9 October 2011 by pat.

I got up early this morning and biked over to Sugar Beach, on Queen’s Quay just east of Jarvis street. The sun is now swinging farther south, making it easier to capture the rising sun over water. In the middle of the summer, it’s rising over land to the east, and is quite high in the sky by the time it’s visible from the beach.

I took a series of photographs as the sun came up.

This is one of my favorites:

I like the colours of the sunrise and the water, but realize that if I want to get the picture that’s in my mind, I need to bring my tripod and shoot a series of images quickly, and then merge them together in Photoshop as a high dynamic range image (HDRI). That’s the only way I’m going to be able to capture the pink of the umbrellas and the sunrise together. Here’s a picture before the sun came blazing up:

 I’d also like to see if I can catch a sunrise with some photogenic clouds.

I see more trips to Sugar Beach in my future! Maybe the ugly fence will go away, too.

(Click here if you’d like to see the full set of photos)

Posted in City life, Urban nature, Photography - documentary | 1 Comment »

11 September 2011 by pat.

I know a lot of people (and more every year) are opposed to zoos: they disagree with animals being kept in an artificial environment, in unnatural circumstances.

The animal may be safer, but is it happier? Is it living out the nature of its being?

 These are questions I’m not going to try to answer.

I like to see animals: Toronto zoo is endeavoring to give them the best environment possible.

I was there on Thursday. I didn’t realize it closed at 4:30pm, and only left here at 11:30am: it takes almost 2 hours to get there from here by TTC (there must be a faster way!).

Still, I had 3 hours to walk around (I have some problems with the signage at the zoo: I think it needs work, and may have deteriorated over time with budget cuts from first Metro Toronto and then the amalgamated Toronto).

I took my new camera, my Canon 5D MkII, and I was really impressed. From 25 feet away with my 400mm lens, I’ve captured each separate bristle on  the red river hogs.

Most of the animals are prettier

Go have a look: let me know what you think in the comments section, either here or on Flickr.

Posted in Urban nature, Photography | No Comments »

15 February 2011 by pat.

As I wrote last week, I attended the ceremony for the Yves Rocher Foundation’s Women of the Earth awards last Thursday. I recorded Laura Reinsborough’s speech, and interviewed her afterward at Allen Gardens. My edited interview is now up on YouTube.

Shot with my iPod Touch, edited in iMovie.

Posted in Urban nature, Networking, Home gardens, Gardening, Food, SOLE food | No Comments »

2 January 2011 by pat.

Last order of December! I managed to sell the order I placed in mid-December, even though I only had booked 3 sales on it. So now, with 3 sales again, I’m repeating the exercise. Do you want a calendar for 2011 of the Birds of Leslieville? I’ll have a few extras!

Posted in Urban nature, Photography sales and marketing, Photography | No Comments »

15 December 2010 by pat.

I’ve just received what will probably be my last order of calendars before Christmas.

If you want one and didn’t order one, you’re in luck: I ordered some extras, just in case there were any last-minute requests! Just click over to my e-store and order one — since there won’t be time for shipping, we’ll have to arrange to meet up so you get it on time.

Posted in Urban nature, Photography sales and marketing, Photography | No Comments »

21 October 2010 by pat.

I took a lot of pictures this past spring of birds in my back yard.

I’ve now collated a number of them, and am selling them as a calendar.

I’ve placed an initial order for 5 calendars. The shipping cost is high ($25 for five calendars) so I want to work out a way using paypal that you can order through me, then I’ll put in a bulk order and have them delivered to my home in Leslieville, and we can arrange pick up or delivery. Are you interested?

The calendars are $24.99 +hst (sorry, gotta do the tax thing). If so, drop me a line.

Posted in Urban nature, Photography - documentary, Photography sales and marketing, Photography | 1 Comment »

27 August 2010 by pat.

How’s that for a subject line to push all the buttons?I attended a seminar by Lorraine Johnson at the Brick Works, back in July, on just that subject. Lots of food for thought, and lots of books to consider getting, including:

• Identifying and harvesting edible and medicinal plants  - Steve Brill
• City Farmer - Lorraine Johnson
• Peterson Field guide to edible wild plants

It was a fact-filled morning, discussed fruit, veggies, and mushrooms, and included some things I hadn’t even considered. We’re at the northern edge of the Paw-paw’s range (Carolingian forest), and it seems they were never commercially grown because there wasn’t much of a way to save them — they don’t transport well, they don’t stay fresh long — so they never caught on big with the population. I’d only heard of them in a southern play that got used a lot in scene study classes (can’t even remember what it was called! about 3 sisters).

She described it as very tropical looking… like a small mango, and with an interesting taste, like banana and pineapple and custard all together. To me, it sounds like it should be ice cream at the very least, and probably would make a good cream pie flavour.

These days, we can refrigerate or freeze fruit, which wasn’t available back when.

So it was interesting to hear Lorraine talk about them, and what’s needed to actually get harvestable fruit in the fall.

The tree, which under the most optimal conditions, can grow up to 30 feet tall, is more likely to max out at about 10-15 in our climate, so a medium-height shrub. And they grow slowly. It needs filtered light in its early years, and then full sun when it is established. It doesn’t like wind; it does like high humidity (sounds like Toronto summers!)

The one problem? Lorraine said 3 trees are needed for cross-pollination.

Hey, who says they all have to be in one yard? Given the size of downtown backyards — about 17 feet across, maybe 20-30 feet deep, if three neighbours got together and each planted one, there’d be plenty of paw-paws to go around. Sounds like fertilization is mostly through insects (but not bees). So they can’t be too far apart. Most insects aren’t known for long-term memory.

It’s hard to find them in garden centers now, because there isn’t demand. And there isn’t demand, because people don’t know about them. So it’s kind of a vicious circle. But just as the whole 100-mile diet thing really got started with two writers reporting for the Tyee, maybe Lorraine can start things up here… she told a bunch of us, and if we each tell a bunch of people, and can collectively get people to plant them, then we’d bring back a tree that’s almost been completely extirpated from our ecosystem. And who knows what else that might help?  Definitely the zebra-swallowtail butterfly!

More info about Paw-paws here.

I think it sounds like an interesting project… some garden centres may carry them: Lorraine mentioned Grimo, in Niagara.

What do you think?

Posted in Urban nature, Home gardens, Food, grown, Food, SOLE food | No Comments »

20 June 2010 by pat.

The fourth of my series of garden articles has now been posted to BlogTO. I took the GO train to the Burlington Aldershot station, and a bus from there to RBG. Read all about it. More pictures over on Flickr (and more to come, together with detailed text).

Posted in Urban nature, Gardening, Photography - documentary | No Comments »

19 May 2010 by pat.

While I was weeding my front garden on Sunday, I noticed what seemed to be a patch of pollen caught in a spider web at the front corner of the porch. I looked closer.

Look at it full size. It’s baby spiders! I left them there. I hope they’ll migrate to the garden, not the house!

Posted in Urban nature, Home gardens, Gardening | No Comments »

19 May 2010 by pat.

Along with sunny days come migratory birds! My backyard is certainly attracting them.They like to have places to perch. In addition to the fence, they’ve got the sand cherry standard and the elderberry.They like to scratch the soil for insects. They’ve got a garden free of pesticides for that. They like to have baths and drinks of water. My water cascade definitely provides that! I had three species of warblers at the same time in it on the weekend: it looked like a bird convention (hmm… a parliament of fowls?).I was very glad to have the long lens to take their pictures. I did have to raise the ISO to 800, which resulted in somewhat grainy images, due to the shade in my yard from surrounding trees and the speed at which these birds move. If they were slower seed eaters, I could have gotten by with an ISO of 200; as it was, 800 wasn’t enough to stop the motion of the black-throated blue warbler, who is rather blurry in my shots.Lots of pictures over in my Backyard Birds folder on Flickr.

Posted in Urban nature, Home gardens, Gardening, Photography - documentary, Photography | No Comments »

23 April 2010 by pat.

Last week I bought myself a long zoom: 125-400mm.I’m practicing with it on birds in my backyard, and posting some of the results at my Flickr account.

Posted in Urban nature, Photography - documentary, Photography | No Comments »

21 February 2009 by pat.

I sold a print of Golden Pear shortly before Christmas; I’ve been asked if some of my images can be considered for use in a calendar. If one (or more) is chosen, I’ll let you know about the calendar and where it is available for sale (I’d get a photo credit, no money).

Posted in Urban nature, Photography - documentary, Photography - Art, Photography sales and marketing, Photography | 2 Comments »

5 April 2008 by pat.

On my way over to the grocery store this evening, I

• heard a male cardinal singing his territorial song
• saw two robins
• saw two male grackles.

OK, the cardinal is here all winter, and the robins may have been, too, but the grackles are definitely a sign of spring!This weekend it’s supposed to reach 13C each day. I think I’ll be doing some garden clean up!

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26 April 2007 by pat.

Finally.Last weekend, I got most of the gardens cleaned up. Still have one bed to do. Got the pond set up for the summer (and the birds flocked to it immediately).Looks like most things made it through the winter, although I may have lost a few roses. Or maybe they’re just slow waking up. I won’t give up on Scentimental, Angel Face, and Love yet.The elderberry and saskatoon berry shrubs look like they will burst into flower within a few weeks.Heucheras don’t look happy, but we’ll see.King Alfred daffodils are open, and I’ve got about another 6 species of daffs to come, plus the Estella Rijnveldt tulips I planted in the fall.Migratory birds are starting to pass through. This week, I’ve seen both golden-crowned and ruby-crowned kinglets, a song sparrow, white-throated sparrows, and the goldfinches have returned. The dark-eyed juncos haven’t left yet, although I’ve heard they’ve started arriving in Nova Scotia, so some of them have moved on to summer homes.I really have to get my seeds started for the allotment garden!

Posted in Urban nature, Home gardens, Gardening, Allotment garden | No Comments »

10 September 2006 by pat.

Although it hasn’t died, having all its leaves eaten has certainly slowed its growth. The weeds are doing much better! The edamame are the two fuzzy green stalks.

Here’s the soybean plant that I shot last week…. no leaves here (well, some are starting at the top). It’s the fuzzy green stalk. All the lovely leaves belong to weeds. Rabbits with good taste.And after a few gardeners told me about how invasive Jerusalem artichokes are, and how difficult it is to get rid of them, I decided to rip them all out.They’re listed in the Ontario weeds section on the gov’t website. One thing they say is:

Viable tubers formed during the preceding year will produce shoots during the current growing season. Tillage in late June, after tubers have exhausted their food supply but before new tubers begin for form, will retard the spread of an infestation. Usually two to three tillage operations will be required to significantly reduce a well established population.

I was definitely pulling up small tubers. I should take my garden claw down there next weekend to make sure I pull out any remaining tubers, so they don’t grow and multiply next year.At least, that gave me a sense of accomplishment.I really do need a rabbit fence.

Posted in Urban nature, Gardening, Food, grown, Food, Allotment garden | No Comments »