Cicadas in the Mist
So whoever says Toronto is a concrete jungle, I beg to differ!
It may be a city that experiences harsh, cold winters that turn the city brown and barren, and I had been told to expect a hot Summer, but a JUNGLE?
You think I'm exaggerating. I'm not! I swear, some days if you told me to close my eyes and guess where I was by my other senses, I'd say Uganda or India or Malaysia. Especially on those 35+ degree days. The humidity is saturating, the air is hot, the cicadas buzz like a weed-whacker in the trees when the heat has quieted the birds, the evenings are full of chirping crickets, and best of all the air smells of that lush, wet, leafy, peaty, smucky smell of a real tropical jungle. Mixing that with just a tiny touch of exhaust fumes it smells EXACTLY like a city in the tropics. It's the smell that gets me the most. I love it. And some days it's even misty/steamy in the mornings, which reminds me of waking up in a tent or banda in Uganda and looking out over a landscape covered in a peach-orange misty haze of early humid jungle sunrise.
They say that scent is your strongest attachment to memory.. it's so true! Every time I walk out my apartment door, I get nostalgic about my trips to Asia, Africa and India! It's a tease, but also a little bit of comfort because it feels like I'm there again for a second.
And around here (parts of High Park, Toronto Island), but especially as you start driving east, and mostly near the cottage in Norfolk county, it LOOKS like the jungle. The trees are a twisted, amazingly-green canopy of tons of different deciduous trees. There are flowered trees, and dozens of different spiky, tropical-looking trees that look like they came straight from a hillside in Goa. It's so gorgeous! I was telling Tom the other day that if we just had this weather all year round with no Winters to blast the jungle back into hibernation, we would for sure have toucans and monkeys swinging in the treetops who would know no difference between Canada and a true equatorial jungle.
It's awesome and unexpected and I love it! Oh, and to top it off, Lake Erie totally looks like a typical tropical ocean... on the south side of Long Point Provincial Park especially. The water is bright aqua blue, shallow for a loooong way out, with the softest white sand, perfectly warm water, waves to play in... I'm in heaven!! Well, until Summer ends anyways.
Anyhow, just wanted to get that out of my system! I can't believe nobody has ever mentioned this before. They always say it's hot and stifling in the Summer in Ontario... I think it's great! Maybe it's because I haven't lived here forever so I notice it more, and maybe there were things that I overlooked while living in BC that others may love... I don't know. But I'm already looking forward to next Summer!
- Mish ;)
It may be a city that experiences harsh, cold winters that turn the city brown and barren, and I had been told to expect a hot Summer, but a JUNGLE?
You think I'm exaggerating. I'm not! I swear, some days if you told me to close my eyes and guess where I was by my other senses, I'd say Uganda or India or Malaysia. Especially on those 35+ degree days. The humidity is saturating, the air is hot, the cicadas buzz like a weed-whacker in the trees when the heat has quieted the birds, the evenings are full of chirping crickets, and best of all the air smells of that lush, wet, leafy, peaty, smucky smell of a real tropical jungle. Mixing that with just a tiny touch of exhaust fumes it smells EXACTLY like a city in the tropics. It's the smell that gets me the most. I love it. And some days it's even misty/steamy in the mornings, which reminds me of waking up in a tent or banda in Uganda and looking out over a landscape covered in a peach-orange misty haze of early humid jungle sunrise.
They say that scent is your strongest attachment to memory.. it's so true! Every time I walk out my apartment door, I get nostalgic about my trips to Asia, Africa and India! It's a tease, but also a little bit of comfort because it feels like I'm there again for a second.
And around here (parts of High Park, Toronto Island), but especially as you start driving east, and mostly near the cottage in Norfolk county, it LOOKS like the jungle. The trees are a twisted, amazingly-green canopy of tons of different deciduous trees. There are flowered trees, and dozens of different spiky, tropical-looking trees that look like they came straight from a hillside in Goa. It's so gorgeous! I was telling Tom the other day that if we just had this weather all year round with no Winters to blast the jungle back into hibernation, we would for sure have toucans and monkeys swinging in the treetops who would know no difference between Canada and a true equatorial jungle.
It's awesome and unexpected and I love it! Oh, and to top it off, Lake Erie totally looks like a typical tropical ocean... on the south side of Long Point Provincial Park especially. The water is bright aqua blue, shallow for a loooong way out, with the softest white sand, perfectly warm water, waves to play in... I'm in heaven!! Well, until Summer ends anyways.
Anyhow, just wanted to get that out of my system! I can't believe nobody has ever mentioned this before. They always say it's hot and stifling in the Summer in Ontario... I think it's great! Maybe it's because I haven't lived here forever so I notice it more, and maybe there were things that I overlooked while living in BC that others may love... I don't know. But I'm already looking forward to next Summer!
- Mish ;)
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