Contrary Travel Link Up: Montreal's Mount Royal

One of my favouirte things to do when I'm traveling to a large bustling metropolis is immediately escape to reconnect to nature right in the middle of it all. Visiting parks, farms, conservation areas that around it are the tall skyscrapers and busy lives of business people, but you wouldn't know it with your surroundings.

I blogged about some of these kinds of visits while living in London with trips to Mudchute City Farm, Spitalfields City Farm, Richmond Park and Kew Gardens.

This time the "city escape within the city" was during my trip to Montreal when we walked up Mount Royal and followed the extensive nature trails down back to the very busy streets of Rue St. Dennis.

Sometimes it's nice to forget where you are and just listen to the birds singing and the wind rustling in the leaves above before returning to the car horns and miscellaneous street smells.

This post is part of the August Travel Link Up hosted by Emily, Kelly, Rebecca, and this month Zoe. Check them out and the others too!

Those Bloomin' Trees; Sakura in High Park

Like everyone and their mother, on a warm hazy weekend morning I found myself heading to High Park in Toronto to view the Japanese cherry blossoms. Many of these trees have been here since the 1950s, but for some reason this spring seemed to be on everyone's radar and on everyone's agenda to check out.

The original 2000 Somei-Yoshino Sakura trees (sakura means cherry blossoms) were gifted to the city of Toronto on behalf of the displaced Japanese Canadians that were welcomed here after the Second World War. In 1984 a grove of more trees were donated to the people of Toronto from Yoriki and Midori Iwasaki and again additional trees were plated in 2001 and 2006. They can be found throughout much of the park.

The white with slight pink blossoms have a very short bloom time (usually from 4-10 days occurring around the end of April beginning of May) and often seen as a metaphor for life itself: "luminous and beautiful, yet fleeting and ephemeral".

The Japanese tradition of flower viewing, Hanami, dates back to the 8th century and was limited to elite and nobility classes. Today, everyone can take part in hanami and often gather in groups to walk among the blossoms or hold feasts under the trees.

According to the handy High Park Cherry Blossom watch website the blossoms have all since fallen and the growing season has begun, until next spring.

Vermont, Stop Being so GD Gorgeous!

I haven't seen proper autumn colours in two years. As much as England likes to think they have changing colours in the fall, all I see are green leaves turning brown/orange before falling off the tree and just being brown. Dead. Dry. 

This year, I was looking forward to some good old leaf peeping up in the hills of Vermont. I have family in the state and have spent much time there, but I have never actually been a 'leaf peeper' as they're known by the locals. We visited our normal haunts with the visual slant of fall colours and ventured further afield for better vantage points of the blazing trees. The hilly geography creates the best scenery and most colourful rolling skylines.  The reds, oranges, yellows, greens, and browns mingling together off set by a jewel blue sky. Nowhere can beat a New England autumn day. 

(However, never have I been so treated to a more wonderful autumn sky than the ones in London).