Quebec City can be divided into two parts by these thick walls that separate the old 17th century town from the more modern areas. It is the only walled city in North America north of Mexico. I spent my whole time in the old charming city walking up and down the very hilly streets.
These old oak trees on the grounds of Spadina House always remind me of the Ents from Tolkien's books. It is especially evident now that the leaves are gone. And you can see the wonderful stone wall around the gardens.
This is part of the stonewall that encloses the grounds of Casa Loma along Davenport Rd. You can see other views of the wall in different seasons by clicking the 'wall' label below.
I took this shot a couple of weeks ago after a snow storm and really liked the puffy clouds behind Casa Loma. The snow is all gone now!
I spotted these lovely stone retaining walls when walking through one of the ravines along the Humber River. The river is a great source of stones like this so I'm sure they were all locally sourced many years ago when a house stood in this part of the ravine.
It is finally starting to warm up a bit here but last week even with the sun out the snow was not melting around Casa Loma. I have rarely seen snow on its roof but it was there this year as well as on the stone wall!
The use of herbicides has been banned for several years here so nearly the only way to get rid of weeds is to pull them out which does not happen in the parks and in the public spaces along roadways. As a result you get large crops of Dandelions popping up such as along this boulevard beside the stone wall of Casa Loma.
While wandering about on Sunday morning amongst some of the old estates in central Toronto, I spotted this quirky little door in the wall surrounding one of them. What I really liked about it was the fact that there was an upper peep-hole for humans but more importantly a nice big lower peep-hole for a dog to look out and watch the world go by!
It's not as hot today as yesterday but yesterday's heat has caused spring to bust out all over Toronto. This Forsythia is cascading over the lovely stone wall that surrounds Casa Loma and as I was walking along I could see that the daffodils are all out on the hill that runs up behind this wall. I love spring!
