Hello again, Tower, this time seen from the southeast! The rather unsightly gray business spread over much of the Tower's exterior dates to the First World War, when Canada used the fort to train troops before sending them across the sea to perish in trenches. The gray stuff is called "parging," and nobody was around for me to ask what purpose it was intended to serve. A quick check of Wikipedia tells us that a "parge coat" is a low-cost way of supporting masonry walls whose mortar has begun to fail. Well, it does kind of make the Tower's exterior look like a fake Italian restaurant. All you need now are a couple of tables covered with red and white checkerboard cloth, and some drippy candles stuck into empty wine bottles wrapped in string.