iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 4h

By the way, here's the pond, the only remaining trace besides the music room of the garden and estate:

A heart-shaped pond sits within a grassy area surrounded by trees.

Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 12h

What's left of the Prince's Lodge, Halifax, #OughtToBeHaunted. Perhaps by its builder Prince Edward, returning in search of his true love, Julie, whom he could never marry. Perhaps by the two soldiers said to have died in a dual there in 1798. 🎃👻💔

A white, circular building beneath a dome supported bu a Doric colonnade, on a grassy mound.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

On Feb. 11, 1869, Patrick J. Whelan was dropped at the end of a rope through this trap door. Whelan was convicted (but not necessarily guilty) of the murder of Thomas D'Arcy McGee. 5000 spectators watched him die. This place, and those who would gather at such events, #OughtToBeHaunted.

View upward toward the trap door beneath the gallows at the Carleton County Gaol in Ottawa, where many prisoners were executed after a stay in the adjacent death row.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

A lot Haligonians think that the Five Fishermen restaurant #OughtToBeHaunted. The rest already know that it is. Formerly a mortuary, the building has cared for victims of the Titanic, and the Halifax Explosion. Go for the food, which is excellent. Stay for the ghosts. 🎃👻😱

A black & white image of a wooden, clapboard house, light in tone, with dark, arched window openings against a mid-tone sky with a few wispy clouds.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I reckon every lighthouse #OughtToBeHaunted. They watch in silence, across generations, sometimes bearing witness to the very kinds of tragedy they are intended to prevent. And don't get me started on lighthouse keepers.... 👇 Presqu'île Point Lighthouse, Lake Ontario, built 1840. 😱👻🎃

Black and white image of a gleaming white lighthouse with a gothic, pointed-arch doorway, against a dark sky and framed by foliage.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Cat + heating pad = pure happiness. May you all have a weekend like this!

A stunningly beautiful tabby gazes towards the viewer while curled up on a heating pad.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I was chuffed to see last weekend that my favourite Hintonburg local, the Happy Goat, now has a café in Kingston! It's in this beautiful row of heritage buildings surrounding Market Square (on the right).

A staely row of heritage commercial buildings, one brick building of three stories and two smaller limestone buildings of two stories, behind a sidewalk with public seating and umbrellas.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I'm back home in Ottawa now, so one last tip of the hat to the Kingston house that perfectly embodies every dream or nightmare of what a haunted house should look like: the Hochelaga Inn. #OughtToBeHaunted

An ornate, picturesque brick house with a central tower and spire and gothic-arch windows sits among a group of lushly foliated trees against a dark, clear sky.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I rarely think of churches as places that #OughtToBeHaunted, but Chalmers United in Kingston apparently is – by an especially malevolent spirit that has given several organists the fright of their lives during late-night practice sessions. 😱 👻 🎃

An imposing stone church with a massive circular tower and flanking Romanesque façades, brightly sunlit against a dark, clear sky. The sharp, needle-like spire of another church is visible in the distance.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

If there's one place in Kingston that #OughtToBeHaunted, it's the Frontenac County Courthouse. Prisoners were held in the adjacent jail while awaiting the gallows there. The jail was demolished in 1973, but souls are harder to banish, especially when their mortal remains lie beneath the parking lot.

A broad, very stately Classical building with a recessed central block and end blocks that step forward, all anchored by a giant order Ionic temple façade in the middle. A dome on a drum site above and behind the pediment. The whole ensemble is lit by an oblique, low, evening autumn sun.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

If you've always thought that Kingston's Prince George Hotel #OughtToBeHaunted, then you'll be pleased to know that it apparently is. Very. According to @hauntedwalk.bsky.social, the spirit of a young woman who died in a fire on the 3rd floor is especially active.

A black & white image of a stately stone building of three stories, with an elaborately ornamented wooden veranda, a mansard roof, and a small central tower. A tiny moon is just visible in a dark sky.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A century ago it was empty and dilapidated and everyone figured it #OughtToBeHaunted. Today, Kingston's Rosemount Inn is in beautiful condition. But its non-paying guests include disembodied voices, and sometimes even disembodied bodies. Maybe this is where @dbcurren.bsky.social stayed. 👻🎃

Black & white image of a dignified stone house with a robust central tower sitting behind a dark iron fence among trees with light foliage beneath a dark sky with puffy white clouds.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Just getting in under the wire for #StaircaseSaturday #SaturdayStairs #SaturdaySteps I walked by the Kingston Post office today, and got this nice taste of Modern geometry.

Two staircases cross diagonally behind a rectilinear grid of tall, narrow windows.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

According to @hauntedwalk.bsky.social, the Hochelaga is Kingston's most haunted Inn. A Victorian mansion built in 1879, it's full of Gothick features and certainly #OughtToBeHaunted.

An elaborate Victorian house with pointed windows, fancy gingerbread, and a central tower with spire penetrating the clear sky.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

They say that Kingston shipping tycoon Donald McIntosh promised his family a castle. But before architect John Power finished building this one for him, McIntosh had hit hard times and been forced to sell it. McIntosh Castle #OughtToBeHaunted, perhaps by Donald's broken dreams.

A symmetrical stone building with a massive, crenelated central stone tower covered with ivy, sits among trees in a black and white image.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Designed to inspire fear, built to harbour despair, how could Kingston Penitentiary not be haunted? #OughtToBeHaunted

A wide, tall, impenetrable stone wall is punctuated by a simple, imposing temple façade above which is a small tower and cupola. One side of the tower and a fragment of the wall are in bright sunlight, the rest is in subdued shadow.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"We're still here." And how! 👇 Champaigne and Aishihik Adminstrative Bldg, Haines Junction; Migizii Agamik, Winnipeg; Haida Heritage Centre, Skidegate; Wabano Centre, Ottawa.

A clean, crisp-lines wooden building with several windows is perched atop a rocky mound.

An undulating path and stone wall leads to a stone building with a glass porch.

A row of modern longhouse-style buildings with central totem poles recedes into the distance.

And undulating, irregular stone and glass building sits on a city street as pedestrians pass by.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Historical prequel: Third Avenue Complex, Dawson City, Yukon. We can thank Parks Canada for the romantic, evocative name.

Frontal view of two very simple wooden houses, one a bungalow the other three-story, leaning into each other as if for support.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Agreed! 👇 Dredge #4, near Dawson City, Yukon.

Steel tubes and other parts from a long dismembered machine sit in a random pile, backlit by a single window.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Is it just me, or does the logo for the Signal Awards look a lot like a hand giving someone the finger?

A poster for the Signal Awards, showing a row of vertical bars of unequal height clamped together with headphones, with text reading "5th Annual Signal Awards/Finalists Announced Today".

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Feels so good to be easing into fall, my favourite season. After years in academia, 'easing' is the key word. 👇 Westport, Ontario, a few years ago (the colours are not that far along yet this year).

Elevated view (from a hill) of a church spire poking up from a cluster of trees in full fall colours of orange and yellow.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Interested – and a bit surprised – to see @tomflood.bsky.social listed as having endorsed @mark-sutcliffe.bsky.social's re-election bid for Ottawa mayor.

Photograph of Mark Sutcliffe, mayor of Ottawa, with a list of people who have endorsed him, including Tom Flood.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Tomorrow is the Fall #Equinox! Which means that when the sun rises at Loughcrew, Ireland, it will shine straight through the passage of the 5000-year-old tomb 'Cairn T' and illuminate the mysteriously carved backstone. Weather is expected to be sunny; should be unforgettable for a lucky few!

An earthen mound with an entrance opening flanked by upright stone slabs.

View through an enclosed passage with upright stone slabs on either side, leading into a dark chamber.

View of a very rough stone chamber with upright stone slabs on the sides, a corbeled domical roof, and a flat, carved stone at the far end.

Close-up view of a stone slab with various indecipherable carvings on it depicting geometric shapes and patterns.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I think I'll start the week by posting a photo of a real triumphal arch commissioned by a real emperor and made by people who really understood Classical design. The current poseurs are making me a bit nauseous.

A large masonry block viewed at night from an oblique angle, with three arched opening: a taller central one flanked by shorter, narrower ones. The surfaces are covered in carved ornament, and attached Corinthian columns support a full entablature and attic story.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

We of course have this one too, just across the river at Kingsmere. Cobbled together by a somewhat strange, introverted Prime Minister, as an object of private contemplation and spiritual regeneration. We really *are* different, aren't we?

A fragmented, rough-edged stone arch sits within a forest, its Classical entablature supported by lofty, elegant Corinthian columns.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

👇 Members of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada get a tour of the house in 2015.

A brown, clapboard symmetrical wooden house with a small group of people just visible inside the entrance and two people engaged in conversation outside.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Herons&Egrets. I only have time to post one photo, so....

A Great Blue Heron and an Egret share fishing grounds in a pond dotted with lilies and other aquatic vegetation.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Remembering Winnipeg's remarkable labour history on #LabourDay: Bloody Saturday, sculpture by Noam Gonick (2019), commemorates the 1919 general strike; Charlie Johnston's mural on the Union Centre building (2020) immortalizes Manitoba's labour movement.

A steel sculpture depicts a partially overturned streetcar, partially embedded in the ground.

A colourful mural on the side of a modern building depicts images of workers and placards celebrating labour solidarity.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Celebrating the architecture of Labour on Labour Day: Grain Elevators, Rowley, AB; PSAC Building, Ottawa, ON; Ukrainian Labour Temple, Winnipeg, MB; Japanese Quarters, North Pacific Cannery, BC. Happy #LabourDay!

Deep red wooden grain elevators viewed from a low angle against a dark, menacing sky.

A broad, 12-story red brick building with a curved façade viewed against a clear, pale blue sky.

A broad, yellow-brick building with a large overhanging cornice and Classical detailing around the very large, rectangular windows.

A group of simple, white, single-story buildings with red roofs sits suspended on stilts above mud and water at low tide.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

"Teacups on Windowsill" Poem by Lorna Crozier, from The House the Spirit Builds (Douglas & McIntyre, 2019). #Stunday #ImageAndVerse

An image of china teacups of pastel colours, casually stacked in two piles, with stacked saucers beneath, intensely backlit by a mottled window through which the sun pours. The backs of the cups are reflected back toward the viewer in the window. Below is a poem:

TEACUPS ON WINDOWSILL

They've given up
on tea. Now it is light
they want to hold, the sun

a s mother, pouring
into them morning's
golden lumens.

Drink this, the sun says
though it knows
you cannot hear.

When you raise the cup
to your lips, what happens
to your tongue, the dark

cave of your mouth?
What happens to your throat,
its slow, blue pulse.

as the light slides down?

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Our terrific neighbourhood just got even better. Opened today for the first time.

A retail front with a sign reading North Wharf Seafood Takeout.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

#BirdOfTheDay #InFlight Gannet, Cape St. Mary's, Newfoundland & Labrador.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The weather out my window is gloomy, and there's plenty of news to be gloomy about. So, let's start the weekend with some colour! Boathouses, South Lancaster, Ontario 🇨🇦. #Colour #BlueSkyArtShow #ColorADay #Photography

A row of brightly coloured but simple, gabled boathouses recedes diagonally beneath a steely grey sky with some glints of sunlight.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

"The third order, called Corinthian, is an imitation of the slenderness of a maiden; for the outlines and limbs of maidens being more slender on account of their tender years, admit of prettier effects in the way of adornment." -Vitruvius, Book IV, ca. 25 BCE Definitely Trump's fetish.

A partly ruined Greek temple consisting of several tall, slender Corinthian columns supporting an architrave.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Wow! I see that the Bank of Canada has introduced a new, vertical $20 bill. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... If we're looking for vertical images of iconic Canadian sites for vertical paper currency, I'd like to nominate my shot of Presqu'île Point Lighthouse (built 1840).

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

One more for: #BirdOfTheDay #Contrast Egret, South Lancaster, Ontario 🇨🇦.

Black & white image of a gleaming ,white wading bird with a long, S-shaped neck and long pointed beak, standing in a pond of dark water with a few Lilly pads behind.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Boat House, South Lancaster, Ontario 🇨🇦. #AdoorableThursday

The front of a rustic building, clad in pressed metal painted bright green, with a wooden door painted in deep red and bright orange.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I see the #BirdOfTheDay theme is #FlowerPower, which means I can recycle the egret I posted yesterday (it just qualifies thanks to the water lily). Photographed Sunday at South Lancaster, Ontario.

A pure white egret wades waste-deep in a pond beside a bed of lily pads, its long, slender neck stretched forward as it peers intently at the water in search of fish.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

It's amazing I wasn't killed getting this shot, but I risked everything so I could show this monster to you. It may look like it was the size of a fingernail, but in fact it was at least as big as a finger. I've never seen anything like it, and with luck I never will again. South Lancaster, Ontario.

A close up of a truly monstrous looking sider, dark in colour against a yellow and white background, with four front legs thrust forward to grab unsuspecting prey and the other four sprouting evenly from the creature's vile body.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I thought I knew what concentration and focus looked like. Then along came this egret in South Lancaster (Ontario) yesterday to take things to a whole new level.

A pure white egret wades to the top of its legs next to a bed of lily pads, its long, slender neck stretched forward as it peers intently at the water in search of fish.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

DuckDuckGo is a very powerful (and private) search engine, and they also have a map function. Just sayin'.

Map of the area around Lake Ontario, with the lake very clearly labeled 'Lake Ontario'.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Weekending in the lovely town of Alexandria, Ontario. 😍

Two metal-clad spires gleam in the later afternoons sun against a blue sky with moderate cloud. The closer one is tall, narrow and needle-like; the distant one is shorter and stubbier with convex diagonals.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

So far, so good. Don't even *think* about it, Google.

A current Google map showing Lake Ontario, still ,called 'Lake Ontario'.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

W.C. also designed the lovely St. James Anglican in Mahone Bay, NS – one of the famous ‘three churches.’ 😍

A picturesque, Gothic wooden church’s bright yellow colour stands out against a perfect blue sky. The chancel, tower and spire are reflected in the nearly-calm foreground bay.

Three wooden churches one yellow two white, two with spires one with only a tower, stand in a row reflected in the foreground water beneath a perfect blue sky.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Yes! When I think of the Explosion I also think of Thomas Raddall’s In My Time, and his description of his school (Chebucto) being used as a temporary morgue.

A large, multi-story red brick building with multiple wings and gables.

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Peter Coffinman @petercoffman.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

St. John's, NL, came to imaginative life for me when I read Wayne Johnston's The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. On my first visit there not long after, it was already a place full of memories for me. #CanLitPlaces

A distant view of a cityscape on a hill, backlit by the morning sun, with densely-packed, brightly coloured wooden houses and dominated by two large masonry structures. One is a historic church with a twin-towered façade, the other a modern building consisting of several boxy, house-like (actually closer to a fishing room, for those who understand that reference) wings joined by glass connecting wings.

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