Copper Canopy art installation Harbourfront Centre

Toronto's Harbourfront Centre is embracing Fall and as part of their 2025 Water/Fall Festival are featuring Copper Canopy within Ontario Square Park. Luckily these copper leaves don't fall to the forest floor, or your head.

The art installation is free to visit and will be on display until November 16, 2025. Created by RAW Works and fabricated by Anex Works, they describe it as an Installation of Light, Shadow and Community.

The Harbourfront website says, "In the chaos of urban life, we often forget to take a moment to breathe. Copper Canopy offers a moment of stillness – inviting visitors to stand beneath something that feels alive.

The outdoor installation, made from a suspended grid of copper leaves, reimagines the shelter of a forest canopy with each leaf individually cut and hung to form a floating canopy above. By day, the leaves catch the light and scatter soft shadows across the ground. By night, lighting transforms the installation – casting intricate patterns on surrounding surfaces and shifting the atmosphere of the space entirely. As wind moves through the piece, the leaves gently sway and rustle, adding a subtle layer of sound to the experience.

Responding to its surroundings and shifting with the light, weather and movement of people passing beneath it, this work offers a dynamic and reflective space in the heart of the city."

@jmhcet Copper Canopy art installation at #Toronto #harbourfrontcentre #ontariosquare. #artinstallation #coppercanopy ♬ You May Be Right - Billy Joel

Glow in the Berczy Park

The Toronto place with the iconic dog fountain has a number of LED light installations from Sept 24 to Oct 31, 2025. Glow in the Park has two colour changing light pieces and the donut swings are pretty cool to hang around on.

It is a free to attend light festival and the Old Town Toronto website says, "Four sleek modern swings will welcome you to sit and bask in their warm glow under the beautiful tree canopy of Berczy Park. Beside the swings, a collection of LED tubes to wander through and take selfies against a backdrop of the famous dog fountain and Flatiron mural."

@jmhcet Glow in the Park at #berczypark in #Toronto light art installations Sept 24 to Oct 31, 2025. #art #lightinstallations #glowinthepark ♬ Walking On Sunshine (25th Anniversary) [2010 Remaster] - Katrina and the Waves

Colonial Tavern's record monument on Yonge Street

This record doesn't spin but it remembers great jazz musicians that performed at Colonial Tavern in Toronto from 1947 to 1987. The building that housed the tavern at 203 Yonge Street is gone now, demolished the year it closed, but the large granite monument was unveiled in 1996, removed during the condo development and parkette construction before it finally found its way back to the site of the former tavern. The parkette is really just some concrete and a ramp.

Two historic bank buildings bookmark the parkette, one with the large Massey Tower condo over the former Canadian Bank of Commerce building to the south and the old Bank of Toronto building. It probably took a lot of deposits to finance all those columns used by the banks.

The black granite disc, or record, shows 175 musical artists, including many legendary artists, who played the famous jazz venue, breaking the colour barrier in Toronto in 1947. The Colonial was founded by Lawrence and Lichtenberg and also inscribed on the stone is the following.

"Jazz Place: Serves to commemorate the important contribution to the cultural life of Toronto and the North American Jazz Scene. 1995"

The monument in the sidewalk

The Parkette between the banks

Former Bank of Toronto

Looking towards the former Canadian Bank of Commerce building

Craning on Yonge Street

Construction work on a building along Yonge Street required the roadway to be closed to allow cranes to lift equipment to the site. Workers brought in electrical equipment on several flatbed trucks and moved them to the building, high in the air. It was very exciting, I'm surprised that there wasn't a giant crowd watching this operation go down.

The crane lift happened on the September 20-21, 2025 weekend and Yonge Street was closed from Adelaide Street West to King Street West.

Queen West Art Crawl Festival Toronto 2025

Toronto's Queen West Art Crawl Festival (QWAC) takes place within Trinity-Bellwoods Park, which is a perfect place to stage the arts festival. This year the festival is the September 20-21 weekend and there are plenty of artists and vendors involved along the paths throughout the southern portion of the large park.

QWAC, which I think of as quack, runs a number of events that benefit both artists and local residents and their two-day multidisciplinary, outdoor arts festival gets over twenty thousand attendees every year. The artists tents are located around and within the circular and bisecting paths while the site also hosts a main stage and kids zone. The event boasts of over 100 artists, live music, food and more.

From QWAC website, "Queen West Art Crawl creates an open, public space for arts and culture in a busy downtown neighbourhood. Our festival includes a 2SLGBT+ friendly Kids' Zone and a Main Stage with Music and Drag that is 50%+ BIPOC. To ensure that underserved populations are strongly represented in our art exhibit, we partner with groups, including Workman Arts and the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, donating spaces for artists with lived mental health experiences and local Indigenous populations, that are recommended to us through their own communities."

Clay and Paper Theatre fear catcher

Toronto VegTO Fest 2025

Vegans and Vegetarians can attend the 40th anniversary of VegTO Festival at Nathan Phillips Square over the September 20-21, 2025 weekend. The event is free to attend and features vendors, information and entertainment along with panel discussions.

Show Hours
Sat. Sep. 20th 11am - 7pm
Sun. Sep. 21st 11am - 6pm

Vikki Lenola will be hosting Vegan Fashion and the Future of Textiles discussion on the mainstage Sunday at 3pm followed by the panel on Beyond Animals - Alternative Proteins, Animal Free Science, & Canada’s Future at 4pm.

From discussing and showing sustainable animal free textiles and fashions to the future of alternative proteins as well as animal free science and advocacy, it's time to learn about non-meat stuff.

Cloud Gardens Park Conservatory expected to reopen in 2026

Cloud Gardens is an amazing urban park because it not only has park stuff, like grass, but it also has a conservatory. I have never been in the conservatory but I look forward to visiting it when it opens again in 2026, refreshed and all tropically like a cloud rainforest. I did frequent the park many times before the construction began and was always impressed by the amount of bike couriers that filled the site making it their social gathering site, that and the cool walls, waterfall and metal columns.

The park part is open now but the wall, waterfall and conservatory and still fenced off and under construction.

The City says that, "the Conservatory located on the east side of Cloud Gardens Park is closed until late 2026 due to planned restoration work. Stairs, ramps and terraces will remain closed until restoration work is completed. The Cloud Gardens Conservatory is like a tropical cloud forest nestled between the office towers of Toronto's busy downtown core. It sits on land given to the city in the 1980's when the Bay Adelaide Centre was constructed. Recognized with a Governor General's Architectural Award, it features elaborate award winning design and a monument to Toronto's construction workers."

The dry waterfall waits

The Cloud Gardens Conservatory sits on land given to the city in the 1980s when the Bay Adelaide Centre was constructed. The Conservatory was renovated in 2014 and re-opened in spring 2015 with a new climate control system and grow lights to address shading caused by newly built office towers. Improvements also include an improved misting system and a new monorail system to help maintain the mechanics and vertical wall gardens. Soil amendments and new plantings further help to simulate a Cloud Forest habitat.

Ontario Fall Fairs 2025

As the foliage starts to change colours the fun of fall fairs return as destinations that help to unite communities and get the stuffed toy and goldfish in a bowl distribution system going into high gear. While the Canadian National Exhibition has finished for the 2025 the local, small town fairs are putting in stakes and setting up rides even as we speak.

Of course the bookmark of the season is Toronto's Royal Agricultural Winter Fair and Royal Horse Show which also takes place in Exhibition Place November 7-16, 2025.

You can look up local Ontario Fairs at a few sites including the following.

Destination Ontario

Ontario Association of Agricultural Societies

To Do Ontario

Toronto Love Park pond goes green again

The heart shaped pond in Love Park has gone a lovely shade of green again, much like the reported incident in 2023 when algae filled the water in the pond. It's ridiculous that this issue persists because I think it interferes with my swimming laps as it's kind of soupy.

As an urban oasis the 2-acre park at York and Queens Quay West is a boutique park filled mostly with the pond, so you really notice the off colour water.

The City of Toronto notes that "features within the park include: A large, shallow, heart-shaped pond at the park’s centre, combined with existing and newly planted trees to create a tranquil area amongst the bustling city streets, a gently swirling pathway for pedestrians to move through the park quickly or stroll and enjoy a calm respite, nine bronze-cast Canadian animals and moveable café-style tables and chairs sponsored by the Waterfront BIA and a trellis, a drinking fountain and a dog’s off-leash area."