Clean up

The weather's been rough the last few days — a lot of wind and rain — and that means that the harbour quickly fills up with hazards to navigation.  That is, giant partially-submerged logs, picnic tables, and other things.

Today the clean-up crew from the port authority was out wrangling some of it out of the water.

Overgrown planters and fungus

Today I was down at the harbour side of the Western Gap.  I think the planters down that way have been forgotten (amidst all the construction going on for the Billy Bishop tunnel).  This is one:

Here's another:

Around the corner from there, the fungus that I photographed last week has spread out along the cracks in the newly-laid cobblestones.

Gladiolus, Stonecrop, Peony, and Streetcar

Newer things are coming into bloom out in the Music Garden, like this (I think) gladiolus:

Over by Little Norway Park the peonies are in bloom, too:

In the decaying concrete along the Western Gap, mossy stonecrop is blooming:

And here is a close up of it:

AKA, Biting Stonecrop, Sedum Acre, or Goldmoss Stonecrop

Back along the waterfront, the TTC was running old school streetcars today for the re-opening of the road after all the construction:

Nightshade

The photo didn't turn out very well (I blame my own sheer laziness after a busy day), but I did see some bitter nightshade in bloom today.

Bitter Nightshade, aka Blue Bindweed,
 Fellenwort, or Trailing Bittersweet.

Maybe I'll get some better photos later.

Squirrel

There wasn't a lot to see this afternoon (or I was so sleepy that I missed it).  I did see a squirrel hanging out in the water fountain behind the community center though.

It turned to stare me down as I got my camera out.

That definitely seems sanitary.

Fog and fungus

Today was weirdly foggy — the fog remained heavy all day, despite copious sunshine.  I took these photos a bit after four in the afternoon.

This was at Queens Quay West looking out toward the airport (which is not visible) along Éireann Quay.

Out along the quay itself, and looking back toward CN Tower:

There, along that part of the walk, there was some cup fungus in full, ... er ... bloom?

Snail and clover and blue bells and grafitti

It was a fairly damp and dreary day, but there were some snails out enjoying things in the garden:

Nearby the snail was some red clover that looked nice with the raindrops still on it.

Down the way, the blue bells were really enjoying the misty wet day, too:

And over near Ireland Park, someone had been doodling on one of the bollards:

Lilies, eglantine, and swan

Lilies are blooming up near the gazebo in the Music Garden:

And over on the eastern side, the eglantine are in bloom:

This guy I see most days hanging out with a pair of bouys.  I'm a little worried he thinks they're his new best friends.

Stormy day, strangely calm

The weather today was pretty stormy, yet I spotted two of our tour boats out with sails up.  Neither of these boats ever sail (so far as I'm aware) — the sails are there to be attractive, and are usually hauled in as soon as the weather gets up.

But anyway, they do often look quite nice.

I forget the name of this boat.  I think she might be the Challenge with her stay-sails out.

And this one is the Kajama with her two foresails out in addition to her three gaff-rigged sails.

Meanwhile, if I turned northeast, this is what the sky was starting to do:

Hurry home, boats!

Kayak, bike lane, rhododendron

Summer on the lake is, at last, getting underway.  The harbour was full of kayaking classes today.

And in the garden, the rhododendrons are finally in bloom:

But I did see something confusing today — might have to look into it further.  They are starting to paint the new bike lanes they just paved and here's one freshly done:

Though I cannot figure out why it says "Yonge" then "Yonge Street".  This is by the Shoppers close to the Spadina intersection.  That is, to be at Yonge, you still have to head east past the intersections at Ree, Simcoe, York, and Bay.  Maybe it means "this way to Yonge"or maybe they just screwed up?   … I guess I'll watch this and see what happens.

Life downtown

One of the more entertaining things about living downtown in a condo is the notes that go up around the place once the building manager has just had it with certain behaviors.  There was one last month about not letting your dog relieve itself in the stairwells.

This week has been about the rooftop barbecue:

My absolute favorite thing about this note is that you don't just have to obey the rules, you have to take them seriously.  No joking about the rules!  Nein!  This is serious!  Bad condo residents! Bad!

Meanwhile, the sunset was really lovely tonight.

Flowers in the garden

The children's garden in the Music Garden has pretty daisies up now:

And these are over near the ramp up to the garden proper:

The walkway around the gazebo has a lot of  flowers now that the weather's been good for weeks:

Bridal bouquet bush

We had a pair of these bushes in our yard when I was a kid. We called them bridal bouquet bushes because each cluster of blooms looks like a tiny bridal bouquet.

Alexandra Park has a whole row of them in bloom.  It looks like the more proper name is "bridalwreath", or, more proper still, Spiraea prunifolia.

Flocking cormorants

The cormorants have continued to flock this week, settling in the waters around the harbour in noisy colonies.

The photos don't really do it justice — they are out there in long streams of birds, stretching from the shore to mid-way out into the shipping channels.

Simultaneously, there are many wheeling overhead, too.