This morning was MS Bike Niagara. It was a fun ride and a pretty one too. Part of it went along the Niagara River and another part along Lake Erie. The final leg was along the beautiful “Friendship Trail”.
We would like to thank everyone who supported our participation in this ride. Between the two of us, me and Tuffy P raised over $4,000 to help with MS research.
There are some excellent titles in the 27th Street Book Box right now. There’s only one rule – respect others. You’re welcome to take any books you like home. If you happen to have any books at home you think others would enjoy, you can drop them off in the box any time. The Book Box is located in front of 15 Twenty Seventh here in Long Branch just a few houses north of Lake Promenade. Enjoy.
Tuffy P created this new giant mosaic monarch butterfly for the front of our house. See lots more mosaics on our Long Branch Mosaics site.
Our Green Zebra tomatoes are starting to ripen. These tomatoes are both astonishingly delicious and freakishly green.
These two new butterflies each have a wingspan of about 19 inches. They’re made with broken crockery, ceramic and smalti tiles and various surprises.
If you enjoy our mosaics, visit the Long Branch Mosaics page to see lots more. We do all kinds of custom mosaic work for inside the house or out in the garden.
It is no surprise to anyone around here that the huge dying silver maple at 2 Twenty Seventh is being taken down. Here is the history.
The Committee of Adjustment approved the lot severance at 2 Twenty Seventh. We appealed to the OMB, who upheld the City decision.
On December 3, 2015, a City of Toronto crew removed the tree protection area and proceeded to dig a deep trench a few feet from the tree, severing main roots. I contacted Urban Forestry immediately.
We have visited the site and seen the trench that you have brought to our attention. The injury incurred was committed by a City of Toronto contractor and not the property owner. We will continue to investigate this breach of the City of Toronto municipal Code Chapter 813 Article II 6B.
And the follow-up…
It was observed by our staff that moderate root damage took place at the time of excavation. Although it is anticipated that the tree will survive the root damage, it is unknown how it will affect the overall condition of the tree.
They were wrong. This season only a portion of the tree leafed out and it was clearly in trouble. I contacted Forestry again asking if there was anything that could be done to save the tree. Not long after that, a big orange spray paint blotch appeared on the tree, the splotch of doom.
I feel bad for the folks who bought the new homes during the winter, thinking they had a huge mature tree in front of the homes. I’m sure the City will plant a new tree, but it will be a twig in comparison to what was there. Of course the new property owners can plant additional trees and I hope they go ahead and do that.
This is the same property where 6 mature spruces were illegally destroyed. Last I heard, that mattter was still before the courts.
Do the Math, 2017
Do the Math is oil on masonite. It’s about 13 inches tall and it floats about 3/4 inch out from the wall. It will be in my October exhibition at Yumart, here in Toronto.
Hydnum repandum – the hedgehog
This morning, the Partners were really working me, trying to convince me that I ought to be taking them somewhere in the car for an adventure. It didn’t take a lot of convincing. I tossed a basket in the car, loaded the dogs and off we went to the Enchanted Mushroom Forest.
Some readers will have realized I apply the name Enchanted Mushroom Forest to all the forests I forage in. This particular woods is usually reliable for some lobster mushrooms and some hedgehogs, with the odd chanterelle and maybe a few boletes thrown in. It’s one of those places that never gives a huge bounty but rarely leaves an intrepid forager skunked.
Today, I found hedgehogs right away. There are two varieties of hedgehog mushrooms and both grow in this forest. One is Hydnum repandum and the other is Hydnum umbilicatum. They look a little different from one another. The latter has a dimple, or a belly button, on the top of the cap, hence the name umbilicatum. In my area these tend to be more orangy-tan than the Hydum repandum, which I would describe as tan. Both have teeth instead of gills or pores, making them easy to identify. Both are also delicious. They taste similar to chanterelles and like chanterelles, they are a firm mushroom which fry up very well.
Today I found about 15 hedgehogs in short order. They looked a little old to me, but still on this side of their expiry date, so I picked them and tossed them in my basket. I was very surprised I failed to find any lobster mushrooms at all, not even spent ones. That was a bit of a disappointment as I can usually count on finding enough for a couple dinners at least.
When we got home, the first thing I did was brush the stickers and burrs out of the dogs’ fur. They have a blast in the forest, but always come home with unwanted stuff in their coats. The Partners then settled in for an afternoon nap, while I cleaned up my mushrooms.
Generally, I find nice clean hedgehogs at this spot, but sadly all the mushrooms I picked this morning were badly infested with bugs and worms. It was not a very appetizing situation, and reluctantly my finds for the day went to the compost. Of course The Partners didn’t care about that. They understand the adventure is the thing, not the bounty.
I choose the books I read in a very disorganized fashion. Recently I felt like reading a spy novel and so I gobbled one up called Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews. I came across this book simply by doing a Google search for spy novels. It was a page turner but in the end it wasn’t a very satisfying read for me. I decided to read another book in the same genre, but wanted to avoid the usual suspects.
I came across an author named Eric Ambler. His name rang a bell for me and I realized my father had an Eric Ambler book (I don’t recall which one) on a bookshelf at home when I was growing up. It was a thick hardcover book. My father never mentioned it and I never read it. I decided to read one of Amber’s books based on this fleeting memory, and I chose A Coffin for Dimitrios from his body of work without much consideration.
Ambler was an author of my father’s time. My dad was born in 1917. Ambler was born in 1909. He was a popular British author of thrillers and spy novels as well as a screen-writer. He started writing novels in the 30s and his final novel was published in 1981.
A Coffin for Dimitrios is set in the Balkans between the World Wars. It’s a story about a detective writer who comes across information about a murder victim with a fascinating backstory. The writer, Latimer, is drawn deeper and deeper into the story of an elusive criminal named Dimitrios, a story of intrigue, murder, drug smuggling and more – until he finds himself very much involved in this sordid world.
I enjoyed the pace of the novel and the way the story unfolded. As well, I liked the idea of a writer of crime fiction becoming involved in a world of real crime, a world in which things are not always so black and white. Unlike a detective novel which puts together pieces of a puzzle to solve a murder, Ambler has written a novel in which the character of a man – Dimitrios – is the puzzle being put together.
Compared to the previous novel I read, which was somewhat plodding, A Coffin for Dimitrios is a story very well told. I’m going to read another of Ambler’s books next, but I haven’t decided yet which one.
I just discovered that there was a film called The Mask of Dimitrios, starring Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Here’s a preview…
I took the dogs up to the leash free area on Etobicoke Creek yesterday for a swim. While we were there, a heron flew down. Too bad I only had my phone and not my camera with me. The bird is in there somewhere.
27th Street 