Yes, I am catching up on my back-log. I am going to get caught on my many projects. One of which is posting my blog.
Last year, I read about Not Far from the tree which was based at Spadina House and branched out from there. There are many trees that bear fruit which is not picked and this group picks the fruit and shares it with the home owner. The concept has caught on and now has expanded to the East York and High Park areas, both of which have many older fruit trees. Hopefully, next year the project will continue to expand.
Homeowners register their trees and volunteers are dispatched to harvest the fruit, with a third going to the tree owners, a third to the volunteers and the last third distributed to community organizations in the neighbourhood that can make good use of the fruit.
Eating local is becoming increasingly popular. Farmers markets are starting to thrive and community garden plots increase in popularity and not just the ones dealt out by the city. I am sure that there will be more projects like these continuing to expand and thrive.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Autumn
After posting articles about people who are changing the world or at least having an impact, I would like to say that fall is wonderful. Some fellow tennis players remarked how stunning the trees looked. We must enjoy them now because in a weeks time, we will be raking but not admiring the trees since the leaves will be covering the ground.
Enjoy this time of year.
Enjoy this time of year.
People's Professor
Professor turns to face his students whose eyes are directed at the great thinkers shown in his favourite painting. "Raphael was trying to capture a community engaged in the philosophy of the mind. Socrates and Plato and Aristotle and all the other great philosophers depicted here began a long tradition of street philosophy, a tradition that lives on in the streets of Harlem-the exchange of ideas, a passion for education and idealism, a community of learning and idealism, a community of learning and teaching." "If only Columbia-the school on the hill-understood the importance of it."
Professor Dalton has taught for 38 years in the political science department of Barnard, the all-women's school of Columbia, University of Harlem. Like many Ivy League schools positioned near low-income communities, Columbia has a strained relationship with its neighbours, working-class people who are not only kept out, but are threatened with displacement by the grand vision of the universities leadership. The school wants to seize property through eminent domain in its plans for a new $6.3 billion expansion into West Harlem.
Professor Dalton invites members of the community to attend his classes. He encourages residents of Harlem to encroach into Columbia and one way is to attend his classes gratis. He says that "These are my friends. You wouldn't tell any other professor that he couldn't invite his friends to sit in on his class."
Dalton has made an effort every day of his 38 years of teaching at Barnard to follow Gandhi's advice and "be the change you wish to see in the world."
What a wonderful teacher. Sad that Utne chose to print an article about professor Dalton when he retired and new students could not attend his classes. Hopefully, Dalton is enjoying time with family as the article suggests he plans to do.
Professor Dalton has taught for 38 years in the political science department of Barnard, the all-women's school of Columbia, University of Harlem. Like many Ivy League schools positioned near low-income communities, Columbia has a strained relationship with its neighbours, working-class people who are not only kept out, but are threatened with displacement by the grand vision of the universities leadership. The school wants to seize property through eminent domain in its plans for a new $6.3 billion expansion into West Harlem.
Professor Dalton invites members of the community to attend his classes. He encourages residents of Harlem to encroach into Columbia and one way is to attend his classes gratis. He says that "These are my friends. You wouldn't tell any other professor that he couldn't invite his friends to sit in on his class."
Dalton has made an effort every day of his 38 years of teaching at Barnard to follow Gandhi's advice and "be the change you wish to see in the world."
What a wonderful teacher. Sad that Utne chose to print an article about professor Dalton when he retired and new students could not attend his classes. Hopefully, Dalton is enjoying time with family as the article suggests he plans to do.
Puzzling People with Mathematics
It is 1956 and there is a magazine, Humpty Dumpty with the egg as its chief editor who is assisted by a human editor, Martin Gardner, who prepared activity features and wrote a monthly short story about the adventures of the child egg, Humpty Dumpty Jr. At this point, Mr. Gardner was 42 and had never taken a math course beyond high school. He had struggled with calculus and considered himself poor at solving basic mathematical puzzles. When the publisher of Scientific American asked him if there might be enough material for a monthly column on "recreational mathematics" a term that sounded even more oxymoronic in 1956 than it does today, Mr. Gardner took a gamble.
He quit his job with Humpty Dumpty.
On Wednesday, Mr. Gardner celebrated his 95th birthday with the publication of another book-his second book of essays and mathematical puzzles to be published just his year. With more than 70 books to his name, he is the world's best-known recreational mathematician, and has probably introduced more people to the joys of math than anyone in history.
Gardner was able to collect puzzles and use them. Some like the ferrying the wolf, goat and cabbage were included in a puzzle collection prepared for the emperor Charlemagne 12 centuries ago. The puzzle has been passed down in many forms.
What a wonder that Mr. Gardner found something that he loved to do and is still at it 50 years later.
He quit his job with Humpty Dumpty.
On Wednesday, Mr. Gardner celebrated his 95th birthday with the publication of another book-his second book of essays and mathematical puzzles to be published just his year. With more than 70 books to his name, he is the world's best-known recreational mathematician, and has probably introduced more people to the joys of math than anyone in history.
Gardner was able to collect puzzles and use them. Some like the ferrying the wolf, goat and cabbage were included in a puzzle collection prepared for the emperor Charlemagne 12 centuries ago. The puzzle has been passed down in many forms.
What a wonder that Mr. Gardner found something that he loved to do and is still at it 50 years later.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
What a shame! But at the same time least artists have found a way to use the buildings until they are turned into monster homes. As you will find from the following article, a group of homes that will soon be demolished are being used for art projects. One is a monopoly piece. What fun.
(Sorry was not able to import the picture of the house, will try later.)
An unlikely art project turns a North York bungalow into a board-game icon
Posted: October 19, 2009, 5:18 PM by Rob Roberts
This morning after breakfast, Scott Rogers, an artist, hauled off and slammed a pickaxe into the bedroom wall on the second floor of a brick bungalow in North York.
“Heeeere’s Johnny!” shouted fellow artist Justin Patterson, and it was like the scene from the Jack Nicholson horror film The Shining, with one exception: the wall barely budged.
Messrs. Roger and Patterson, along with other members of a Calgary art collective called The Arbour Lake Sghool, are breaking up No. 17 Leona Drive and using the wood and bricks to build a shantytown in its back yard.
“We’ve actually developed a name for ourselves doing stupid stuff like this,” says John Frosst, another collective member.
Welcome to Leona Drive, two blocks east of Yonge Street at Sheppard Avenue. In 1948 the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. built a neighbourhood of brick bungalows here for returning WWII soldiers and their families. Hyatt Homes, a developer, will demolish six homes here in November. In the meantime, this is The Leona Drive Project, “one extended art space.”
Deena Pantalone, a principle at Hyatt Homes, said in a statement, “We plan to build eight detached homes on the site, backing onto the ravine. With the houses sitting vacant and unused, we loved the idea of putting the land to good use and helping to support the local arts community at the same time.”
Two artists, Janine Marchessault of York University and Michael Prokopow of the Ontario College of Art and Design, are curating the show, which runs Oct. 23-31.
The artist Christine Davis is colouring every surface in the bathroom at No. 9 Leona Drive using 75 tubes of red lipstick donated by MAC. She arrived to the job yesterday wearing corduroys in a fuscia that matched the lipstick, drinking a Vitamin Water of the same alarming hue.
“During the Second World War cosmetics companies marketed lipstick colours like Victory Red, Banner Red and Furlough Red,” she says. “Women wore these to go work in the factories. Then in the 1950s women still wore lipstick and became perfect housewives.”
David Hann, another artist, has parked an Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser station wagon, complete with a fake-wood paneling paint job, in a driveway, and plans to project 1970s TV sitcoms through its windows from the inside.
No. 19 (pictured above) is my favourite. An Te Liu, who runs the graduate landscape and architecture program at the University of Toronto, stripped off its back veranda and railings and painted it entirely -- roof, walls, window panes, sills, in emerald green, transforming it into a giant Monopoly house, whose dimensions it perfectly copies. “Leona Drive with One House, rent $250.”
It is tempting to see all this as a satire and a sendup of the suburbs, but Prof. Marchessault insists this is an homage to a lovely part of town.
“We want to think about the 1940s and 1950s suburbs, which had an ideology. There’s this imagination of a better life that these houses will offer you. There isn’t that utopianism in the new suburbs.”
Houses were smaller back then; outdoor space was more prized than it is today. It’s hard to watch these jewels disappear, especially after I learned of Ruth Gillespie, who lived here at No. 9 for 40 years, before dying suddenly on the dance floor in 2003. The periwinkle and hydrangea she tended in her back garden are healthier than ever.
Next door a group of art students from Earl Haig high school began transforming a house, arranging its contents so that they appear to be bursting from the windows. Still, they seemed a little hesitant, as though wary at defiling an icon of their neighbourhood. And I can respect that.
Elsewhere on Leona Drive, there remain dozens more houses like those that are vanishing -- all sturdy, well-tended and fronted by stately trees. I wish them long life; I like them better as dwellings than as art.
Photographs: Top, artist An Te Liu has turned 19 Leona Drive into a Monopoly piece. Above, Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins were inspired by a true story to create a spectacular car-crash scene in the front of 17 Leona Drive. Photos by Aaron Lynett, National PostRead more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/10/19/an-unlikely-art-project-turns-a-north-york-bungalow-into-a-board-game-icon.aspx##ixzz0UV1VDSKf The New Financial Post Stock Market Challenge starts in October. You could WIN your share of $60,000 in prizing. Register NOW
(Sorry was not able to import the picture of the house, will try later.)
An unlikely art project turns a North York bungalow into a board-game icon
Posted: October 19, 2009, 5:18 PM by Rob Roberts
This morning after breakfast, Scott Rogers, an artist, hauled off and slammed a pickaxe into the bedroom wall on the second floor of a brick bungalow in North York.
“Heeeere’s Johnny!” shouted fellow artist Justin Patterson, and it was like the scene from the Jack Nicholson horror film The Shining, with one exception: the wall barely budged.
Messrs. Roger and Patterson, along with other members of a Calgary art collective called The Arbour Lake Sghool, are breaking up No. 17 Leona Drive and using the wood and bricks to build a shantytown in its back yard.
“We’ve actually developed a name for ourselves doing stupid stuff like this,” says John Frosst, another collective member.
Welcome to Leona Drive, two blocks east of Yonge Street at Sheppard Avenue. In 1948 the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. built a neighbourhood of brick bungalows here for returning WWII soldiers and their families. Hyatt Homes, a developer, will demolish six homes here in November. In the meantime, this is The Leona Drive Project, “one extended art space.”
Deena Pantalone, a principle at Hyatt Homes, said in a statement, “We plan to build eight detached homes on the site, backing onto the ravine. With the houses sitting vacant and unused, we loved the idea of putting the land to good use and helping to support the local arts community at the same time.”
Two artists, Janine Marchessault of York University and Michael Prokopow of the Ontario College of Art and Design, are curating the show, which runs Oct. 23-31.
The artist Christine Davis is colouring every surface in the bathroom at No. 9 Leona Drive using 75 tubes of red lipstick donated by MAC. She arrived to the job yesterday wearing corduroys in a fuscia that matched the lipstick, drinking a Vitamin Water of the same alarming hue.
“During the Second World War cosmetics companies marketed lipstick colours like Victory Red, Banner Red and Furlough Red,” she says. “Women wore these to go work in the factories. Then in the 1950s women still wore lipstick and became perfect housewives.”
David Hann, another artist, has parked an Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser station wagon, complete with a fake-wood paneling paint job, in a driveway, and plans to project 1970s TV sitcoms through its windows from the inside.
No. 19 (pictured above) is my favourite. An Te Liu, who runs the graduate landscape and architecture program at the University of Toronto, stripped off its back veranda and railings and painted it entirely -- roof, walls, window panes, sills, in emerald green, transforming it into a giant Monopoly house, whose dimensions it perfectly copies. “Leona Drive with One House, rent $250.”
It is tempting to see all this as a satire and a sendup of the suburbs, but Prof. Marchessault insists this is an homage to a lovely part of town.
“We want to think about the 1940s and 1950s suburbs, which had an ideology. There’s this imagination of a better life that these houses will offer you. There isn’t that utopianism in the new suburbs.”
Houses were smaller back then; outdoor space was more prized than it is today. It’s hard to watch these jewels disappear, especially after I learned of Ruth Gillespie, who lived here at No. 9 for 40 years, before dying suddenly on the dance floor in 2003. The periwinkle and hydrangea she tended in her back garden are healthier than ever.
Next door a group of art students from Earl Haig high school began transforming a house, arranging its contents so that they appear to be bursting from the windows. Still, they seemed a little hesitant, as though wary at defiling an icon of their neighbourhood. And I can respect that.
Elsewhere on Leona Drive, there remain dozens more houses like those that are vanishing -- all sturdy, well-tended and fronted by stately trees. I wish them long life; I like them better as dwellings than as art.
Photographs: Top, artist An Te Liu has turned 19 Leona Drive into a Monopoly piece. Above, Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins were inspired by a true story to create a spectacular car-crash scene in the front of 17 Leona Drive. Photos by Aaron Lynett, National PostRead more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/10/19/an-unlikely-art-project-turns-a-north-york-bungalow-into-a-board-game-icon.aspx##ixzz0UV1VDSKf The New Financial Post Stock Market Challenge starts in October. You could WIN your share of $60,000 in prizing. Register NOW
Knit one, Purl two
Yarnbombing continues and now is a book. Those of you who don't know, Yarnbombing is knitting to cover an object outdoors. Apparently, from Houston to Vancouver, Stockholm to Mexico City, people are yarn bombing solo and in groups.
The goal? World yarn domination. Surprising strangers. Promoting an under appreciated craft. Some like Haley Waxberg say "I thought that it would be pretty" of the knitting that she did covering a telephone pole. Others question the validity of doing this as opposed to giving knitting to the homeless and others in need. The knitting does not last in northern climates and becomes a problem with the cold and rain.
In Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffitti, Vancouver authors Leanne Prain and Mandy Moore trace the practise of Yarn Bombing to a group, Knitta Please who in 2005 knit a cover for a door knob and started a revolution.
I must say that I agree with the idea of giving the knitting to those in need. Perhaps, something could be done to promote that kind of knitting instead of covering a telephone pole with knitting.
Must say that I am inspired to continue knitting but not cover public places with knitting but helping others who might need the knitting.
The goal? World yarn domination. Surprising strangers. Promoting an under appreciated craft. Some like Haley Waxberg say "I thought that it would be pretty" of the knitting that she did covering a telephone pole. Others question the validity of doing this as opposed to giving knitting to the homeless and others in need. The knitting does not last in northern climates and becomes a problem with the cold and rain.
In Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffitti, Vancouver authors Leanne Prain and Mandy Moore trace the practise of Yarn Bombing to a group, Knitta Please who in 2005 knit a cover for a door knob and started a revolution.
I must say that I agree with the idea of giving the knitting to those in need. Perhaps, something could be done to promote that kind of knitting instead of covering a telephone pole with knitting.
Must say that I am inspired to continue knitting but not cover public places with knitting but helping others who might need the knitting.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Britney Spears Mother of the Year!
Just read an article that says that in Britain, Britney Spears was voted Mother of the Year ,celebrity. My goodness, does that mean that other celebrity mothers are really terrible! What are the voters trying to say? Do the voters not read the news and know that Britney's children were removed from her home in 2008 and given to her ex-husband who is no gem himself but apparently a better parent than Britney.
You have got to love celebrity when things like this happen.
You have got to love celebrity when things like this happen.
Friday, October 16, 2009
My 90 year old friend
Today after school, I am going to visit my 90 year old friend. Yes, you are reading correctly. 90 years old. The things she has seen! Unfortunately, she has become frail and not able to do everything she was able to do in the past.
The things that she has seen! I am always amazed that she has seen so many amazing changes. The depression which she wrote about in a book that she wrote a number of years ago was certainly a challenging period in history and for her personally. The book was about pioneering in Scarborough. Hard to believe that Scarborough was once isolated and that it was a village of its own.
Time to go and see her.
The things that she has seen! I am always amazed that she has seen so many amazing changes. The depression which she wrote about in a book that she wrote a number of years ago was certainly a challenging period in history and for her personally. The book was about pioneering in Scarborough. Hard to believe that Scarborough was once isolated and that it was a village of its own.
Time to go and see her.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Twitter???
It is at times like when life is so quiet that I think about Twittering. You have to enter a few words. Not sure what the count is but it is limited. Think that I might have passed my limit already.
It has been quiet this week. Had orchestra rehearsal which was good. Went to the dentist at night on Tuesday. No cavities! Yeah!
Tonight is a good evening. Dinner-will make Madras chicken and then we will go for a walk. Need to wear a winter coat. Hoping that the frost does not strike so that I can get plants in before that they are destroyed. Don't want to be outside working in the cold and the dark.
Hoping that all of you are having a nice fall. Let's hope for Indian Summer. We are due after this early cold weather.
It has been quiet this week. Had orchestra rehearsal which was good. Went to the dentist at night on Tuesday. No cavities! Yeah!
Tonight is a good evening. Dinner-will make Madras chicken and then we will go for a walk. Need to wear a winter coat. Hoping that the frost does not strike so that I can get plants in before that they are destroyed. Don't want to be outside working in the cold and the dark.
Hoping that all of you are having a nice fall. Let's hope for Indian Summer. We are due after this early cold weather.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Thanksgiving weekend
Hard to believe that it is a long weekend coming up. The weather is supposed to lovely for the next two days.
This year, we are not going away since Michael will be returning from sunny California. He has been busy with twelve hours days working on multi-variate projects and other business concepts. Think that we will sleep in on Sunday and then go out later in the day. Michael will be ready for rest.
I am glad that he has found his niche. Now, I need to manage to go with him once in awhile. Think that my first objective will be to find a way to go to California and visit San Francisco with him. What a trip that would be for a weekend!
Hope that everyone enjoys the weekend.
This year, we are not going away since Michael will be returning from sunny California. He has been busy with twelve hours days working on multi-variate projects and other business concepts. Think that we will sleep in on Sunday and then go out later in the day. Michael will be ready for rest.
I am glad that he has found his niche. Now, I need to manage to go with him once in awhile. Think that my first objective will be to find a way to go to California and visit San Francisco with him. What a trip that would be for a weekend!
Hope that everyone enjoys the weekend.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Balancing Books
My husband is fond of saying "what goes up, comes down". It seems that has happened in Ireland. Ireland which was doing so well in the past has now reached the point that it is asking students to bring toilet paper to class. Irish parents struggling to buy schoolbooks and uniforms and now some are being asked to provide toilet paper. Students at a primary school in County Cork are being asked to bring their own rolls to help save money, one of the starkest examples yet of the death of Ireland's "Celtic Tiger" economy. "The letter was sent out just as a way of balancing books here in the school and not intended as a demand," said Catherine O'Neill, principal of St. John's Girls National School. The request was made because of cuts to government grants for books and computers. She added parents were responding well. "I've done a quick tour of the classrooms this morning and I'd say at least half the pupils have brought [toilet paper] in," she told national broadcaster.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Next Week!
In case, you are wondering why I don't always manage to write something, here is the coming week:
Monday: before school, practise with the clarinets of the Junior band. After school, I play tennis and then manage to relax after dinner.
Tuesday: trio practise right after school followed by a performance of Chinese Ballet. A former student invited me to the performance
Wednesday: orchestra in the evening after a Junior Band practise after school-quick dinner between rehearsals
Thursday: trio is off to perform. Will relax after the performance
Friday: taking an alto sax player and his piano accompanist to a seniors' residence to perform from 4-5. Drop them off at school and then it is time to head home to relax.
Saturday: going to sleep in and relax.
This is a good week but will be busy.
Monday: before school, practise with the clarinets of the Junior band. After school, I play tennis and then manage to relax after dinner.
Tuesday: trio practise right after school followed by a performance of Chinese Ballet. A former student invited me to the performance
Wednesday: orchestra in the evening after a Junior Band practise after school-quick dinner between rehearsals
Thursday: trio is off to perform. Will relax after the performance
Friday: taking an alto sax player and his piano accompanist to a seniors' residence to perform from 4-5. Drop them off at school and then it is time to head home to relax.
Saturday: going to sleep in and relax.
This is a good week but will be busy.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
No more chocolates
Interesting research. Children who eat candy and chocolate every day are more likely to be arrested for violent behaviour as adults, according to new research published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
British experts studied more than 17,000 children born in 1970 for about four decades and found that 10-year-olds who are candy daily were significantly more likely to have been convicted for violence by age 34.
Of the children who ate candies or chocolate daily when they were 10 years old, 69 per cent were later arrested for a violent offence.
Researchers say the link between candy consumption and violence remained after controlling for other factors that trigger violence. Simon Moore of the University of Cardiff, one of the paper's authors, said parents who consistently bribe their children into good behaviour with candies and chocolates could be doing harm. That might prevent kids from learning how to defer gratification leading to impulsive behaviour and violence.
Interesting that so simple a relationship is found. There is more behind the candy giving. Will be interesting to see some followup on this.
British experts studied more than 17,000 children born in 1970 for about four decades and found that 10-year-olds who are candy daily were significantly more likely to have been convicted for violence by age 34.
Of the children who ate candies or chocolate daily when they were 10 years old, 69 per cent were later arrested for a violent offence.
Researchers say the link between candy consumption and violence remained after controlling for other factors that trigger violence. Simon Moore of the University of Cardiff, one of the paper's authors, said parents who consistently bribe their children into good behaviour with candies and chocolates could be doing harm. That might prevent kids from learning how to defer gratification leading to impulsive behaviour and violence.
Interesting that so simple a relationship is found. There is more behind the candy giving. Will be interesting to see some followup on this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)