Photo-Collages

[caption id=“attachment_2132” align=“aligncenter” width=“584”] Gerrard’s India Bazaar - Toronto[/caption] Culture is transportable. There’s a huge Indian diaspora in Toronto and the Gerrard India Bazaar area is where many people shop for ethnic Indian clothing. I read that it’s the oldest and biggest bazaar in North America. Thousands of people were there recently for its Annual South Asian Festival. “The ethnic diversity of South Asian Canadians reflects the enormous cultural variability of South Asia’s people. About half of South Asian Canadians were born in India, where 14 major languages are spoken and hundreds of discrete ethnic groups exist.” (Canadian Encyclopedia) All the images for the collages in this post were taken in that area. ...

[caption id=“attachment_2100” align=“aligncenter” width=“584”] “If you think squash is a competitive activity, try flower arranging.” (Alan Bennett)[/caption] Hydrangeas are so beautiful - even when they are all by themselves. Our garden is filled with hydrangeas and my favorite summer activity is to go into the garden, cut a few stems and arrange them to beautify the home and porch. “Each of us is an artist of our days; the greater our integrity and awareness, the more original and creative our time will become.” (John O’Donohue) I’m hoping that my time here will become more and more of a creative endeavor - the enjoyable and fun kind. There’s no competition here because the hydrangeas are so beautiful! ...

Breakfast Buffet Rainbow Realm Enjoyable Edibles Amazing Abundance Kitchen Kinship Falls Force Ample Aesthetics Sumptuous Sustenance Transpired Today Breakfasts at home are usually cereal with fruit and some kind of bread and protein. Today’s breakfast was an elaborate choice of food - everything from the usual bread, eggs, muffins, bagels, and the like to congee, seafood omelettes, potato pancakes, and Tomato Provencal. That’s just naming a few. ...

Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe [caption id=“attachment_2081” align=“aligncenter” width=“584”] “The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.” – Richard Bach[/caption] Celebrating life whenever we have the opportunity and savoring all the special moments is an opportunity we should never pass up. Sixty-fifth and seventieth birthdays have their own blessings - because we didn’t ever expect to live this long. To wait for a child to be present for the celebration who also had a birthday we were not present for is a gift beyond words. “Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.” (Jean Anouilh) Our enjoyable celebration took place at Sassafraz in the Yorkville area of downtown Toronto. We savored the food, each other, and the passage of time. ...

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 “Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” (Betty Friedan) Life happens. The day has come that I am officially a Senior Citizen. While I’m looking forward to receiving my monthly pension cheques and all the other discounts and perks that come with my senior status, this post contains some of my observations over sixty-five years. Sixty-five years is a long life. From the moment we’re born, the process of learning how to live in this world starts. We learn from our caregivers what are the social and cultural mores we are expected to live up to. Each and everyone of them does the best job they can to impact our positive growth and development. By the time one arrives at age 65, it’s alright to admit to oneself, if not to everybody else, that all these well-meaning and trusted souls were imperfect themselves. This means that I can’t be anywhere near perfect or any kind of saint. In our human nature, there are flaws. “Thinking well is the greatest excellence and wisdom: to act and speak what is true, perceiving things according to their nature.” (Herakleitos) ...

The images in the above collage were taken at the Cathedral which is also a parish church for the St. Lawrence neighborhood. I’ve visited the Cathedral before but never took a single picture. This time I had my camera along with me and stayed behind to take a few pictures. It’s a beautiful church and I’ll share the collages and save the story behind my visit for the end. ...

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way… things I had no words for.” (Georgia O’Keeffe) The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition took place last weekend in Toronto. It’s a free art exhibition featuring over four hundred artists using all artistic forms. Hundreds of people visited and enjoyed the great variety of talent available in one place - Nathan Phillips Square. It was a lovely venue for this amazing show and a wonderful opportunity to talk to the artists themselves. As with all shows, we do have some art that appeals to us more than others. I will share some of my favorites below and hope you enjoy them. I’m sorry that after seeing so many exhibits and meeting so many artists, I don’t have the matching information about them for all their work. You can check the TOAE website for a listing of all the artists and their work. ...

[caption id=“attachment_2002” align=“aligncenter” width=“584”] “I’ve never thought of my jewellery as trophies. I’m here to take care of it and to love it, for we are only temporary custodians of beauty.” (Elizabeth Taylor)[/caption] Women all over the world from time immemorial have loved to make themselves beautiful through adorning themselves with jewelry. This is even truer of East Indian women. They wear jewelry everywhere - in their hair, in their noses - and I’ve even seen older women wear bangles on their feet when I was a little girl. ...

[caption id=“attachment_1974” align=“aligncenter” width=“584”] “Today Canada is the most multicultural country in the world, and the home of immigrants of every ethnic and religious group from every country in the world. But less than 500 years ago, the only people living in Canada were the Aboriginal people of Canada. “Aboriginal” means the original inhabitants, the people who were here first. The words “Native” or “Indigenous” are also used, and mean the same thing. Today they all collectively refer to themselves as the First Nations or First Peoples of Canada. However, there are many different cultural groups.” (First Nations Website)[/caption] ...