?
Your blogs have the MOST welcomed reception and you know, you DO HAVE A LOT OF READERS
and they all seem SO NICE! And their comments so MEANINGFUL! I am VERY jealous!
hee hee hee
Those chairs in the park are interesting! I bet people are wondering if they are art exhibits and deciding if it is okay to sit in it!
I LOVE those flowers! *sigh* bet I will be sneezing too much if I’m to close to the yard.
Your neighborhood looks interesting!
coffee shops everywhere!! that’s my dream neighborhood.. =)
your hood is very interesting indeed~
as for video blogs.. I’m not sure when another one will be coming
I’m not very creative nor do I have much experience with editing videos
I’ll see when I’m inspired to make another one in the future. =]
wow. finally pics. hahaha.. i missed seeing them from your entries (and the fact that i haven’t seen you in any of these).
such clean neighborhood!
I wish the park nearest to me was used more by the people around. Then again, I haven’t gone there recently. perhaps I should
Nice pictures. It seems we both spend some of our free time doing the same thing although I may overdo the picture bit!
@curry69curry - I didn’t even know the steam baths were that well known as a cruising area. I always thought it was just an old fahsioned steam bath. The stools do look nice – not sure if it’ll go well in my condo though. But I need something for my island.
@ZenPaper - 2 women circled around looking for signs before gradually sitting down. It was interesting watching the interaction. I had yesterday off (and today too) and I didn’t want to do any cleaning. So that explains my spurt on Xanga. Yes, I do have wonderful readers (including you) who leave a lot of insightful comments. I don’t take them for granted. Sometimes it’s very easy to simply write a couple of sentences but a lot of my readers (depending on the topic) take their time to craft a response.
@Dezinerdreams - it is, when I first moved to my condo – there were prostitutes right outside my building. They’ve moved elsewhere now. There are lots of coffee shops, interesting stores, restaurants, galleries and of course condos.
@piyapong - there’s about a half dozen coffee shops catering to various budgets within walking distance from my condo. (well, depending on how far one can walk). You’ll never be far from a caffeine fix. I think another one just opened when I was walking yesterday.
@tomatoboi - well, I’m looking forward to it. Yeah, I like my ‘hood.
@Renatojr3 - I saw one pic where you could see my reflection in the store window. Of course, I removed it. There was another one where you could see my elbow – that was gone too. hahahaha…. I guess I just like being anonymous.
@Roadlesstaken - maybe if they see a Xanga celebrity there, they will start to follow you.
@TheLatinObserver - I saw so many interesting people but don’t have the nerve to ask them for permission to take their pictures. I really would like to do that sometime. But walking around with a camera and just checking out my neighborhood is something I do enjoy doing.
You live in an amazing neighborhood. Thanks for sharing your excellent pictures. I did that once, just walked through my neighborhood with a camera, and found that it helps you notice things in a new way. Nice blog.
By the way, your pic of the steam baths reminded me of an awesome movie called “Shower.” It’s a must-see.
haha, “grateful head”…although that sounds kind of dirty!
That’s the first time I have ever seen a gay sauna
It looks so shady!
@jojobaDESIGNS - yeah, I really like my neighborhood and thanks for the movie recommendation.
@ABSOLUTmichael - lol… I never thought about that (and neither did the barber).
@Wangium - from what I know, it’s been around for decades (since the 30′s). There used to be a great brunch place beside it but a lot of the patrons kept walking into the steamhouse by mistake and would always do a double take. When I met someone there for lunch once, she warned me about it.
Almost like New York run by the Swiss!
I think I’ve seen the Grateful Head and Ezra’s Pound while my friend Alan drove me around on a previous visit. There are many cleverly named shops in Toronto.
@jojobaDESIGNS - It was a cute movie. Chinese by director Yang Zhang. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0215369/
@jojobaDESIGNS - oh now I know which movie you’re talking about (thanks to the link from Chris), yes, that is a pretty good movie, I enjoyed it very much.
@NikBv - that’s what Peter Ustinov said. Thanks for dropping by.
@christao408 - there’s another women’s clothing store called Pho Pa in my ‘hood. When it first opened, I thought they were serving pho. But there’s 2 Vietnamese restaurant within walking distance.
Have you been in that Buddhist temple before? Do you know what tradition it is? I always wanted to stop in but never got around to it yet…
wow, what a lovely area you live in
@brooklyn2028 - I’m not really sure which tradition it follows.
@stardustskye - thank you, I like it very much. Thanks for dropping by.
A really cool write up Matt. wow almost three entries in one day?? way to go.
@ElusiveWords - i can walk for days. <3 coffee. haha.
a steam Bath house since 1939….at the same location? wow just wonder will the time stop once I enter……..
Its nice to see where other people live. There are not many city parks in South Africa as basically wherever there is open land then people put shacks up.
I love the walks we take together in your blog. But if we were really together we’d have to hit most of those coffee shops.
I much prefer to support independantly owned place instead of Starbucks.
The wild flowers out front of that place are great. Thanks for showing me around.
Be well, *~matthew~*
Who doesn’t remember The Grateful Dead!?
@ZSA_MD - I’m not sure I’ll ever catch up to you though.
@agmhkg - they probably still have the same customers.
@Umnenga - thank you for visiting.
@bleuzeus - you’re gonna have a serious caffeine buzz if you hit all those coffee shops. I’m gonna post more pictures soon.
@CareyGLY - who doesn’t? uhm… people of a younger vintage?
i love one of those small independent coffee shops. especially old ones. they always give a cosiness in feel that most corporate coffee shops missed. but steam bath since 1939?? wow, i wonder who wants to go there…
@rudyhou - yeah, each one has a different feel. One of my favorites is a small one with 1 big communal table and sitting in the bar for about 6. I like Starbucks too but will often check out other places.
it is beautiful! i love your pictures, where do you live??
@a_place2freely_scream - I live in Toronto, Canada.
eesh!! cold!! lol but absolutely beautiful
Pretty nice community you have there …
Toronto eh? I used to live actually in little portugal near Ossington, now I live in Montreal…nice to see normal summer pictures.
@kachino - thank you.
@Awakened_Spark - it’s quite a lively neighborhood now in Ossington, lots of interesting restaurants, bars, galleries and shops.
I know I seem like i’m lurking, but i saw your later post with the pictures of your neighbourhood (reading your posts backwards) and I had a feeling you were living in the Annex area.. and then i saw this post, and actually looked up ‘grateful head’. I wasn’t far! score. LOL. sorry, random. I know.
@spifffs - hahaha – thanks for dropping by.