Siberian squill (Scilla siberica)

Dear Readers, as promised I wanted to have a little chat about the invasive species of Toronto (and Canada generally), as it’s something of an object lesson in how a plant that might be perfectly controllable in its own habitat becomes something much worse when it travels abroad. First up is this lovely blue flower, Siberian squill, which has taken to places like the Toronto Ravine system with gusto. Trouble is that it shades out other earlier flowering plants, such as the trillium and the Canadian windflower which make up the understorey in places like the trails around the Royal Botanical Gardens at Burlington.

Trillium and windflowers

I spotted one or two patches of trout lilies, but these too would be overpowered by the squill.

Trout lilies (Erythonium americanum)

In fact, even the innocent-looking lesser celandine are not native, and in Burlington are actually being sprayed so that they don’t overpower the other plants (they’d tried weeding them out, but these plants spread by tiny bulbules so it’s almost impossible). If we aren’t careful what we’ll end up with is completely generic habitat zones, with few differences between the woodlands of North America and those of Western Europe.

Lesser celandine in Burlington

The Ravines also have our old friend Japanese Knotweed, and something that we don’t have (yet) – dog-strangling vine (Vincetoxicum rossicum). This last seems to be particularly pernicious, with no way of preventing its spread. It seems to impact on milkweed, which is one of the main foodplants of the migratory Monarch butterfly. I’m surprised that I didn’t notice it in the Ravine, but there were some tangled masses of stems that I now think might have been the plant.

Dog-strangling vine – Photo By Epibase – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7567542

Another major problem, both in the ravines and in Tommy Thompson Park, is the Phragmites reed. Often grown for bioremediation (it’s good at filtering out toxic chemicals in run-off along streams) it can quickly take over and destroy riverside habitats.

Phragmites reeds alongside the Moore Park Ravine

Purple loosestrife, such a useful and pretty plant in its native Europe, is also a major problem in North American bogs and seeps.

Purple loosestrife and hemp agrimony in my garden at home

And then there’s garlic mustard. In the UK it’s the foodplant of brimstone and orange-tip butterflies, but in North America it’s not so popular with invertebrates, and therefore also not so popular with naturalists.

Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolaria)

So, it’s clear that it’s not only the UK that has a problem with plants arriving from other countries and then jumping over the garden wall and wreaking havoc with the native flora and fauna. And we certainly shouldn’t be feeling complacent. Since Brexit, although Europe has been inspecting plants brought to the continent from the UK for pests, we have not been inspecting plants from Europe in return. At the end of April, we’ll start inspecting any floral imports, and in response garden centres have been bulk-buying trees, shrubs and perennials because they fear that the inspection process will take too long for many plants to survive in good condition. With climate change it’s very likely that plants and animals that wouldn’t otherwise have survived will survive our winters (such as the Asian Hornet, which it’s feared is now established in parts of Kent), but many creatures, plants and fungi are imported with our pot plants (ash dieback is thought to have arrived with some imported ash trees) and sometimes our food. Let’s hope that we can improve our biosecurity, as so many problems are much easier to deal with if they’re picked up early and nipped in the bud. And let’s hope that the urban forests and wetlands of Toronto can thrive, with the help of all the local people who obviously love them.

Monarch butterfly on goldenrod

The Beaches Boardwalk

Dear Readers, it was the last sunny day of our holiday today, at least according to the weather forecast, so we headed down to The Beaches for our annual trot along the boardwalk. We always get the 501 streetcar to Woodbine Avenue and then walk down, to stroll beside the glittering lake and admire the many, many dogs taking their owners for a walk. But on the way down, we spotted this.

The old clapperboard houses are going to be torn down and replaced by a somewhat generic apartment complex. I suppose we should be glad that it’s only six storeys. Not everyone is happy though, clearly.

The old houses have balconies and stoops and all kinds of rather lovely details, but by the look of it they would have needed a lot of repair work. And people do need places to live.

This is what the new development would look like.

Image fromhttps://urbantoronto.ca/news/2022/07/four-storey-residential-building-proposed-beach.48615

And to digress (regular readers will not be surprised at me going off at a tangent), we always stay in the Cambridge Suites Hotel when we come to Toronto. It’s not the plushest place in town, but the rooms are divided into a sitting area, work/dining area, bedroom and bathroom, and it’s in a great position for transport north to see my mother-in-law. However, plans have gone in to tear it down and replace the current 21 storey building with 71 storeys.

Image from https://urbantoronto.ca/database/projects/cambridge-suites-redevelopment.49713

At the moment the plan has been knocked back (thank you Toronto urban planners) so maybe we’ll get a few more years here. Some of the staff have been here since we first started coming in about 2004, and as there is no hotel space planned in the new building they would all lose their jobs. Some condominium developers around here have gone bust, so hopefully that will slow things up as well. It’s not as if local people can afford to live in these flats, the prices are astromical.

Anyhow! Back to The Beaches. I want to check out that the sparrows are still nesting in the light fixtures of the Olympic Swimming Pool (a brutalist concrete construction) and indeed they are. There are lots of sparrows in Toronto, most of them nesting in the eaves of elderly buildings. Where will they go when everything is shiny steel and glass?

We stop to admire the lifeguard’s hut…

And a container ship way way in the distance..

And then closer to home there’s this rather fine street art – some Gouldian finches if I’m not mistaken…

But the Canadian birds are not to be outdone, with a fine red cardinal singing his head off in a bush.

So, I like The Beaches – they feel like a seaside town even though they aren’t, and there’s a proper high street with independent restaurants and shops. Well worth jumping on the 501 street car and heading east if you’re in town.

Dear Readers, for a combination of urban concrete infrastructure and nature you can’t beat the Ravines. Cut over millennia by the rivers and tributaries which run through Toronto, their value for both flood protection and biodiversity has been recognised in previous years, and a lot of work has gone into preventing subsidence, ensuring that the streams run freely and looking at the influence of invasive species (of which more in a later post). But today it was glorious weather, and an opportunity for a walk.

First up though, how about this? At the very top of this skyscraper is a window-cleaner, cheerfully dangling.

Hold on, little fella! Gordon Bennett, there’s not enough money in the whole world to pay me to do that job. I hope he’s recompensed fairly.

Anyhow, back to the ravine. We get off at St Claire subway station and head into the green. First up though, there’s an example of Toronto’s love of putting a completely extraneous ‘e’ at the end of words. It’s not just a Toronto thing either – my aunties in Collingwood lived in a building called ‘The Olde Library’. Here it’s ‘the Towne Mall’. I half expect a towne crier to burst forth. Don’t get me wrong though. I do love an endearing eccentricity. After all, I have plenty of my owne.

Onwards! The trees are greening up, and I think we’re just a few days early for maximum cherry blossom, though with high winds and pouring rain expected later this week it may not last for very long.

And then we’re down into the ravine, where we’re greeted by a mass of forsythia, which is native to south-east Asia or Europe. What’s it doing down here? I’m guessing it’s a garden escapee.

And then a butterfly shoots by. And then another one. In all I see about thirty Red Admirals. I’m thinking that they are probably on their way north from warmer climes, or could possibly have emerged from hibernation, on this the first warmish day in April.

There are masses of these plants too, Siberian Squill if I”m not mistaken, another non-native plant. It’s making very attractive carpets of blue, but I do wonder if it’s crowding out natives such as trilliums.

The catkins are in bloom, and some of the Red Admirals are trying to feed from them.

And look at the houses just perched on the edge of the ravine! I think I’d be a bit worried about the whole place just sliding into the stream but hey, maybe I’m just risk-averse. The view of the tree tops must be fantastic.

Another invasive plant – Phragmites reeds, also a problem in Tommy Thompson Park.

I’m intrigued by the various bridges over the ravine – one used to carry a rail line, two are road bridges and one is a foot bridge. They are spectacular feats of engineering.

But mostly I’m here for the plants and animals. Look at all the coltsfoot! And again, it’s not native, but attractive to pollinators nonetheless, including the Painted Lady butterflies that also seemed to be on the move in some numbers.

The one butterfly that I’d not seen before was moving too fast for a photo – it’s known as a Camberwell Beauty in the UK, and a Mourning Cloak in North America. What a beauty!

Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) Photo By Pavel Kirillov from St.Petersburg, Russia – The Mourning Cloak, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46833959

I heard and then spotted some chickadees…

But then I saw a treecreeper, and then another, and then another, all running up and down the tree trunks looking for insects. In the UK I’m lucky to see one every five years, but here they seem much commoner and less nervous. This isn’t the same species as I see (this is known as a Brown Creeper (Certhia americana) but its unmistakably a close relative.

So, what a really wonderful walk, in perfect conditions. And at the exit, it was interesting to see yet another huge house perched on the edge of the ravine, but also a whole lot of work being done to shore up the sides, with planting to hold the soil and temporary netting to keep things in place. Let’s hope it all works.

And finally finally, I am very much admiring the artwork on the Bell Telephone boxes around town, and must take a few more snaps. How about this magnificent fox?

And I’m still waiting to see one of these guys. Someone told me that you can often see them in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, but no luck so far. I’ve been practicing appearing big and aggressive, just in case.

Dear Readers, when I left you yesterday we were watching the sun go down in Tommy Thompson Park, and it really didn’t disappoint. How often in our lives do we actually watch sunrise or sunset? There was a man standing on the shore and as the sun disappeared, he raised his arms as if to honour it.

A skein of geese headed off to one of the islands to rest for the night.

We had a long walk back to the car, but apart from the risk of being run down by a bicycle (hi-vis jackets next time, methinks) it felt very safe. Occasionally a rabbit would tear out of the undergrowth and thunder across the path, but other than that it was just us. The paths are broad and tarmacked so it’s easy walking, though as the light fades it seems strangely difficult to walk in a straight line, for me at least.

And then Toronto lights up, with the CN tower taking centre stage. Earlier on this week it was purple for National Dental Hygienist Week, but the orange and blue for 13th April was for World Functional Neurological Disorder Awareness Month (FND) – I had never heard of this until a dear friend’s daughter was diagnosed with it. If you don’t know about it either, the details are here.

The lights look spectacular, but they make me uneasy because of bird strike – however, Toronto does have a campaign to turn off unnecessary lights during migration season, which runs from 1st April to the end of May. Judging by the amount of lights that I can see, there seem to be a lot of ‘necessary’ ones, but let’s see if it makes a difference. They’re certainly pretty.

And so we return to the car, a bit foot-sore but invigorated by catching up with old friends and being surrounded by nature. If you’re in Toronto it’s well worth a trip to Tommy Thompson Park, but note that it’s closed during the day on weekdays (until 4 p.m.) due to trucks delivering landfill. No dogs either (which is appropriate for a nature reserve). You can get there by bus (No 83 to the Commissioner’s Street stop), all details here. What a truly amazing place.

Dear Readers, on Saturday we took a walk with some friends in Tommy Thompson Park, better known to local residents as the Leslie Street Spit. Tommy Thompson was Toronto’s first Commissioner of Parks, best known for his sign ‘Please Walk On The Grass’ and his work to make nature more intrinsic to the life of the people of the city. Tommy Thompson Park is completely built on landfill from Toronto’s past and ongoing building projects, and everything that grows there has come of its own accord.

Some of the building debris that is used to form the park

Fortunately, animals and plants don’t care what something is built on, so long as it provides them with what they need. At this time of year, the whole place echoes to the calls of red-winged blackbirds, and over 300 species of bird have been recorded.

Red-winged Blackbird

Merganser ( I think) heading away at speed

Happy Mallards taking a rest

But we were here to see something a little more unusual, at least for a UK visitor – beavers! We’d gone looking for them last year at the Evergreen Brick Works (in the pouring rain I might add) but had missed them. This year, we were luckier.

There were at least three beavers on this pond and, unlike the Eurasian beavers that I’ve been lucky enough to see in Scotland, these creatures were relatively relaxed and just went about their business.

You shouldn’t underestimate the splash that they make when they dive, though…

And gradually the sun was going down, and the red-winged blackbirds seemed to have a particular tree that they liked….

These birds are not thrushes, like UK blackbirds, but are technically Icterids, a family of birds that are only found in North and Central America. They sound nothing like thrushes, and for me, their calls really are the sound of Canada in the spring. This was recorded in Ontario by Manuel Oudard.

It was lovely being at Tommy Thompson Park, but also bittersweet – it reminded me of going to Collingwood to visit our two beloved aunties, Rosemary and Linda, who both died in 2022. But it also reminded me of how much they loved nature, and how important Canada’s wildlife was to them (Linda was treasurer for her local Nature Conservancy for many years). Wild places so close to cities are rare and precious. It’s good to see this one so well protected.

And as the sun goes down, I wonder what opportunities the fading light will bring.

The sun beginning to fade over Toronto

Dear Readers, the first time I came to Toronto, back in 2000, I was enchanted by the Canada geese flying across the atrium of the Eaton Centre. There are sixty birds in all, descending from the third level as if to land somewhere around the new food court on the lower level.

The installation is by Canadian artist Michael Stone, and has been in situ since 1979. All the geese are made of styrofoam and fibre glass, and are covered in a ‘costume’ made from photographs taken of a single goose. It is a stunning centrepiece to what could otherwise be a pleasant but generic mall.

Photo By Simon Law – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3510488

Michael Snow was an interesting artist, who worked in experimental film, music, photography and sculpture, but Flight Stop is probably his most visible public work. In 1981 the management of the Eaton Centre decided to decorate each of the sixty geese with a red ribbon around their necks. Snow took them to court for defacing his work, and won: the Ontario High Court of Justice held that the sculpture’s integrity was “distorted, mutilated or otherwise modified” which was “to the prejudice of the honour or reputation of the author”. Take that, Eaton Centre!

Ribbon being removed from an Eaton Centre goose (Photo fromhttps://www.thestar.com/life/dec-3-1982-red-ribbons-removed-from-eaton-centre-geese-after-uproar/article_a9be3bfa-eba2-5290-8402-40ca4f3ec458.html)

All sixty of the geese were away for renovation last year, which was quite the task – there was forty-odd years of grime to clean off, plus some of the geese had lost feet and various other appendages. They were crated up in groups of four and sent off to the Toronto Restoration Centre, where each one was given a name and lovingly restored. You can read all about it here.

Goose being repaired at the Toronto Restoration Centre – photo fromhttps://www.blogto.com/arts/2023/05/toronto-eaton-centre-geese/

And so this year the geese are back, and looking more splendid than ever. Michael Snow passed away at the age of 94 last year, after a lifetime of artistic endeavour. One of his other works is ‘The Audience’, perched on the side of the Rogers Stadium, home to the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team.  Each character is meant to represent a particular kind of fan – the heckler, the burger-eater, the father and son. They seem to exemplify Snow’s playful side, though I must admit that they don’t give me an urge to go and watch a game live.

‘The Audience’ by Michael Snow

The Queen Mother Cafe

Dear Readers, this week has been something of an education in the different eating experiences that are possible here in Toronto. First up was an old favourite, the Queen Mother Café at 208 Queen Street West. it’s always full, bustling, and serves comfort food with a distinctly Thai/Laotian twist, for reasons that we’ll see below. The place opened in 1978, in just one of the three buildings that it now occupies, but had soon taken over numbers 206, 208 and 210.

The Queen Mother Café’s name is a play on the idea of ‘the Mother of Queen Street West’, but if you look behind the bar there is a collection of photos of the Queen Mother. And indeed the place has hosted not only multiple generations of diners, but some of the original founders are still involved in the restaurant. It has a feeling of confidence, of somewhere that has been doing what it does for years, and that in turn brings a sense of comfort and ‘being at home’.

In 1980, members of a Laotian/Thai family joined the kitchen staff and introduced such dishes as Pad Thai (pretty much unknown in Toronto in the 1980s), which are on the menu to this day. Chef Noy, the current chef, is a member of that original family. However, there’s also pasta and burgers, and a daily menu of cakes, so there’s something for everybody.

The building that houses the Queen Mother Café dates back to 1850, and it’s been everything from a wagon repair shop to a bonnet makers, to a variety of bakeries and restaurants. In the entry hall there’s a display of artefacts that have been discovered during the repeated renovations and restorations of the building.

Display Cabinet (Photo fromhttps://www.queenmothercafe.ca/building-history/

Last night, though, we decided to explore somewhere different. Carisma is an Italian restaurant close to the Financial District, and it’s every bit as glitzy as the Queen Mother Café is comforting. However, it was still very welcoming – we’d asked for ‘a quiet table’ (a very big ask in this town, believe me), and so we were given a semi-circular table at the back of the restaurant with a great view of all the bankers and sales people in full flight as they tried to impress their clients. The food was great (the creme brulee in particular), and the banquettes were teal-coloured, and the chandeliers looked like they’d been made from mother-of-pearl. It was loud, but at least there wasn’t thumping background music as well.

We were a bit surprised when a couple walked in with a samoyed dog – I wasn’t aware that Toronto had become ‘dog friendly’ to that extent. I was even more surprised when the woman in the couple sat at the table with the huge white fluffy dog in her arms like a giant baby. Maybe they were celebrities, or locals? I have no problem with well-behaved dogs in a restaurant, but  I hadn’t realised how far the trend had gone. Still, the dog was a lot quieter than some of the bankers, so in theory we need more dogs I think.

Carisma restaurant (Photo from https://www.carismarestaurant.com/)

So, that’s two restaurants in Toronto that couldn’t be more different. Let’s see where else we get to over the next few days.

Canada goose (Branta canadensis) Photo By Fabian Roudra Baroi – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=135763237

Dear Readers, yesterday we sprang up at stupid o’clock and flew from Toronto to Montreal to see one of my husband’s aunties. G is in her nineties and living in a rather nice nursing home, where she is one of the only residents on her floor who doesn’t have dementia. Not much is written about how people cope when it’s so difficult to have a meaningful conversation with anyone other than the harried staff, who are always rushing off to take someone to the toilet or pick up someone who’s about to fall over.  Fortunately she is still a reader, and a watcher of documentaries, and she was fascinated with the recent eclipse, although she turned down the chance to go up to the roof and get battered about by the high winds. Very sensible too. G is very stoical, but I wish that she had a bit more human contact. So many of her friends are now dead, or have health challenges of their own.

We flew into Montreal, but we always get the train back – it’s a long trip, but if you go business class you get a rather nice meal, wine and even some Baileys, so it more or less pays for itself. But how come I’d never noticed this very fine mural at the station? They’re a bas relief that reflects Canadian life in the 1920s and 1930s, although they were actually created by artist Charles Fraser Comfort in 1943. Comfort also designed the murals at the Toronto Stock Exchange, so I must have a quick look at them if they’re still around.

The words on the mural (which include excerpts from the National Anthem ‘O Canada’) are in English on one side, and French on the other.

Photo by Sandra Cohen-Rose and Charles Rose https://www.flickr.com/photos/73416633@N00/

I loved these hyperactive giant plaster people, though that golf player looks as if he might take your head off, and I am finding some of the activities a little puzzling. Still, they cheered me up no end. And there’s something about a long train journey that lifts my spirits in a way that hopping onto an aeroplane never does. It’s the slight anxiety before you board, the digging out of books and the Kindle, the sight of that huge, noisy engine.

The Montreal/Toronto locomotive!!

Off we go. Looking out of the window I see huge flocks of Canada geese foraging amongst the stubble. How different they look here, in their native country! It’s hard to think of these belligerent birds as shy and retiring, but away from the parks and cities they’re nervous souls, as well they might be, with one subspecies (the Giant Canada Goose) having been hunted almost to extinction during the last century. In the UK, of course, they’re everywhere, having been first introduced in the late 17th century as part of King James II’s waterfowl collection in St James’s Park in London. I sometimes wonder why, of all the attractive goose species in the world this one was chosen, but then it is a striking (though not colourful) bird. It’s also the first animal I was ever bitten by, having offered one a biscuit as a toddler, only to be nipped and then knocked over in a flurry of wings. I forgive them even so.

Canada geese in flight (Photo By Ken Billington – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12306315)

And then there was this lot, again pecking over the stubble and looking very wary. This isn’t my photo, but you get the general idea. Again they were wary birds, looking around and scuttling away when the train blew its whistle, which it does almost continuously from Dorval to Brockville. There are a lot of level crossings with no barriers, and believe me you wouldn’t want to get into the path of one of these trains.

Eastern Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) Photo by Tim Ross (Public Domain)

There were also a few turkey vultures riding the late afternoon thermals. What impressive birds they are! Jet black with a wrinkly red head, turkey vultures find most of their carrion by smell, and have been used as an indicator for pipeline gas leaks.

Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) Photo byBy Charles J. Sharp – Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47807279

And then the light diminished and on we went. I’ve been reading a frankly horrifying book called ‘Cloistered’ by Catherine Coldstream, which documents her time as a Carmelite Nun in the north east of England. Put a group of people together, deprive them of outside oversight and watch as a petty dictatorship grows to the point where the whole organisation falls apart. Interesting and heartfelt, if a bit unfocused at times.

And then we’re heading on the last leg towards Toronto. Somebody’s adorable baby girl started to wail, and no amount of pacing up and down the carriage seemed to help. The seats seemed to get increasingly uncomfortable. And when finally we got to Toronto Union Station, we all pile off and go our separate ways. It’s funny how sometimes strangers ‘gel’ on a train trip and get talking, and how other times everyone just stays in their own world, and it’s fine either way. But I’m tired, and ready to go home after my marathon day. I’m just glad to have had a chance to do a bit of train-bird watching.

One of these days, this will be Eglinton West LRT station….

Dear Readers, I’ve walked along the Beltline before, but Sunday was such a spectacularly beautiful day that we decided to do a section that we haven’t done for a while. First up, we walked past what will eventually be Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail station. It’s been a bit of a disaster, this project, running well over budget and over time, and currently with no actual date for completion. The station is here, but sits behind chicken wire, just waiting for something exciting to happen. Let’s hope it’s finished soon – the project runs west to east, with 25 stations, and would go some small way to taking some of the pressure off of the roads and the existing subway system.

Anyhow, for now we’re on foot, and marching through some very fine houses, including this one with some modern sculpture outside.

And honestly, I must have arrived for peak American Robin season this year, I have never seen so many, and if they’re not fighting they have beaks full of worms, so clearly breeding and nesting season is in full swing.

And just look at the squill! So pretty.

Anybody know what this is? I’m guessing wasps nest, but happy to be corrected.

And how pretty is this alder?

I rather like the friendly road signs of Toronto. Look at this little guy…

And then we’re onto the Beltline. It used to be a railway track, but now it’s a multi-use path, with cyclists and runners and walkers, and generally it seems to work, unlike spaces like the Parkland walk in Haringey, where it’s narrower and so there’s less space for people to get past one another .

Here’s yet another squirrel – they’re gathering nesting material so, although the trees are not as far into their spring finery as the trees in the UK, there’s definitely some sap rising,.

And I love the new leaves on this weeping willow.

There are markers for where the various stations on the original railway line would have been.

And some rather fine street art commemorating the people who worked on the original rail line.

Some of the houses that back onto the Beltline are very modest, and some are extremely grand.

Some grand houses

And then we’re out, and on our way for a spot of lunch, but I turn back to have a look at the new leaves colouring the tops of the trees in yellow and gold. 

And here’s a quick recommendation if you’re in the Eglinton area – a bit of lemon and blueberry cake at the Crosstown Coffee Shop on Highbourne Road is well worth a stop.

Solar Eclipse Glasses at the Ready…

Dear Readers, today was the day for the solar eclipse in North America, to be seen by millions of people from Mexico to Canada. Everyone had been watching the weather forecast with trepidation, as the perfectly clear, sunny weather over the weekend was replaced by cloudier conditions here in Toronto. Niagara Falls had declared a state of emergency because they were expecting so many people, but in Toronto, people were, well, copacetic.

We are really here to visit my husband’s 95 year-old Mum, who has dementia and is pretty much bedridden these days, but we were determined to take some time out to see the eclipse. We headed over to Rachel’s Coffeehouse on Yonge Street for a quick bite beforehand. At about 2.20, one of the waitresses popped out with her eclipse glasses, and then popped back in.

“You can see it!” she said.

And so we paid, and there was a break in the clouds, and we looked at the sun, which looked as if it had had a big bite taken out of it. And just as well we did, because after that the clouds rolled in, and that was the last we saw of the sun until now. As I write, the skies are clear and blue again. Shucks.

Still, just because the sun was hidden doesn’t mean that there wasn’t anything to see. We took ourselves over to Mount Pleasant Cemetery and sat on the steps of the Massey Mausoleum (he of tractor fame). I was much amused by the squirrels, who are clearly fed over here, and give everyone the once over to see if they have any peanuts in their pockets.

A blond squirrel

A chestnut-coloured squirrel

I took a few shots to give you all an idea of how the sky darkened over the next hour – in Toronto the moon covered over 99 per cent of the sun at totality, so it wasn’t pitch black, but it did become eerily colder and darker.

About 2.45 p.m.

About 3 p.m.

About 3.10 p.m

3.19 p.m. (totality)

What amazed me was that the birds started to alarm call in the trees.

And some of them were singing, almost as if they couldn’t decide whether it was time for the last song of the evening or the dawn chorus.

And then the light came back up, and things went back to some sort of normal. A young woman who was expecting it to go completely dark was somewhat underwhelmed, but then I do sometimes think that many people have lost their capacity for wonder. For 4 minutes, the moon and the sun were poised so perfectly against one another that the light that powers everything on earth was blocked out, and I for one was delighted to have been here in Toronto to see it.

And on the way home through the cemetery, we spotted this horse head-shaped tree trunk. I’m seeing faces everywhere at the moment – I know that pareidolia is the word for seeing human faces in inanimate objects, but I’m not sure if there’s an equivalent for heads and faces in general.

Plus it appears that people have been racing cycles through the cemetery. Um, no, people.

And finally, how about this squirrel in a tree? This one is black, as you can see – Toronto has a high number of grey squirrels (yes, the same ones that I have at home) but these are coloured black, and very fine they look too.

And if you’re wondering when the next solar eclipse will be visible in the UK, there’s one on 12th August 2026 which will be 90 percent total, so not quite as impressive as this one, but still worth a look (through your eclipse glasses of course!)