7 December 2015 – I tell you, I was a walking fool this weekend, with an as-usual solo walk on Saturday & a wonderful bonus walk on Sunday with fellow blogger Mary C. (As I Walk Toronto). Next post, that Sunday walk.

This post, all around Harbord St., with me playing N/S shuttle — between Bloor & Ulster — to its E/W axis, eastward from Ossington.

Sometimes on streets, mostly in alleys. A few of the alleys look dully functional …

but even they reward a closer look.

Yes, indeed. That fish. (You saw him in the first shot, right?)

The fish is exceptional, because it is wood & a sculpture. Much more common: wildly colourful scenes painted onto walls & garage doors.

This one carries on around the corner of the garage, a whole bevy of prancing flamingos, with stars to keep them company.

I’m leaving this alley, just east of Ossington, and almost trip over the corner guard. Which compels me to look at it and see the art. Haida West Coast! I think. (Well, referencing that school of desgn.)

Silly me, it’s Spudbomb.

Out to a street corner, Roxton & Harbord, and proof that not all the wonders are tucked away in back alleys.

I look closer. Then very close. I see that even the background bricks bear texturing detail.

I repeat the process when I see this mural in the alley east of Roxton.

I lean in for the close-up. It’s only when I do that, that I can really appreciate the skill of the brush work. And the added detail of rain-streaks!

Onto another real-street-not-lane, with another reward: a “branch” of the Little Free Library movement on Shaw St.

I thumb the possibilities. Everybody from W.O. Mitchell to J. Fenmore Cooper, from mediaeval English verse to a child’s book of riddles, from Françoise Sagan’s Un Certain Sourire to Haruki Murakami’s The Elephant Vanishes. I take the Murakami, reminding myself I can enjoy my reactions to his work without worrying whether I fully “understand” it. (Rather like my attitude now to contemporary art, as you know.)

Back to the alleys, now east of Crawford, south from Harbord. Some bright colour-blocking in one stretch …

and a muted late-fall palette elsewhere.

Into the wonderfully named Peperonata Lane at Harbord, facing east into Bickord Park. The park is sunken (marking the now-buried creek beneath), so these chairs provide in effect a first-balcony view of whatever is on offer below.

But frankly, you’ll see more if, instead, you turn around and check out the lane. One garage mural after another, including this splendid Shalak Attack cat …

tucked between murals she and husband Bruno Smoky have done together under the name Los Clandestinos.

Again, I come in close. Shalak has the most amazing intensity and range of colour. I want to study it.

A heart-warming sight at Harbord & Grace, and, happily, one we see more and more frequently. Retailers like Bean and Baker Malt Shop provide full access with a simple wedge, obtained from the not-for-profit StopGap Foundation.

(I almost forgot to point out the dog bowl. Another considerate act.)

Still on Harbord, farther east at Jersey Avenue, and I’m whacked upside the head by Batwoman.

Vroom, vroom!

Now I’m finally working my way farther south, dropping down from Ulster via an alley near Palmerston. There’s a different mood in this alley, more peacefully rustic somehow, but still full of art.

At first I think that closest image is Cycling Guy With Bike Wheel. Now I’m not so sure. But I still like it.

One last installation, in this alley …

A reminder that, sometimes, time & nature provide the tone & texture that make the art.