There was an awful lot of rain on Sunday, and when I made my way down to the Don Valley trails there was lots of evidence - muddy paths, one tree down, and the plants along the river all patted down.

Certainly passable, but the mud was really slippery in sections.

I'm a huge fan of TED videos - I was watching one while doing the dishes looking out over Nottawasaga Bay and thought I'd post it here. From the TED site:

"Before becoming the center of the Western cultural universe, Manhattan was Mannahatta, 'Island of many hills,' in the language of 17th-century Native Americans. Using computer modeling, painstaking research and a lot of legwork, Wildlife Conservation Society ecologist Eric Sanderson has re-envisioned, block by block, the ecology of Manhattan as it was when Henry Hudson first sailed into the forested harbor in 1609."

You've probably seen some great blendings of old and new photos, and I thought I'd give it a try. This one is of a Toronto Archives photo from May, 1923, and the Google Street View from the same corner. I resized the two photographs to match, then blended them using The Gimp.

The streetcar tracks and houses on the north side of McCaul haven't changed too much, but the AGO on the south is rather new. As with many photos of Toronto, the telephone and hydro wires and poles bring the two images together nicely.

One of my favourite buildings in the city of Toronto is the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM for short), and my favourite space in the ROM is the 1933 rotunda with the spectacular gold and blue venetian glass domed ceiling. On this page I've collected some history and description of the room, some photos, even an audio tour from the ROM. It is a wonderful space, especially now that it can be enjoyed in relative peace, rather than as the cramped, busy, and loud main entrance to the museum. No visit to the ROM is complete without stopping in to the rotund for a moment or two.

OK, the last of the Snowshoe videos - one more educational video, a fun one, and one I actually made myself:

• Walking downhill in Snowshoes
• Extreme Snowshoeing
• Short video of walking in the woods in Ontario

Enjoy, as always!

If you've already run through the three beginner snowshoeing videos then you're ready for three more:

• Safety hints
• How to use poles on Snowshoes
• How to run in Snowshoes

Some good skills to master whether you're out on a trail at your local ski resort, or if you're breaking new trails in the forest. These quick videos are by Sheryl McGlochlin for eHow.com and are worth a look.

We managed to get out on the snowshoes for the first time this season in mid-December. There wasn't a ton of snow yet, maybe a foot, but enough to enjoy the Ontario forest. In some places there were branches sticking up through the snow, but not a lot. Here are some shots of the wonderful old lodge nearby, the afternoon sun in the forest itself, then down to Nottawasaga Bay which still has exposed sand. You can't see it in the photo, but the ski hills of Blue Mountain are directly across the bay, and look amazing all lit up for night skiing.

Here's the 1st section of resources for the Dan Brown novel 'The Lost Symbol' with a map, a video, lots of links, and some example photos. I suggest you read the chapter first before scrolling down to see the photos, videos and other links.

This section covers the following chapters in the book:

• Prologue
• Chapter 1 (no links)
• Chapter 2

To see the complete list so far, head back to the main Dan Brown's Lost Symbol resource page. And please add a comment if you have any other links you think should be added to this page!

Dan Brown's latest book The Lost Symbol, is full of all sorts of references - religious, scientific, artistic, historical, architectural and on and on. If you're like me, you'll want to learn more about many of them, so I've started collecting maps, photos, videos, audio-clips, and other links to expand on some of the details in the book.

I've divided all this information up into multiple pages, organized chapter by chapter - you should read the chapter in the book first and then delve deeper into the items I present for that chapter -- in many cases you won't want to even see the titles of the links. You might want to skip some altogether, or dig even deeper into others...

Toronto has not one, but two fashion photography exhibits this fall. One at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and one in the new crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).

• Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, the Condé Nast Years, 1923–1937
• Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913 - 2008

Both shows are worth checking out if you are a fan of classic fashion, modern fashion, or portrait photography.