FARMER'S BOUNTY

Joy and anxiety abound on the farmer’s face
Ever so cheerful and eager
It’s time now to savour
The harvest of his labour.


Photo by: Tony Fernandes

There is an aptly named quaint lane called Market Lane, in the Distillery Historic District, Toronto. This area is a popular tourist attraction. Every Sunday in the summer season farmers from different places in Ontario travel to the District to sell home grown fresh fruits and great variety of vegetables and other produce. Home made pickles, relishes, chutneys, jams and honey are also sold.

The Distillery District is an historic district to the east of downtown Toronto, Canada. It comprises of 40 heritage buildings and 10 streets. The buildings are reminiscent of a Gothic design and Victorian architecture in North America.

The district once housed the Gooderham and Worts distillery, founded in 1832. It was the largest distillery in the world providing over 2 millions gallons of whisky exported on the world market.

Homeward bound

TRANQUILITY

The Farmer

The Farmer and His Blessings.

I've never made too much money,
And it's probably too late now anyway.

I don not consider it a big deal, I do not dismay,
I am happy and content come what may

Ploughing fields all day.

And as I move on the rest of the way

The seeds I've sown finally seem to reap
A great harvest I see in the fields
The toil and labour has fruits in a heap.

Gold and silver have I none
But I have good friends around me by the dozen
My riches are not in substance
But in a lot of love and care of my family
and friends around.

Thankful I am to the Good Lord
As I begin and end a day's hard toil

For good health and happiness he has provided
And for the mercy he has always shown;

Along life's long and arduous road
For His blessings and guidance he has bestowed.

Many a time things have not always
been the way I want;
Pain and anguish I have borne;
At times when I almost lost trust
And faith in Him
He stood by me
When I was completely torn.

The mountain of life that I climb get steeper
As the heavy onus of life I endure;
But when around me people I see
With a load larger and heavier
On an incline steeper than mine

My burden I seem to suddenly find
Getting so much lighter in time -
That makes me realize
There are lot more folks out there
Without money, riches, wealth
Or even much less than a dime.

Tony Fernandes

Savouring the Flavours

Edna’s Pickles are made with various traditional Indian ingredients — spices and condiments. These are listed on the label of the jars of each and every variety of pickle. The following queries are drawn from the wide spectrum of our prospective customers as they go about sampling the pickles—some of them for the first time. These are some of my experiences as I accompany her at various craft shows in Ontario.

On garlic : My husband can’t stand garlic.

On fenugreek: What’s that? Is it from Greece?

Turmeric : My doctor told me it’s not good my system. Do all these have turmeric?

Cumin Seeds : What do these look like?

Chillies : Are they from Mexico?

Chilli Powder: Isn’t that hot?

Mustard seeds: Why aren’t they yellow?

Sugar : Sorry, my body can’t handle sugar.

Ginger : I love ginger. My doctor told me ginger is good for me.

Mango : Sorry, I’m allergic to mango.

Corn Oil : I love corn, but not oil.

Curry leaves : Leaves in curry?

Eggplant : I didn’t know eggs were planted.

Gherkin : Jerkin? What are they? I've heard of Jerk Chicken, but Gherkin? No.

Vinegar : Sorry I can't handle vinegar. Must you put vinegar in everything?

Salt : Do all your pickles have salt? Yes? Really? Sorry, but not good for my heart, doctor said.

A Word from an Amateur

A WORD FROM AN AMATEUR

I photograph my subject because
I reflect critically
on what I would like to remember
in the future
and remind my friends,
ones near and dear
and share the thoughts,
faces and scenes gone by earlier.

I attribute this to my inner desire –
a secret passion
to treasure an occasion,
an event, a function
or an adventure or a milestone
for posterity and future generation.

The moments we have now
at times are for granted taken
and soon forgotten
by the next dawn
yet the photographs we take
come in handy
and brings us back a memory
when we have a sudden urge, a wish
to momentarily re-live the past -
browsing through
an old and dusty photograph album.

Vision is fore-sight,
a tomorrow I have never seen;
A photograph is news today, and history tomorrow.
It is a memory of life you have lived today.
The very moment you trigger the shutter,
the moment you click, the image you capture
becomes history;
and you may call it nostalgia
a generation later.

I am just an amateur,
I do not seek grandeur
But what I do believe is
that a photograph always re-lives its own past.
A photograph remembers you as you are today.
A silent memory, a picture frozen in time.
Today it stands forgotten
but it could be a future work of art.
Whether Black & White, Sepia or in Colour
It is something to delve into in times ahead
When years from now it will seem it was just yesterday.
And that's what I think photography is all about today.

Tony Fernandes

Goa Map

Goa of the Sixties and Seventies

It was Sunday. Feast of St. Anne, Parra. Goa, India. Church of St. Anne. The church bells rang at 5 o’clock in the morning. The band played “Alvorada” - the music at dawn at the band stand.

View from Corjuem Hill looking south-west across the creek and before the days of the suspension bridge. St. Thomas Church is seen in the distance far left.

Goa of the Sixties

The cool fishermen of Arambol in the midday sun, mending and preparing to cast their nets in a combined effort. They seem to be very relaxed and in no hurry. They have ample time before them - and of course, lot of sun and sand prior to sunset when they bravely set off in their fishing craft for the daily catch in the great waters of the Arabian Sea.

The imposing facade of Se Cathedral in Goa, India. The exterior of the church is a combination of Tuscan and Doric architecture styles.

SIOLIM : Bardez, Goa.

Beautiful, silent, serene. Coconut trees reflected in the calm waters of streams along River Chapora.

Where time stands still

Fishing boat at the creek - idyllic Corjuem - Aldona, Bardez, Goa. India

Goa of the Sixties

Se Cathedral, at Old Goa (Goa Velha) India. (Sé Cathedral of Santa Catarina). A magnificent cathedral dedicated to Catherine of Alexandria. It is one of the oldest and most celebrated religious buildings in Goa and is one of the largest churches in Asia with an imposing facade. The style of architecture is Portuguese - Gothic. The exterior is Tuscan, while the interior is Corinthian. The church is 250 feet in length and 181 feet in breath standing at 115 ft. high.

Caladium - Pink Vein - Goa, India.

Caladium - Green Vein - Goa, India

Caladium is a genus of plants of the family Araceae.

As the summer drew to a close during the last days of the month of May, the folks prayed for rain, and as soon as the rains fell, this wonderous ornamental plant sprang to life almost overnight in various colours everywhere. I watched it grow out in the open along the perimeter of the courtyard of our ancestral home in Guirim, Bardez, Goa.

The first showers soothed the earth
So parched from the summer drought,
Roaring thunder, brilliant lightning;
The gentle wind blew across the land a whiff,
An earthy smell that till today
I cannot unravel, describe or tell.

"Hope it rains some more"
So we wished, as little boats from paper we made
Saw them glide through winding streams
Just enough rain for the wells it seemed
To make them fill to their brims
Yearning and hoping to have fun
On the day of the Feast of St. John.

Baga is a beach town in the state of Goa, India, which is 2 km north of Calangute. Popular with tourists and locals alike. Pristine brown sands and the meandering and scenic Baga Creek.

It is one of my favourite places that I visited during my childhood, summed up in the brief excerpt of verse below:

Grandma's annual dip
In the Arabian Seas
For a her aging knees
She thought was good indeed
She took me along on a trip
To a idyllic place called Baga
On the eight o'clock "Carreira"

Sultry were many a night
Starlit skies a great delight
As out in the courtyard on my back I lay
After futile attempts to count the myriad stars above;
Lost my count as I made a wish when a shooting star
That distracted me when it made a brief display.

"Grandma, tell me a very long story"
I would banter
And long before the tale was over
She shortly found me in deep slumber.

Lightning in Dubai, UAE, 1997

This is not trick photography!
 It is a time lapse exposure - 18 lightning bolts on a single frame.
 Kodak film. Camera: Nikon 401X
Lens: Vivitar 2.8/21mm - October 1997.

First published on the First Page of Gulf News.

Vagator Beach, North Goa, India

View of Vagator beach overlooking from the dramatic red cliffs - a picturesque backdrop of the Hindi film silver screen and probably the most popular picture in millions of photo albums over the globe. Seen in the distance at the top of the cliff is the magnificent Chapora Fort. To the south lies Anjuna Beach.

My Memoirs

A collection of poems and stories
that will take you back in time.

It's like revisiting GOA of your childhood.

A rare glimpse into the nostalgic epoch of yore …
aged perhaps with time, but not forgotten.
With a descriptive rendition on tradition and culture,
this book captures the simple and rustic
Goan life through narrative poetry
with my own drawings, paintings and photographs.

Eclectica Publishers
Lindsay, Ontario

Stained Glass Panel - Christ the King Church - Mississauga, Ontario

Anjuna Beach, Goa, India

Flowers

Classic Cars Show, Distillery District, Toronto

Flowers

Like most houses do, ours had a modest little garden. My mother planted different types of flower plants in it. She drew water from the nearby well, watered the plants, trimmed them and planted new ones once in a while. As a young boy I had my own set of plants that I tended to. Every morning when I woke up I would go to the garden to check whether any new buds had come up. During the rainy season, in one corner there was a creeper with tiny red flowers that was my favourite. It seemed to grow rapidly each day. I had tied a string from one side of the house to the other, just under the eaves drop, for the creeper to hold on.

Ball's Falls, Niagara Escarpment, Jordan, Ontario

View from the bridge crossing the Falls

Ball's Falls, Jordan, Ontario

Jordan, near Ball's Falls, Ontario

Ball's Falls - Niagara Escarpment, Ontario

Ball's Falls consist of two waterfalls and a bedrock gorge where Twenty Mile Creek cascades over the Escarpment on the string of the Bruce Trail. It is a 19th century hamlet located on the edge of the escarpment. Features include an operational mill, numerous historic buildings, and scenic nature trails.

The site occupies over 80 hectares (200 acres) of the original 480 hectares (1200 acres) purchased by the Ball brothers. George Ball constructed grist, saw, and wool mills, which lead to the growth of one of the first communities in this area. The hamlet was known as Ball's Mills, Louth Mills, Glen Elgin, and finally as Ball's Falls because of the two delightful cataracts on the property. In the mid 1800's, however, significant developments such as the railway and the Welland Canal led to the rapid growth of other villages below the escarpment, and by the turn of the century, most of the activity at Balls Falls had ceased.

Ball's Falls has been lovingly restored to its early 1800's atmosphere and now features an operating flour mill, a lime kiln, a church, family home, blacksmith shop, carriage shed, and more. In addition to its historical interest, Ball's Falls is also a centre for nature activities, offering a tremendous diversity of flora and fauna as well as excellent exposures of geologic strata.

The Bruce Trail passes through the very north end of the conservation area to the north of the lower falls. Hikes along the Bruce Trail either to the west or the east can be made from this location.

The Annual Ball's Fall Thanksgiving Festival of Arts & Crafts has been held for over 30 years just betwen the first and second Falls.

Farmers Market

Farmers Market at the Distillery District, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Jazz at the Distillery Historic District, Toronto

Jazz at the Distillery Historic District, Toronto

Jazz at the Distillery Historic District, Toronto