Cherry Blossom, Spring 2018 in Toronto

As winter sunsets and heralds the dawn of spring (and then summer), the weather can change drastically in Toronto. You would remember we had an ice storm in mid-April and the landscape was tundra-like. That is all gone now, and one of the first true signs of spring (and the oncoming summer) are the cherry blossoms.

A cherry blossom is the flower of a cherry tree (usually in Canada it's the Japanese Sakura tree). The flowering of the Sakura trees is spectacular, but peak bloom (typically in late April to early May, depending on the weather) only lasts about a week.

This weekend (May 11-13) was peak viewing time. Typically almost everyone in Toronto descends on to High Park, where parking, traffic etc. can become a nightmare if you don't plan your trip strategically. But there are a few other spots in Toronto that also have lots and lots of trees.

The beauty of the cherry blossom is of course the huge number of trees blooming at the same time, which makes the white and red background striking and extremely majestic. Moreover, as the flower blooms, its petals slowly wither and drop to the ground. In the wind, with hundreds of trees and thousands and thousands of flower, it can make a magical sight.

But if the crowds in High Park there are just too much for you, check out the other top places in the GTA to take in the spring sight and snag that perfect Sakura selfie:

Trinity Bellwoods: There’s a cluster of young trees on the southeastern part of Trinity Circle. Plus visitors have the advantage of looking at the CN Tower through the beautiful flowers.

Centennial Park: This Etobicoke garden is believed to be the second largest place for the cherry blossoms in Toronto behind High Park, with over 200 cherry trees.

Toronto Islands: There are about 30 Japanese cherry trees on Centre Island near the fountain at the south end of the bridge, a great alternative for those seeking to avoid crowds in mainland city parks.

Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre: The first ever cherry tree to be planted in Toronto was a present from the citizens of Tokyo, so it’s fitting that the garden at the Japanese cultural centre in North York (near Eglinton just off DVP) would boast some of these blossoms.

Robarts Library at the University of Toronto: Dozens of cherry trees are planted on the Harbord-Huron stretch, forming a beautiful canopy for the university crowd and passersby when in peak bloom.

Kariya Park: The Japanese-style park near downtown Mississauga has its own cherry blossoms. The garden is named after the small city southwest of Tokyo, which has a strong relationship with the city of Mississauga.

Royal Botanical Gardens: Cherry blossoms at this Burlington park are scattered at various locations, but the main collection is near the Rock Garden.

As the cherry blossom ends, another flower slowly marks its appearance. Yes, it's now time for the annual tulip festivals across the country. The Abbotsford Bloom Tulip Festival in BC has just ended, but the Canadian Tulip Festival (in Ottawa) has just begun. Below is the picture of a tulip I snapped near one of the cherry trees in Toronto.
 

Did you attend any of the cherry blossom viewings in and around town? Let me know what you thought of it.

Condo Gardening As A Beginner

I was never a gardener. It always seemed too much work. I used to watch my mother garden, and see how she toiled away in the heat and how meticulous she was with her plants and think - wow, that's a lot of dedication for some greenery. So I never picked up gardening as a hobby. When we moved to our own place in a condo, I thought we would never have plants or even do any bit of gardening.

BCCB (which stands for Bangladeshi Canadian - Canadian Bangladeshi) is an organization that I am part of. It has over 20,000 members across its various chapters throughout Canada, and one of the chapters is a local gardening club, and I was on their mailing list.

They were holding an Aloe Vera workshop, and it sounded interesting, so I signed up for it. You attend an hour long workshop where they give you a free (yes, free!) pot, soil and a baby Aloe Vera plant. I attended the workshop, and at the end of the day, I now had a plant without any place to put it on my condo.

So I was intrigued. Let's see if I can keep this plant alive, I thought. I mean, water once a week and leave it alone. Shouldn't be too hard, should it?

So I found a place on top of my souvenirs shelf that received a good amount of sunlight throughout the day, and left the plant there. I would water it once a week as instructed. After some time, I saw one of the leaves wither, but the rest seemed to be fine, and even seemed to be growing. This isn't so bad, I thought. It was actually nice to come home and check on the plant.

Then I saw another workshop by the same BCCB group. They were having a lau workshop. Lau, also known as bottle gourd, or kaddu. Now which Bengali doesn't like bottle gourd? And once again, seeds would be given out free, along with soil and pots.

Can I do this, I thought? I mean, for this I would need a proper garden, eventually. That's what my parents' place was for. So this time both my wife and I signed up for the workshop.

The workshop was certainly interesting. We even learned about plant sex! If we ever meet up in person, ask me about that story. But it was definitely enjoyable. I never realized I could sit and listen to an hour of someone talking about lau and be fascinated by it. So when we came home, we found a sunny spot beside one of our windows, put some boxes there and then out pots, and waited.

For some time, there was nothing. I looked every day, and waited. Suddenly, one evening my wife excitedly called me to the window. The baby plant had emerged!

The growth was soon very rapid. It was amazing to see just how fast this plant could grow from nothing. The way the seedlings turned into a plant reminded me of this verse of Allah.



"So observe the effects of the mercy of Allah - how He gives life to the earth after its lifelessness. Indeed, that [same one] will give life to the dead, and He is over all things competent." Quran, 30:50

The instructions were to keep the soil moist, but not wet or over drenched. We took care of that, and also made sure there was enough sunlight.

It was soon time to be planting them in the soil, but we had to take care of sudden dips in the temperature. Even in May, we had a frost warning early in the month. The temperature during the day was good, but at nights it dipped rapidly. The instructions we got was to wait for Victoria Day or even the last weekend of May to plant these.

Yesterday I saw creeping vines come out of the plant. This was the sign that it is almost ready to planted into a garden, along with a supporting trellis. So that is my next project. Waiting for next weekend so I can plant them into my parents' garden, and then build a trellis for them.


I also bought a small mini rose plant (called a kordana rose). So that is the extent of my mini condo garden right now, all on top of a box by the window sill.

The plan now is to build a proper shelf by that window, and then start growing sprint onions and perhaps even some micro-greens.

Wish me luck this growing season!

Ottawa Tulip Festival

I recently spent a little time in Ottawa at the city's annual Tulip Festival.

The story goes that in 1945, the Dutch royal family fled Holland, which was overrun by the Nazis. They found safe heaven in Canada, and every year the Tulip festival in Ottawa commemorates this long lasting friendship between the two nations.

Interestingly, while in exile in Canada, Princess Juliana gave birth to a daughter, Princess Margriet. To mark the new princess’ birth, the Dutch flag was flown at the top of the Peace Tower. This is the only time a foreign flag has flown over Canada’s Parliament Buildings. Canada also temporarily declared the hospital she was born in as extraterritorial.

The Canadian Tulip Festival is also a celebration of the return of spring, with over a million tulips in 50 varieties blooming in public spaces across the National Capital Region. The highest concentration of tulips can be viewed in the flower beds of Commissioners Park, on the banks of Dows Lake, where 300,000 flowers bloom. The National Capital Commission (NCC) manages more than 100 tulip beds at 30 different sites.

You can experience the festival at various sites throughout the city. It's the largest of its kind in the city, attracting over 600,000 visitors (Source: Ottawa Tourism).

Of course, if you want to get all Bollywoodish about it, you can watch the video of the song Dekha Ek Khwab from the movie Silsila to get you all into a Tulip mood before you visit this festival! One not to be missed, and Ottawa has plenty to do in the summer besides tulips.

Fall 2009 Photography

Leaf peeping is an autumn activity in areas where foliage changes colors. Leaf peepers are those who participate in photographing and viewing the fall foliage.

Like everyone who immigrates to Canada from the warmer climates waits for their first glimpse of snow, I too awaited the arrival of winter ever since I landed in Canada. However, I was caught unaware by the magnificence that is Fall. The colours change beautifully, the whole forest turns a brilliant hue of orange, yellow and red, and if you happen to fly above the forest you would think it had caught on fire!

I didn't happen to go out much this year for Fall photography due to various commitments, but did happen to have my camera with me for a couple of snaps while I waited for the wife near my workplace. I plan to do some more tomorrow, so perhaps this post will be updated.

A fallen leaf on the pavement really starts to symbolize in Canada that winter is not far away!

Here's some pictures from 2005.

Eid Mubarak with Shadher Lau

Eid Mubarak, every body!

We went down to Rogers Centre (a stadium here, hired for the day by Muslims), and prayed with over 10,000 other Muslims. It was a bit different from the usually intimate environment at the mosque where we used to go previously.

My uncle had come over and he had a special gift for us - a lau (Bottle Gourd).

Now I showed you guys our previous examples of laus before, but my uncle's was in another league by itself. I leave you with those pictures, and hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday.

Laus in his garden.

Labelled laus for everybody.

Our lau.

My uncle with the lau.