Here are a few photos of spring in the city that I collected as I walked in the past few weeks.
below: Spring time … when all the bugs and insects come out!
below: As do the trees…. including this massive pink magnolia in full bloom.
below: Flowers on a grave
Wilket Creek forms one of the many ravines in the city. The northern part has been buried; it surfaces just south of York Mills Road and flows south until it joins the West Don just north of Eglinton. Edwards Gardens is part of the park system along the creek and that is where I met a friend the other day. It was her part of town and she was my guide for the day. The magnolia trees were at peak bloom and the fragrance of their blossoms filled the air.
below: Magnolia
below: Three magnolia buds ready to open up.
below: Other trees and shrubs were also laden with blossoms
below: Volunteers working in the Teaching Garden, preparing the beds for planting.
below: Some of the different types of trees that grow here – three different bark colours.
below: A willow tree by Wilket Creek
below: Dawn Redwood tree (aka Metasequoia tree)
below: Parts of the gardens were closed for repairs to the banks of the creek and the path alongside it.
Walking the ravine north from Edwards Gardens is impossible – unfortunately, that stretch of the ravine is not open to the public. A gap in the system. We rejoined the creek at Windfields Park.
below: A rock stuck in a hard place, where rocks usually aren’t found.
below: Yellow wildflowers, Lesser Celandine which is apparently an invasive species.
below: A tennis ball in the wild.
below: Two birch trees, probably Silver Birch because of the brown bark of the younger tree that will soon shed to reveal the white bark below.
below: Yellow trout lily. The flashy red parts hang downwards so they are hidden close to the forest floor. The flowers are difficult to spot but the mottled green and brown leaves give them away.
below: Bloodroot flowers
With thanks to Iskuhi for walking with me and teaching me the names of some trees and wildflowers. … and for some playing with sunlight and shadows (because that’s what photographers do!).
Van Gogh Immersive Exhibit at the old Toronto Star building at 1 Yonge Street.
Images from paintings by Vincent Van Gogh were projected on all four walls plus the floor of a very large space. The installation includes his work the Mangeurs de pommes de terre (The Potato Eaters, 1885) to the Nuit étoilée (Starry Night, 1889), Les Tournesols (Sunflowers, 1888), and La Chambre à coucher (The Bedroom, 1889). It was a slow moving video that was about 35 minutes long.
There were circles on the floor in which you had to stand/sit but you could move from circle to circle if there was an empty one.
The most interesting portraits were those of people dressed in white.
Mirrors were placed around any structures that were in the way.
Link for more information on the exhibit
which continues at least until the end of October
#VanGoghTO
I’m not sure what the allure of the cherry (aka sakura) blossoms is. Has it become a symbol of spring and who doesn’t like the long awaited end of winter? Is there something special about the cherry flower? Or is it more ‘exotic’ than the magnolia that flowers about the same time, or a bit earlier? Why not celebrate the lilac trees? Or other trees that blossom in the spring?
below: A couple of cherry blossoms along with some buds and partially opened flowers.
Although there are a number of places around the city to see sakura trees (14 I think), High Park seems to be the most popular place. True, they have the oldest trees and the most trees planted in one area. It has become the site of an annual pilgrimage by thousands of people to see the blossoms. Even though the ‘sakura watch’ website said that ‘peak’ blossom hadn’t yet arrived, I decided to check out High Park yesterday.
below: Lots of signs to direct pedestrian traffic to the cherry trees. The roads were closed to most cars.
below: There were a couple of school groups there for the morning. Although there weren’t too many blossoms to see, it was a beautiful spring morning and many of the kids were making the most of it.
below: An Instagram moment I suspect.
below: An engagement photo shoot
Yesterday there were many more buds and partially opened flowers than there were blossoms. By the weekend, there will probably be a profusion of white petals… as well as a swarming of people. I had to search for flowers to take pictures of but at least it was a relatively quiet and peaceful morning.
Happy Victoria Day!
Happy 2 4 long weekend.
More correctly, I hope that you had a good weekend!
This blog post is the result of a walk through Mt. Pleasant cemetery, down the ravine behind Yonge Street that goes under St. Clair East and the Summerhill railway bridge. After crossing Mt. Pleasant Road, take the right at the fork in the path to go uphill on Milkman Lane. This brings you out of the ravine close to Glen Road. Follow Glen Road south to Sherbourne subway station.
below: Lots of shades of red, green, and yellow in the cemetery.
I will dedicate this post to the man that I met on the path near the St. Clair bridge. He had many questions about the path and where it went. He was in awe that such a place existed in the city and was so excited to find it. He couldn’t linger though because he was on a break from work.
below: Blossoms on an Arnolds crab apple tree, Malus X Arnoldiana (the tree had a label, cemetery)
below: Dense clusters of fragile pink and white petals on a Japanese Flowering Cherry Prunus Serrulata.
below: The chains of humankind? Or something creepier? Please don’t put anything like this on my tombstone regardless of what they symbolism might be!
below: It was very quiet and surprisingly green on the path. I had procrastinated about walking in the ravines because I didn’t think that spring was far enough along. Surprise! Spring has sprung very quickly – the leaves have been popping out all over the place. May is a fantastic month – everything comes alive so quickly.
below: Walking on Park Drive, under Glen Road, following the Yellow Creek.
below: It looks like a throne under the bridge!
below: Yellow Creek, near St. Clair.
below: Wildlife!
below: Fungi growing out of a rotting log on the forest floor.
below: Mushrooms of a more colourful variety
below: Under St. Clair.
below: I didn’t see any real ones that day. You can spot this one close to Sherbourne subway station.
Bring on summer!
A trip to Toronto Islands on a sunny spring day.
Photos and stories – an eclectic mix of history and nature that resulted from wandering around the eastern portion of the islands.
below: From the ferry, looking toward the glass and steel of the city.
Toronto Islands is a collection of at least 12 small islands. In the early years the island archipelago was really a peninsula of sandbars and ponds; it was connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of sandy shoreline. This landform was created over centuries by the action of waves, winds and lake currents – washing away portions of the Scarborough Bluffs and depositing this material to the west in a five-mile-long hooked shape. This process of natural “landscaping” continued until the spring of 1858, when a particularly powerful hurricane created a channel four to five feet deep through the peninsula. By June of that year, the Eastern Gap was a waterway, and the Toronto Islands came into being.
below: On the ferry between the city and Centre Island.
The first buildings on the islands were the Blockhouse Bay garrison built in the 1794 by the British at Gibraltar Point – it included a blockhouse and storage structures. A second blockhouse and a guard house were built soon after, only to be destroyed by the Americans in the Battle of York in April 1813. The lighthouse at Gibraltar Point built in 1809 still stands (sorry, no photo).
In 1833 Michael O’Connor built a hotel on one the islands. He used a horse-drawn boat to ferry customers across from the mainland to his hotel. At that time, there was still access by road but it was a toll road. In 1836 it cost sixpence for every four-wheeled carriage drawn by two horses. Smaller ‘vehicles’ paid less. In 1858 the hotel (now Quinns Hotel) was destroyed during the same hurricane that turned the peninsula into an island. The hotels were destroyed but the islands remained popular. With no road access, ferries were needed and many people ran private ferry services until they were bought out or amalgamated into the Toronto Ferry Company in 1892. It was privately owned until 1926 when it was purchased by the City of Toronto for $337,500.
Many houses and businesses, (hotels, restaurants, bowling alley, laundry, theatre etc) were established over the years from Hanlon’s Point in the west to Wards Island in the east. Today, residences are only in the eastern section of Wards Island and on Algonquin Island.
The Ward’s Island community began in the 1880s as a settlement of tents. Up until then, that eastern end of the islands was mostly wetlands. The first summer colony on Ward’s in 1899 consisted of just eight tenants, each of whom had paid a fee of $10 rent for the season. The number of tents grew each year. In 1913, the city felt it necessary to organize the community into streets. The evolution from tents to cottage structures progressed in stages with the building of floors, the addition of kitchens and then porches, resulting in the creation of the homes.
In 1953 the municipal government changed their policy toward the Toronto Islands landscape and its residents. Businesses were removed and the systematic demolition and burning of homes began. More of the islands became parkland. There are 262 houses on Wards and Algonquin Islands today, down from about 630 residences on all the islands. The last of the Lakeshore houses was removed in 1968 but traces of them still remain.
below: The pier on the Lake Ontario side.
below: Sandbags along the shore. Last spring there was a lot of flooding here and the island was closed to visitors – sort of. Ferries didn’t run and the park facilities were closed. The islands are very flat and low so it doesn’t take much extra water to flood.
below: There is a small amusement park, Centreville, on Centre Island.
below: Island transport that can be rented if you don’t want to walk.
below: Boats moored QCYC (Queen City Yacht Club), one of the three yacht clubs on the islands.
below: Sakura trees in bloom. The trees were donated by the Sakura Project. The aim of this project was to strengthen Japanese Canadian relations by planting cherry trees in visible locations across Ontario. Between 2000 and 2012, 3,082 trees were planted at 58 locations. The trees on Centre Island were planted in 2011.
below: Catkins from a red alder tree. They almost look like raspberries packed tight together.
below: An early family of Canada geese.
below: The pier at the eastern end of Wards Island is bad need of repair. To the right is the entry into the Eastern Channel (or Eastern Gap).
below: Looking over to Algonquin Island. Once upon a time this island was just a sandbar.
and back to the mainland.
Well, this May 2 4 weekend has been splendidly sunny and fabulously warm! I hope you’ve had the chance to take advantage of it, whether sitting on a patio with a cold drink and friends, or out enjoying the the greenness that has bloomed all around us. It’s been a great few days to get up close and take a good look at nature.
below: Old moss covered metal seems to reach out of Lake Ontario like claws.
below: Reflections in the Yellow Creek, Beltline trail.
below: Wet pebbles with the beginnings of green moss growing on them shine in the morning sun.
below: Greater celandine, a yellow flowering plant, blooms along the railing of Milkmans Lane.
below: New growth unfolds in the sunshine.
below: The dark pink blossoms were at their peak this week.
below: Green and brown mosses sway with the water currents along the shore of Lake Ontario.
below: The snow fences have been bundled up and put away for the summer.
There is time between winter and spring that is a dreary time of greyness and dullness. It is a time when the the snow is gone but nature hasn’t come out of hibernation. It is also a time best forgotten.
Luckily we don’t have to wait long.
… just a little longer ….
or if you can’t wait, there’s always plastic!
From the time the first spring flowers start to show
until the time they are in full bloom is usually only a matter of days.
Trees too soon show their colours. The yellows of the willow trees usually appear first.
Almost daily the trees are greener…
… or full of flowers.
And for another year we forget the last grey days of winter
This week all the flowering trees and shrubs have come to life. Also, a number of times I have looked out the subway window as the train passed Mount Pleasant cemetery and noticed the blossoms on the trees there. Past experience says that the pinks and whites of these trees may not last long. So I took my camera and macro lens to Mount Pleasant cemetery and played.
There were lilacs and forsythia and many others that I don’t now the name of.
below: Apparently this tree is called a Moose Maple.
The Sakura Project
The Sakura Project was started in the year 2000 with the objective of planting 3000 Japanese flowering cherry (Sakura) trees in Ontario as a symbol of Japan-Canada friendship. By the time the project came to an end in the autumn of 2012, 3,082 trees had been planted at 58 locations across Ontario. One of the locations was the St. George campus of the University of Toronto. Here, at the corner of Harbord and Huron streets, 70 trees were planted in 2005.
Today, 4 May, the trees were in full bloom. Perfect. (Well, almost perfect – a little blue sky instead of the cloud cover would have been an added bonus)
as I walk Toronto 