The heat is making people weird

The Scream is over, and desultory monthly-ish posting will now resume here on Squiddity. I was in Kensington getting groceries today, and there was a busker in front of the bakery again. Today it was a young white woman in an ankle-length African-print muumuu, singing "Walking On Sunshine" very loudly, unaccompanied, not particularly well, into a carrot. Yup. Bouncing from side to side, holding a jumbo carrot as if it were a microphone, and singing into it. This was unusual even by Kensington standards, and people half a block away were standing on the sidewalk staring at her. The ladies in the Patty King across the street were talking about maybe calling 911.

Birds, cats, fluffy white clouds

I know it's been a month, but this blog isn't dead, it's just resting! I'm going to two conferences in the fall, and I'm pretty busy these days making travel arrangements & working on my presentations. Keep me in your RSS feed and hopefully you'll see photos from England and Texas later this year.

I did get out to the Islands yesterday, to enjoy the first decent weather in what feels like weeks. Ward's Island is still my favourite place in Toronto to spend a sunny day: cats, bicycles, little cottages, a nice pecan tart at the cafe. It appears to be poplar fluff season on the Islands right now: see photo below. Is it poplars that produce all that fluff? It's everywhere you look: on the ground, in the air, in the water, where the geese and ducks graze on it happily.

Also, I saw several brilliant orange songbirds, and wondered what they were. I thought they might be scarlet tanagers, but they had black heads, and tanagers don't, as a quick Google search revealed. Some more Googling, and I figured out they were Baltimore orioles. So pretty!

More photos here, though none of the orioles -- they're too quick for me.

Stylish pumpkins

I was walking through Mirvish Village on my way home from brunch on Sunday when I happened upon this pumpkin-carving competition for children.



"Can the judges convene here, please?" a woman was saying. "It's going to be hard to choose, they're all so good!" remarked one of the judges.

"It's okay if I don't win," a little girl announced to her mother. "I don't mind."



Happy Halloween, everyone!

Reluctantly festive gargoyle

"Yes. Ha ha. See the gargoyle in the stupid Santa hat. Very funny... Dammit, people, Christmas is over. OVER. How long do I have to go on wearing this frickin' thing?!

"It's not even cold enough for a Santa hat! It's all wet and clammy from the rain! I think I'm getting a rash on my forehead!

"...Gah. Stupid humans. How I hate you all."

Spotted perched over the side entrance of a CIBC on St. Clair West. Nothing else about the building is remotely Gothic -- the gargoyle's obviously a recent addition, easy to miss if you don't look up. Someone at that branch has a sense of humour.