Here we go

This is what Ward's Island looks like from the 44th floor of a posh downtown hotel. Kim's a juror with the Toronto International Film Festival this year, and they flew her in from Vancouver and put her up in this great room, and she invited some of her friends, including me, up to check it out. I hadn't seen Austin and Leslie in ages; they'll be spending a lot of time at the Festival as well, Austin in particular, as the production company he works for has 3 feature releases in TIFF this year -- including the gala opener.

And I'm going to miss it all -- because I'll be in England! I'll be presenting a paper at this conference in Oxford next week. Leaving tomorrow. Wow.

So there's a real sense of It's All Really Happening Now in the air these days. It's going to be a busy year for me. This blog will still be updated, though. How often? What will I post here? Not sure yet. Check back and see.

More photos from the 44th floor here.

Swallow swarm on the Islands

I was out on the Islands again on Wednesday, and I walked from the Ward's Island ferry docks all the way to the snack bar at Hanlan's Point, then back again. The weather was about as beautiful as it could possibly be. On the rocky southwest shore, I found the carcass of a fish as big as my thigh. I investigated Gibraltar Point Beach, the one I hadn't been to before, and found it to be smaller than Hanlan's, quiet and shady.

Walking back, I found myself in a clearing on the south shore, near where the boardwalk begins, late in the afternoon. There were a lot of tiny gnats in the air, and these had attracted dozens of swallows, which were all darting and swooping and chirping madly. I stood in the middle of the clearing and they flew all around me, and just above my head: I was standing in a cloud of swallows. It was impossible to photograph, since they moved so quickly, but I shot a video that maybe gives you some idea:



Photo set here.

Birds, cats, fluffy white clouds

I know it's been a month, but this blog isn't dead, it's just resting! I'm going to two conferences in the fall, and I'm pretty busy these days making travel arrangements & working on my presentations. Keep me in your RSS feed and hopefully you'll see photos from England and Texas later this year.

I did get out to the Islands yesterday, to enjoy the first decent weather in what feels like weeks. Ward's Island is still my favourite place in Toronto to spend a sunny day: cats, bicycles, little cottages, a nice pecan tart at the cafe. It appears to be poplar fluff season on the Islands right now: see photo below. Is it poplars that produce all that fluff? It's everywhere you look: on the ground, in the air, in the water, where the geese and ducks graze on it happily.

Also, I saw several brilliant orange songbirds, and wondered what they were. I thought they might be scarlet tanagers, but they had black heads, and tanagers don't, as a quick Google search revealed. Some more Googling, and I figured out they were Baltimore orioles. So pretty!

More photos here, though none of the orioles -- they're too quick for me.

Winter on the Islands

This happened almost a month ago (yikes!), but I want to post about it before winter melts away. If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you know how I love the Toronto Islands. But I'd only ever been there in the summer -- until the Saturday last month when Jude and I ventured over, hoping to go skating on the lagoon.

Most of the water that loops through and between the Islands freezes solid in the winter, and the Ward's Island locals keep a rink-sized patch cleared of snow. We found it, but couldn't skate on it because an all-day pick-up hockey game was in progress. We didn't mind, though; we stayed and watched a while. Maybe a dozen people were playing -- many in t-shirts, because the day was so mild -- and about twice that many were hanging out rinkside, watching, chatting, and drinking out of thermoses. Dogs ran around greeting everyone. For Island residents, it was clearly the place to be on a Saturday afternoon.



We walked along the trail till we got to the church. We could see Centre Island, the amusement park all shut down for the winter, the rides silent and still. But there were lots of sounds drifting over to us: barnyard animal sounds. Well, of course -- all the animals at Far Enough Farm were still there. "Let's walk over!" I said. "I want to see the lowing beasts."

We crossed the nearest footbridge. Centre was deserted, but the animal sounds were getting louder. We reached the petting farm and saw an enormous flock of ducks and geese. The ducks were all dozing peacefully on the ice, but the geese waddled up to check us out.



The doors of most of the barns and stalls stood open, and the animals -- donkeys, ponies, horses -- were outside enjoying the sunshine, but there were still no people to be seen, with the exception of one farm worker, busy at the far end of the horse corral, who waved to us. It was as if all the humans had left the park, and the animals had taken over. It was like downtown Buffalo on a Sunday, but with livestock.

We left the farm to walk along the boardwalk on the south shore, and look at the wild shapes the ice on the trees and rocks had taken.

The Islands are as gorgeous in the winter as in the summer, it turns out. If you're hoping to have lunch at the Rectory Cafe (the only year-round option), call first -- they're open on & off in the winter.

Full set of photos here.