Yesterday I received news that a dear childhood friend had died. As Jenny’s terminal illness progressed over the past few months, I found myself thinking of forest clearings and how much she loved nature. I wanted to make a memory collage that included meadows, so I went to the Picture Collection at the Toronto Reference Library and pulled out a lovely fat folder labelled “meadows.” I was amazed at how much it comforted me to look at those beautiful pictures. I felt connected to Jenny and to our shared experience of camping in Northwest Missouri and the Ozarks.
Month: July 2010
-
Deer Park’s Improved Woolen Castle
In 2010, I received a kind e-mail from April Quan, the artist who had created the woolen castle for Deer Park Library in 2000. For many years, April used her creative skills to make toys from natural materials as a fundraiser for her children’s school; thus, Deer Park chose the perfect architect for an interactive toy in its children’s section.
While describing the history of the cloth fortress, April told me that three pennants and some doll figures had been plundered from the castle in the early aughts. Mention of her delightful castle in my 2010 blog post about Deer Park motivated the artist to restore the missing features and return the textile chateau to its original glory. It makes me happy that my library blog played a role in the castle’s evolution!
April’s email also revealed the origins of the soft sculpture’s materials: “The wool is recycled fabric from the big Goodwill store that used to be at Adelaide and Jarvis . . . (the store had) a perfect winter coat just waiting to be turned into stone. . . . The turrets and grass were skirts from the same store.” I loved how Ms. Quan saw the makings of a fairy-tale building in ordinary woolen coat and some skirts from the Goodwill.
Three Huzzahs for April Quan and The Restored Woolen Castle!
2015 
2015 
2015 
2015 
2015 
2015 
2015 
2015 
-
Elliot Lake Library: An Ontario Treasure in Algo Centre Mall
On a recent weekend visit to Elliot Lake, a local friend indulged me in a visit to Elliot Lake Library when we could have gone directly to the lake. She took me inside the town’s quiet 1980’s mall, where we found a wonderful Bibliothèque. It was much larger than the Toronto mall libraries I’ve visited, such as Woodside Square, Eglinton Square, Maryvale, Steeles, Bridlewood, Black Creek, and Bayview.
With large glass windows facing a wide mall corridor, this library contained spacious east and west wings. The entrance was on the west side, which housed non-fiction, reference, and a collection of computers. A quilt tapestry showed off Canadian-themed appliqués, and across the room was a giant dream catcher and a display of fishing rods, tackle, and thick booklets in English and French about fishing regulations. Another large section was devoted to Mining Environmental Assessment Reports.
Crossing over to the east wing, I discovered an entire wall devoted to livres en français. My initial surprise at this made me realize that I had mistakenly associated small towns with monolingualism. To my knowledge, the only Toronto Public Library branch with a comparable French collection would be North York Central.
Opposite the French section was a fairy-tale mural painted by L. Finn in 1992. Springing from the pages of a children’s book were a host of classic characters: Ali Baba, Alice in Wonderland, Puss-n-Boots (who was struggling to remove his famous footwear), Little Red Riding Hood, and Babe the Blue Ox.
Not far from the lively mural, a family reading area featured a plastic globe with a talking airplane, two rocking chairs (one large and one small with painted jungle animals), and small mats with triangular wedges for upper-body support.
Before exiting Elliot Lake Library, I bought four National Geographic magazines for a dollar. Although it felt odd to leave a library without checking out any books, lack of borrowing privileges could not diminish the happiness of visiting my most northerly branch to date!
