My Photo Journal: Red-winged Blackbird in a Wildflower Meadow

FLOWERS AND WEEDS
by GEORGE COOPER
(originally published March 8, 1887)

HAVE you ever heard what the fairies say,
Little girl, little boy? Oh, hear and heed!
For each smile you wear on your face today
There's a flower grows; for each frown a weed.

So to make this world like a garden bright,
Little girl, little boy, keep frowns away.
Oh, the loving lips that can say tonight,
We have scattered flowers o'er the earth today!

The image above shows a red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) perched on top of a wildflower stalk (it looks like a goldenrod not yet in bloom).

These throwback photos were taken in 2012 on a walk through the DuPont Gordon Richards Park located near the waterfront in Whitby, Ontario. The park is a great place to spot many diffent types of birds and wildflowers, such as the strikingly pretty but incredibly invasive broad-leaved everlasting-pea or Lathyrus latifolius (below).

I hope you are enjoying beautiful weather where you are and wish you many hours of walking along happy trails filled with birdsong every step of your way.

Photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.


Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

My Photo Journal: Morning Light at Stone Street Park

These are the magic moments that you will remember on your deathbed.
The things that made life worth living. Your first love, the birth of your child,
achieving that lifelong dream, sharing great food and sights with friends and loved ones.
— Richard Heart

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people
when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers,
and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit,
and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.
― Black Elk
Throwback photo of a bare willow tree in morning light at Stone Street Park in Oshawa. Stone Street Park is a large park along the Oshawa segment of the 1400-km Great Lakes Waterfront Trail. The Oshawa portion of the Waterfront Trail runs along Lake Ontario for 15.5 km from the McLaughlin Bay Wildlife Reserve to Whitby Harbour. The ever-changing views along the water at Stone Street Park make it one of our favourite destinations to walk the dog.

© FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Morning Light at Lakeview Park

If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy.
If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem.
But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world
and a desire to enjoy the world.
This makes it hard to plan the day.
— E.B. White

A crisp and brilliant morning at Lakeview Park in Oshawa. This is one of our favourite parks to walk in with the dog; it has lots of paved paths from which you can see and hear the water of Lake Ontario. Easily one of the most popular and accessible parks in the city.

All photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Trees at Orono Crown Lands

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Perfect weather for a nature walk through the Orono Crown Lands; the day was bright and sunny with just enough wind to keep the walk from getting unpleasantly hot. We took the Purple and Pink Loops today which meant we didn't get to walk beside Wilmot Creek. If possible, we aim to try the Red or Orange Loops next weekend as the path along the water can be very pretty.

All photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Garden Scenes by Alfonse Van Besten

Ma femme (Mrs. A. Van Besten), 1913

Blossom and lady, ca. 1913

Young girl amidst marguerites, ca. 1912

Van Besten painting in his garden, 1909
A series of photographs from the early 20th century by Belgian artist Alfonse Van Besten (1865 - 1926). Van Besten was a painter and many of his autochromes were taken with a "painterly eye." You can find many more of his autochrome photographs on the Belgian Autochromists website here.

*===***===*===***===*
A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in ― what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

What I've always found interesting in gardens is looking at what people choose to plant there. What they put in. What they leave out. One small choice and then another, and soon there is a mood, an atmosphere, a series of limitations, a world.
― Helen Humphreys, The Lost Garden

She wandered around Sally's garden, sipping coffee, stopping to admire the grevillea and talk to the chickens. As the warmth of the sun unknotted the tension in her spine, Alice noticed a lush alley of potted tropical plants alongside the house: monstera, bird of paradise, agave, staghorns and ferns. Alice was filled with a sense of wonder; it was a garden within a garden, so meticulous and well-tended in contrast to the wild beauty surrounding it. The sumptuous blends of greens. The varying, glossy foliage.
― Holly Ringland, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

My Photo Journal: Day Trip to Rouge Park

Having been so busy with work, school and camp these last few weeks, we haven't had much time to go for long family walks like we usually do. Last Sunday being the one day in a long while since we had nothing pressing on the agenda, we decided to head to Rouge Park for some hiking. Rouge Park is considered one of Toronto's best-kept secrets; located just twenty minutes (on a good day) from the downtown core, this green space provides kids and grown-ups with plenty of opportunities to enjoy myriad outdoor activities in its more than 40 square kilometres. This area was recently declared a national urban park, the first of its kind in Canada. This means that it will receive funding from the federal government, thus helping to ensure the longevity and sustainability of a much-needed bastion against urban sprawl.

We're the most familiar with the Glen Rouge Trailhead entrance, which is also the site of the Glen Rouge Campground, located at 7450 Kingston Road in the GTA's extreme east end, near the Scarborough-Pickering border. You can find some trail maps here. The park also offers guided nature hikes, which is great if you're a new visitor, and unsure of where to explore first.

Once we were parked, my daughter was raring to go despite the sweltering heat (oh, to be three again). We managed to slow her down long enough to slather on the requisite sunscreen and insect repellent. It was during this process that we noticed a "cute" caterpillar, looking pathetically lost (and hot) on top of a metal recycling receptacle. Being a veteran animal rescuer (too many Dora and Diego DVDs; if you're a parent, you'll know what I mean), my daughter immediately wanted to help it find its way back home to a nice tree.

We didn't realize until later that this was the caterpillar of the white-marked tussock moth, and that the hairs/bristles could cause an allergic reaction in some people. My husband and daughter didn't experience any adverse effects from handling it but I don't think we'll be taking any more chances on "rescuing" wildlife that we don't recognize!

This portion of Rouge Park seems particularly popular with pole trekkers so you'll see large groups of them moving at a brisk pace with their hiking poles, awash in gregarious camaraderie. They are very friendly and never fail to shower you with cheerful "Hellos" and "Good mornings" as you pass; their joy is slightly surreal but highly infectious, and leaves us with smiles on our faces.

The terrain gets quite hilly in a couple of places but most of the time, the slopes are gentle enough for a three year-old and a forty-something with creaky knees to handle. Here and there, you can see the results of erosion - trees with twisted and gnarled roots perch precariously atop ground that has washed away.

Once you've climbed past the hilly parts, the forest does offer up long stretches of even, meandering paths where three year-olds can run, hop, jump and skip to their heart's content while her parents enjoy relatively uninterrupted moments of civilized conversation. The day we were there, sudden but brief summer cloudbursts had amplified the smell of rotting vegetation, and the aroma of wild mushrooms punctuate the air with pithy pungency. There are lots of fallen logs for my daughter to clamber over, to use as balance beams, and irresistibly, as pirate gangplanks (there are also stumps of varying heights that make for great lookout points). We always stay on the path; I've had one run-in with poison ivy when I got a little carried away with trying to take a picture of a chipmunk and have no intention of repeating that painful episode!

After an hour or so on the trail, we decide to turn around. Although it has been fairly cool under the trees, the humidity is getting to us, and we're ready for refreshments. About a fifteen minute drive away from the Glen Rouge Campground is MacMillan Orchards, located at 733 Kingston Road East in the neighboring municipality of Ajax, Ontario (not to be confused with another MacMillan Orchards in Acton, Ontario). We're in the mood for some frozen yogurt, which MacMillan makes in-house. They are quite generous with the frozen fruit that you can add to your icy treat and the result is a rich, creamy, not-too-sweet thirst-quencher that is supremely satisfying!

MacMillan also sells a variety of frozen pies, vegetables and meat. We pick up a sugar-free cherry pie for my husband while my daughter selects a rhubarb and Saskatoon berry pie, and some baby-sized red velvet cupcakes (I let her get away with it since she did have quite the workout). We leave the country store happy and satisfied with the morning outing, knowing we still have goodies to look forward to that night as well as a couple of days to come! Don't you just love long, drawn-out happiness? :)

(This post was originally published in July 2012.) © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: To Sail Away (or An Imaginary Foray in Pursuit of Happiness)

Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves.
― Carol Lynn Pearson

Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.
― Alexandre Dumas
The first image was taken at Ward's Island Beach in the summer of 2011. The Toronto Islands beaches are among the cleanest in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) despite their proximity to the downtown core. We took a tent with us that day, a good thing since we experienced one of the biggest thunderstorms of the season that afternoon! Despite strong wind gusts and lashing rain, our tent held firm and we stayed dry and cozy for the hour or so that the weather raged over us. My daughter was pretty unfazed during the whole episode, and thought it was a pretty cool to have snacks and work on jigsaw puzzles with rain drumming on the roof of the tent. The dog, however, was not that impressed! :) I took the shot of the lake about half an hour after the storm had passed and the cruise ship was making its rounds again. I waded out to the water until I was about thigh-deep to try and get a nearer shot of the boat (I only had my 35mm camera lens with me that day) but that was about the best close-up shot I could get.

The second picture was post-processed in Photoshop CS4, using textures from Shadowhouse, Flypaper, and Florabella. I "stamped" the dragon onto the composition using a Photoshop brush I had made of a vintage illustration in a 1906 book entitled "Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art". If you would like to download the brush for personal use only, you can click on this link.

(This post was originally published in July 2011.) © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Giselle or A Swan at the Toronto Zoo

"Giselle" straight out of camera (SOOC)
Swans have a long history in many world cultures, usually known to represent beauty, purity, perfection and grace. In Greek mythology, the swan is associated with Aphrodite and is a symbol of chastity. The Celts believed swans were benevolent deities and would forge their images into silver medallions that could be worn around the neck for protection. Swans are also revered in Hinduism, and compared to saintly persons who have attained great spiritual capabilities.

These elegant birds can pair for years, and are often a symbol of love or fidelity because of their long-lasting, apparently monogamous relationships. I took a picture of this swan at our last family outing to the Toronto Zoo on Saturday, April 9. It seemed quite lonely and sad, and reminded me of the heroine in the ballet Giselle (who wasn't a swan but rather a peasant girl who had met an untimely death). It's fairly uncommon to see a lone swan here in Ontario - we've mostly seen them in twos, threes or a whole flock and we were hoping to perhaps glimpse its companion but none appeared in the half hour or so that we were meandering around the stream. As we headed towards the parking lot, I saw it drift into a clump of bushes with plaintive cries. It was quite heartbreaking! I like to imagine it finding a mate, and living happily ever after. Foolishly sentimental, perhaps but as Voltaire said, "Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination."

The SOOC (straight-out-of-camera) shot was post-processed in Photoshop CS4 with the following recipe:
(1) Assign Profile to Adobe RGB 1998
(2) Florabella Textures III --> Seaside (Flip vertical, Multiply @ 50%).
(3) Flypaper Textures, Spring Painterly pack --> Ovid Banished (Flip horizontal, Lighten @ 75%)
(4) Flypaper Textures, Spring Painterly pack --> Ovid Banished (Multiply @ 25%)
(5) Flypaper Textures, Spring Painterly pack --> Apple Moss (Multiply @ 75%)
(6) Photoshop -> Levels and Curves adjustment
(7) Added back Apple Moss @ Multiply 30% at this point because the image looked a bit too light and faded, and just re-boosted the colors/contrast with some tweaking in Levels

© 2019 FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved. (Originally published 2014.)

My Photo Journal: Winter Play at Earl Bales

All walking is discovery.
On foot we take the time to see things whole.
― Hal Borland
Taken on the last snow day we had in Toronto. The colored tubes and the purple moose sculpture are part of the Sarah and Morris Feldman Sensory Garden and children's playground at Earl Bales Park in the North York neighborhood. Apart from the children's area, there is an off-leash area for dogs, and the park is also home to the Earl Bales Ski & Snowboard Centre (also called the North York Ski Centre), one of the only two ski hills in the GTA (the other one is in Etobicoke). You can get some really good exercise around here since the park is quite hilly. There are paved paths as well as wooded trails although I wouldn't go on the paths if they're icy since some of the slopes are pretty steep. The sensory garden and playground easily keep my 3 year-old daughter occupied for a couple of hours, and there are also a few good spots where we can play hide-and-seek. :) We definitely find Earl Bales to be one of the best parks in Toronto for a kid who has energy to spare!

(This post was originally published in March 2012.) © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: Hardly Winter!

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me
there lay an invincible summer.
― Albert Camus
We've been extremely lucky this winter - it has hardly snowed at all and even when it has, warm temperatures quickly follow so no accumulation remains on the ground. We've had enough snow to make snowgirls - Snow Mattie, Snow Daisy and Snow Alice (the last two being my daughter's invisible companions; yes, I know, we need to find her some real friends) - but we haven't had to endure drawn-out stretches of bitterly biting gales, treacherously slippery sidewalks or dreary-drabby gray days. Best of all, we've been able to get outside for more walks than we normally would during this curmudgeonly season. It's made it easier to stay more upbeat; I generally find the winter months quite oppressive and it can be a challenge to search for thoughts and images that remind me of happier, balmier times.

These photos were taken at Rotary Park in Ajax, Ontario on one of the warmest winter days on record. The sun shining on our heads and the stinging purity of the lung-cleansing cold air combined to fill us with giddy exhilaration. Monochromes startled with unseasonal vibrancy, and wildlife partied it up with hisses, honks, flaps and swishes. The light was incredible and winter played dress-up in the guise of its torrid, sultry cousin. Feeling indomitable, I marched along the parkways and learned that indeed, I did have within me, an invincible summer.

(This post was originally published in January 2011.) © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.