MiKE: Playing

Playing, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

f/1.4 and slightly cheesy, overused PS technique. Background is distracting, I know.

MiKE: Static Face, selective colour

Static Face, selective colour, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

Same picture as the previous day, except with some image manipulation.

MiKE: Static Face

Static Face, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

Boxing Day was crazy. Crowds everywhere, even on icy sidewalks with snow banks that reduced the amount of walkable space by up to half in some places.

In shopping malls, people were thronging the aisles, looking for good bargains; and to be honest, there were really good bargains to be had. Not 30% markup pre-season before 25% boxing day sale kind of trick. Or at least I think so. I don't really know because I don't keep track.

Anyway, at Eaton Centre, a major mall downtown, the escalators were full of people on their way to support the economy. Interestingly enough, this one face appeared to be still.

MiKE: Couple shot!

handheld self portrait, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

We like to take photos of ourselves like this once in a while, and found that 35mm film equivalent focal length of 28mm really enables us to take a good picture of ourselves, and include enough of the background to give some context. It would be nice to be able to have a camera like the Ricoh GR-1V again, actually. Except for that fact that it shoots film, which, though makes for beautiful colour rendition, grain and dynamic range, is a pain to process, and would take up too much physical space during a vacation for the number of pictures taken.And I know Ricoh has a digital version of the GR-1; don't get me started on how pointless small sensor P&S cameras can be. But I digress...

This picture was taken with a 50mm equivalent, at handheld distance, which makes for very little background. I cropped it slightly to balance the picture. I like the result. Better focus on the subject foreground, and no distractions. What do you think?

MiKE: I get it, I think.

So, I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I have been very distracted from work. I am supposed to be completing my comprehensive examinations any time now, the exams which confirm my candidature for the PhD. I have two paper proposals which have been accepted for conferences in April next year (which means submission deadlines sometime in March), and three professors want to write papers with me, or want me to submit a single authored paper. I've not finished the comprehensives, and needless to say, I've not started on any of those papers yet.

And all I've been doing is obsessing over photography. Of course, you'd noticed that the recent posts about my fascination with large aperture lenses, but I bet you probably don't know I've taken over 6100 photographs since I got my camera in September. Sure, the vast majority of the shots have been the "just in case" kind of duplicates, adjusting the aperture/focal length, and general messing around. Also, the dSLR makes taking pictures really easy - with such rapid responses rates, it is not hard at all to fire off 3-4 shots in about 2 seconds. But still, there's something not really right here. And I think I know what's wrong.

Part of what drives me, what makes me want to be an academic and write and be a scholar and all that, deep down inside, is a desire to want to change the world, because of injustice, unfairness, stupidity, political machination and other such ethical moral and social injustice that I experience personally, or through close friends and family. I believe education can be one very powerful way out of situations of oppression and unfreedom, seeing my own personal example as a very strong example. If I had not gone to school and did well, if my parents had not forbidden my association with the neighbourhood kids and strongly encouraged (to put it mildly) me to study, I probably would not have been where I am now, in relative luxury to contemplate these matters in such a theoretical way.

And now, since I've been in Toronto, I've been in this neither-here-nor-there situation. I've stopped reading the singaporean blogs, because I've stopped caring. It seems to be some place far away, like reading about the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Yes, I know the town council funds have been mis-invested and all that, but, really, do I care? Does it concern me, here, now? Besides, I am so far away, and have no sense of being able to do anything about it.

On the other hand, I've not been integrated into this local community yet. There is a strong activist culture here, to be sure, much stronger civil society presence, and a somewhat more democratic government, but, once again, things here are happening to others, not people I know, not to me (well, ok, some of it is), and as a 'guest', I feel as if there is little I am qualified to do. To top it off, I know little of the political histories and struggles of this place, and how the battle lines are drawn, so to speak, so I am wary of suggesting anything.

And all these is affecting me. As I live in this place as a guest, and isolated from the stupidity and outrage at both places, I am feeling as if what I am doing is highly synthetic, and at points ethically wrong, or at least, hypocritical. And that is giving me pause.

I want to get angry. I want to get connected. Outraged, worked up, and activist. I need to know what I am doing is actually connected to some real action in the world. I want to know that I am changing the world, not just for my selfish ends, but also for others.

Do I sound like over-idelistic and naïve yet?

MiKE: Queen's Park shadow

Queen's Park shadow, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

It snowed last night, about 9 cm downtown in Toronto. More storms are expected on Friday and Sunday, with temperatures not exceeding -6. So, I guess this probably means we'll be having a white Christmas?

MiKE: You know it's winter in Toronto when...

You know it's winter in Toronto when..., originally uploaded by mike.tan.

Frozen food that's normally stored in the fridges are sold out in the open like this. The light red and grey packages at the front centre are frozen shrimps(!)

MiKE: Happy Birthday

happy birthday, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

Knowing her, this would probably not be enough... Maybe if I just said I suck at photoshop so badly this took me the better part of about 40 minutes, she'd think better of my effort? Anybody got a good book/site to recommend?

MiKE: 30mm f/1.4

Testing out f/1.4, B&W, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

For those that claim that cameras are irrelevant to picture making... Here is a picture taken at an aperture of f/1.4 with a borrowed lens.

True, you probably could accomplish something similar with image manipulation software techniques, but then, it would not be as good, nor would it be as quick.

MiKE: At Niagara Falls.

Serene before Horseshoe Falls, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

We went to Niagara Falls yesterday. Yes, in winter. At night. We went with the International Students Centre (ISC). Overall, I'd say that the trip was not only inexpensive, it was also somewhat cheap. Anyway, the full set of pictures can be seen here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-tan/sets/72157611194638335/show/

ReNe: art gallery ontario

When the Art Gallery Ontario (AGO) opened a month back (14th Nov), admission was free for that weekend. We wanted to go but the queues were too long. Turned out we need not have worried; Wednesday evenings are also free admission and last Wednesday, we finally went down to take a look.

The building where I work is about 5 mins from AGO so I was always very curious to see what's inside, now that the construction's done and cleaned up. The architecture is beautiful, so even though we're not really art aficionados, we enjoyed walking around the gallery. Somehow, the place reminds us of Center Pompidou in Paris (a little), which we also didn't really 'get'. Behind, attached to the gallery, was the restored Grange House. The short tour around the Grange House, which mostly talked about the mystery of the wax (art?) pieces left behind by the third maid of the house, was pretty interesting too.

It's great though that these museums have free nights. (AGO's not the only one; the Royal Ontario Museum and Bata Shoe Museum also have free evenings), for it encourages people who might normally not be interested in such places to have a look, especially the local residents. Certainly I would go again. I might not fully appreciate the art collections, but it's a nice way to spend an evening after dinner at Chinatown. Unfortunately for AGO, cameras are not allowed inside (though we have seen people sneak in cameras, and not small point-and-shoot types!), so no pictures (yet?) to put up.

MiKE: New! II

New! II , originally uploaded by mike.tan.

testing out manual exposure.

MiKE: want. last. bit. of. ketchup.

want. last. bit. of. ketchup. , originally uploaded by mike.tan.

at Ikea restaurant. blogged about this last year. Ikea is pretty much the same here as in Singapore, and I assume, all over the world.

MiKE: Sunset on the Market

Sunset on the Market, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

We walked down to King Street to get her a cap. I walked from home, to meet her near her workplace, and went through Kensington Market looking for photo opportunities. Saw this, and had to wait out in the cold (about -4ºC or so) till the light faded enough to get a good photo. By that time, my fingers were so cold they started to hurt.

MiKE: Toronto Skyline II

Toronto Skyline II, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

As seen from the tallest point at Casa Loma

At the Casa Loma

IMG_4490, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

The Casa Loma was built as the private residence of a very rich man, Sir Henry Pellatt. Ever famously derided as a 'five legged elephant', deserving to be 'stuffed and mounted' to remind people of its monstrosity, and considered a blight to the local landscape for its romantic notions of castle-hood, with its crenellated walls, high spires, and commanding location on a hill, it is now owned by the city of Toronto, and run by the Kiwanis club. As you can see, the grounds that are open the public are impossibly large to maintain; this photo was taken inside one of the spires, where the raw brickwork was probably deemed by the vandals as more spots to leave their mark.

Well, whatever. A pretty picture of Serene. And I'm quite glad how this picture turned out, because it would have been close to impossible to make with lesser gear. Just in case you were wondering: there was no window to her right, and the ambient light is actually as dark as the background behind her. Flash was bounced off the wall on her right, made of brick, so the reflected light had a reddish cast, warming the tones in the picture.

MiKE: Santa Claus Parade

Yesterday was the Santa Claus Parade. Started in 1905 as a means for a retailer to drum up business for Christmas season, it consisted of only one horse float carrying Santa Claus from downtown Union Station (the rail hub) to the Eaton Centre. Now, over a hundred years later, the kid-oriented parade has grown to 25 floats, 24 bands, over 1700 participants, and hundreds of thousands of spectators, including the live telecast. We decided to take a walk, do the touristy thing, and see what the fuss was about. The parade was supposed to start at about 12:30, and take about 2-3 hours for all the floats and contingents to wind its way through almost six kilometres through downtown Toronto. We started out at about noon, and since the parade passed by very close to where we stay, we did not have far to walk to get to see what people were doing as they waited for the parade to start.

Apparently, to get the good views of the parade, many families had arrived early, and set up comfortable places; many of them brought warm blankets, some had foam pads to keep the bums insulated from the cold pavements, and many of them had brought some ladder or constructed an elaborate scaffold set up so that the kids could view from a high enough vantage point. At some places, this was necessary because even though it was supposed to be a kid's parade, the streets were lined with adults, and older kids. Some of the solutions we saw:





The problem with coming early was that the kids had to wait out in the cold for quite a long time. The temperature went as low as about 3-4ºC, and it even snowed at one point. One way to spend the time was to get the kids to paint a poster:


Although I personally have my reservations about this. One day, the kid is going to learn the truth; about how this is a festival celebrating the winter equinox co-opted by a religion to commemorate the apparently miraculous birth of their leader who would be murdered before middle age.

After a long enough wait where we walked along the parade route, the parade started and caught up with us. There were the usual floats, some marching bands, and even cheerleaders. This is the part I don't get--the sexism; ah well, insert the standard feminist critique here:


A few words about this photo: This is actually a frame out of a series of eight shot in continuous mode. All of them turned out good. I am impressed with my camera!

As we walked along the route, we came across the junction of Dundas and University, which is really close to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). AGO's opening was last Friday, and they were having free admission over the weekend, and extra late hours, till midnighton Friday and Saturday. Interestingly, at the junction, it seemed like there was an exodus of people who were moving toward the AGO:



We went to take a look, and the queue was very long, almost 500m in length, and, according to some, was at least an hour in the cold before admission. Not wanting to wait in line, we moved on, to see a guy in a Santa outfit, skating away from the parade route:



And one last photo; this one of a clown, who, in this photo, looks like he's about to slap the kid. On the face:

MiKE: Lest we forget

Lest we forget, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

Last Tuesday was Remembrance day. This year was supposed to be especially significant as it marks some anniversary of the beginning or end of some war some time ago.

Yes, I am being somewhat contrarian and disrespectful, if only because I am somewhat of a pacifist myself. I understand that the wars, and wars in general, are highly unfortunate things, representing a massive breakdown in our ability to communicate. Many unfortunate people die. It is sad, especially for the families of those who died.

But why hold elaborate memorials for the dead? And why only the dead on 'our side'? Are the enemy combatants less human? What about all the other victims of all the other wars that have been fought? Are we possibly glamourising something that is, in essence, no different from murder, vandalism, and property destruction, except in scale?

...

So, at the UofT, there is a tall clock tower, the Soldiers' Tower, which commemorates the war dead of the UofT. Annually, a ceremony will be held there. At the foot of the tower, there are a few walls, upon which the names of the fallen UofT students and alumni have been inscribed. I saw this woman look wistfully at the names on the wall, almost as if she recognised a name or two. I sincerely hope that it was my imagination. It would have been quite sorrowful for a mother to have to bury her children.

MiKE: Rainy Day

Rainy Day, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) official opening was yesterday, with free entry till tomorrow. Christmas (already!?) festivities beginning today at Yonge-Dundas Square. Santa Claus Parade tomorrow. And it's raining, and expected to snow tomorrow. ...come again another day?

I actually don't mind the snow, the rain is irritating because it is wet.

MiKE: Stuck in a rut

Anybody feel like this sometime? Comic stolen from www.whattheduck.net

MiKE: Halloween at Church Street

So, every year, in downtown Toronto, along Church Street from Wellesley to Alexander streets, there is a grand Halloween party, where people come together, put on costumes, hang out with friends and strangers, to be gawked at, photographed, and generally have fun, soaking in the atmosphere together with thousands of others. Of course, it needs to be mentioned that Church and Wellesley is the epicenter of the gay quarter of downtown Toronto; not that that necessarily means anything though. On the other hand, it was quite obvious that there were many queer people out that night, with some of the costumes reminiscient of those worn during the pride parade this year, and some outright re-cycles.

I went shooting (photographs) with the local Toronto Photography Meetup Group (which I guess could do with a classier renaming), which reminded me very much of the Aprilia Riders Club back in Singapore - boys (and one or two girls) with gadget lust who wanted to socialise with other like minded people and avoid the sad loner otaku stereotype; arranging meetings over the forums to meet at public places, holding up human (or otherwise) traffic, and the inevitable penis length contests as the quintessential getting-to-know-you banter. I guess some things are just trans-cultural.

So, anyway, we arranged to meet at 7:30, waiting till about 7:45 for latecomers before proceeding to the party, more like a street festival where people turned up in costume. As expected, the party only really got going later, at around 11pm. Till then, we walked around, photographing anything and everything that moved, or didn't (hooray for digital photography!). Soon enough, because it was a free-floating group, of which many of us were first timers who barely got to know each other, we were broken up into many groups; and the crushing crowds did not help.

It was interesting to see the kinds of costumes people had on. There was the usual gore and horror genres, the superheroes, political figures (I saw at least 3 different Sarah Palins, including the party host), angels, ethnic costumes, and the odd S&M couple here and there (I saw one bound submissive led by a chain around the neck). Interestingly enough, it seemed that there was an implicit understanding here that it was like a photographic festival - anyone could go up to anyone else in costume, and ask to have their picture taken with them; photographers could ask those in costume to pose, and they would willingly oblige, often hamming it up especially for those carrying big cameras and lenses. Often, we would not even need to ask, all we needed was to point a lens in their direction, and they would put up their act. This actually made it difficult to capture candid moments though, which I think would have made a better picture - like the one where this guy in some werewolf mask had to have his companion light his cigarette as he could not see where his mouth and cigarette were.

Anyway, enough talk, here are some pictures:

Sarah Palin as the party's host; apparently she's some radio personality from across the lake in Chicago. Notice the price tag on her sleeve:

I liked my flickr title and note for this picture; I wrote: "Don't mess with her... She has a pair of handcuffs and may have a gun hidden in there somewhere":

One of the ethnic costumes that looked like it came straight out of the Pride parade Thai float. Pictures like this highlight what I mentioned above about how it was a photographers' festival - people, even those not in costume posing with the costumed, generally didn't mind if their picture was taken by others besides their designated photographer (companion, etc):

One of those whom I had difficulty identifying the costume. Strangely enough, this picture has garnered a huge view count in a very short time on flickr. Any ideas why, and who the one on the left is supposed to be? Leave comments please.

The obligatory horror and gore costume. The obviously plastic nail through the head is just so fake. Even so, he was an enthusiastic performer, 'conducting' the photographers, telling us to "get your cameras ready now, blood coming out in 3, 2, 1..." after putting some of that fake blood in his mouth:

The Canadian swim team gals! It was not cold that night; in the crowd it was comfortable, but then, what would have been their costume if the temperature had been like a couple of nights ago, floating around 0-5ºC?

The pilot and attendants from "Trans-continental airlines", who won the best team costume prize. They were going around, asking people "Do you want some of our nuts"?

Palin again. This one is interesting, they were walking in opposite directions along Church street, met, and had to have their photo taken:

Ernest and Bertram got married. The anti-ending to this tragic tale:

One of the ethnic costumes, a pair of geishas:

And the winner of the best individual costume:

Vincent Van Gogh, which, if you look carefully, has his eyelids closed and painted, so that they look more like a painting. That was also a good idea, as he would have been exposed to thousands of flashbulbs all night. In his picture frame, he also had a few white LED lamps directed at his head. All in all, deserving of the award.

So, my thoughts? I'm mildly amazed and dismayed at the profligacy of the entire event, but then that is probably close to an extreme stoic position; cultures around the world have their ways of wasting resources for no better reason than to have a good time; for this I am thinking of Spanish (Italian?) tomato festivals, Chinese New Year decorations, Christmas, Japanese matsuris, among others. It was great fun for all, I only wished that less resources could have been wasted.

And the burning question on everybody's mind should be: so what did I dress up as? Why, a papparazzo, of course. What could scarier?

ReNe: my childhood ezcema

Reading Jessica's comment about how her six-month-old seems to be developing eczema was distressing her reminded me of my own problems with eczema. I had a very bad flare-up last month -- my skin seems to be getting better this week, after more than a month, but it's still very sensitive and itchy -- and I was hugely irritated and only got more testy as the days went by and no relief seemed to be in sight. Fortunately, I suppose, I've lived with this all my life and know by now what to do and what not to do.

There's a lot of information about eczema available out there; the problem is separating the facts from the hearsay. Also, what works for one person may not work for others.

One key characteristic of eczema is the skin's inability to retain water; the skin becomes very dry, red, brittle and itchy. As a kid, I was constantly told to drink more water since my skin is dry. I sort of knew back then that drinking more water, while good for the body overall, wasn't really the answer because it seemed like all I did was to pee more but my skin never got better. But what did a kid know, eh? Since the skin is dry, applying moisturizers to keep the skin moist and supple helps.

What really helped, I've found when I was an adult, was to increase my intake of oil. Not just any type of oil; what's good are more oily fish, nuts, seeds, and especially oil supplements such as evening primrose oil (EPO) and fish oil. EPO, for example, is frequently found in health food stores and is one of the plant-based oils that's high in gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). Not all oils are good; taking more corn oil isn't going to help. Fish oils are high in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docasahexaenoic acid (DHA), and again, some fish are oilier than others. The deep-sea fishes (cod, salmon) contain much higher levels of such oils than fresh-water fish or those commonly found in warmer waters.

(Note: EPA and DHA are known as omega-3 fatty acids, while GLA is one of the omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are known to reduce inflammation. Also known as the 'good oils'.)

Doctors will almost always prescribe hydrocortisone (or cortisone, or steroidal) creams for topical relief but personally I would rather not use it unless I've no choice. They are very effective but they should not be used continuously for long periods of time (defined as 2 weeks) as they weaken the skin and makes it even more brittle. That's pretty dumb, as brittle skin is one of the hallmarks of eczema. When I was a kid, I've seen a lot of doctors, even specialists from the National Skin Centre, and not ONE told me to restrict usage. Come to think of it, they usually spoke to my mother rather than to me, but even then they never told her the contraindications. I only realized this when I was in my late teens and came across one of those information pamphlets in a box of cortisone cream.

A bit of background here: since my mother first brought me to the general practitioners (GPs), they will usually decant the prescription (whether creams or pills or liquids) into little containers. The only information printed on those containers are the drug's name, clinic's name and address, how many times to take the drug, and date of visit. Can't fit much onto a small container about 5cm in diameter after all. To give the GPs the benefit of the doubt, I shall assume that they do so because it is cheaper for them to buy medicines in bulk and decant it at the clinic, and not because of the industry practice known as off-label drug usage (another matter altogether, and not entirely honest). Anyway, I had to discover all these on my own. Luckily, when I was older, I was sent to a specialist centre where, after the doctor's consultation, I would be shuffled to the pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions that were still in their original boxes. How many people read the fine print on those medicines, I wonder.

The 'professional' medical care I've received as a kid convinced me that I have to be responsible for my own healthcare instead of leaving it to a doctor.

That's not to say that taking steroidal creams or anti-histamines are bad. Sometimes they are necessary. But they are not a long-term solution. Some disagree (some have to take anti-histamines for years) but... I really think these drugs are not something you would want to take for the rest of your lives.

Fortunately there are a lot of alternative remedies, and having tried some, I think they work. They're not as immediately effective as a drug but each helps alleviate the symptoms. Put it this way, I've not taken applied a steroidal cream or taken an anti-histamine for over a decade and my skin is overall better than it was when I was a child and dependent on these medicines because I do not know better.

Sometimes I really wished someone told me all these when I was a kid.

I've had eczema almost throughout my childhood -- it was only the severity that varied -- and eczema is something that defined a large part of my life. The reason I switched to computational work was to avoid wet-lab work, for example. On the other hand, it was because of eczema that I took an active interest in my own health, so that's a positive consequence. Ironically, I was never too depressed by my eczema as a kid because I never knew better. However, right now I'm hugely irritated by my most recent flare-up because I have known better -- I have known recent years of good skin so the comparison was distressing.

MiKE: Toronto skyline

Toronto skyline, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

Seen from Front Street East.

MiKE: Long Shadow

Long Shadow, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

We went to the distillery district, the older part of Toronto that was, surprise surprise, formerly a whiskey distillery. Part of the charm, of course, was the really antique stone buildings and brick roads; unfortunately, however, not all the buildings have been fully restored. Those that did were now in use as high end art galleries, restaurants, and one large building is now a concert hall of sorts. Still a long way to go before this area is fully museum-ized to become a tourist attraction, the way that Montréal is, especially the old port area. Perhaps a big hindrance in Toronto will be the current port, somewhat in use still, and most of all, the Gardiner Expressway, a sorry blight of a road that serves as a visual fence that blocks the view of the lake. Ah well. enjoy the photo.

ReNe: cemetery walking tour

Last Saturday, we joined a cemetery walking tour organized by the UoT's ISC.

It had rained Friday, so the air was crisp and clean-smelling. (That's something we missed about Singapore - the frequent and heavy rains that clears the air and flushes the streets.) We went to two cemeteries; St. James and Necropolis. We've cycled past the St. James cemetery before (it's beside the Don Valley, a great place to cycle) but hadn't stopped in to see. Plus, it was interesting to hear a bit about Toronto's history and the stories behind some of the graves from our guide, Dermot.

Gorgeous autumn scenery. My favorite are the trees that turn really red and not just yellow. I find autumn too short, but on the other hand, knowing that this season won't last too long really encourages us to go out and enjoy the foliage and weather instead of procrastinating.



Some random and interesting facts we picked up along the way: (1) it's considered bad form to walk over the part of the ground where the coffin is supposed to be under, (2) while cremations are getting more popular in Toronto, a lot of people still get buried, (3) the costs of cremations and burials turn out to about the same, (4) people here don't mind staying next to cemeteries, which are usually peaceful and scenic, and (5) there aren't any specific days (like Qing Ming) where people come down to visit a grave, though All Saints Day (1 Nov) and Easter are popular.



One of the grander tombstones.

ReNe: first snow, sorta

It's snowing right now. Well, a mix of snow and freezing rain. The temperature isn't quite low enough (about 4C, according to my dashboard) so the snow melts as soon as it hits the ground and buildings, and the flakes are very tiny, but it's definitely snow. Today is also the first day in fall that temperatures are forecasted to reach 0C. Well, other areas in Canada have already started winter; there was a massive snowstorm in Saskatchewan over Thanksgiving two weekends ago.

MiKE: White pine tree

White pine tree, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

beautiful.

MiKE: Autumn leaves

Autumn leaves, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold....
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sunburned hands, I used to hold
Since you went away, the days grow long
And soon I'll hear ol' winter's song.
But I miss you most of all my darling,
When autumn leaves start to fall.

Since you went away, the days grow long
And soon I'll hear ol' winter's song.
But I miss you most of all my darling,
When autumn leaves start to fall.

ReNe: apple farm

We went to an apple farm today.

Chudleigh Apple Farm is located in Milton, about 45mins by bus from downtown Toronto. The trip was organized by the International Student Center, which was fortunate for us because, like many places in North America, the farm would have only been accessible by private transport. (That's something I'm finding out every time I think about a trip to some place and start researching transportation to that place.)

We reached the farm around 10am and were told we had four and a half hours to wander around on our own. It's not a very big farm, 100 acres in size, and has both commercial and entertainment (i.e. touristy) sides. There are wagon hay rides, farm animals and so on, but the main attraction, of course, are the apple trees where you could pick your own apples at 99 cents a pound. That's cheaper than most supermarkets in Toronto, where apples start from $1.29 a pound. Included in the cost of our tickets was a small three-pound bag each (extra would cost more), so we limited ourselves to those bags, which turned out to hold approximately six good-sized apples.

Mike on a bale of hay. Notice the moon high up in the sky.



Even though it was late in the apple picking season, which starts in late August and runs till end October, today was a good time to visit the farm as the foliage colors were brillant. It was a little chilly (slightly below 10C), and very sunny.



Can you guess how Mike got the interesting effect below?



When we got to the apple trees, we had a pleasant surprise. The apples right off the tree were wonderfully sweet and juicy, much better than any store-bought apple we've ever tried. Later we found out that the apples we picked could keep for 6-8 weeks refrigerated, depending on variety, which tells you how long store-bought apples have been in storage.

The apple trees were rather interesting; for one, we'd thought they'd be much taller. We've seen apple trees (there are some around the neighborhood) and they were *trees*, where the lowest branch was still taller than average human height. But as you can see from the pictures below, the varieties planted on the farm were shorter, and very convenient. I'm not that tall but I can reach maybe 60-70% of the fruit. The trees, at least the ones in the middle of the rows and the ones least picked, were heavily laden with fruit. At a guess, each tree could have 50 apples?



Later in the day, more and more people arrived and the orchards were starting to look quite crowded.



Something else that's rather interesting. Before 'sampling' the apples, we buffed the one freshly picked off the branch (the dusty looking one on the left, below) with our T-shirt, and the skin became really shiny (right picture, below). I've always thought that the very shiny apples in the stores got that way because of wax, but apparently that may not be the case. (By the way, the apple was picked wrongly; it should not have all those leaves attached. Apparently, the way to pick the fruit without damaging the bud for future fruits is to twist the apple such that the eye at the bottom of the apple faces skywards, and the apple will naturally snap off with a tiny bit of stem left.)

We picked two types of apples: the McIntosh (red, above) and Golden Delicious (yellow, below). The McIntosh was very sweet, almost faintly alcoholic in its sweetness; perhaps that's because it has been ripe and on the branch since early September? The many different varieties on the farm all ripen at different times, which were exactly predicted and printed out on postcards and signboards. The Golden Delicious was more tart, but both varieties were the crispy, juicy type we like (as opposed to the more powdery varieties like the Washington).



It's not far to walk from the main entrance area to the apple orchards, but there were (free) hay wagon rides available and we just had to try. Pulled by a tractor, the wagons had bales of hay people could sit on.



The rides were pretty popular.



For the kids, there are pony rides as well,



... and farm animal exhibits. Feed can be bought from those 'toy-bubble machines' for $1 (the kind that usually holds a plastic bubble containing a small toy; deposit the coin and turn the handle to drop out one bubble). Smart idea; this way, even the exhibits make money. Saw a mother with her kid talking to the animals and Mike was quite agitated. By *talking* to the animals, the mother is teaching her kid to interact with animals on human terms (with human words), and not on their terms. What's wrong with simply looking at the animals as they are, or, for that matter - taking in (obviously, not always ingesting) and appreciating nature in general on its own terms, recognizing its beauty (or otherwise) and other-ness from us, and not imposing a anthropocentric form of relation all the time?


A yarn spinning demonstration, from wool I believe. I noticed, at least within the short span of time I was standing there, that all of the kids that stepped up to take a closer look were female. Why??



Even a scary-looking clown. (Don't you think clowns always look scary?) The farm feels positively festive.



In addition to apples, the farm also sells pumpkins. We got mini pumpkins (munchkins), free with our ticket.



What's with the 'No Smoking' sign near the pumpkins? Are they explosive?



A pumpkin patch.



Lots of retired tractors for the kids, and us, to hop up and take a photo on.


Overall, a very fun trip. Lots and lots of apples. We ate about two apples each as we picked apples, and we also had apple cider and an 'apple blossom' dessert (a small apple pie) with our lunch. In addition to the free bags of apples (about 12 apples), we also bought some apple cider and apple butter to bring home.