Saturday in Toronto

Besides the clouds that blocked the sunshine now and then, the afternoon was close to perfect. Yetch and I headed down to the Distillery District.

The area itself is lovely (if you can avoid the tourists and the gaggles of wedding parties having pictures taken, and if the smell of money doesn't bother you too much). Cobblestone streets and brown brick buildings; if it weren't for the chic art gallery and boutique window displays, you might think you've travelled back in time.

Founded in 1832 by Brothers-in-law William Gooderham and James Worts, the Gooderham and Worts Distillery eventually became the largest distillery in the British empire. Set on 13 acres in downtown Toronto, the forty plus buildings constitute the largest and best preserved collection of Victorian Industrial Architecture in North America. The Distillery District is a national historic site.

It would be the ideal backdrop for a Halloween festival. While I don't anticipate I'll ever see that idea materialize, the area was not without it's creepy coolness today. I was lucky enough to see sculptures by Kris Kuksi whom I've blogged about in the past.

The photographs of his diorama-style sculptures - made of thousands of model pieces collected from around the world - don't do them justice. It is row upon row of tiny details and hundreds of mini scenes in a surreal world. If his work ever comes to your city, you need to go see it.

A nice lunch on a patio and then down to the beach (I always forget Toronto has a beach) for a leisurely stroll along the water. Yetch made fun of me because the rocks in the sand I thought were the prettiest were actually chunks of asphalt and concrete spotted with blue stones (it looked like space cookie dough for rock creatures). I suppose we can chalk that up to having a haunter's eye: seeing beauty in the odd or 'ugly'. And as soon as I had picked it up, my brain asked "What kind of prop display could I use this for?".

I decided it might be awkward to collect large chunks of discarded road material and put them in my purse, so instead I scavenged for beach glass. There never seems to be a short supply of abandoned beer and liquor bottles littering the shores of Lake Ontario, so I was able to find a number of decent pieces.

I'll find a project for them some day. Maybe jewels in the crown of a dead king.

Not long after we got home, the sky opened, thunder cracked and the rains fell. But not for too long. And when it ended, the sky turned yellow, then back to blue, and there was a huge rainbow outside my house.

Not a bad Saturday, if you ask me.

And just to show the difference between how haunter's and Halloweeners see the world compared to others, both Yetch and I took pictures of the rainbow. Mine is the first one: muted colours through a dirty window.

Yetch's is bright, especially with the flowers. I think both shots are equally beautiful.

But there's something in me that's drawn to the murkiness of that window shot.