Tonight's Walk

It was such a pleasant afternoon, I went for a walk as soon as I got home from work tonight. One of the first things I saw was a bunch of trilliums blooming in a wooded area about a block from my house. It seems super early to be seeing them but maybe that's because I usually see them up at the cottage in about 3 weeks time, on the May long weekend. They bloom a little later up there because the cottage is further north than Toronto. Still, the trillium's appearance is one of the final stages of spring's arrival as far as I'm concerned and there they were, tucked into a little grove of trees looking pretty as a picture.

I discovered that the lilacs are also in full bloom here in Toronto. I saw several different colours of blossom when I was out walking - white, light purple, dark purple. I couldn't take a picture of any of them though, as every lilac tree I saw was located beside someone's house, often close to their front door, and every driveway had a car in it, which means the people were home and would have wondered why I was trespassing on their property. So you'll have to take my word for it and admire this photo taken by someone named Rundy off the Internet instead.

Lilacs and trilliums always mean the end of spring to me, appearing late in the season to delight us. The fact that it is only May 3rd makes it seem a little early to me. It has been warm this past month but I didn't think it had been warm enough to speed spring up by several weeks! Then again, the humidity we had on the weekend felt a lot like summer, so maybe it's going to be one of those wacky years when the weather doesn't behave like what we think of as normal. Not that I'm complaining, as lilacs are one of my all time favourites so I don't mind having them around any time.

As I arrived back at my apartment building, I was surprised to find several fire trucks pulling into the driveway. I did a quick scan of the building and didn't see any smoke billowing out, so I was able to relax and stop worrying about my cat Max alone upstairs on his own. I sat on a bench across the street where the sound of our fire alarm (more like an air raid siren, if you ask me!) was sufficiently muted and waited for the all clear, then headed upstairs.