…Dag because I spent it in the company of my favourite Belgian Girl Wonder, the infamous Turbo-Powered Sophie

We spent the day on Toronto Island, playing in the water.

Well, Sophie played in the water.  I mostly played in the mud.

In non-Canada-Day-related news, last time Sophie and I got together, we did some fingerpainting.

The first piece is entitled “Damn Now My Shirt Is Covered In Cat Hair”, and the second is “Family Of Birds On My Windshield”

This post is seriously late.

May two-four, also known as Victoria Day, is all about the drinking of toofers and the lighting of firecrackers.  Or Queen Victoria’s birthday.  One of those.  It was almost a month ago, but I’m going to show you pictures anyway.

The Anti-Zanet, Cha-Cha and I went to the beaches for the festivities, which is what all good Torontonians do if they haven’t a cottage.

(they were gazing rapturously at this:)

I played with rocks, because I’m incapable of sitting still for any length of time greater than a millisecond.

And then the killer robot attack began.

They shot layzors out their eyes like *pew pew* and it made pretty fireworks.

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:

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