Millennium moose finds warm new home in Bermuda
Toronto sculpture ditched the cold, now a permanent tourist
Meet Zeus. Is he Toronto’s luckiest moose? Well, maybe. While most of his compatriots have wound up braving the elements in decidedly chilly terrain — like a plaza outside the windswept CN Tower, or the roof of a Toronto glass factory — that hasn’t happened to this splendid example of moosy manhood.
Zeus has instead moved up in the world. Big time. He’s now basking in — believe it or not — the Botanical Gardens of Bermuda.
Just take a gander at his updated wardrobe. He arrived on this idyllic island depicting the Northern Lights, but boy, does he look different now. Kitted out as a “typical tourist,” he sports a jazzy sweater, white ankle socks and — what else? — Bermuda shorts in a crazy pattern. There’s also a camera slung around his neck, plus a passport poking conspicuously out of his hind quarters.
He’s proving to be such a nice, helpful Canadian, too. A length of rope wrapped around one of his massive back legs props up a struggling palm tree that got bent sideways in a recent storm.
I stumbled across Zeus during a trip to Bermuda last November — and what a surprise. There he stood, towering over colourful shrubs and flowers a quarter his size, posing for a cellphone pic with some chuckling honeymooners from Ontario. The couple seemed as astonished by the presence of this behemoth in the Botanical Gardens as I was. But we agreed that he looked in fine shape and clearly didn’t miss his stamping ground in the frozen north one bit.
So how did one of our moose wind up in balmy Bermuda?
It turns out that Zeus — with a lot of his buddies — got sold off in the Great Moose Auction of 2003. It was held after that unforgettable time in Toronto when more than 300 fibreglass moose, colourfully painted by local artists, were placed all over the city as part of our millennium celebrations.
Although some folks (in typical Toronto fashion) pooh-poohed this imaginative idea, those moose became collectors’ items when their glory days here were over. Some wound up in other countries and one person who loved the whole concept was an idea-a-minute Bermudian entrepreneur named Tom Butterfield. So he asked a contact in Toronto to attend the auction and bid on one.
“It cost me about $1,000,” Butterfield explains. “I wanted one because thought it was high time we started introducing some outdoor art to Bermuda. At that time, there wasn’t any. A moose seemed perfect.” Yet not everyone agreed. “Some people thought I was crazy,” he adds with a chuckle. “They kept asking ‘What has a moose got to do with Bermuda?’ ”
What indeed? But did it matter? Clearly not. Bermudians have grown used to the hefty presence of Zeus by now. He’s popular with both local kids and visitors — and helps draw people into the Botanical Gardens and Bermuda’s impressive new Masterworks Art Gallery, which occupies a building within the gardens.
“We’ve repainted him several times in a variety of ways,” says Butterfield, who directs the gallery. “We have to, because the paint fades in the sun here, no mat- ter how many coats of ultraviolet varnish you put on.”
Zeus has also inspired a copy cat charity event, organized by Butterfield. Over 50 fibreglass pigs were ordered, local artists decorated them, then the results were sold off to raise money toward the 2008 opening of the gallery.
“Having our own moose has been good for Bermuda,” concludes his proud owner.
In fact, using a raft of offbeat ideas such as this, Butterfield has been able to raise enough funds to build and operate the Masterworks gallery (which is truly stunning) without any financial assistance from the Bermuda government.
So if you’re visiting this clean, green oasis in the mid-Atlantic, go say hi to the moose who escaped Canadian winters. He’s standing right outside the gallery. The botanical gardens are also worth wandering around. While a bit neglected (volunteer weeders seem in short supply), they’re still a treat for the eyes at this time of year. Flower beds overflow with hibiscus in hot hues of shocking pink, orange and yellow. There are dazzling crotons, hedges of jasmine and clumps of my favourite tropical shrub (powder blue plumbago) — plus many other plants we can only grow indoors during the long, cold months.
Lucky Zeus? For sure. In this bonechilling winter of 2018, I can almost hear him roaring with delight. Note: A breath of warmth is coming up in the shape of three well-known gardening gurus. Styling themselves the “Three Amigos,” Mark Cullen, Frankie Flowers and Denis Flanagan are speaking at Applewood Garden Club (complete with sombreros and maracas) on Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. Sounds like a fun night. Tickets $20. Proceeds go to tree-planting at the Highway of Heroes.