Photos of Scarborough, Spring and Summer 2016
Category Archives: General
Bird’s Collage Garden
Burks Falls and Grass Lake, Ontario
Embodied Flames (Warm and Cool)
Elliot Lake, Ontario
Pink Solstice Turnings Collage by Catherine
Urban Prayer Flags and Breakthrough Collage by Catherine
Windwork and timework / have spun gossamer threads from / discarded old bags.
Beyond the limits / of material concerns / a dream-sky opens.
Party for Cross-Hatched Amoeba
Found Sculpture Gallery at Humber Bay Park
After lunch with a friend last Monday, I enjoyed a windy walk on the shore of Lake Ontario at Humber Bay Park. Much to my delight, I discovered a spontaneous outdoor gallery on top of a boulder.
Anonymous artists had created a gathering of small inuksuit sculptures, and I loved how the waves had become co-artists, knocking some sculptures over and leaving others intact.
Before I left the boulder gallery, I contributed an inukshuk of my own to say thank you.
Leafy Portal and Carved Rock Collages by Catherine
This photo of an autumnal scene inspired a collage that emerged in spring.
Celebrating Lake Ontario!
Images of Scarborough
Scotland 2015
The Tapir’s Night Journey Downstream (Collage and Poem)
Response to the Tapir’s Night Journey Downstream
Transitions define my body.
Look how the current splashes my legs turquoise,
the moon silks my chest,
and wild solitude cools my nimbus to blue, white, and lavender.
Behold the purple eye that guides my canoe down the Amazon,
riding the night rapids in a dream of passages, openings, and
confluence.
And see how curving shapes in the dark transport me to waterways
that empty into wider and wider rivers
until the open Atlantic receives my vessel at journey’s end.
Shipwrecks and Voyages: A Collage Journey by Catherine
In this collage series inspired by sea and river voyages, shipwrecks tilt on the ice, abstract shapes go swimming, and an arctic hare chews on a twig. Meanwhile, a famous Norwegian explorer inhabits a turnip-shaped kayak, and a tapir chooses a canoe for his journey downstream.
(This collage has a poem to accompany it!)
Two Collages for Dad by Catherine
From the depths of keepsake piles in my mother’s house emerged a Father’s Day card and a birthday gift that I made in the 1970’s. 
The inside of the Father’s Day card contained a car and some of my thoughts.
The Father’s Day message became the centerpiece for a recent collage in his honor.
The second piece of 1970’s ephemera was a birthday gift for my dad. It was a hand-taped envelope made from lined notebook paper that contained watches that I’d cut out from magazines. (The coffee stain is original).
The long-ago selected watch photos and text from the card inspired a second collage for my father.
Dad, thank you for keeping the cards that I made for you so many years ago. And thank you most of all for being such a fun, supportive, and loving father. I miss you!
Creek to River Adventure in Toronto
When I descended the steps at the beginning of a three-hour trek from Taylor Massey Park to the Don River Valley, a multitude of surprises awaited me.
Along the trail, I discovered green palaces reflected in the creek, a memorial bench wreathed in spontaneous wildflowers, animal sculptures carved from a fallen tree, and the sight of a chipmunk fleeing to its burrow.
Flowers and chains framed the beauty of the stream, and wavy reflections of tree trunks served as pillars for a temple of nature.
The first trail marker for the Lower Don appeared after an hour and fifteen minutes of walking. This was exciting because I had never witnessed the transition from Taylor Massey Creek to the Don River before.
Much as I love the sheltered flow of a woodland creek, the impact of seeing the waterway expand and deepen in capacity astonished me. My chest expanded, my breath deepened, and I felt freer, bigger, and more open.
Ten minutes into the Lower Don section of the walk, I noticed a short dirt trail leading to a lookout on an elevated bank. With my camera looped around my wrist, I fell into a reverie while looking at the opaque water and began to daydream about the Missouri River (my home river). Suddenly, a very large pink and white fish jumped high above the surface and made a flamboyant splash upon re-entry.
I was so startled that I almost dropped my camera. However, I wasn’t upset in the least, for it was a privilege to have been shaken up by that feisty fish. Its breathtaking leap made me feel alive and gave me hope for the health of the river.
Tired but refreshed by so much beauty, I continued the journey, noticing a family of geese, graffiti murals at base of soaring bridges, and an artist painting a shimmering river portrait in olive green, brown, and ocher.
Near the end of the hike, I encountered historic Todmorden Mills at the base of a very steep incline up Pottery Road. I had almost reached the top of the hill, panting from exertion and the extreme heat, when the final surprise of the day greeted me: a Dairy Queen right at the summit!
In my personal history of ice-cream consumption, no plain vanilla cone has never tasted as good as the magical one purchased on Pottery Road that afternoon. It was the perfect ending to an adventure made possible by Toronto’s generous creeks, powerful rivers, and unpredictable wildlife.
Frog Tree, Flower Tree, Toad and Heron Collages by Catherine
Haliburton Wolf Sanctuary
A visit to Haliburton Wolf Sanctuary was one of the highlights of a recent family vacation to central Ontario. We were fortunate to see so many wolves from the observatory last Wednesday because the pack could have decided to hang out elsewhere within their 15-acre enclosure.
The Broken Tree of Deer Lick Creek
A trip to Brookbanks Park led me to bifurcating trails, the sight of a hare bounding across an iron footbridge, and the waters of Deer Lick Creek.
On the banks of the creek, a giant tree had fallen and snapped in two. The distance between its severed stump and trunk was not great, but the expanse of liquid space between the two jagged ends took my breath away with its beauty.
I loved how the brook filled the void of disconnection and death, blessing an abyss with a measure of peace. As witnesses to brokenness and loss, the slow movement of water, the round stones on the creek bed, and the reflections that animated the skin of the creek comforted me. 
That tree died, but beauty didn’t die. It just changed. A whole tree, intact, thriving, with glossy leaves is beautiful. But a broken tree with only half of its body still rooted in a muddy bank is gorgeous too. 
Like Cohen’s cracks that let the light in, the shocking break is an opening for time, change, and water to move — not to take the pain away but to lovingly acknowledge its impact. The broken edges can breathe into that forgiving emptiness, exposing their ache to the kindness of night.
