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Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto

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The elephants – natural water filtration

October 5, 2008 by Tricia

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Earlier in the week I told you that Chris and I and our dog Midnight went for a walk in Taylor Creek park here in Toronto …

Remember those muddy dog pictures? (you’ve got to see the pics if you haven’t already, I’ve never seen a dog that well coated in mud!) Well. this city park has these big structures beside the highway (the Don Valley 404) that we’ve always called the elephants … well, because they do kind of look like elephants.

IMG_4964

See what I mean?

Anyway .. these “elephants” are actually natural water filters. I guess the rain water is supposed to filter down from the tallest structure to the shortest one and by the time it’s been through all three filters the water is totally clean.

IMG_4967

The filters are huge. I stood beside them taking pictures and I’d say they are 30 or more feet tall. They seem to be made out of concrete, but there’s probably some other type of material in them as I think the materials used to make concrete would leach into the water.

The area of the park closest to “the Elephants” was the most colorful.

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Most of our trees here in Toronto seem to be holding onto their green leaves, but the weathers been fairly cool all week so I’m sure that will change in an instant.

As you can see in the last picture the Sumacs have started to turn that lovely brilliant red. A clear sign of Autumn around here! The bull rushes (Cat Tails) beside them were starting to break up too, spreading their fluffy seed heads all over the place.

It’s supposed to rain this afternoon but if it doesn’t we might try to go to the park with Midnight again … if not maybe we’ll go on Monday. Maybe the forest will be a little more colorful this time round and I’ll come back with some pretty Fall pictures.

Have the leaves started to turn in your area yet?





Filed Under: Green Thumb Sunday, Home and Lifestyle, Living Green, Photography, Recreation, Shopping, Toronto, Web and Technology, Wildlife and Nature Tagged With: 404, autumn, bullrushes, cat_tails, Don_valley, fall, filter, Green_Thumb_Sunday, GTS, highway, leaves, natural_filter, park, pictures, rain, rain_water, Red, structures, sumac, sumac_trees, Taylor_Creek, the_elephants, water, water_filters, wild_flowers

A concert in the afternoon

October 4, 2008 by Tricia

Chris and I did something different today. We went to a Progressive Rock concert at … of all places … the local Legion Hall.

The bands played from 2:30 pm until about 8:30 pm … I know, very strange hours for a concert, but hey .. it was at a Royal Canadian legion after all. Maybe that’s the only time it could be booked?

The bands weren’t professional, but they were pretty good. I’m not the biggest fan of progressive rock, it’s my husband that really loves that stuff. I’m more of a classic rock, indie and techno kind of person. It was a fun afternoon/ early evening though. I’m sure Chris will write about it on one of his music blogs, probably by tomorrow.

The place was close to our home so we were able to walk both ways. On the way back we zig zagged through a few side streets and we past a house with a beautiful garden at the front of the house. If I ever decide to completely redo our tiny front yard I’ll try to do something like what they did. Of course our front yard is really really small … like 10×10 ft. LOL So I guess we won’t have the antique looking wooden swing sets that they had to one side of their garden. Well … maybe if we move and get a bigger house on a bigger property?

So what did you do today? Yard work, visit relatives or did you go to a concert or some kind of event too?

Filed Under: Entertainment, Home and Lifestyle, Items to Try, Life with Chris, Music, The Neighborhood, Toronto Tagged With: afternoon, afternoon_concert, Classic_rock, concert, front_yard, garden, hall, house, legion, Progressive_rock, rock, Royal_Canadian_legion, side_street, walked

It’s cold enough that the furnace came today!

October 3, 2008 by Tricia

It’s been quite cool here in Toronto all week, but I’d say that today was the coolest. It was so cold that our furnace came on for the first time this Fall.

Our furnace is quite loud (and old) so when it first began rumbling at about 5 pm I wasn’t sure if it was a car engine outside or what was going on, then I realized it was just the furnace. Our puppy Midnight seemed to be less startled by the noise than me.

It’s a little cooler than normal for this time of year here in Toronto. I’m pretty sure that our house doesn’t usually get cool enough for the furnace to come on until at least mid-October or later most years, maybe even November during a particularly nice fall. Oh and I have the thermostat set pretty low, so the house was really cold by the time it finally came on! Brrrr

I hate the smell that comes out of the vents when the furnace starts up for the first time. Bleh .. I don’t know what it is … maybe dust that’s settled in the vents heating up? Or maybe it’s because we have an oil furnace. Whatever that smell is it seems to go away after the furnace has come on a few times.

Is it cool in your area too? Has your furnace started up yet?

Filed Under: Home and Lifestyle, Toronto Tagged With: autumn, Brrr, cold, cool, cool_fall, early, freezing, furnace, home, house, loud, October, oil_furnace, rumble, smell, startled, Toronto

Nothing on TV tonight but election debates

October 2, 2008 by Tricia

Wow … there’s no shows on TV tonight after nine because of the Federal election debates. I say debates because I’m in Canada and most of our channels are being taken up by the American Presidential debates AND our Canadian Federal election debates.

I guess we’ll probably watch some of the Canadian election debates. I mean there’s not much else on!

At this moment were just watching old sitcom reruns on a US channel. The really strange thing is that we’re seeing purely American commercials … I’m not used to that. Most of the US station we watch somehow mix Canadian commercials or I guess North America wide commercials into their programs. Strange to see commercials for NC health insurance when I’m in Ontario!

Are you watching either of the election debates (Canada or US)?

I usually don’t watch them as I don’t feel I get that much out of them or well .. I guess the truth is I’m usually even more disappointed by the opponents that pleased with them by the end of the debate.

Filed Under: Canada, Items to Try, Politics, Television Tagged With: Canadian_election, commercials, debate, debates, election, federal_debate, Television, TV, US, US_election

Mud Dog

October 1, 2008 by Tricia

Wordless Wednesday

IMG_4952 copy

On Sunday we took our puppy for a hike in Taylor Creek Park here in Toronto.

As you can see she found a wet area that was more mud than water!

She was playing with another dog and they disappeared on a trail in the forest for a few minutes and when they came out the Collie had grey boots and well … Midnight had a mud covered grey snout, and ugh … I guess most of the front of her body was mud covered as well.

She tried to shake the mud off …
IMG_4954

But she didn’t do that great of a job.

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Luckily for us and the other dog owner, the dogs found some cleaner water to play in a little while later.

IMG_4971

We didn’t let the dogs near the mud puddle on the way back.

Oh life with a dog! It’s fun at times, isn’t it?

Filed Under: Home and Lifestyle, Humor, Our Puppy, Pets and animals, Photography, Recreation, Toronto, Wordless Wednesday Tagged With: Collie, dirty, dog, dogs, fun, funny_dog_picture, funny_picture, Humor, Labrador, mud, mud_covered, playing, smelly, Taylor_Creek, Toronto, wet, Wordless_Wednesday, WW

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