It's a busker snake in Toronto

A street performer brought his snake sidekick for photo opportunities down to Yonge and Dundas, just outside the Toronto Eaton Centre. I can tell it wasn't a Garter Snake but I am unsure if it is a boa or a python.

People came up to the handler and he draped the snake around the person's neck. The snake was calm, beautiful and had to be over six feet long.

See more photos of the snake after the jump.

Luminato 2017

The Toronto festival of arts starts tonight and the action is free at David Peacut Square with the opening event Tributaries and the pop-up venue The Famous Spiegeltent. The festival runs from June 14 to June 25.

Tributaries "pays tribute to the immeasurable power, passion, beauty, and resilience of Indigenous women." While Spiegeltent is a travelling pavilion with performances of music, theatre, spoken word and cabaret. Taking place in one of the world's few remaining tents of mirrors and this one was built in the 1920s and has traveled to festivals around the globe.

"Luminato is Toronto’s international multi-arts, multi-platform festival dedicated to performance, visual art, music, theatre, dance, and programming that cuts across traditional art form boundaries."

Much Music Video Awards 2017

The IheartRadio MMVAs set is taking shape on Queen Street West as they get ready for the June 18 street-level award show which will have Alessia Cara and Joe Jonas as the hosts. Cara is a multi-platinum award-winner and joins Grammy nominated artist Joe Jonas as he returns as a host of the show and performer. The red carpet celebrity show begins at 8pm on Sunday.

“I grew up watching the MMVAs every year in my living room with my family,” said Cara. “I’m really excited to be a part of it and take the stage in a different way this year. Can’t wait to mess up every line, because I absolutely will!”

“I’m looking forward to getting back on this stage, at one of my favourite events, to celebrate and to host the show with Alessia,” said Jonas. Joe will perform with DNCE who released the single 'Cake By The Ocean' in 2015.

"Chart-topping performers descending on Toronto for THE 2017 IHEARTRADIO MMVAs include: Arkells, DNCE, Iggy Azalea, Imagine Dragons, Jazz Cartier, Julia Michaels, Lorde, Niall Horan, and Post Malone. Confirmed to present awards at this year’s show are KJ Apa, Lilly Singh, and Nikki Bella. Additional performers and presenters will be announced in the coming weeks."

The City of Toronto has announced road closures associated with the MMVAs and that may impact your travel plans: There will be a series of road closures for the MuchMusic Video Awards in the area bounded by Richmond Street in the south, Queen Street in the north, Simcoe Street in the east and Peter Street in the west from Sunday, June 18 at 4 p.m. to Monday, June 19 at 3 a.m. The following TTC bus diversions will be in effect from 8 a.m. on June 18 to 3 a.m. on June 19.
• 501/301 Queen eastbound replacement buses will divert east on Queen Street, south on Peter Street, east on Adelaide Street, north on University Avenue and east on Queen Street.
• 501/301 Queen westbound shuttle buses will divert west on Queen Street, south on University Avenue, west on Richmond Street, north on Peter Street and west on Queen Street.

Kayaking in the Speed River

Summer finally showed up and we took advantage of the warm weekend and went to Guelph to get the kayaks into the water for the first time in 2017. Friends had recommended the Speed River which is easily accessible from Royal City Park off of Gordon Street. Pull into the park and head down to McCrae Boulevard and take your kayaks on the path that goes past McCrae.

From the launch site looking towards the dam

Twenty feet into the path is a little spot you can launch your kayaks and canoes where the river bank doesn't have those five foot concrete walls.

The McCrae Blvd bridge

The covered bridge

The water downstream of McCrae Boulevard is where the dam is located, so paddle upstream under the multi-arch bridge and past Gordon Street's multi-arch bridge where the Boathouse Tea Room is situated.

You can rent kayaks and canoes at the Speed River Paddling Company located at the Boathouse. Past Gordon Street the river branches with a minor tributary going under the covered bridge following along Wellington and Woolwich Streets.

The river is wide and not too deep and must be super gorgeous in Fall. In the late Spring the land beside the banks are full of vegetation, lined with a forest complete with walking paths and an almost continuous band of white and purple flowers.

We only went as far as the Victoria Street bridge before turning downstream and heading back to our starting point. From Google Maps it looks like the river past Victoria Street really narrows down and becomes shallower. Next time we will go past Victoria Street and check out Royal City Jacees Park and hopefully further beyond Stone Road.

There is a depth gauge beside the launch point and in the water by the shore we found a lot of little tadpoles waiting to become old enough to drink. This is a great little river to boat in and I highly recommend it as well.

Little tadpoles gather near the shore

Photos by Ann and James Hamilton

Toronto World Naked Bike Ride 2017

Those cheeks are made for biking and that's just what they'll do with the return of the world wide bicycle protest against oil dependency and the promotion of cycling safety. In the northern hemisphere cities like Belfast, Frankfurt, Vienna and Moscow have had the ride and will hopefully join Toronto for the Saturday, June 10, 2017 WNBR.

WNBR Route. Bottom left is Coronation Park

Coronation Park along the waterfront near Exhibition Place is the starting point for the bare as you dare adventure through many of the top tourist spots in Toronto. WNBR organizer Gene Dare usually is on site early and people generally start showing up at the War Memorial in the park around 10am, socialize, pose for pictures, get some body painting done, put some flyers on their bikes and by 1pm everyone is ready to head out on the road.

Join the clothes free gang as they visit the seat of the provincial government, cycle through Kensington Market, please locals and tourists alike at Toronto's busiest pedestrian intersection at Yonge and Dundas, dip into the cool waters of the reflecting pond at City Hall and eventually return to Coronation Park to wind up the adventure. Usually many of the riders take the trip by ferry to the Island's nude beach at Hanlan's Point but I am not sure what will happen as most of the Islands are closed due to flooding.

Artist Sydney Desnoyers is painting the Canada 150 Symbol on Gene's back

Hanlan's beach destination is canceled due to the flooding. See more of the ride after the jump.

D-Day Normandy Commemoration 2017

Kevin Frankish returned as the Master of Ceremony for the Toronto ceremony to remember D-Day and the Battle of Normandy on June 6. Rain delayed the start of the event and Kevin asked the audience to come up on stage and wait out the precipitation under cover.

D-Day veterans, Canadian Armed Forces, Paramedics, Firefighters, Toronto Police Pipe Band and many other groups joined in the Commemoration of the June 6 to August 25, 1944 Operation Overlord where Allied forces crossed the English Channel and attacked the Axis forces at Normandy, France. Canadians were assigned to Juno Beach.

A musical prelude started at noon and continued with a parade, a welcome speech by Kevin Frankish, a prayer and our National Anthem, followed by a D-Day Address and Proclamation by Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong followed by Keynote Speaker Trooper Edward Stafford of the Governor General's Horse Guards. Then a trumpet blew the Last Post and those in attendance reflected during Two Minutes of Silence. Afterwards there was a Lament, Reveille, The Act of Remembrance and God Save the Queen. Finally the Colour Parties marched off and the ceremony was over.

See more after the jump.

James at Yonge and Dundas

This is a test of 360 photo sphere photos taken with the theta camera. Here I am in the scramble intersection at Yonge and Dundas Streets in Toronto. If you give it some time, you can go in each picture and scroll around in all directions.

And in Nathan Phillips Square at City Hall

IFBB Pro Women's Physique at Toronto Pro SuperShow 2017

Women's bodybuilding has quite a few divisions and one of the more muscular is the Physique class where competitors strive for symmetrical muscle groups with visible separation. The ladies are althetic and not as heavy as the Women's Bodybuilding class. The judging for the Pro Physique was at the Expo Stage on Saturday, May 27th and over the weekend Eleonora Dobrinina, pictured above, took first place. You can see more of the IFBB judging on my post here.

See more of the Women's Pro Physique judging after the jump.

IFBB Pro Figure at Toronto Pro SuperShow 2017

Combining bodybuilding and fitness the judges look for symmetry, presentation and aesthetics to determine the winner in this category. And the top athlete was Jessica Reyes Padilla of Puerto Rico.

Nineteen women took part in the Toronto Pro SuperShow at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre with judging taking place Saturday, May 27 and later at the Olympia Qualifier Finals. You can see more of the ifbb judging on my post here.

First Place: Jessica Reyes Padilla

See the rest of the ladies after the jump.

Take a trot on the wild side

A Toronto mounted police officer passes by Union Station. Surprisingly the pair were alone, usually there is at least two horses and let me think, yes two police officers. Anymore than that and they would probably be a troop.

IFBB Pro Bikini at Toronto Pro SuperShow 2017

Saturday's Expo Stage events included the judging for the Pro Bikini competition in the morning and the Woman's Olympia Qualifier Finals later that day in the John Bassett Theatre. Canada's largest multi-sport fitness expo took place over the May 26-28 weekend at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre's north building. You can see more of the IFBB judging on my post here along with the OPA Championship judging.

See more bikinis after the jump.

Bike Month 2017

Pedal power begins with a journey that ends with a bicycle at your work. In deference to that idea the Bike to Work Day was created and it kicked off the 2017 Bike Month which runs May 29 to June 30.

Hundreds of bikers rode into Toronto City Hall escorted by bike cops and parked their bicycles on racks in Nathan Phillips Square.

Honda Indy Toronto begins single-day ticket sale

You can almost smell the sweet, sweet ethanol fuel burning through the high performance twin turbo V6s as the cars whip through Exhibition Place. It won't be long before the month long track build begins and the 11-turn temporary street course starts to take shape. Honda Indy Toronto has started the 2017 single-day ticket sales for general admission and reserved grandstand seats. Fan Friday is still free with a voluntary donation to Make-A-Wish Canada courtesy of the Ontario Honda Dealers and until the end of May you can still get in on the May giveaways. Also available for sale are the two-day tickets including the Gold Level grandstand seats which also includes a paddock pass.

Toronto's SpeedFest runs from Friday, July 14 to Sunday, July 16, 2017 with NASCAR Pinty's Series Grand Prix of Toronto race as Saturday's race feature and the Verizon IndyCar Series race headlining Sunday's race card. "The 85-lap Verizon IndyCar Series race featuring Canadian fan favorite and recent "Dancing with the Stars" contestant James Hinchcliffe alongside last year's winner Will Power. Another Canadian driving hero Alex Tagliani will try to make it two wins in a row during Saturday's NASCAR Pinty's Series-sanctioned event, the Pinty's Grand Prix of Toronto."

"Well, I'm really excited to get back in the streets of Toronto. Obviously, it was awesome to see how much the fans loved NASCAR back on the street course and the fight we had all the way up to the finish line," said Alex Tagliani, the defending race champion. "It's going to be exciting this year driving the Epipen Lowe's #18 car. With the competition level this year, I think the fans are going to be in for an amazing treat."

Bicyclists will return to the track on Thursday, July 13 for the Indy Cycling Challenge to raise money for Prostate Cancer Canada. Three divisions of Men, Women and Corporate Teams will ride 12 laps or almost 35km with each rider completing three laps.

IFBB Womens's Pro Fitness at Toronto Pro SuperShow 2017

The judging took place on the expo stage and the finals took place later in the show. Canada's largest fitness expo took place May 26-28 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre north building and thousands packed the place over the weekend to check out the vendors, celebrities and bodybuilding/fitness competitions. Jodi Boam, pictured at top, takes third place in the competition. First the ladies come out individually, then they have pose in small groups, changing order and poses at the request of the judges.

Aspen Bunyak

Marie Laura Cerbelli

Debbie Clarke

See more of the judging after the jump.