Widow's Endorphins: Hauntingly Beautiful Music

Widow's Endorphins: Hauntingly Beautiful Music: Nothing says, "Happy Halloween", like a headless lady in a cemetery.  I walked past her on a cold, dreary day last October, ...

Hauntingly Beautiful Music

Nothing says, "Happy Halloween", like a headless lady in a cemetery.  I walked past her on a cold, dreary day last October, and felt a real chill down my spine.  She's the blind sentry, keeping vigil at the top of a small hill, within Toronto's Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

There's an eerie sadness about this gravesite statue.  She marks the grave of a baby boy, and other family members who were later buried with him.  Part of the inscription reads, "In loving memory of Peter Hall infant son of Howard C and Margaret Heintzman.  Died Feby (the old abbreviation for February) 9th 1928".  He was ten months old.  

It is unusual to have such an elaborate headstone (now headless headstone) for an infant.  I wondered, walking back through the park a year later, on a bright, sunny October morning, if her head had been vandalized, or damaged by time and weather.  I also wondered if her head had ever been replaced.  It hadn't.  Which got me asking questions about the headless statue, and the Heintzman family...cue the hauntingly beautiful sounds of piano music... 

Peter Hall was the infant Great Grandson of Theodore August Heintzman, founder of the world famous piano manufacturing company which bears his name to this day.

Theodore was born in Berlin, Germany in 1817.  He went to work in a piano factory, and married his employer's daughter, Mathilde Emilie Louise Grunow.  In 1850, when some of her family moved to America, the couple set sail.

Another piano maker was on the same ship, and by the time they landed in New York City, Heintzman and Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg went into business together.  They soon parted, with Heintzman taking his family to Buffalo, New York, and Steinweg changing his name to Steinway.  For Heintzman, the piano business in the months leading to the American Civil War, was a failure.  With war coming, no one was buying pianos.  So, he moved his family across the border to Canada.

He built his first pianos in his married daughter's Toronto kitchen, working with his son-in-law.  By 1866, he had founded Heintzman and Company, building good solid pianos for Toronto's growing families.  Heintzman pianos gained an international reputation for quality, when Queen Victoria heard a performance at Royal Albert Hall, and was heard to say, "I didn't realize that such beautiful instruments could be made in the colonies!" 

Within two years of Queen Victoria's endorsement, Heintzman was employing 200 craftsmen, and building one thousand pianos a year.  They were one of the biggest manufacturers in Canada. Heintzman pianos were winning awards at international exhibitions in Britain and North America.

Theodore August Heintzman died in Toronto in 1899, leaving two of his sons to take over the business.  Within three years, they were making rare transposing pianos, also called composer pianos, where the entire keyboard could slide to the left or right, and change keys!  By 1904, they began making grand pianos - nine foot grand pianos!  In the 1920s, tall Heintzman upright grand pianos, and player foot-pumped pianos were also popular.

 For more than one hundred years - from 1866 to 1978 - the Heintzman company made its home in Toronto.  Then, in 1978, the company moved its factory to Hanover, Ontario, where it stayed until 1986.  That was the year they moved to Beijing, China!

The Heintzman Crystal Piano, built in Beijing, is known as the world's most expensive piano.  It recently sold at auction for 3.22 million dollars US!  Kinda blows your mind...

I imagine that baby Peter Hall Heintzman's few short months on earth, were filled with the sounds of piano music.  It seems appropriate to select piano music, and turn up the volume on your iphone, when walking past his gravesite.  Not because you're scared - just keeping the spirit of music alive!

I still do not know how the statue lost her head, and why it has not been repaired...For now, it remains a mystery...and doesn't everyone love a Halloween mystery?

A postscript to this story:  The baby and his Great Grandfather, piano company Patriarch, Theodore August Heintzman appear to have been buried together.  I found a photograph that I had missed in writing this blogpost, and discovered that the right side of the statue, has an inscription for T. A. Heintzman and his wife, her name altered slightly to Mathilde Amelia Louisa.

It is odd, that having passed long before the baby, their names are found on the side of the headless statue, not on the front.  It is possible that their names were added afterwards, or included in baby's headstone.

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.



Did you notice the Oscar Peterson Roses, and the musical note vase for the white hydrangeas?

Widow's Endorphins: Oatmeal and Cream...and Celery

Widow's Endorphins: Oatmeal and Cream...and Celery: Oatmeal, wheat, cream, butter, apricot and celery...No, I'm not writing a bizarre recipe, or my weekly grocery list!  These are ...

Oatmeal and Cream...and Celery

Oatmeal, wheat, cream, butter, apricot and celery...No, I'm not writing a bizarre recipe, or my weekly grocery list!  These are some of the subtle colours of the Autumn palette.  While vivid yellows, oranges, reds and maroons dominate the Fall palette (see archives Autumn is Awesome 23/10/2017), the nuanced beiges, creams, pale pinks and soft greens have a quiet splendor all their own. 

Often the subdued colours, are needed to balance the more vibrant colours, so that they actually stand out.  The image of apples piled in a basket in front of a neighbourhood street market (above), would be boring, if only bright red apples were in the photo.  Try covering up all of the apples, except for the three red ones in the centre.  Now, show the whole photo.  As my Dad used to say, "how d'ya like them apples"!

One of my favourite flowers is Hydrangea.  The bright blue and pink plants begin appearing in grocery stores in time for Easter and Mothers' Day.  By June, the annuals in the garden are bursting with blossoms of azure, violet, light blue, baby pink, deep pink, and red plum.  As Fall approaches, the blossoms lighten, even turning to a light celery green colour. 

This beautiful, cream-coloured blossom (below), with just a hint of soft green, is a perfect example of the true Hydrangea blossom.  The true flower is the tiny white blossom within the centre of the four petals.  It's the first time I've seen one...nevermind all the others blooming around it!  

The Chicago Peace tearose which has bloomed throughout the Summer on my balcony, is blooming for the last time this year.  After four waves, or flushes, it is saying farewell in style.  The final blooms are softer shades of apricot, pink and butter cream:  the colours of the sunrise on a sombre grey morning.

Speaking of mornings, the breakfast shades of oatmeal, wheat and toast are everywhere at this time of year.  Bright yellow, black and white pop against the muted grey, brown and pumpkin colours of this Painted Lady butterfly.

Ornamental grasses, blowing in the October wind, gleam on a sunny afternoon.  Feather Reedgrass looks a little like Prairie wheat.  It's nature's weather vane, wafting in a light breeze, or bending in a storm - and it is hardy in a harsh Winter climate.  

  

There's another plant, which gently sways with the wind...often mistakenly called Pampas Grass, the tall oatmeal-white Ravenna Grass (below), is not native to Argentina.  It's a Mediterranean plant.  Ravenna Grass is a hardy, and vigorously spreading plant, that is classified as an unwanted, noxious weed in some parts of the US.  Which is ironic, considering that the Italian city of Ravenna has no less than eight United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Oranization (UNESCO) World Heritage sites!  How d'ya like them apples?! 

   

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.

Widow's Endorphins: Autumn is Awesome!

Widow's Endorphins: Autumn is Awesome!: It seems to have happened almost overnight.  Autumn arrived in Toronto in all her blazing glory.  I've been going for long, slow...

Autumn is Awesome!

It seems to have happened almost overnight.  Autumn arrived in Toronto in all her blazing glory.  I've been going for long, slow walks with my camera, exploring neighbourhoods, park gardens and an old cemetery.  In sunshine and shadow, the colours are amazing!  Nature combines colours brilliantly!

I love these grape vines growing on a weathered cedar fence, along a neighbourhood laneway.  The tiny grapes were barely visible behind the wall of grape leaves.  It was only when I came across a bare patch of leaves, that I noticed the deep blue-black of the fruit.

The leaves are broad and thick like grape leaves, however, the grapes are so small, they look more like blueberries.  It's possible that they are Champagne grapes.

 

Around the corner, and down another street, Virginia Creeper has crept up a utility pole, and is beginning to form an arch on overhanging electrical wires.  The vibrant, fiery oranges and burnt sienna, highlight the buttery yellow of the smaller leaves.

Colour isn't the only contrast with this plant.  While its flowing vines of delicate leaves may appear fragile, this is a very hardy plant, which will grow anywhere - facing North, South, East or West - in the coldest of climates.  Also known as American Ivy, the vine will grow as high as 15 metres, or 50 feet, and is often seen on the sides of buildings, or on trellis gates.    

Between people staring down at Autumn photos on their iphones, and everyone else staring up into the trees, I'm surprised that Fall isn't the peak time for falls!  On my walks, I've seen many others capturing their own version of an iconic Fall image:  the yellow, orange, and green leaves of an aging tree, against a clear blue sky.  

The late afternoon sun is a little lower on the horizon, but the light through the Maples is spectacular!  As every Canadian knows only too well, despite the song, the maple leaf ain't forever.  November's winds will blow the leaves from their branches.  Then, everything will be covered in a white blanket of snow, and Torontonians will be curling up with their heirloom Hudson's Bay blankets, and mugs of hot coffee...For now, I'm enjoying my urban nature walks in the land of the Maple leaf!

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.

Widow's Endorphins: Monarchs and Painted Ladies

Widow's Endorphins: Monarchs and Painted Ladies: Monarchs and Painted Lady butterflies have waltzed through September, and much of October together, without a thought for the Win...

Monarchs and Painted Ladies

Monarchs and Painted Lady butterflies have waltzed through September, and much of October together, without a thought for the Winter social season down South.  They've been feasting on the nectar of flowers, and basking in the sunshine here in the North.  The unusually wet Eastern Canadian Summer, and hot, sunny weeks in September, have produced a lot of nectar, and kept butterflies in the Northern Hemisphere.

They're having a nectar banquet, storing energy for the long voyage to Mexico.  The four thousand kilometre (about 2,500 mile) journey will take about six to eight weeks.  They're in no hurry to pack their bags. 

Even for a daytime luncheon, the butterflies really dress up!  Monarchs are larger than the Painted Lady butterflies.  Their deep orange coloured wings are rimmed in black, with white polka dots.  Monarch wings are veined, and look much like stained glass windows.

Painted Lady butterflies are smaller, and move more quickly.  Their wings too, are orange and black, however they're dappled with colour.  The black and white pattern is found only in the top corner of the front wings.  Their upper bodies are a blue green colour, and they look like they're wearing a silk bodice or vest.

The Viceroy butterfly is a no show at this gathering.  It is often mistaken for a Monarch.  The Viceroy has a distinctive black line, running in a semi-circle across the hind wings.  Only true Monarchs at this garden party!

The male Monarch (above) is taking a rest from fluttering.  How can you tell if it's male or female?  Do you see the small, black oval shaped dot on one of the thin veins near the tail of the butterfly?  That is one of the butterfly's scent glands - and only the males have them.  The female butterflies do not have these oval dots, and their veins are thicker.

Here's a female Monarch (above and below).  You can see the veins are wider, and she has no black oval dot alongside the vein near her tail.  Not only that, she has a Ladybug-in-waiting with her!  An Asian Ladybug, wearing a bright yellow and black polka-dotted suit is in attendance.

More and more guests arrive at the party, savouring the buffet lunch.  

A Painted Lady glances over at the bee, and realizing that she is not the Queen bee, relaxes her wings just a little.   A butterfly can't truly relax...after all, the butterfly paparazzi (that would be me) are here!

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams,  Widow's Endorphines Photographic Images Incorporated.

Widow's Endorphins: October in Toronto

Widow's Endorphins: October in Toronto: October is the new September.  The fiery reds, burnt umbers, bright oranges and deep yellows we think of as October's colours, are s...

October in Toronto

October is the new September.  The fiery reds, burnt umbers, bright oranges and deep yellows we think of as October's colours, are slow to emerge this year.  The pinks, plums, maroons, magentas, and lavender shades of Summer, are still visible in gardens throughout the city.  The Summer is having a hard time saying goodbye...

 

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.