Photo of the Week - July 26, 2026

This week's photo is of our younger cat, CJ, who found the perfect spot to rest. Cats and boxes is a real thing. 

CJ in a box

Photo of the Week - July 12, 2026

This week's photo is of a sail boat in Frenchman's Bay. Despite there being a couple of marinas on the bay, we don't see a lot of boats on the bay, probably because it's shallow and gets choked with vegetation by the end of the summer. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro using the full 50 MP sensor setting.

Sail boat on the bay

Photo of the Week - May 31, 2026

I took this photo earlier this week when Nancy and I travelled in to Toronto for a fancy supper to celebrate our anniversary. This is Yonge Street, about a block north of Dundas, showing what's left of what was once known as the Yonge Street strip, partly because of its many strip clubs. The large building on the right is part of Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), formerly Ryerson Polytechnic. It stands on the former site of SAM The Record Man and A and A's, two great record stores that are long gone. The Zanzibar Tavern, one of Toronto's few remaining strip club, still stands. 

Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro and cropped and straightened in Google Photos. 

What's left of the Yonge Street strip

Photo of the Week

 This week's photo is from one of the few warm days we've had in the last couple of weeks. It was warm enough to go for an evening walk down to the lakefront; an activity that we gladly shared with many other people who crowded the waterfront area. This picture is from my Pixel 8 Pro and was slightly cropped and touched up in Google Photos. 

Sunset at the marina

Photo of the Week - May 10, 2026

This week's photo is of some daffodils in our backyard. It's been a late, cool, and wet spring; not the best for flowers, so I'm glad to see these coming up. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro.

Spring daffodils

Photo of the Week - April 26, 2026

I took this week's photo while walking along the new walkway along the lake on the east side of Frenchman's Bay. I just happened to notice the boats out on the lake and waited until one was passing behind the tree. Lucky timing. This was taken with my Pixel 10 Pro and adjusted slightly in Google Photos to bring out some detail in the trees.

Boats on the lake

Photo of the Week - April 19, 2026

This week's photo is of a stand of e-scooters ready for someone to hop on. I think this is a project of the City, and no, it doesn't compenste for the lack of public transit. I have no urge to try one; my eyes and my balance preclude that. 

An addition to public transit

Photo of the Week - April 12, 2026

This week's photo is of a wheelchair ramp on the Lake Ontario waterfront in Pickering. There is a raised walkway along the beach with ramps leading down to the sand and this ramp. 

Beachfront wheelchair ramp

Photo of the Week - March 29, 2026

This week's picture is a follow up to last week's photo. This is the same yucca, but without any snow on top of it. I hope it recovers from the winter. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro.

A yucca after the snow melts

Photo of the Week - March 22, 2026

This week's photo is of a hasta yucca in our front yard that has spent most of the winter buried under a waist-high mound of the snow. I hope this winter hasn't killed it off. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro and edited in Google Photos to improve the contrast. 

Leaves of a yucca mostly buried in the snow

Photo of the Week - March 15, 2026

My vision is gradually getting better, so I've been taking the occasional picture, mostly using my Pixel 8 Pro. This is a picture of the ice on Frenchman's Bay, gradually breaking up and melting on a warm spring morning. 

Ice melting on Frenchman's Bay

Photo of the Week - January 18, 2026

It's winter here in the Great (and very) White North. We had a heavy snowfall on Wednesday, about 40 cm. or 16" for you US folks. That's a rare snowfall; the last one like that was about four years ago. Fortunately, it was light and fluffy, and we didn't have to go anywhere that day. 

This is a picture of the rain barrels in our backyard, taken with my Pixel 8 Pro when I went out to clear a space for the dog to do her business.

Rain barrels buried under snow

Photo of the Week - November 24, 2025

This week's photo is of a lifeguard station at the Scarborough Bluffs park. Of course, there were no life guards on duty this time of year. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro.

Lifeguard station at the Scarborough Bluffs

 

Photo of the Week - November 9, 2025

Here's another fall photo, this of a neigbour's burning bush. I love the red colour. Taken with my Pixel 10 Pro. 

Red autumn leaves

 

Photo of the Week - November 2, 2025

We seem to have moved into a very autumn-like weather pattern here, with cool blustery weather being the norm the last week or so. This picture is of Lake Ontario on a windy day taken with my Fujifilm X-S10 and the 16-80 mm. zoom.

Incoming waves. Fujifilm X-S10 with Fujinon 16-80 mm. at F5.6, 1/480 second, ISO 400, Velvia film simulation

Photo of the Week - October 26, 2025

This week's photo is of one of the lookouts over the hydro marsh along the Lake Ontario shore near the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. It's part of the waterfront infrastructure rebuild after high water levels and storms destroyed the boardwalk and beach infrastructure a few years ago. 

This picture was taken with my Fujifilm X-S10 and edited in the Windows 11 Photos app to straighten it and boost the contrast and saturation a bit to compensate for the cloudy sky. The Photos app has become a decent basic editor and is good enough that I'm considering cancelling my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. 

Marsh lookout, Fujifilm X-S10 with Fujinon 16-80 mm, F5.6, 1/450 second, ISO 400, Velvia film simuation

Photo of the Week - October 19, 2025

This week's photo is another of the world's longest pedestrian-only bridge, in Pickering, over Highway 401 and the rail corridor. I edited this with Google's Magic Eraser tool to remove a black box sitting on the floor beside the window. As far as I can tell, it worked perfectly. The original photo is also below.

I took the photo with my Pixel 8 Pro and edited it on the phone. So far, the AI tools haven't made it to the desktop version of Google Photos, perhaps because I'm in Canada. 

The Pickering pedestrian bridge (edited)

The Pickering pedestrian bridge (original)

Photo of the Week - October 5, 2025

This week's photo is of Highway 401 facing east taken from the Liverpool Road overpass. The bridge in the background to the GO station happens to be the longest pedestrian bridge in the world, according to Guinness. There was very little traffic, even for a mid-week afternoon, on one of the busiest highways in North America. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro. 

Highway 401 and the Pickering pedestrian bridge

Photo of the Week - September 7, 2025

This week's photo is not a Jackson Pollack painting. It's a picture of the floor in our kitchen before the new flooring was installed. I like the randomness. The new flooring is an improvement but I wouldn't put a picture of it up on my wall. This, I might. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro.

What's under the tile

Photo of the Week - August 24, 2025

This week's photo is of construction for the new Ontario Line, a major subway project in Toronto. Construction is well underway, and if I'm lucky and Metrolinx doesn't screw up the way they did with the Eglinton Crosstown line (which is still not open after more than a decade), I may live long enough to ride on it around 2030. I believe this is the site of the East Harbour station on the east side of the Don river. 

I took this with my Pixel 8 Pro on the way downtown, shooting through the Go Train window, so it's not the greatest quality, but it is an interesting scene. The scale of construction on the way into Union Station is very impressive. 

Ontario Line construction in Toronto