Each month I share photos from one of the parks in Toronto to show my readers what our landscape looks like throughout the year. This is the tenth instalment of this series and will be a bit longer than usual.
Click on February, March, April, May, June July, August, September, and October to read the earlier posts.
Welcome to November in Toronto! It was between 16 Celsius (60 Fahrenheit) and 20 Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) on my visits this month. Temperatures are traditionally supposed to reach highs of 7 Celsius (45 Fahrenheit) at most now, so these numbers are quite out of the ordinary for us. Climate change is quickly altering our seasonal weather patterns.
This month is generally one of our rainiest ones. Nearly half of the days in the average November are rainy ones here. Sometimes it snows, too, although such early snow melts within a day or two.
The sunshine you’ll see in most of these photos is unusual, too. Our more typically overcast days were also pretty stormy this month, or I would have included examples of them as well.
It was raining heavily when the leaves were at their peak, but the rain luckily stopped in time for me to get some nice shots of the autumn foliage.
The evergreen bushes are still looking good. They must not go dormant until December or January. I’ll check back again with them then.
The running trail always shows signs of recent rainfall now, but it’s still firm enough to jog or walk on. This particular tree has such a nice rustle of leaves when you pass it. I wish I could stand there all day and listen to it’s melodic little song.
We saw the canopy of leaves thin last month, and that pattern continues this month. There are still green leaves to see if you look closely.
Who will nestle up here this winter, I wonder? It looks cozy.
These are the three faces of November. Some trees are mostly to partially still green. Most trees are at or just past their peak of colour. Some trees have lost most to all of their leaves and are prepared for winter.
And these are the two legs of November.
It’s a marvellous feeling to walk through so many leaves that you can no longer see your feet. Every step makes delightful crunching noises. I always have to fight the urge to dive into the leaves and do whatever the equivalent to swimming in them might be.
Our tree friend who lost half of its branches in that storm last winter is quickly shedding leaves.
As is our tree friend who lost about a third of its branches and has been droopy and strangely damp in its trunk this autumn.
The trunk of this one looks a little less damp now, but I see no other obvious changes in it for better or for worse. May both of these trees do well this winter.
It’s hard to know when to stop sharing photos with you. The landscape is filled with beauty now in every direction you look. This tree looked like it was glowing when I snapped a photo of it.
Don’t you want to go run into the centre of the park and twirl around with joy? I sure do.
There’s something remarkable about being surrounded by so many picturesque scenes.
As hinted above, November is one of those months that changes rapidly. Some trees are bare while the ones next to them still have some to most of their leaves attached.
I don’t know about all of you, but I still find beauty in trees that are past their peak autumn colours.
There’s something marvellous about watching autumn leaves dance on the ground when a stiff breeze hits them, too. I tried to film them to share on social media, but they stopped every time I hit the record button on my phone.
We’re also just begun to reach the time of year when the trees reveal their secrets.
I hope to share more photos like this next month. It’s fascinating to see where the bird nests were last summer when you couldn’t directly see the nests for yourself.
If we were walking through this park together, I’d stop and show you many nests like these. I think we should admire the birds’ hard work over the summer. The park, and the ecosystem in general, wouldn’t be the same without them. My ears sure appreciate their songs as well.
As always, I’ll end this post with the famous bench-lined walkway in the park. Isn’t it beautiful in autumn?
Stay safe, friends. Winter is right around the corner.