My first Halloween vol. 2

What was going on outside in downtown Toronto THIS I couldn't even imagine in my wildest DREAMS!

People had the weirdest costumes. Mostly raw and bloody, but some very creative, as that set of Tetris cubes, my favorite and the woman who was literally walking around as a mirror of the fairest :O

Red Ribbon support gums

Friend gave me really cool chewing gums. Please support!

My first Halloween vol.1

Until this day I had no idea what to expect from a Halloween, but now I sure do know what it all about.

I was invited to a Halloween party by Marika, another fellow Estonian work and traveller.

Party was crazy. What was my costume?

This good-looking woman was our host.

The party got really wild, you know what I mean now? :O

Tip

The first good tip day. It will pay for my bus fare :)

PHONE PHOTO!

Abundance of candies

This means that visitors from Estonia has arrived :)

PHONE PHOTO!

Talgud in Kotkajärve

I participated with Katre in talgud, I really have no idea how the word is in English. Basically it is working together with a bunch of people who work together on improving a site, house, area. 

We worked mainly in the forest while piling up fallen trees for Arvo's to cut them and pile with our help. 

That was so far the coolest idea how to move a massive amount of logs from one side of the lake to another where the sauna is located.

Sometimes it is hard to be a woman and make it right in the men world, as there are so many teachers around, right?

But Maimu did well anyway :)

Kotkajärve nature

This I had in mind for nice Kotkajärve photos.

Eating at talgud

   

I mean check out this morning delight at Kotkajärve!!!

You work hard and you eat well, that is all I can say. The food was just amazing, portions were big and healthy. Yummy! Hard volunteer work pays off!

Hello Kotkajärve!

This is my first visit to Kotkajärve when I actually stayed there. This time for talgud, otherwise for bee. Nature there is amazing, so I expect some good photos.

As you can see some wild animals can get very hungry or they want to build a nice home for their family.

Wool socks

While on countryside I got hooked on the socks with one or two red stripes. My host of that time gave me three pairs of them. Wow, my own Canadian feeling. These do not come close to any Estonian villased sokid, but they do just fine. 

Katre

This was my first glance at Katre, who is a good friend of mine now.

EstDocs at TIFF

If none of you has been to TIFF venue, here is a little sneak preview of the great hall there.

EstDocs speeches

The head of EstDocs Ellen Valter is giving introductory speech at TIFF.
Artur Talvik as the head of EstDocs jury is giving a very exciting speech apparently. He is a big name in Estonia, also a movie-maker, so to get him to Toronto was a good deal.

EstDocs

The biggest (and best) Estonian cultural event outside of Estonia. EstDocs embraces non-Estonian speaking audiences, as the festival operates in English and all films include English subtitles.

EstDocs 2011

One of my first photography gigs in Canada. A famous EstDocs is taking place at TIFF Bell Lightbox, yes, the same venue where Toronto International Film Festival is held annually. Volunteering is fun and so is people watching. Next posts will be dedicated to one and only EstDocs :)

In Estonia we have similar, but much bigger movie festival which is called PÖFF.

Parcel from home!

This was my first package from home. From Kadri, including all nice goodies I have been missing from home. Yayy! Also an article of Kuime which was published in Positiiv, a photography magazine.

Thank you so much Kadri!

Celebration of life

I have no actual photos of this event, but I got to go to a very interesting event for me. Erik Johannes Saun, a young man passed a year ago due to an illness. A year after his passing his family and friends came together to Estonian House to throw a funny, warm and positive gathering to celebrate his life. Over Estonia death is also so sad, makes people reserved and quiet. Hardly ever anybody celebrating the death of somebody. But it was a great event, great vibe, happy people, of course you can't get pass the tears, but isn't that the part of life as well, us passing to another life.

Canadian Shield

While in rural Ontario it seemed a lot like being in Finland to me, as in there you could also see roads that go straight through the shield.I always liked this about Finland. We, in Estonia never get to see the Baltic Shield, as this starts to be exposed in Finland, Sweden and Norway.

Wikipedia says so about the Canadian Shield: also called the Laurentian Plateau is a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks (geological shield) that forms the ancient geological core of the North American continent (North American or Laurentia craton), covered by a thin layer of soil. It is an area mostly composed of igneous rock which relates to its long volcanic history. It has a deep, common, joined bedrock region in Eastern and central Canada and stretches North from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean, covering over half of Canada; it also extends South into the Northern reaches of the United States. Human population is sparse, and industrial development is minimal, while mining is very prevalent.

Alpaca

I wasn't aware of an animal called Alpaca. I knew Llama, which is very much like Alpaca, but not quite. It is a domesticated species of South American camelid. It resembles a small llama in appearance. There are two breeds of alpaca; the Suri alpaca and the Huacaya alpaca.

Alpacas are kept in herds that graze on the level heights of the Andes of southern Peru, northern Bolivia, Ecuador, and northern Chile at an altitude of 3,500 m above sea level, throughout the year. So seeing them in rural Ontario was a bit of a shocker as I realized after my first meeting with the creatures in spring, remember the photo session from alpaca shearing? 

Interesting fact of alpacas is that they are considerably smaller than llamas, and unlike llamas, they were not bred to be beasts of burden, but were bred specifically for their fiber. Alpaca fiber is used for making knitted and woven items, similar to wool. These items include blankets, sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves, a wide variety of textiles and ponchos in South America, and sweaters, socks, coats and bedding in other parts of the world. The fiber comes in more than 52 natural colors as classified in Peru, 12 as classified in Australia and 16 as classified in the United States.

Thanksgiving Dinner

This is the meal of the day - the Thanksgiving Dinner and a dessert, which was a whip-cream topped pumpkin pie. Of course. All the vegetables were heavenly and the red peppers real spicy. Cake I am not going to mention.

Deer

This is an actual living and breathing deer. That is the closest I have ever been to a wild one out in the wilderness. Oh boy, right? I couldn't go any closer, as otherwise I would have lost the frame of the shot. That deer was so brave and afraid of nothing, I just kept approaching. Great lighting, too.

Back at Bon Echo park

I visited this place in April, but never got that high, as this time, as it was bad weather and the park was closed anyway. In this hot weather in October it was much pleasant to hike up to the hill to enjoy the breath-taking view.

By the way, since I didn't apply any sunscreen I burnt my shoulders. Yeah, in October!!

Thanksgiving pre-bonfire

Had an amazing chance to participate in a nice come-together out in the wilderness with many locals, food and a huge bonfire.

Got a great shot at that gathering.

Have never seen fold chairs like that before, true patriotism. I wonder when Estonians will have something like that.

We usually have great bonfires on St. John Day which you already saw me celebrating earlier in this blog.

Fall heat

Yeah, it is the beginning of October and 8.32 PM and this is 18 C. But check what the weather will be for the weekend, for the Thanksgiving weekend which I will spend out in the countryside with my volunteer family. Exciting. My first Thanksgiving in Canada.

Squirrels

Have I already mentioned squirrels?

Well for me they are IN ABUNDANCE in Toronto. I haven't seen so many squirrels in my whole life when I saw in one day in Toronto. You can get amazing photos of them. Hopefully I can get something interesting one day. 

EKKT art show sale

EKKT stands for Eesti Kunstnike Koondis Torontos/ Society of Estonian Artists in Toronto. It was established in 1956 in Canada.

It was my first time to visit such event and meet the artists. Interesting concept and well yeah, kind of tuus as well, if you know what I mean if your stuff is presented there ;)

Photographing Canadian fall

We continued to be on the road in Algonquin Park to amaze the beauty of the colorful leaves which were covering landscape until our eyes could see.