What a beautiful and hectic city Toronto is. You feel it in the slideshow!
And they picked the best bird to name their Baseball team after.
Hey, look! It’s a José Bautista mural!
José Bautista
2008 – 2017
Famous for “The Bat Flip” Bautista was a 6 time all-star, with 288 homers across 10 seasons with Toronto. Click on the pic below to read what the CBC has to say!
He rejoined the Blue Jays on August 11, 2023 for 1 day and retired a Blue Jay.
Commissioned by The Toronto Blue Jays, Bautista attended the unveiling of this massive mural with his family.
You can see its gargantuaness in the pic to the left, by comparing to the teeny people in the lower right corner.
He even signed it, in gold paint!
This was not an easy mural to capture. Still, after I found a way over the fence and into the construction site, I shot lots, and got some good ones. A few more are in the slideshow.
This close up of a coach makes me laugh. Can you see why?
Bautista, one of the Blue Jay’s Gems!
“We must be painted on a time travel garage door.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I see Cito Gaston!”
Cito Gaston
Gaston was the Blue Jays coach when Joe Carter hit the winning home run in the 1993 World Series. The Blue Jays won the title for 2 years in a row. (1992 & 1993) I always say they kept it for a 3rd year in 1994. That was the year of the big baseball strike, and there was noWorld Series.
My wings are waving the Jays on to victory, and my tail shows I’m a fan!
Liz– Thank you for hosting me on my blog tour for The Weight of Snow and Regret, Resa!
Resa – My pleasure, Liz!
Liz – Today I am very excited to shine the spotlight on one of the minor characters in the book, bandleader Sterling D. Weed. But first, here is what The Weight of Snow and Regret is all about.
For over 100 years, no one wanted to be sent to the Sheldon Poor Farm.
By 1968, no one wanted to leave.
Amid the social turmoil of 1968, the last poor farm in Vermont is slated for closure. By the end of the year, the twelve destitute residents remaining will be dispatched to whatever institutions will take them, their personal stories lost forever.
Hazel Morgan and her husband Paul have been matron and manager at the Sheldon Poor Farm for the past 20 years. Unlike her husband, Hazel refuses to believe the impending closure will happen. She believes that if she just cares deeply enough and works hard enough, the Sheldon Poor Farm will continue to be a safe haven for those in need, herself and Paul included.
On a frigid January afternoon, the overseer of the poor and the town constable from a nearby town deliver a stranger to the poor farm for an emergency stay. She refuses to tell them her name, where she came from, or what her story is. It soon becomes apparent to Hazel that whatever the woman’s story is, she is deeply ashamed of it.
Hazel fights to keep the stranger with them until she is strong enough to face, then resume, her life—while Hazel must face the tragedies of her own past that still haunt her.
Told with compassion and humor, The Weight of Snow & Regret tells the poignant story of what it means to care for others in a rapidly changing world.
For today’s tour stop, I will introduce you to a character who makes a cameo appearance in the novel, Sterling D. Weed, a historical figure known for being the oldest working bandleader in the state of Vermont. He worked as bandleader until his death in 2005 at age 104. He was also known for having the first integrated swing band in New England.
Truth be told, I couldn’t resist putting him in the novel. When my late brother George was in high school, he played saxophone in the Enosburg Falls Town Band with Sterling D. Weed as bandleader. In college, George played gigs with Weed’s Imperial Orchestra to earn money to live off-campus. How he loved to tell his Sterlin’ D. Weed stories!
Weed’s Imperial Orchestra appears in the novel in a brief scene when Hazel and Paul celebrate their first wedding anniversary. The first song they hear is the Weed’s Imperial Orchestra’s theme song, “The Wang Wang Blues.”
Click on the above pic, and a new page will open. You can listen to the music while you read!
Excerpt from “Newlywed” chapter
Hazel turned her attention to the raised stage. Seated behind their music stands, the members of Weed’s Imperial Orchestra wore fancy black suits and bow ties. She’d never seen anyone wear such a fancy suit before, much less a bow tie. Their shoes would be polished to a high shine, even though no one could see them. The man standing on the stage with his back to the dance floor must be Sterling D. Weed himself. When he turned to face the crowded dance floor, Hazel was surprised to see a man of about Paul’s age, smooth-faced, bespectacled, and balding. Except for the fancy suit and the saxophone on a strap around his neck, he looked like her high school algebra teacher.
“Welcome, one and all! The boys and I will start you off this evening with our theme song, a little foxtrot called ‘The Wang Wang Blues.’ If you don’t know the foxtrot, don’t worry. Come out on the dance floor anyway; you’ll pick it up soon enough. And if you don’t, there’s always next week.” He bent over and picked up a clarinet. “Ready, boys? A-one, a-two, a-three.”
The tempo was lively, the notes tumbling from the clarinet sparkling. The melody would not be denied, despite repeated kicks from the bass drum to keep it in check—nor could it keep the crowd in check, as they stepped and glided and twirled.
Sterling D. Weed announced the next song as “Sing, Sing, Sing,” but instead of a sing-along, the drums pounded out a primitive beat, seemingly of their own volition. The crowd cheered, and an explosion of brass blasted from the stage as the dancers flung themselves about the floor.
Paul’s eyes widened. He mouthed something, grabbed Hazel’s hand, and pointed behind him.
Outside, he kept hold of her hand and led her to the edge of the lake. “Jeezum. We coulda got killed in there.” He pointed to a large rock. “How about we listen from here?”
Now that she was no longer in danger of being kicked in the head or trampled to death, Hazel was perfectly content to listen to the rest of the song that seemed hell-bent on driving itself off a cliff.
About Elizabeth Gauffreau
“I am drawn to the inner lives of other people–what they care about, what they most desire, what causes them pain, what brings them joy.”
Click on About to read up on Liz, or on her name in smaller print to visit her blog!
The colours pierced my side vision from a half block away.
I should have known, even before I got to the door that it was painted by…
…tattoo artist extraordinaire, The Half Decent.
Just another piece of alley art I had to TEAR myself away from.
In real life, it appears black, white, red and silver. The pics weren’t capturing this, so I tried a slower shutter speed, which made the rest too, dark. Below is the comparison.
Normal shutter speed on the left. Slowest I can get on iPhone on the right.
Pano setting created a bluish overtone.
Pics taken by Resa – September 21, 2025
Toronto, Canada
The Artist:
The above fab song, Tattoo, was exhilaratingly performed by Loreen at 2023’s GNTM (Germany’s Next Top Model). Of the 5 finalists presented here, who do you think won?
I spotted this being painted while passing in a street car. I waited 3 days and returned.
The painting was not quite finished, and there was a cherry picker blocking the bottom. It was a sunny day, but I was in a mighty blue mood. Some rain had fallen in my life.
I waited 3 more days, and returned to the yellow and blue painting, like sun and rain, to me. I could heard this song. I had been hearing it for 3 days.
I mailed Holly and told her I found a painted poem. I sent a couple of pics and asked did she have any sun and rain poems? Any yellow and blue poems? She sent 3 poems, and a song.
September Rain The rains come late; vanilla yogurt clouds deepen to ripe blueberry. Twirling harlequins of wind sweep upward through the lush crowns of Lindens where birds weave wicker, dried stems, and waxy feathers, dripping pearly dew onto overgrown gardens. Higher, squirrels shelter in rattan dreys, inky shadows among mottled rays that dance on puddles and glistening blades, the potpourri of life.
~~~ Holly Rene Hunter
One was not a rain on a sunny day poem. Rather, she sent flowers on a sun’s shore.
FLOWER GIRL
Where are you my love? Chasing shadows along sun swept shores?
Turbulence has exfoliated the rosy blush from my cheeks. When we speak our words drift away on the wind.
If you should change your mind I’ll be waiting by the garden gate flowers in my hair.
– Holly Rene Hunter
It Feels Like Rain
The earthy scent of petrichor clings to our skin, overflows my eyes, slips down our cheeks to mingle with salty lips. We know how it feels to swim in sun drenched rivers, to touch the moon and feel the sear of the sun. Your song fills the sky with falling stars. But mine bring the rain… I bring the rain. It feels like rain… You know it feels like rain.
“Round about the caldron go; In the poison’d entrails throw.“
“TOAD, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.”
“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and Cauldron bubble.”
“Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake:
Eye of newt, and toe of FROG,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”
“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.“
Pics taken by Resa – August25, 2025
Toronto, Canada
The Artist: Not sure. Searches came up with several names, none checked out.
END NOTES
For those who may not know, the words in this post are from Act IV – Scene I – in William Shakespeare’s tragedy- MacBeth (written 1606-07); a tale of achieving ultimate power through treachery and murder, and the personal madness that ensues.
I did research toads and frogs. Frogs have bigger back legs for jumping. Toads have bumpy skin and frogs have smooth skin. There are green toads. I believe this is a Froad or a Trog.
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