17 October 2010

Autumn Adventures

I love to go for long walks in my neighbourhood, and my favourite time of the year for them is in autumn. Everything seems magical amid the trees with their blazing colours and crunching leaves underfoot. I thought I'd share some of the local charm (click on photos to enlarge). Enjoy! 

This was the biggest spider I've ever seen outside. I'm positive it must have been accidentally imported. Very cool for someone interested in arachnids, but I'm also glad it was nowhere near my house...

  

This was the Dempsey Brothers Hardware Store, originally located at Yonge and Sheppard. Amazingly the building was preserved rather than torn down and the entire thing was moved to Dempsey Park. The park is definitely worth a visit too. 

 

It's far more typical of Toronto, unfortunately, to tear down and destroy historic buildings in order to make way for new development. But at least they occasionally save remnants of the original structures, usually facades but in this case part of an old gate...

   

A critter (probably a squirrel) decided to take a stroll across some wet cement and is now forever immortalized (much cuter than someone's initials)... 

 

These were taken in a tiny graveyard facing onto Yonge Street. It contains some of the oldest graves in the area, including several of members of founding families (Sheppard, Cummer, Leslie...) I'm only including a couple of photos since not everyone is as enamoured of cemeteries as I am. Also, my batteries ran out before I could take too many shots (sigh).

   

Many of the graves feature images of the iconic (and namesake) willow trees of this area (Willowdale).

  

Photos by Whimsy Bower

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07 October 2010

Dilly-Dahlia

The exuberant and colourful blooms of dahlias are just what the garden needs in late summer/fall. Even I don't mind having to dig up and store the bulbs over the winter. These are a few of the ones in my garden (I plan on adding a few more next year). 

Click the photos to enlarge.

  Photos by Whimsy Bower