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:

If you haven’t checked out my gallery recently, you might want to mosey on over there to see some of the photos I’ve taken over the summer.  Here are a few of the most recent additions:

If you’re not my mom, you can also look at my most recently completed pottery project here, here, here and here.  If you are my mom, don’t go there because you will ruin your birthday surprise.

In other, nerdier news, I am terribly excited to start my new classes next week.  It should be a fun year, with three chemistry classes, a smattering of bio, and some english and stats thrown in for good measure.  Anyone want to buy me a new netbook for school?

Today I cleaned out my locker,

and played with my dead cicada.

Then I went to the greenhouse

where i found a fly,

a wasp

and a lot of spider mites

and then put a newly-emerged adult gypsy moth into the freezer.

Afterward, I wandered

around

campus.

I stopped to play with birds

hugged a tree

and discovered that squirrels really like nachos.

Later I went out for thai food

and found some really tacky but ultimately irresistible panda paraphernalia.

Seriously, who couldn’t use a panda Matryoshka doll?

Today I am a free woman.

No, I haven’t cast off the shackles of wedded bliss. This is far better. I have spent most of the last thirteen weeks hunched alternately over books, my laptop, and a molecular model kit, building a vast army of…well no, I was just studying chemistry. Anyway it sucked proverbial donkey dong and I’m pleased to have it over with. To celebrate, I slept in. Afterward, worn out from all my sleeping, I took a short nap, and now I’m off to the greenhouse to check on all my lovely pupae.

I shall return later with news of my adventures.