Mehmet and I have not had much time this spring to explore the city. I’m crazy-busy at work, and Mehmet too. We work different shifts, so our time together each day is brief and we don’t generally have a whole day free to go out biking or enjoying parks and festivals like we did last year. No complaints – we’re thankful to be working and making up for 2009 when we were living off savings!

I spend a significant amount of time on the subway and streetcar each week, and as I’m walking from one workplace to another I sometimes snap photos with my phone camera. I love little vignettes or snippets of urban life, and there is no end to interesting things to see, even on the go.

And then I use one of my handy-dandy photo-editing apps on my iPhone to play with the effects. It’s lots of fun, with effects like ’sun-kissed’, ‘hipster’, ‘antique’, ‘grunge’, ‘retro’, etc.

And what a challenge to make ‘artsy’ photos with a phone!

Here are some recent ones:

Bikes with flowers are not that uncommon in our neighbourhood. But a pink bike with flowers is special!

I’ve developed a minor crush on the insides of tulips!

An electricity pole.

There are lots of painted murals in the city. This is the small corner of a huge one near our home.

I take the streetcar home at night several days a week. I enjoy just looking at the city streets – even in the rain!

Of course I like people-watching too. Every person is interesting to me.

Awesome!

Art is everywhere.

A Michael Jackson memorial portrait.

On my walk to work one afternoon. I’ve always loved the juxtaposition of old churches in urban centres.

This gate belongs to a home near ours – it’s made of hockey sticks!

Dundas Square

A Japanese maple down the street.

An 200-year old high school near my work.

Green tea after a yummy Vietnamese dinner of Pho!

Lunch in Chinatown

Most excellent!

How weird did I feel, holding my phone to the floor for this picture…

Night ride home on the 306

I took this picture from the subway just before the doors closed.

This was a group of Israelis, protesting against hundreds of Palestinian/Turkish protestors across the street. The chanting and anger on both sides made me feel so sad.

Walking the station one rainy afternoon

I actually really like the look of ‘wrapped’ buses, even though it’s pretty hard-core in-your-face marketing.

Big grass downtown

International students often remark how surprised they are at the number of homeless people in Toronto.

This was during the Olympics:

The elementary school near our home has lots of these hand-painted fish attached to the school yard fence. An accompanying sign says that each fish represents one student who has made a commitment to help take care of the environment.

The Royal Ontario Museum

Toronto Reference Library – view from the 5th floor

And finally, some houseplant love!