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We finally got some more snow here in Toronto. This winter has been pretty pathetic weather-wise. During the previous two winters, we had hardly any space left to store our shoveled snow, but this year we have to look hard to find a snowflake.

Anyway, I was excited that we had a snowfall last night. I took a slightly longer walk on my way home from work so that I could enjoy some of the snowy sights around my neighbourhood. Here's a snow-covered bike on Perth Ave. just north of Ernest Ave.

Jen was helping to clean the snow off the ice during the Pleasure Skate at Campbell Park last Saturday. She had a "helper" following her around for a while too.

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful winter day here in Toronto. No snow, but it was cold, sunny, and bright. I'm also liking the fact that the days are starting to feel alot longer now, so we have more sunshine in the morning and longer in to the evenings.

Jen and I took advantage of the gorgeous day to do a bunch of errands that involved riding our bikes around the city, and finished off the outdoor activities with a pleasure skate at Campbell Park. This is our local ice rink, just a few blocks away, and every Saturday afternoon during the winter there are a couple of hours of pleasure skating time where no hockey/shinny is allowed. This winter it has been busier than I've ever seen it since moving here a few years ago. I'm not even that big a fan of skating. I mainly go to meet up with other friends and neighbours from around the 'hood, and to enjoy the campfire with fresh donuts and hot chocolate!

A GO train on the Milton line heading toward Union Station. I took this photo from the east side of the Wallace Ave. pedestrian bridge.

On the morning that I took this photo, there was a near white-out blizzard that seemed to last only a few minutes. I grabbed my camera as I got ready to head out the door so that I could take some nice winter photos of the neighbourhood while walking to the subway. Unfortunately, the snow nearly stopped by the time I got outside. Ohwell, I still had a nice walk to Dundas West station through a small amount of fresh snow, and I was able to enjoy the view from the bridge.

Looking down the elevator shaft at the vacant Tower Automotive building on Sterling Rd.

June 20th, 2009: Unofficial opening parade on the West Toronto Railpath. One of my favourite features of the neighbourhood!

In the background is the Wallace Ave. pedestrian bridge, from which I took yesterday's photo.

Wallace Ave. Pedestrian Bridge

Taking another short break from posting vacation photos. This one is much more recent and closer to home: Looking east from the Wallace Ave. pedestrian bridge.

I like this view because it shows off two very old and prominent features of my neighbourhood: The Wallace Ave. bridge, and the old General Electric water tower a little further east on Wallace Ave., closer to Lansdowne Ave. This is a great place to spend a few minutes just watching things happen in our 'hood: GO trains going by underneath, people walking and cycling along the West Toronto Railpath, environmental cleanup of the old Glidden Paint factory site, construction of new condos on Wallace Ave., heavy machinery at work on the West Toronto Diamond railway grade separation project, and much more.

I often "take the long way home" from work just to come across this bridge and stop to watch things for a few minutes.

Tower Automotive: Filth Trees

The "view" through a window at Tower Automotive on Sterling Rd. The window was covered in so much grime that "filth trees" started growing up from the bottom.

On a completely unrelated note: One of my favourite photography websites is shorpy.com, "a vintage photography blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s." This week they featured a wonderful street scene pic from New York City, 1905. There's so much going on this this photo: Dead horse laying in the brick street, filthy barefoot kids paying in the gutter water, the poses and expressions on the faces of the kids, etc. Fantastic. Make sure you look at the high-def version.

Tower Automotive - Curtains

Another photo from inside the Tower Automotive building at 158 Sterling Rd. Most floors had the same basic structure (tall ceilings, large tapered columns, etc.), but they all had unique colours and other furnishings.

Tower Automotive - Ground Floor

Taking a short break from posting photos of our vacation in Europe. Here's a more recent one from the vacant Northern Aluminum Company / Algoods / Tower Automotive building on Sterling Rd. in Toronto. It's an absolutely beautiful old industrial building dating back to about 1914, which due to its height is a very prominent feature in our neighbourhood. The owners let a group of us in to explore and take photos on December 7 2009, and I'm hoping to go back again soon.

Although it's currently vacant, a developer has purchased the property and is actively working on cleaning up the soil and has some major development plans for the whole area. Glad to see this building will be preserved and re-used.

I will post more photos of this building soon.