Labyrinth pt. 3

I played no part in this phase of it, but I wanted to show the finished results.

Originally the idea was to paint this with cans and brushes, but lines on the road, and markings in parking lots are all done with spray paint. Much faster, easier application, quicker drying time, and it will last just as long.

Labyrinth pt. 2

Labyrinth painted with white spraypaint to more permanently mark the lines.

Labyrinth pt. 1

Helped a friend do a preliminary layout for a 40 foot labyrinth at his son’s school yesterday.

The very classical labyrinth design we’re going with. There are many, many variations, but we opted for this one.

Even with my height it’s tough to get a good overall view of it. Once it’s been painted I’ll make a more concerted effort to get a good overview shot.

By the time this is ready to be painted all these marks will be gone, but as the old adage goes, measure twice, cut once. Or paint, in this instance. It was essentially just a practice run, a rehearsal. We made a slight booboo, in that we figured out curves and that crossing point after that. Should have done the crossing first, and then everything else. We know now for the next time, and figured out some techniques for how to most effectively lay it and mark it out for painting.

Looking forward to doing this. I know there are all sorts of spiritual aspects to labyrinths, that they are used as contemplative, meditative exercises. But I’m just a geometry geek who likes spirals.

Some more info about labyrinths.
http://www.labyrinthsociety.org/

Fun with PhotoShop

Then again...when is PhotoShop not fun?

I offered to help with scanning some pictures for an event coming up here in the neighbourhood in a few weeks.

It’s an event to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Crystal Palace, which stood for a little over 30 years in Victoria Park just a few minutes walk from here. Modeled after the Crystal Palace built in London, England 9 years before, it was intended to house the Provincial Exhibition and other cultural events. The city, assisted by surrounding counties and municipalities erected the building in 1860 at a cost of $20,964. 31 years later it was declared unsafe and condemned.

There aren’t a lot of pictures remaining of it, and even fewer of the interior. One of the few found of the inside was an engraving of a sketch done by F. M. Bell Smith, of the Grand Firemen’s Gathering on August 6th, 1874. A copy was found on the Library and Archives Canada website. Which of course is a crummy low rez JPEG.

Another version of the image was found in a history book. It was a line drawing which I could scan at a pretty high resolution. But part of another image was overlapped in the top left corner.

Hmmmhhh....

So I cobbled this together. Don’t think I spent even 5 minutes on it. Not perfect, but it’s better than the blurry JPEG, it’s better than having part of the image obscured with part of another picture, it’s better than chopping the image off so that the balcony disappears altogether (which would have negated the sense of scale). I suspect 99.9% of people looking at it will never suspect a thing.

Strathcona School Garden

Back in the fall we laid the groundwork for some spring gardening at my nephew’s school.

Well, spring is here, so we went on Sunday morning to help plant stuff. The area we did it in is the kindergarten play area. Probably too young to be expected to plant stuff themselves. But the idea is to give them an appreciation for plants and teach them how to look after them.

 The neighbours contribution.

Some of the helpers. Not very many people showed up to help me move a dump truck of soil, but quite a few people showed up to help plant. Funny how that works. :-)

Our pal Nancy. 

They even let tattooed freaks help out. 

Some of the tulips that have popped up.

All the greenery you see here is just weeds.

After planting.

Logo – Strathcona Community Council

Perhaps not so much a logo as a T-shirt design. I’m involved with the SCC, and we were discussing a design for a T-shirt. One idea I had was to use something that was recognizable to people in the neighbourhood, a familiar symbol.

I realized the dovecote atop the tower at Dundurn castle fit that bill.

 I did this fairly quickly just as a proof. It’s nowhere near ready, and it may never get used, but it’s still just fun to explore ideas.

An Afternoon of Guerrilla Gardening

Saw a poster up a few days ago from the Kirkendall Guerrilla Gardeners, asking for people to come and help them do some bulb planting. 

I’m very familiar with the idea of guerrilla gardening, and I was thrilled to see it starting up in my little piece of the Earth. I guess it could almost be termed graffiti with flowers. Find abandoned, neglected, barren patches of land and plant flowers on them. That’s it. It’s members of a community taking matters into our own hands to make our surroundings a little more attractive. Not waiting for some bureaucratic body to get around to doing it – just showing some local initiative to have a positive impact on the world around us. And in doing so, strengthen the bonds between members of the community.

So I went and met with them and had a great afternoon. I like the neighbourhood I live in a lot and doing something proactive to beautify small corners of it feels good. Getting some exercise on a nice afternoon feels good. Meeting new people from my community and having interesting conversations with them feels good.

Pearl and Bold. Either side of the street. Some weeding got done, some periwinkle got put in, some cretinous grafitti was removed.

Besides their many other faults…

Bulbs and flowers planted and on to the next site.

Some of the selection of bulbs for planting. 

This half moon of very rocky, compacted soil at Aberdeen and Longwood, got worked over and dotted with bulbs and some forsythia was also planted.

Another area of urban blight on the opposite side of the street in need of some colour.

Surpisingly though someone who had similar ideas to us had already stuck some things in the ground. We extended it out a little further with bulbs and some perennials.

After that it was on to the eternally abandoned 220 Dundurn. Put in loads of tulip bulbs and planted scilla in the grass.

On the face of it, there wasn’t anything very visible to show for our efforts, but when spring rolls around, we hope that colour will bloom in a few different spots. And there was talk of another planting session taking place in a few more spots before the ground freezes solid. 

Fun day. Do it in your community.