Cuba has thousands of these Soviet style apartment buildings. Almost all are in disrepair and require major work. The government is the landlord, and it won't foot the bill for repairs. So the occupants are living in 40-50 year old buildings that are more than showing their age. The cisterns on the roof hold the buildings water supply. The water is "delivered" to buildings every other day, and the cisterns provide the water for the "off" days.

The Habana oil refinery at the harbour. It sure looks like there is little concern for environmental issues. What do you think, Urban Cowboy?

These guys work at a gas station and their job is tires - not selling them, but keeping them going.

The gas attendant through the side mirror.

Downtown Habana, looking at the Capitole building.

Old buildings showing the wear and tear of 50 years of the Revolution and the lack of money for maintenance.

This is a pretty nice building, and it would even be nicer if the Revolution provided the means and money for folks to maintain the buildings and archetecture.

Very few buildings have had any sort of upkeep let alone a fresh coat of paint, as paint is one of the items Cubans have difficulty getting due to the US Emabrgo against Cuba.

The old part of Habana, Cuba, has had its cast of characters over time. Currently, there are many who sit around posing, invariably with cigars and colourfully dressed, and hoping to be paid a peso (about $1.30 Cdn.) for a photo. Realizing I could be broke quickly with all the photo possibilities, I started "shooting" from the hip surreptitiously.

Habana taxis, one pre-1959 Buick and one newer Slav-made Skoda.

An old Pontiac, I think.

This is an early 1950's Plymouth that is being used as a taxi. It's a little "down-in-the-mouth", but it is still on the road.

Mid 50's Buick in Varadero.

A family sedan races through Habana at 6am.

After the Cuban revolution in 1959, and one that according to the propaganda is still ongoing, Fidel Castro imported as many US car parts as possible and made sure the US cars in Cuba stayed in Cuba. 50 years later many are still in operation, although most have different engines, some diesel, and the condition of most is tired to say the least.

Just before we landed at Pearson Airport in Toronto on Sunday afternoon on our flight home from Cuba, we flew over Niagara Falls. Initially I thought I'd have to put up with the view out the window of barely seeing the falls as they were directly below us. And then the plane banked over for a turn, or just to allow me time to take some photos, and the falls were revealed for everyone on the starboard side of the plane. I'll be posting more photos from Cuba in the next few days.

We just returned from our 10 day trip to Cuba. We spent 7 days in Habana and 3 in Varadero. This photo is looking south over Habana and the port from the coast.

Habana, Cuba

This is a view from old Habana looking north past the harbour to the sea.

This photo was taken from the top of the monument at the Revolution square looking north over Habana to the sea.

This is the view over the coast from our hotel in Varadero. It was a really great vacation.

It's 3:30am and too dark to see the lake for an update on the melting ice. We're up early to catch a 6am flight that will take us to Habana, Cuba, for 10 days. Here is another photo taken from the parking garage looking towards North Bay down Fisher Street.

This photo of the lake ice was taken this morning, 24 hours after yesterday's photo. The ice is finally moving. It's moved in closer to shore, suggesting open water on the other side, and there is a gap that has opened up across the lake which will surely help with the breakdown of the ice as it moves and shifts with the wind and currents.

I took this shot a few minutes ago of some open water on Trout Lake. There is still a huge amount of ice left, and the lake is a long way away from being ice-free.

The Jack Pine Ski Hill taken from the same parking garage as the photo from yesterday. This is also the site of the North Bay frisbee golf course. It's located on the upper half of the ski hill, and it provides many great holes with vistas over the city and Lake Nipissing.

The 5 floor parking garage at the Northgate Mall in North Bay offers some views of the city not normally seen. This is a look westward down Hammond Street, a little industrial retail street, towards Lake Nipissing in the distance. If you look hard or squint, you can see the Manitou Islands on Lake Nipissing in the distance.

This is a little used old bridge over Chippewa Creek near where the creek empties into Lake Nipissing.

Yesterday was another great spring day. I biked along the waterfront in the cool wind and sun and got wind/sun burned. As you can see in this photo, Lake Nipissing is a long way from being ice free.

This is a favourite spot of mine to photograph. I'm trying to get the definitive 4 seasons in pictures, but so far I need to take way more to be able to pick 4.

This old building is no more as the owner demolished it more than a year ago. It was a great photo subject for many years.

This photo is for UC, who commented the other day on the Four Mile photos saying that there should have been 4 photos. Well, here you go UC, photo #4 - Four Mile Creek.

This a real fixer-upper. Located on Fisher Street in North Bay with Duchesny Creek in the back yard, it looks like it will probably be torn down and hauled away to the dump.

This is Four Mile Creek as it runs underneath Highway 63; the highway runs northeast from North Bay to Temiskaming, Quebec, and the creek flows down from Four Mile Lake on top of the escarpment in North Bay to Four Mile Bay of Trout Lake. They, whoever "they" are, sure were original back when they were naming the local waters.

This is Four Mile Creek as it empties into Four Mile Bay. Not much open water at the mouth yet, but enough to keep the Canada Geese and an occasional Blue Heron happy until there is more melting.

Four Mile Bay is still heavy with ice. I sure hope the next week of warmer temperatures and sunny days helps with changing that.

This is certainly not what the view is like at 7am now, but it will be soon, I hope. It sure is a slow melt this spring, and it needs to get much warmer soon if all the ice is to leave the lake by last year's ice off date of April 24.

The lake ice and snow is melting, but with no real "heat" it's a slow process. Hopefully, the sunny days that are forecast for the next few days will help speed it up and bring on spring.

Steel and Glass Reflection - Toronto

Less snow, and more of this please, melting, that is.

This is what the lake looked like before we got dumped with snow yesterday, about 4 inches of it. We're moving through April and you'd think winter would release it's grip, but it ain't done yet.

Grahames Bakery in Kemptville boasts, as the plaque indicates, one of the last operating wood fired bakery ovens in Canada. In the lower photo is the shed of wood that fuels the fire. Unfortunately, the bakery was closed on the Sunday morning I strolled by.

I've visited the Royal York a number of times, but I've never stayed there. Some weekend I'll book in and spend the time to enjoy it and downtown.

This is the Air Canada Center in Toronto, home of the Maple Leafs, Raptors and Rock. Interestingly, all 3 teams are having pretty crappy seasons. However, It's a great venue, although pretty pricey.

It's Friday, 'nuff said.

"Look up, look way up, and I'll call Rusty." Kinda hard to get more Canadian than the Friendly Giant. I don't know if these buildings are friendly giants or not, but they are way up there.

For today's history lesson on downtown Toronto buildings I'll defer to Urban Cowboy and the comments' section below. Hey, UC, what can you tell us about these doors and the building they are attached to?