Toronto — Page 39 — You are in My World Now

Canna Tropicana Bloom

November 30, 2008 by Tricia

I just realized that I never posted a photo of any of my cannas in bloom on any of the blogs that I do Green Thumb Sunday on.

Perhaps I never posted a photo because I have so few from this past summer.

My canna’s didn’t overwinter inside the house very well last year and as a result they took quite a while to recover once it was warm enough to put them outdoors. They didn’t begin to bloom until late August and the blooms didn’t last all that long.

The canna’s are once again indoors for the winter. I keep them in my basement. I let their stalks dry out and I cut them down and then I only water them about once a month or so. Just enough to keep them alive, but dormant in the cool dark basement.

I have several tropical plants that I place in my garden each summer, but then bring back indoors by October. Passion flower vines, a Trumpet flower vine, a Jasmine bush, a hibiscus and … I’m sure there are a couple more, but I can’t think of what they are right now. I keep the vines, jasmine and hibscus upstairs in a bedroom with a south facing window. They get a fair amount of light through the winter and are well watered. Others like the canna’s go to the basement for a winter rest.

Do you have tropical plants that you place in your garden or yard during the summer and try to keep alive indoors through the winter? I’m getting better at overwintering my plants, but it’s not uncommon to lose at least one each year … although, crossing fingers!, I didn’t lose any last winter so hopefully I’ll have the same luck this winter.

Downtown Toronto is changing

November 25, 2008 by Tricia

You might remember that last week I told you one of our friends was going to be having open heart surgery at a hospital here in Toronto. Well, she had the operation on Friday and she’s still in the hospital and recovering well.

We spent the better part of the weekend going back and forth to the hospital visiting our friend and our husband. Needless to say i didn’t manage to get much done this weekend! She was seen by physio today and was finally allowed to get up and walk around so if she continues to progress well she’ll be out of the hospital by the end of the week. Fast isn’t it?

The hospital is downtown … actually the hospital she’s in (Toronto General) is surrounded by a number of other hospitals. I hadn’t actually been downtown for some time and I was amazed to see that the area around Dundas and Yonge had changed quite a bit. For years they’ve been building a new multi-movie theater on the corner of Yonge and Dundas and now they’ve removed all the boards that had been blocking it off – for years and I think it’s open.

Now that corner that had been a huge construction site competes with the huge shopping center and the other stores on each corner. It’s a mass of digital signage in that area!

I took that photo two years ago, but as you can see there were lots of digital signs back then .. and now that area on the right of the picture is a big multi-movie theater with, oddly enough, a section at the top that is used by the neighboring Ryerson University (I believe they are part owners of the complex).

In the late 80’s and early 90’s that whole area felt like home to me. I was a jewelery – part of the jewelry trade, and that area if full of trade jewelers. I had my business in that area and I lived and breathed the downtown lifestyle. I still live close to the downtown core, but in a much more family friendly area.

Have you noticed how parts of your city has changed over the years? Amazing at times isn’t it?

Reflections of Toronto

November 22, 2008 by Tricia

This weeks Photo Hunt theme is Reflection

I took these photos of the Toronto water front area while on a dinner boat cruise last year. There’s nothing like being on the water at sunset. What a beautiful view of an impressive city.

If you look closely at the pictures, above and below, you can see that the CN tower and other nearby buildings are reflected in the water. You can also see the reflection of the sunset in the water too.

I’m looking forward to seeing what other Photo Hunters have come up with for this weeks theme! You can see my other entry – Reflections of Midnight – on my main blog Tricia’s Musings if you’d like.

Visiting a very stressed out friend

November 20, 2008 by Tricia

Chris and I just came back from the hospital. One of our friends is going to have open heart surgery tomorrow afternoon.

Both our friend and her husband are totally freaked out and upset that everything they had to do in the hospital today took so long. They basically spent the whole day waiting to see the nurse practitioner, the anesthesiologist, the surgeon and so on. In fact she still hadn’t seen the surgeon by the time we left at 8:45 pm!

I’d be stressed to if I were having surgery on my heart tomorrow too, so I can understand, but still, being an ER nurse I can also understand how hospitals work, that’s why she had to go in a day early, right?

Her husband is really stressed too. Not only does he have to deal with his wife having open heart surgery, but his best friend (also our friend) is anther hospital dying of Pancreatic cancer. Major stress!

Not only that .. but amid all of these troubles he’s been looking for jobs in business management. Yes, all these things going on and he’s unemployed too!

I just hope our friend doesn’t have any complications from the surgery. She’s been told that she’ll be able to return home seven days after the surgery … so that’s good, as long as things go well.

I expect we’ll be spending a lot of time at the hospital over the weekend!

A park in the city

November 16, 2008 by Tricia

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I guess you could say I’m doing a series of posts across a few of my blogs about a recent trip to Taylor Creek Park in Toronto for all of my GTS posts today.

So instead of the usual garden related post I’ve chosen to go with a nature post instead.

It was the beginning of November and some of the trees were beginning to change color, flowers were developing seedheads, milkweed seeds were blowing in the wind and my dog was having a ball running through the forest trails and taking a dip in any water she managed to find.

The Sumacs had lost all of their leaves which turn a bright red in Autumn, but their lovely seedheads or fruit were still on the branches.

Actually, there were still some red leaves on the Sumacs, but they looked to be fading fast. These ones look like they are just about ready to drop, don’t they?

A tree that I’d found on an earlier trip still had most of it’s blue colored berries, but it had lost most of it’s leaves.

Isn’t it hard to believe that this park is deep within the city when you see a picture like the one below? I mean, it really does look like a country scene does it not?

A couple hundred feet to the left of this scene is a busy highway (the 404 or Don Valley), but you’d never know it by just looking at this photo!

That’s what I love about Toronto, there are so many great parks that you can easily get away from the hustle and bustle of the city … even though you are still in it!