highpark sakuras 2012

Today I moved my lazy ass to go to high park. This spring is weird, with a weather that is yoyoing between hot and cold. I first went to kariya garden-mississauga but it did not satisfied my craving for sakuras so off to high park I went:

 The past windy days made a lot of blossoms fell on the ground and it was nice, different from last year. It's beautiful to watch the falling petals, almost dreamy. The park was not that crowded as well since the weather network predicted it would rain and it was chilly. Although the cherry trees were in bloom, the surrounding nature was not out, which is weird since last year everything was more lush and green. Must be our chilly spring.

Most of the residents of high park were invisible but, I spotted the regulars: the white swan, the ducks and black bird red wings but no chipmunks/woodpecker/cardinal in view. Also saw some beautiful tiny vibrant blue birds (with a white breast) doing their shows over the water. I was on the verge of taking the picture of one of them but it flew away as people were walking by..meh..

I did notice the park had some damages not present last year, like man made hatchet marks on some trees and a few were surrounded by grill. I'm not sure if I noticed them before and it seemed the vegetation was more sparse from my first visit in 2005. Maybe it's because it's still early spring?? Anyway it was a nice break away from boring Mississauga.

I do envy people who live on the other bank of the river in highpark. The late afternoons must be an interesting show of birds. I do bet the houses are worth millions as well. I love bloor street though. It's charming.

I guess I'll find a way to go again in summer and spend the whole day there *IF* only it was not that far away *sigh*

Then I walked to jane subway station and spotted this cute scrapbook store:bizzy b's stamp and scrap and could not leave without getting my hands on some goodies: stencil, ink, alphabets and some sheets from graphic 45. They even offer art journal classes :( It sucks to live so far away from anything remotely cool.i can't believe there's no Curry's art store in Mississauga as well, unless you're willing to travel all the way down to Oakville! Meh...maybe it's time for some driving's lesson???

My next goals:

culham trail-12 km from erin park to meadowvale conservation area
scarborough buffs-the travel will surely kill me.

I am also done booking my trip to Montreal from the 29 May-2 June. Montreal here I come : montreal bagels, cheese, bread, vintage books, wine and stock up on french books. yay!!!

song of the lonely duck

It seems that each time I am off work, it's to be down with migraine..

I went to High Park to see the sakuras and spotted 1 swan, 3 cardinals, 2 chipmunks, lots red wing blackbirds and their females, canadian gooses, some ducks and too many homo sapiens. ugh..

I thought I would escape the week-end crowd by going during the week: WRONG. If it's not the locals, it's the tourists and weirdly it was asian nation in high park last Tuesday :/ I'm Asian as well but one thing that irked me was how noisy these people are in general. Here you are: walking quietly along a path, savouring the silence and the wind in the trees, then BANG..this peaceful picture is shattered as a group of 4 people walked by talking loudly in their language (I came to accept that talking loudly is part of the chinese culture but jeezzz...) 3 times I missed taking pictures of birds as some loud person passed by causing my photo subject to fly away. One woman was yelling at a swan :hello hello... then byeeeeeeee... *roll eyes*

The sakuras were beautiful and this couple too:

My point and shoot camera batteries died on me and I managed to play with my dsl although my pictures were not that great-colors are off on my macbook pro- and I forgot the user manual at home. Hehehe

My favourite spot was next to the lonely goose: less people although too close to the highway. I definitely need to go back in the incoming week. I assume once the sakuras blooms have fallen, less people will be there.

Another park I want to visit is Rouge Park although it's 2 hours by bus from where I am and much bigger than Highpark. Let's hope I won't get lost. I felt energized after 3 hours in High Park. My mind had a deserved rest from the street noise, appliances buzz etc in the condo. I need to find closer parks though..maybe the Meadowvale conservation area???

Jeez my head hurts..Started exercising again which is good to get rid of tension caused by stress. 7 days of rain in Mississauga. How interesting.

I <3 my kindle and my cheese order from L'Abbaye St Benoit. So delicious! I got my order within 2 days and I love their St Augustin cheese. Maybe I should order a whole cheese...I should live in Quebec..seriously..their bread, cheese, pate and charcuterie are above those in Toronto-Mississauga..