Long Live the Slide Show!

It's hard to believe, but the era of the digital camera, at least in terms of widespread use by the general public, is barely a decade old. And goodness knows, we've been happy snappers for a lot longer than that! One of the somewhat annoying consequences of a history of traveling and photography is a closet stuffed with boxes of 35mm slides that nobody looks at any more. Seriously, we can't even remember the last time we pulled out the projector and screen and sat down to a good old slide show.

We've talked about digitizing our collection for years, but finally late last fall we spotted a Groupon offer that moved all that talk into the realm of the probable. It was for a digital scanner, and it was at a price that we felt justified the investment in both time and equipment. So we went for it.

Today we pulled out the first box and did a little experimenting. It's tedious work, no question- each slide has to be individually popped into the scanner. And going forward, each will need a little advance TLC: they'll need a few blasts with air and perhaps a gentle caress from a sensor brush, but for now the results look promising. We're not about to win any photo contests, but we weren't expecting perfection. We simply wanted a way to move all those locked-away images back into the world of living data, and most importantly, to be able to blow the dust off some of those great memories. Here are a couple from Belgium in 2002: 

Looking Up...Frank Gehry in the Walker Court

We paid a visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario last weekend to catch the Frida Kahlo/ Diego Rivera retrospective (Wow!), but of course you can't be in the building without treating yourself to one more meander on Mr. Gehry's stunningly sinuous staircase! Here we are, looking up in anticipation:

Two Greedy Italians

Here in Toronto there's a local network called Telelatino which has been featuring a great BBC food show called "Two Greedy Italians" It features two well known Italian godfathers of food- Gennero Contaldo and Antonio Carluccio- who travel their homeland conjuring up memories and dishes of their somewhat distant youth.

Seeing Antonio Carluccio reminded us of another long lost BBC cooking program, "Antonio Carluccio's Italian Feast", one of the early day food programs that helped get us hooked on cooking.

Last evening we went to the bookcase and pulled out the cook book we had ordered when the series aired. Opening it we were delighted to discover a wrapper in which we had brought home from Tuscany a bottle of luscious Vino Nobile di Montepulciano; a memory from our own somewhat distant youth!

Here's a link to the current series:

http://tlntv.com/shows/two-greedy-italians

Seen...Rear Window (Ossington 2)

Seen...Rear Window (Ossington 1)

Looking Up...Icicles

Jarvis and Carlton

Seen...Blue Lab

Allan Gardens

Allan Gardens Glass House in the Snow

Some of you may remember when this little gem sat at the northwest corner of University Avenue and College Street. We think its relocation to Allan Gardens and integration with the existing glass house conservatory in the park was beautifully done. The structure is quite magical in the snow, and of course its delight is magnified tenfold when you enter the tropical lushness from the cold outdoors!