Van Wagners Beach

After finishing school on Saturday I decided to go wandering. I needed to go out to Ottawa Street for some Cordura (too expensive, but anyway....) and from there decided to go out to an area I had never been to before, Van Wagners Beach, the Windermere Basin, around there somewhere. 

Now, Hamilton has some really lovely areas, which I have shown in abundance. Hamilton also has some incredibly grim areas. It has been and continues to be a heavy industrial town. Two massive steel plants and a bunch of other not so nice to look at industries. It’s all concentrated along the waterfront out in the east end. The Windermere Basin had the dubious distinction (I believe it still may) as the, or one of the most polluted spots in Canada. Valiant efforts have been made to clean it up, but a century + of dumping filth into the harbour is going to have a negative effect. (I knew a guy years ago who was a diver and he said that the area in front of Dofasco and Stelco had a layer of black, gooey, tarry sludge many meters deep and stretching many meters out into the harbour.)

After crossing the city, and a stop at Princess Auto (where I had never been either), I cut down the Red Hill Valley Trail towards the lake.

Looking towards Stoney Creek.

Looking towards Burlington and Oakville.

Another perspective looking up the Hamilton Beach.

Debated whether I should walk to Burlington, even debated whether I should walk the Around the Bay Race route (which I will do one of these days), but decided I didn’t really have the time, and it was getting dark. Part of doing these little jaunts is to take photos. Might get up really early one morning and do this again.

Walking up Woodward Avenue, I came out from under an overpass and saw this scene. Looked more stunning in real life though. Really need to get a better camera.

Winter Waterfront

Taken on two separate days. Freezing both days. To smartasses who say that Hamilton is like Pittsburgh but without any of the charm, I offer this.

Taken from Central Park. Not quite as grandiose as that more famous one, but a nice little park anyway.

Looking towards the Waterfront Trail.

Downtown on the left.

Brrrrrrr.......

Nursing School Pin

I was asked to recreate a pin given to graduates of the Hamilton General Hospital Nursing School, for their 50th anniversary.

And that’s pretty much all I had to go on.

Trying to locate an example of the old City of Hamilton crest proved really tough as well.

Anyway, this is what I drew in Illustrator. Still a bunch of things that need to be tweaked on it, colouring, etc. but I figure this is a good framework to go from.

Okay, first crack at adding colour to it.  I realize there is probably all sorts of things wrong with it, the light doesn’t hit at the right angles in certain places, yadda, yadda, but it can all be fine-tuned.

Anyone reading this looking for a vector drawing of the old City of Hamilton crest, get in touch. I’m sure we can work something out.