I love maple syrup, so was delighted to attend the Sweetwater Harvest Festival last weekend at Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre and Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons. While touring the Wye Marsh sugar shack, I learned (part of) the answer to a question I had never thought to ask, but should have: why does maple syrup come …
In just a few hours, I learned quite a bit about the book arts, paper, and bookbinding, from Andrew Huot of Big River Bindery in Scarborough, Ontario. Visiting Andrew’s studio in person was a treat in itself, as it contains vintage printing presses and heavy metal bookbinding equipment, including the biggest paper cutter (guillotine) I’d …
Toronto’s jewel of a public library system offers staffed Digital Innovation Hubs, located in 13 branches (as well as Pop-Up Learning Labs), bringing technology and education to the public. One featured service is 3D printing, and last night I attended the introductory class at Toronto Reference Library to understand how it works. Here are a …
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a very interesting set of talks at the Royal Ontario Museum, “From China to Canada: Untold Stories of the Chinese Art Collection at ROM.” From the ROM website: It was hoping that one of my favourite objects at the ROM would be featured and it was! I’ve …
What an unexpected pleasure to meet Canadian figure skating champions Elvis Stojko and Kurt Browning! Today at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square, Ridley College put on a coaching showcase event to promote their new figure skating program (see TorontoToday review with photos). Incidentally, what a terrific scenario where a student’s skating training is integrated with their …
Today I’ve completed a terrific course from Library Juice Academy, Introduction to Digital Humanities for Librarians. The last assignment involved thinking about what you might do in your own work. One option was to create a professional development plan, and I’m sharing mine here so I can come back to it! I’m very interested in …
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Robert Hooke’s (copper-plate engraving of a) flea. The other day I was fortunate to be part of a small group at the University of Toronto Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library’s public workshop “Introduction to Scientific Book Illustration,” presented by Alexandra Carter, History of Science and Medicine Librarian. …
Okay, this is not earth-shaking, but wow, here’s a tip I want to remember! For years, I’ve been meaning to remove the unsightly tape residue from my office window. Tonight, staffing a rental, seemed to be a good time to tackle this, and I found a solution on YouTube. (How did the residue get there? …
In October 2024, I was looking for a new walking project (see 2021’s project) to keep motivated, and joked to a friend that I could try visiting every one of the City of Toronto’s 1,520+ parks. Impossible, right? The more I thought about it, though, the more it seemed like a great goal for me. I …
Yesterday, on a frigid Toronto January afternoon, I got a bit joyfully obsessed with a cement floor. The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery has been around on the Toronto Harbourfront scene since 1987 but I’d somehow never managed to visit. On Sunday, my intention was to check out the nearby Museum of Toronto’s current exhibition, …