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3:00pm, May 2013 | Toronto Port Lands | Canada | Shot with my Samsung GalaxyS3

Toronto Port Lands. Looking northwest.

My bike, my beautiful city and one of my favourite spaces on Toronto Harbour.

Colourized Toronto Port Lands

Toronto Port Lands.

Colourized Toronto Skyline looking northwest.

Toronto Skyline. CN Tower and surrounding buildings shot in negative.

Canada Goose

Christos Anesti, Kalo Pascha and a happy Orthodox Easter to all my friends celebrating.

Pascha is the Greek Orthodox Easter. In 2013, Greek and Eastern Orthodox Easter arrived later in the year and was welcomed by beautiful spring summer weather. Pascha observations started at the beginning of the week with Good Friday observed May 3rd and Easter Sunday celebrated May 5th. Kalo Pascha is Happy Easter in Greek. Greek Easter is a beautiful time of year. A great time to reflect on what is good in our world.

Paschal Light

These photos were taken in the early hours after midnight. We gathered for a small traditional meal at home after the saturday night Liturgy. We transported the lit candles home from church and lit an oil lamp that burns with olive oil. They call this flame “light of the resurrection”, It came from the alter of a Greek Orthodox church. I’m not the most religious person but I do love spirituality, tradition and heritage.

Enjoy this set taken in the kitchen where modern meets traditionalism. Peace and love to all of us.

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Morning Sustainability…

Greek Yogurt or Goat’s Milk Yogurt, ensure it’s plain, topped with fresh berries, unpasteurized local honey, organic local walnuts and/or granola. So healthy with the added benefits of protein and active probiotic cultures. Plain Greek yogurt is available almost everywhere now.

Greek Yogurt with Berries, Local Walnuts and Unpasteurized Honey!

I’m one of those guys who would eat a full breakfast daily and still feel low energy during morning meetings and workouts. Maybe it was what I was eating? My breakfasts varied from cereals to breakfast sandwiches and muffins which food corporations advertised as “power breakfast”, “energy nutrition”, “sunshine in a meal”. It took a while for me to realize the food companies were lying. What I was really eating was sugar and gmo corn.

It’s unfortunate that most food corporations and fast food brands spend more money on advertising and marketing than food quality. Many breakfast cereals are made of chemicals, sugar and gmo corn, disguised to taste like good food. Fast food breakfast sandwiches are made from gmo soybeans and processed meats and cheeses from gmo corn-fed animals, how unhealthy.

I started to look beyond the marketing and more at the foods I was eating and asked myself; would I trust a corporation to make my food over an individual? The answer was no. I immediately thought of my Yiayia (grandmother) and the traditional breakfasts I ate in my teens. At that moment I craved homemade Trikala Greek Yogurt.

No Added Sugar!

Natural energy with no added sugar, my power breakfast for one, getting me through to lunch.

Serving: 1 • Time: 2 minutes

Medieval Fort at Trikala Thessaly, Greece

• 6 oz. plain Greek yogurt or Goat’s Milk Yogurt
• 1 tbsp honey (preferably local and unpasteurized)
• 1/2 cup fresh berries
• 1 tbsp (.25 oz) smashed local organic walnuts or local granola

Place yogurt in a dish, top with berries, walnuts and honey. Substituting walnuts with granola would taste great too.

A traditional recipe from Trikala

There’s nothing new about Greek Yogurt. In my early years I would spend some of my summer vacations in the old country visiting my Yiayia. Every morning I’d wake up to fresh Trikala Greek Yogurt as I would call it with fresh fruit, walnuts and honey. The true power breakfast of champions. ^

Source: John Zeus
Cover Photo Source: Web

4:00pm, April 28, 2013 | Gores Landing looking west | Rice Lake, Ontario Canada
I used my Samsung Galaxy S3 device to shoot this.

Rice Lake, Ontario – Spring

Gores Landing on Rice Lake. Taken on a beautiful spring day in April. A striking difference from when I was here a month ago and the lake was covered in ice. The time I saw the otter, related post: Rice Lake Otter

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5:30 pm EDT – April 21, 2013 | Niagara River | North From Queenston, ON | Taken on a Samsung Galaxy S3

The Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the Province of Ontario in Canada and New York State in the United States.
This shot is taken from the scenic Niagara Parkway on Canadian side of the border looking north from Queenston, Ontario. A great view of the United States and Lewiston, NY across the river.

On Weekends The Tower Cranes Stand Silent.

During the week, there’s a flurry of construction activity underway in Toronto’s West Don Lands. Tower cranes are a common fixture here as they’ve been throughout Toronto since the condo construction boom began a few years ago. Signs of change in this neighbourhood are now becoming apparent. It’s an interesting area to explore on weekends. ^ Photos by John Zeus

Watch the video.

3:30 pm EDT – March 16, 2013 | Gores Landing, Rice Lake Ontario, Canada | -7C

Spring is on it’s way. A few more days till the vernal equinox, the calendar says.
This winter won’t let go, Rice Lake is frozen through to the other side.
A cold wind blowing off the wintry lake, we hear the lake moving underneath the ice.
*Splash*,  an otter appears, slipping through a hole in the ice to catch and carry fish to her babies. They nestle underneath the dock. Spring is late this year.

Rice Lake is a lake located in south-eastern Ontario. The lake is 32 km long and 5 km wide. It’s fairly shallow and was named for the wild rice which grew in it and was harvested by the First Nations people of the area.

Photos and Video taken on my Samsung Galaxy S3
Music Source: The Doors – Soul Kitchen

2:30pm Saturday February 23, 2013 | Bloor-Yorkville, Toronto Ontario, Canada

Strolling down Cumberland Avenue…

…on a beautiful Toronto wintry February afternoon looking at the process of making ice sculptures at Bloor-Yorkville’s Icefest. It was fun! Packed with guests, and hard to get good shots.

This year’s theme was “Wonderful and Whimsical” and took guests on a journey through a magical enchanted garden. IceFest transformed Bloor-Yorkville into a wonderland with fantastical sculptures including whimsical winged fairies, charming and adorable gnomes, oversized butterflies, magical flowers, trees and plants carved from 35,000 lbs. of ice.

The downtown Toronto neighbourhood just sparkled with excitement as Bloor-Yorkville IceFest introduced whimsy and warmed some of our hearts during this chilly winter. ^

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