Car Guese

During a recent visit to Toronto's Kensington Market area we came upon some weird ghouls hanging out in the window of one of the stores. They looked like a combination of skeletons and aliens just looking for someone to probe.
Kensington Market has a tradition of Car Free Sundays on the last Sunday of the month from May to October which is probably a good idea. The combination of narrow and one way streets with trucks making deliveries makes for a tight squeeze.

You can see one of their metal art signs and bike racks in the photo above. Like the name says Kensington Market is full of fruit and vegetable stores as well as some cool restaurants and clothing stores. It is a great destination for walking around and enjoying the flavour of the city. Then you can wander over to Little Italy or Chinatown which are both close by.

During the lead up to the Kensington Market Winter Solstice parade we ran into a young lady that had a cute little puppy that she was keeping warm in her big, red mittens.

For another cute puppy check out the Toronto Star photo blog and their picture of a border collie's face after it played in the snow.

The 21st annual Kensington Market Winter Solstice happens tonite (Dec 21, 2010) starting at 6:30pm at Oxford at Augusta. The parade finishes later at Alexandra Park around 8:00pm. Come for some fire, light and fun. The lantern festival, or festival of lights, has had a number of name changes but it continues to celebrate the shortest day/longest night of the year during the Winter Solstice.

The streets filled up fast with people gathering for the parade in Kensington Market. Large groups of drummers get a strong beat going and the intersection quickly becomes blocked with revelers moving to the drums. Later the parade and the action at the park is hard to witness because of the lack of space and the amount of people jammed together at the baseball diamond.

“Celebrate the return of light on the longest, darkest night! The Kensington Market Winter Solstice is a participatory lantern parade. Make a lantern, bang a drum, wear a costume, carry a puppet …. This is a people’s celebration.” You can buy lanterns at the Community Centre for $10 and help light the way.