Joker’s Hill is a chunk of land north of the city on the Oak Ridges moraine.  A moraine, of course, is the thing that happens to the land when it’s right at the tail end of a glacier for a few centuries or so.  The ice flowing forward from underneath grinds down all the rocks and shovels stuff forward into a big heap, and the stuff on top pushes forward and recedes each year with the seasons, so basically you end up with great heaps of sandy, rocky soil.  Now this moraine is kind of important, because it does all the water filtration for our lovely city.  This is not my image, but it does a damned fine job of explaining things:

Complete with explanation.  Sweet.

Right, so the moraine is kind of a big deal.  It’s also under a lot of pressure from the suburbanites.  Think of it - a lovely bit of woodland, an hour from the city, and right by some of the best farmland in Canada, so you know the farmer’s markets are fantastic.  Who wouldn’t want to live there?  Thankfully, a sizable plot of land was given to the University of Toronto a number of years ago, so it’s well protected.  They use it for research and education, primarily.

Did I mention I’m taking a forestry class this year?

We had a little day trip out to Joker’s Hill to learn all about estimating basal area, measuring biodiversity, and other really essential life skills.  Okay, it wasn’t exactly survival stuff, but it was interesting.  I brought my camera in the hopes of seeing some interesting critters of the many-legged variety, but the day was chilly and wet, so everything but we stupid humans were tucked away snug in little leafy beds.  Hence I present to you some pretty fungi.

And as an added bonus, some bored students:

Last night I became a cyborg.

Electrodes in my hair.  Awesome.  Electrode gunk not washing out in the morning shower, less awesome.  Itchy rashy bits from tape, totally not awesome.

Still, I did have this totally sweet control panel:

I don’t know what any of this stuff does (well, aside from the gloves XD), but it was right outside my room.

My phone home finger gave me awesome powers

…which I used to gain access to a massive supply of totally inadequate blankets.  Being a cyborg is chilly work.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned my cousin Nathan here before.

Nathan is a pretty cool guy.  His dad died when Nate was just a wee bugger, but his mother, sister and older brother all made damned sure that Nathan’s life was full of music.  Despite (or perhaps because of) many years of being compared to his father, Nathan has grown up quite nicely into his own skin.  He’s got Stan’s talent, but his very own style and passion.

I went to see Nate play the other day at his CD release party at Hugh’s Room here in Toronto.  I knew he was good (I own his last CD), but he’s even better live.

I’m pretty sure mom would kill me if I didn’t at post a couple of photos, so here he is

My Mom had her 60th birthday a few weeks ago.

Looking pretty damned good for 60, no?  I sincerely hope I got whatever gene does this.  But not the ribbon-wearing gene.

A couple of her sisters showed up as well, and her mom

That’s Nana on the left, Ariel with the funny face, Carol showing us her panties, and of course the birthday girl.  Incidentally, Ariel’s youngest son Nathan, who is a talented young pup, is playing a gig here in Toronto tonight.  I’ll post photos from that at a later date.

The party animals got heavily into some drinking games in the evening.

Wild girls.

The next morning we all went out to breakfast, where my mother gave us a wonderful display of her “impending doom” face, also known as “if you don’t sit down and shut up right this second you might not live long enough to regret it”.  If you want to be immediately transported back to childhood, click on the photo to see a larger version.

I got chills.  It was like being 12 again.

Of course I had to take some time to stroll around the house (one needs breathing room when surrounded by this many redheads) and found this guy glued to the swimming pool cover by his own dried-up juices o_O

Here’s a nice picture of the last of mom’s tomatoes, because I know that last shot grossed you out.