The power of water: Niagara Falls

We'd never visited Niagara Falls before.It always sounded touristy; years ago, driving from Maryland to Toronto, I skirted the falls, avoiding what I thought would be tacky tourist stuff (the edges of town at that time were downtrodden, to be sure).But traveling this time, from Western North Carolina...

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Toronto Music Garden: a remarkable garden experience

I was reminded while visiting one of North America's great cities recently (Toronto) how easily many city dwellers can become disconnected from nature.  Opportunities to experience nature become both more precious as well as perhaps more important, too.A luminous visit to the Toronto Music Garden,...

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Summertime, summertime...

Is it spring or fall?Several years ago, I purchased this native fall-blooming aster, but each year it has bloomed in both the late spring and early fall.  Its breaking of bud dormancy may be caused by the same length of day as its correct blooming time. Whatever its problem, we do enjoy its surprise...

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Sedums at Toronto Botanical Garden

These were delightful mixes of sedums and their friends in carefully planted boxes along the path.They're largely the sort that need to be brought in over winter;  glorious, never the le...

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Dogs at the Evergreen Brickworks

Waiting for their humans to retu...

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A luminous sculpture (of the Don watershed)

There's no way that my photographs can convey how magical this (living and dripping) sculpture was (at the Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto -- a reclaimed old brickworks space that was a wonderful and inspirational place to visit).The sculpture depicted the Don River watershed in pipes, water, and plants...

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Serviceberries

I've really enjoyed foraging serviceberries (Amelanchier spp.) that have been planted as ornamentals around our mountain town.  They hadn't been on our radar before, but the nearby visitor center has lots of trees (planted for their spring flowering interest), but often loaded with berries in June.I...

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