I just realized that I didn’t have any post about the Rogers Chinese Lantern Festival in 2008. I posted the pictures on flickr, but not here. Why was that? Hmmmmm.. 
It was the third one and also the last one that we had here in Toronto. They didn’t have it in 2009, and it turned out that it apparently had been cancelled indefinitely. Sad. I was hoping they would have it this year, until I googled about it. So, just to make myself feel better, I thought I post some pictures from 2008.
It was an interesting mix of objects in 2008, we had buildings from around the world and all sorts of animals (the pandas were back!  ). You can see them on my flickr set, but here are some of them:
An Owl in the Enchanted Forest
The Dolphin Parade
World of Dinosaurs
Tower of Pisa
Statue of Liberty
Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood
Porcelain Pagoda
Click here to see the 2007 list and here for the 2007 flickr set.
And the 2006 posts (not on flickr): Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14 | Extra Day
So, another big winter storm is passing over Toronto at this moment, dumping lots of fresh snow on the ground — I guess it’s good for those who like to ski (or winter in general). But being a tropical girl, I have enough of the cold & white stuff this year .. I want spring!!
Being “grounded” at home by Mother Nature, I decided to go through some of my pics that I haven’t had time to post yet (where did the time go?? ), and it’s nice to see pics of fire (controlled, of course .. not wild fire) — they make me feel like as if I were sitting in front of a camp fire. These are from last month’s Wintercity Festival downtown in Nathan Phillips Square. They made some sculptures of fire (in pots & things). Very neat!
More pics in my Wintercity Festival 2008 flickr set.
We went to try a Korean BBQ restaurant on Queen St. West (a couple of blocks west of University Ave) after the “show” .. the food quality was so-so (except for the tiny meatball side dish), and service was awful. I don’t think I’ll be going there again. :/
This is the second post from my trip to Montreal. We went to St. Joseph Oratory (here’s another link from wikipedia) right after our visit to Mont-Royal Park. It was already dark when we got there, and they just finished the Christmas Mass.
I like the architecture. It’s a Roman Catholic basilica dedicated to St. Joseph. Many people go there to pray to be healed. There are a lot of crutches on display along the wall there .. they say they’re from handicapped people who were healed.
We did a little tour since it was almost closing time, so I only have one pic of the stained glass windows. There are 8 stained glass windows (that look like this one) in the Crypt Church (completed in 1919 by the workshop of Pedriau and O’Shea). They represent the episodes in the life of St. Joseph, this one represents “Jesus’ Circumcision”:
Next time I’ll go around and take pics of all 8 of them!!!!
More pics in my Montreal flickr set.
Montreal. I hadn’t been to Montreal for years (at least 5 years!) until this past Christmas. My brother and sister-in-law were here, so we went there on a trip. And I’ve decided to create one post for one place – instead of by day .. this will give me more posts. Moahaha!
The first stop we made after we got there (ok, ok, the third stop when you count the hotel and McDonald’s .. hehe ) was the Mont-Royal Park (Parc du Mont-Royal). We had a lot of snow on the ground, but the temperature was just nice for a winter day — not too cold. The lake was frozen, so they made lines on one of the hills for tobogganing (no we didn’t try).
But the first thing that caught my eyes when we got there was this:
Never seen one like that before. I’m used to a horse-drawn carriage with wheels. But this one was neat, they could go through ice and snow!
The park seemed to be a LOT bigger when we had to walk and skid on icy trails, but we managed (*phew*) to get to the chalet with a lookout of downtown Montreal:
And the Cross a little further down the icy trail:
Did I mention it was hard to walk on ice?
Hmm .. there was one lady wearing high heel shoes (the heels were at least 10 cm high) — I don’t know how she walked on ice in those. :/ I wanted those shoes with spikes underneath. Wait a minute … high heel .. spike … hmmm … nah!
More pics on my Montreal Flickr set.
Next in this series: St. Joseph Oratory.
I thought I’d post some autumn pics on this snowy, windy and freezing day. It was a cloudy and cold day when we went to Elora Gorge (about an hour west of Toronto) last October .. but now that winter’s here, that day was nice (it’s aaaaallllll relative. LOL)!
It was the last day of their operating season, so there weren’t that many people around. We were the only ones BBQing there — nice, we could pick any picnic table we wanted! JW made some chicken satay .. and grilling them on a charcoal BBQ, it made them taste even better! YUMM!
After the yummy lunch, we went to check out the “Hole in the Rock”:
and a view of the Grand River:
Hmmm .. so the next time I think it’s already cold when I see this:
… I’ll just have to remember days when I see this:
More pics on the Elora Gorge flickr set.
That’s not too bad .. Rogers Chinese Lantern Festival in 30 days (and a bit ) .. could’ve been longer had I not combine a few of them together (they had “part 1″, “part 2″ for some exhibits). LOL!
Anyway, to recap, here are the links to this year’s Rogers Chinese Lantern Festival (also on my Chinese Lantern Festival 2007 flickr set — I posted more pics there than what I’ve posted here):
And for those who wants to see more, here are last year’s 14 Days of Lantern posts (not on flickr): Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14 | Extra Day
A classic novel of Chinese literature, The Water Margin takes place during the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty. It is a heroic poem that closely follows the 108 heroes’ successes and failures during their revolution against the feudalist society.
As a refreshment … here are last year’s 14 Days of Lantern posts: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14 | Extra Day
Xi’an: In second century BC, a Han Dynasty diplomat, Zhang Qian, ventured forth from Xi’an in China. Zhang Qian brought with him Chinese silk, porcelain and other precious treasures to the West. He also gook back to the East the cultural riches, such as grapes, pomegranates and walnuts. He opened …. linking China to the Western countries, the route became the famous – Silk Road.
Dunhuang: With the rise of the Sillk Road and its resultant commerce in trade and ideas, Dunhuang’s role and character altered. Though its importance as a garrison remained, it now doubled as a trading post and cultural centre.
Baghdad: In the eighth century, Baghdad was on the trade route reaching to China. Wander through a bazaar in legendary Baghdad – home of the Arabian Nights — one of the three greatest cities along the ancient Silk Road!
Italy: Italy was the last stop at the western end of The Silk Road where goods were taken to by ships from the great ports of Asia Minor and Palestine.
As a refreshment … here are last year’s 14 Days of Lantern posts: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14 | Extra Day
Dragons are a symbol of Chinese Culture. All dragons represent strength, wisdom, luck, nobility, bravery, and the power of the monarchies.
As a refreshment … here are last year’s 14 Days of Lantern posts: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14 | Extra Day
“The Fable of the White Serpent”, told an ancient fairytale about a love story of a White-Serpent Enchantress Bai Suzhen and a scholar, Xuxian. They married each other and gave birth to a little boy.
The Master Monk Fahai believed that the marriage between serpent and human will pose a threat to humans. As a result, Fahai separated Xuxian and Bai Suzhen by trapping Xuxian inside the Jinshan Temple in order to protect him.
To save Xuxian from the hands of Monk Fahai, the angered mother-to-be, Bai Suzhen called out to the water immortals to flood the Temple of Jinshan. Fahai also commanded marine life including crabs, mussels, shrimps, and fishes to fight against the White Serpent.
As a refreshment … here are last year’s 14 Days of Lantern posts: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14 | Extra Day
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