Pandemic response - Week 2

Week 2 of pandemic response and it wasn’t an easy one!  I started back at ‘work’ last Monday and it was totally overwhelming!!  My lack of technology and even more my lack of technological knowledge is something I’m finding very frustrating!  The learning curve is incredibly steep - and being on my own here at home doesn’t provide for much support.  So I went to bed completely exhausted every night last week - but it was a mental and emotional exhaustion, not physical.  I have to think (hope?) though that things will get easier as we settle into a routine and work expectations become clearer.

With far more demands on my time now, my walks haven’t been as many or as long, but I still try and get out as many days as I could.

WALK # 1

This was the coolest playground that I just happened to stumble upon.  Good thing I found it on today’s walk - two days later Toronto has closed all public playgrounds and it now has yellow caution tape up all around it, preventing anyone from using it.

A little sign of spring

I liked the bark on this tree

Yonge Street - a major thoroughfare through the city.  This is rush hour, 5:00pm, one day this week.  Eerily quiet!  I don’t like it!

WALK # 2

 I was specifically looking for purple in my neighbourhood today

And it was a great day for lost clothing

WALK # 3

In case you need a bit of sustenance while walking...a banana

 A lonely shopping cart

This was a very interesting tree stump

Another good day for clothing

WALK # 4

No Cuba this year - Pandemic response instead. Week 1

Never in my wildest imagination would something like this ever have occurred to me, and I’m sure that anyone reading this feels the same.
There is no March Break holiday in Cuba for me this year, due to the absolutely devastating COVID-19 virus.  My trip was all planned, and then just hours before I was supposed to leave our government issued the ‘essential travel only’ - and that ended my trip.  Although I was definitely disappointed at the time there’s no doubt that had I gone I likely would have had to cut the trip short anyway as about 36 hours after ‘essential travel only’ was announced, the new messaging became ‘all Canadians get home’.  Plus there’s no way I would have been able to relax.  So in the end, being here at home is exactly where I needed to be as I’ve watched these past few days spiral and evolve - and like many I’m still trying to get used to this ‘new normal’.

Part of my ‘new normal’, for as long as I can anyway, is going to be a walk, somewhere here in Toronto.  And since I won’t have any photos from Cuba to post this year, I’ve decided that I will take a few photos every day on my walk and just post them for your viewing pleasure if you choose to check them out.  My walks will likely be a combination of some nature trails as well as city streets and the photos will reflect this.  I won’t bother with much text or explanation although if you see something interesting and want more information, or would like to know where I was, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Moving forward I think what I’ll do is add photos on a daily basis, and I’ll group the blog posts by week.  We’re at the end of week one here in Canada - of absolute, complete social distancing and self-isolation; with pretty much all stores and businesses closed (except for those deemed essential) and as many people as possible being asked to work from home - including me because all schools are closed.

As I’m sure you can understand, putting together these blog posts is a much for me as it is for anyone viewing them - but we are all in this together.

WALK # 1

Some signs of spring

I love street art and graffiti art so photos of it are definitely going to be included.

Someone had taken the time to stick this little lost mitten on a twig, now waiting for the owner to hopefully come back.  Little did I know at this time, my first walk, that this would feature as a theme in things I saw while walking.

WALK # 2

WALK # 3

The yellow one is serving the same purpose as a tow-truck or tug boat would.  It was fun to just stand there and watch it move around the subway cars.

This is a bike rack - it was a design competition between Ryerson University and Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.

I wonder what’s behind this fairie door?

WALK # 4

Not sure how all the bark got stripped off...

Does this not say ‘climb me’?

It wasn’t a mitten today - headband instead

WALK # 5

I wonder who, or what, might live in there?

Here’s where I was hoping to go..but this unfortunately prevented me!  (New fencing)

So it was back the way I came...

WOW - look at the traffic, or more precisely the lack of traffic, on the DVP!!

One little, lone, pink mitten.