Soft maple buds in pink and yellow...

                                                                                                         Photo by Barry Wallace

My neighbour Al has a huge, beautiful, soft maple next door and it has just started to bud, finally.   The buds don't look anything like maple leaves to me, but they are certainly pretty in their own way.   So far, April's contribution to spring has been very disappointing, I think, but surely warmer, drier days are ahead.   After all, it's almost May.

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Barry Wallace

High hopes for spring...

                                                                                        Photo by Barry Wallace

...from the lowly crocus

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Barry Wallace

Opposite Seneca College...

                                                                                                  Photo by Barry Wallace

At dusk on Dufferin

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Barry Wallace

The colour of our Easter...

                                                                                                     Photo by Barry Wallace

This beautiful Martha Washington Geranium decorated our Easter dinner table earlier this week.   Linda and I had never seen a geranium like this before and had to have it.   Here's hoping your Easter was serene and delightful.

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Barry Wallace 

Bufflehead Duck drops into the Field's pond...

                                                                                                Photo by Barry Wallace

A Bufflehead Duck visited the Keele Street pond of Carol and Bob Field's farm, north of King City, on Wednesday of this week.   The pond is normally a smallish pond, but with all the snow-melt and rain, the pond is twice the size, as are many ponds around King this spring.

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Barry Wallace

Jane Street ~ south of Woodchopper's Lane...

                                                                                            Photo by Barry Wallace

Spring is flowing...

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Barry Wallace

Siskins show up...

The first two Pine Siskins of the spring arrived at the backyard feeders on Tuesday of this week.  They seemed to have no fear at  all of the earlier ensconced, big, black menacing Grackles.

More power to the finches!

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if  you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Seneca College ~ King Campus...

                                                                                                      Photo by Barry Wallace

Keeping signs simple at Seneca

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Barry Wallace

Dufferin Street at Eversley...

 Photos by Barry Wallace

Rail fences succumbing

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Barry Wallace

Nobleton United Church...

Photo by Barry Wallace

A lovely touch of spring

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Barry Wallace

Marker on the Oak Ridges Trail...

Photo by Barry Wallace

Follow this trail blaze...

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Barry Wallace

First Mourning Cloak butterfly arrives...

                                                                                          Wikipedia Photo

The first Mourning Cloak butterfly (Nymphalis antiopa) of the spring showed up Tuesday morning in my backyard.  It seemed quite early to me what with the cold and inclement weather that April has scourged us with so far.   It certainly was welcome however.   This butterfly is one of the longest living at 11 to 12 months.   It is native to North America and Asia.   In the British Isles it is also known as the Camberwell Beauty.

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Barry Wallace

Red sky at night is a sailor's delight...

Photo by Barry Wallace

Red sky in the morning is a sailor's warning

I stepped outside to pick up my Toronto Star on Tuesday morning and this was the view from my front door.   We seem to have had several of these short but spectacular sunrises this spring.  They are a great way to start one's day.   But the old adage is true and many of those days have turned out wet and windy.

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Barry Wallace

On the Oak Ridges Trail...

                                                                                                 Photo by Barry Wallace

Old unfinished beaver business

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Barry Wallace

It's that time again...

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Barry Wallace

First White-throated Sparrow of spring arrives

                                                                                                 Photo by BarrytheBirder

White-throated Sparrow

(Zonatrichia albicollis)

Our first White-throated Sparrow of spring arrived in the backyard on Friday of this week.   The White-throated Sparrow is one of the species believed to be particularly at risk from building collisions, which scientists now estimate kills up to a billion birds a year in the United States.   This is just one more reason to be happy that some of them visit our backyards in King Township.

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Barry Wallace

  

Two old photos of Kinghorn School...

                                                                            Photos: King Township Museum

Kinghorn School ... then ... and then

Usually, when I do a 'then and now' photo item in this space, it is a shot of something very, very old, and a modern-day shot of the same thing.   In this case however, the original Kinghorn school (SS #23), on the King Road, just east of Jane Street, is seen in a photo (top) dated 1888.   The second photo of the same school was taken almost 50 years later in 1937, on the occasion of Walter Rowling Day, a tribute to a renowned, longtime teacher.   Now, after 121 years, the old school is still in place, but has been absorbed into the King Heritage & Cultural Centre, which in all likelihood will exist for several decades to come.

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Barry Wallace

Frozen feeder

Photo by Barry Wallace

On this day six years ago...

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Barry Wallace

16th Sideroad ~ west of of Keele Street

Photo by Barry Wallace

 The flush of winter's ephemeral farewell

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Barry Wallace

More King student art...

 Photos by Barry Wallace

Hearwith are five more selections from the The Mayor's Celebration of the Youth Arts at the King Township Municipal Centre, until May 3rd.

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Barry Wallace

Mayor's Celebration of the Youth Arts

                                                                                                    Photos by Barry Wallace
Arts Society King 
presents
The Mayor's
Celebration of the Youth Arts

It's time again for the art exhibit featuring secondary students from Country Day School, King Secondary School and Villanova College.   The exhibit features 40 works of art and may be seen at the King Township Municipal Centre until May 3, 2019.   An official reception will be held on Monday, April 11th at 7.00 p.m.

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace

My sister Diane's deer...

                                                                                               Photos by Diane Wallace

My younger sister, Diane Wallace, recently moved to Halifax and is living in a third-floor apartment with a balcony that overlooks a close, well-treed valley.   There are deer in the trees below her balcony and she has taken photos of them, but they were not the close-ups she would have preferred.   

Spotting them again recently, she took her camera and went down and encountered the beautiful creatures up close.   They flinched at her presence and she thought they were going to run off.  But they didn't.   In fact, they approached her and she got the two pictures you see here.  

Longtime residents here know the deer very well and the deer are accustomed to the residents.   Diane has told me a story about how a  group of tenants knew that a pregnant doe was about to give birth.
  

A large group of them went out behind the apartment building, and beneath the trees watched the doe give birth to a fawn.   How delightful.

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Barry Wallace 

New library in King City...

 Photos by Barry Wallace

Steel is up ... big cranes have vanished

As mentioned previously in this space, the new King City Library will be finished at the end of this year or early in 2020.   Now that the steel has been erected, it is much easier to imagine the overall size and scope of the new cultural facility.   The busy King Road makes seeing the new library difficult.   A better view is to be had from the King City Public School parking lot, just north of the construction site.

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace

Squabbling Starlings in a standoff at feeder...

Photo by Barry Wallace

Starlings often flock together on lawns foraging for small insects and seem to get along with each other very well.   Then they really show their togetherness when they fly by the hundreds or even thousands in what are called murmurations, swooping back and forth in amazing patterns of collective agility.   But get two of them at a feeder and they will go at each other like real enemies, much like the two pictured in our backyard a few days ago.   With their dark, iridescent plumage and long, pointed bills, they make for an intimidating presence.

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Barry Wallace

Juncos have stayed at least five months...

Photo by Barry Wallace

I photographed this Junco last year, early in the evening of Thursday, November 1,  just as a wee bit of snow blew in.   The juncos in our backyard have now been with us just over five months.   There are only four left, however. The other half dozen headed north over the last several days.   The four still eating seeds on the ground, under the feeders, will probably disappear in a few days.   I hate to see these dear little birds go, but I crave spring so.   Until next November then...

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Barry Wallace

  

Very tall Gray Birches at Humber Trails

                                                                                             Photo by Barry Wallace

I've been watching the Gray Birches, pictured above, at Humber Trails Conservation Area for decades.   They are found beyond the west end of the small pond about 300-400 metres from the main gate, on Mill Road, south of the King Road.  Their stand stretches about 100 metres north of the main trail.   They make quite a presentation now that they have reached their uncommon maximum height of 70'.   They may even reach more than 70' given a few more years.   But they are not long-living and rarely exceed 50 years of age.   Their trunks have many chevrons (shallow inverted Vs) at bases of branches as well as narrow horizontal marks.   The bark is a chalky, grey colour.This stand of many dozens of tall trees is quite impressive to see.

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Barry Wallace

Then and now...

Back in the late 1940s - early 1950s, the building above was 'Doc' Gordon's auto garage which was the place to get car repairs, plus Red Indian gasoline and motor oil.  'Doc' later became the first Chevrolet & Oldsmobile dealer in the village.   It was on the north side of the King Road, east of Keele Street, where today the Shoppers Drug Mart is located.   Doc's garage was featured a few years ago in this space and I thought I'd bring it back once more. 

Photo by Barry Wallace

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Barry Wallace

Signs in Kingcross Estates...

Photos by Barry Wallace

One wonders if the wildlife in the Kingscross Estates area of King City will have any native habitat left, given what appears to be a complete eradication of the original 1960s  estate homes and the construction of monsters homes that cover what seems to be half of the 2-acre lots.   Below is another sign of the modern times in Kingcross.   It is one of numerous signs for HARD AT WORK INC., the major builder of the myriad of monster homes going up in the 'new' Kingcross Estates.

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Barry Wallace