Tag: Kingston

Water Pumps

I get a kick as you may have gathered about learning about a whole bunch of aspects of the life and the history of the City. This week I go to to walk around this room late on an autumn afternoon with the yellow sunlight coming in low from the west. These are the original two steam pumps from the later 1800s which drew water in from Lake Ontario. Click on the pictures for much larger versions.



Kingston Blogger Meet-up

Last night, we stopped off at the student union center at Queens to drop in on the inaugural Kingston bloggers get together. As it is homecoming weekend, the city is littered with guys my age and older in their own undergrad leather jackets looking for a keg party to crash so it was easy to inconspicuously hang out on campus for an hour with folks yet to make most of life’s mistakes. Except for the Red Sox’s hat. All of a sudden it is ok to shout “Hey! Go Sox!” at the guy with the Red Sox hat on across the street. Fine with me, I suppose, just as long as they don’t try to rub my belly for good luck.

Anyway, as I was taking herself out for dinner, we only had an hour or so to talk blog but we did get to meet the guys behind:

It was interesting to discuss how the move into blogging was something that was growing in part by word of mouth. John of Hypothesis knew, for example, Eve at The Swamp; Matther Matthew of Living in Society help introduced Blackhole of the View from In Here. We had to cut very early and missed the rumoured attendance of Queens alum Joey of the sideburns and yesterday’s Globe announcement. A good first gathering and we may suggest a few gather at the brew pub before Christmas. Still, I had a sense that this was as yet good geekery so my old fart advice was don’t mention if you are single that you blog until the engagement is confirmed.

After, we two ended up at the Toucan on Princess for supper – which was disappointing enough not to warrant a review at A Good Beer Blog. As portland says, the enemy of the good is the excellent and Guinness poured frosty and pot pie and chip that take one hour and fifteen minutes to materialize are no way to win anyone who has been attended to at the Kingston Brew Pub or Pilot House. As it was homecoming and the entire place was staffed by two just waiters, I would still go back as the gravy in the steak and kidley pie was kidleyesque. But re-route that Guiness line around the cooling unit, for heavens sake. The inhumanity of it all.

Detail

I have written about the great portrait collection at work before. I have a hard time keeping my eyes off this particular painting when I am in a meeting in a certain room and especially the detail over the shoulder of the Mayor for 1898, Charles Livingston:

What a merry little steam ship. I suppose the fact that the Murney’s Point Martello has all its cannon doors open is auspicious in some way I don’t get 106 years later.

Still More &%(% Buildings

Here some recent shots from around the downtown of Kingston. The plaque is from the picture to its left and sets out the history of the structure as a bank under four companies since 1876. The bank is in the back of this shot from a post about its neighbours. The domed building is the back of this church which faces this pub. The second small limestone cottage is just to the right of this building, hidden mid-block. The other shots are all up Princess Street. I quite like the upper stories which have largely been left untouched by the whims of chain retailers renting on street level. James Reid Furniture is an exception celebrating 150 years in its original location, maintaining its facade including the carriage way which I approached from the back of the block in this post.