Tag: community

Welcome To Covid Gardens

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Covid Gardens – sounds like the name for an old folks home.

Ontario’s State of Emergency has been extended another week rather than another month – I suppose that is encouraging news. Masks have gradually become more stylish & also more frequently worn though seeing people wearing them constantly makes me feel some haven’t fully understood the message. Or maybe I got it wrong – I only wear mine when in transit or in a store or if I have to pass a line up at the beer/wine stores.

The US Presidents mocks reports wearing masks, while shoppers hound a woman shopping without her mask up, store owners get attacked for refusing to let people without masks into their shops, while the mayor of TO ignored social distancing & mask to ask why someone is ignoring social distancing. It is mighty confusing.

I was dismayed by the recent sunny park crowd scenes & was amused by the almost sanctimonious response to it. It certainly gave many an opportunity to indulge their ethical/moral superiority over the covidiots in the park. The fact that many of us are willing to live within the recommended restrictions doesn’t make us saints, or make those that don’t into demons. It’s been 3 months now for people to get the basic message – social distancing & masks make a difference, washing your hands makes a difference. This is not a deliberate infringement on one’s social freedoms but a new way of living to keep ourselves alive.

My social isolation has been gardening now that the weather has warmed up enough. Wedding, trimming & planting. I repotted geraniums that had survived the winter. Bought flowers to create my own hanging baskets. Planted herbs, sweet peas & morning glories. Enough for one week. 

Even managed some more housecleaning & purging. I can’t describe my satisfaction in seeing the garbage men drag away bags of VHS tapes. Better yet seeing some things disappear even before the garbage guys come. I dragged some things stored in our basement by people who have since moved on. Bye bye anodizer, oscilloscope I hope you found better homes while I enjoy my better gardens.

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All pics of the garden – back steps with fresh herbs; various hostas that I planted several years again. Lilacs fresh from my garden earlier this week.

Ghosts and Haunted Stumps Toronto

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Pan on the Danforth – good Greek/Mediterranean food

tile entrance to Pan which is still there

Seduction on Yonge – sex no longer sells

Greek City on the Danforth – moved then vanished

corner of Sherbourne & Bloor – soon to be a covid ghost – Timothy’s gone & Starbucks took over – then pandemic

Danforth & Logan – the Tim’s stain refuses to be gone

tree on lawn of house next door

haunted stump & bones of tree professionals came later in the year to remove the stump

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Covid Rocks Toronto

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Once the kids got tired of chalk drawings they moved to rock painting. These are from various yards in the east end Toronto. The Lady Bug suits the rock, the hairy eye ones are next level projects.

 Star Trek?

Lady Bug

Frog Family

That’s a command

rocky rainbow

I only have eyes for you

you lookin’ at me

I only have eye for you



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Summer Events

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The state of emergency has been extended to June 2, 2020. Social distancing will be deemed unnecessary on June 3, 2025. Masks will be become a legal requirement. There will be boom industry in making them & also a boom in clear plastic face guards. Face guards will be available from optometrists with your vision prescription built right in & also as sunglasses. Sales of sunscreen will plummet.

Many of the events I look forward to in summer are not happening. Capturing Fire postponed to fall (maybe – but I doubt if travel restrictions/conditions will be lifted by then. Who can afford 14 days quarantine in USA?) Stratford Festival has cancelled its 2020 season, the same with the Shaw. If social restrictions for restaurants loosen we may make a day trip to Shakespeare to pick up some pies & on to Stratford for lunch at Features – to make sure we remember the route 🙂

Resorted to Amazon for vitamin c and zinc – if we could have found them on the shelves at Shoppers I would have bought them there but both have been out-of-stock since early March. I’ve frequently at least 5 different Shoppers at various days & times & unlike toilet paper, the have not returned.

I’ve kept busy with covid deep house cleaning, purging & rearranging. I can’t tell you how rewarding it is to see, or rather not see, energy moved out of the house. When the city picks up the various bins it’s like losing weight. I feel no remorse or regret, yet, for shedding those things saved for donation, or for a time they’ll come in handy. It has been a week of in house work – too cool in the morning for working in the garden 😦

Hey! You can give me $$$ to defray blog fees & buy coffee & donuts

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Green Ravine May 03.2020

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Took my monthly walk through the Williamson Ravine earlier this month. Spring has sprung thanks to rain & sun. The first day this year I wore shorts. Social distancing not to difficult. Kids love any excuse to jump in the water 🙂

leaves eager to rustle

Small’s Creek bubbling

mossy tinder brick

the will to live & grow

swampy green

Small’s Creek bubbling cauldron of green

ready to bloom

swampy green

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Indulgence

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With the end of the world pending I’ve indulged in some frivolous diversions. Some to recapture moments of my past – such as watching episodes of I Dream of Jeannie & Bewitched. Clearly comedies made for toddlers 🙂 ‘Jokes’ one could see riding down the street on an elephant but both were more queer than I recognized at the time. Let’s face it Agnes Moorehead’s Endora is the template for every Drag Queen that exists. From the wigs, her gowns, eye makeup & remorseless bitch attitude she blazed a trail still followed.

Speaking of campy drag I also watched a few episodes of the first Star Treks. I loved these back in the day but man some of the acting is hilarious. But I love what I call ‘the attack of the set dressers’ with those alien plant-scapes. I now see the influence of the Toho studio on the set design. Star Trek did better aliens though – costumes that still inspire Drag Queens today.

I mention Drag Queen a few times because OUT TV was free for the month of April which gave me the opportunity to see some of RuPaul’s DragRace. I haven’t seen any since the first season. It was ‘fun’ to see but not enough shade to make me want to add the channel to my cable bill. 

Other indulgences – strawberry jam. I mean the jam like the sweet stuff I had a a child not this – all fruit, no sodium, no flavour stuff that is heart smart etc etc etc. It’s not going to kill me, fast. 

As well as indulging I have been purging thanks to my covid cleaning frenzy & making discoveries too. Rough drafts of stories I’d forgotten I’d written – dot matrix days & even a couple typewriter. Will input them eventually.

The best find was this vest. Jimi Hendrix outside, Electric Ladyland inside. At first I wasn’t even sure if it was mine! I have no memory of how I acquired it. Or when. Sometime way back in the 80’s I suspect. It tastes okay so I know I’m not coming down with covid19 🙂

 

Hey! You can give me $$$ to defray blog fees & buy coffee & donuts

– sweet, eh? paypal.me/TOpoet

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Star Trek Subtext

an all day Star Trek marathon

the original series on Blue Ray

weird space plants

funky 60’s retro-futurist sets

Kirk Spock Bones Sulu

(Sulu who knew you were

the real queen of outer space)

we had nachos   salsa

bags of sea salt-n-pepper chips

Hawaiian pizza   fried chicken

diet coke   real dr pepper

a 90 inch plasma TV

Trek in all its never to fade glory

as each episode started

we did a soprano unearthly dance

every time Scotty said

‘I’m giving it everything we got captain’

we’d eat chips as fast as we could

when Uhura said

‘we are experiencing interference’

we saw who could burp the loudest

every time Kirk took off or tore his shirt

we removed an article of clothing

(Strip Trek)

every time the fate of a culture

was decided by a kiss from Kirk

we made moony eyes at each other

until someone said ‘phasers on stun’

each time human emotions

were a puzzle

we asked deep personal questions like

‘who has the bigger dick

Chekov or that guy

with his face painted black and white?’

when any alien said

‘what is this thing you earth people call kissing’

we gave each other alien tongue baths

every time Spock said ‘illogical’

we did the Vulcan grind meld

by the time the marathon was over

it didn’t matter

that neither of us really liked Star Trek

we’ll never forget this Star Date One

Save The Economy

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samprules2

Working through the  227 Rules For Monks.

Who knew the simple life could be so complex.

Economy Accelerator

the children had no clean clothes

they had no clean drinking water

they had no direction

as they walked and walked

and walked

around the economy accelerator

 

the accelerator cost millions

it needed clean water to keep cool

it had directional mobility

it had a film crew

that was trying to make a documentary

about the important work

about the progress of scientific materialism

 

these annoying

children in dirty clothes

were getting in the way

these selfish entitled children 

wanted the water

the economy needed

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Covid #Cleaning

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I love the American spirit of independence – no one is going to tell them act to do & some of them say ‘fuck your’ social distancing even if it kills them & everyone around them. They want to die with their work boots on so don’t get in their way, you pussy, cowardly, snowflakes. Is civil war war brewing?

 

I haven’t been following the news that closely though, what I know comes from the headlines that can’t be avoided when checking the weather. I do check to see what new social restrictions I should be aware of but that’s it. As a result I am sleeping as well as I always do. But I haven’t been taking my morning walks as I usually do. 

I’ve been devoting that 90 minutes to housework. Cleaning, purging, raking, uprooting. Mon Wed Fri mornings are my covid cleaning mornings. I was hoping to alternate, one week inside, the other week outside. But this past week as been too chilly (for me) for yard work so it’s been two week of vacuuming & purging. Book shelves have gotten a more in-depth dusting than usual. Tops of window frames too. I have enough house for at least another two weeks of this & by then the curve will have planked. If not there’s always the …. shudder …. basement to be purged of those bits of wood that never did come in handy after ten years.

 

The ‘stress’ of social distancing hasn’t been bad at all. Social isolation has been easy enough as well. I have met with some recovery friends (one at a time, on different days) for social distant walks & talks. Zoom recovery meetings have been good – at least I don’t have to step back to avoid holding hands at the end of the meeting 🙂

Hey! You can give me $$$ to defray blog fees & buy coffee & donuts

– sweet, eh? paypal.me/TOpoet