Trees have been disappearing from my neighborhood. The 2013 ice storm really did a lot of damage and since then I've seen such a huge difference in tree cover. It's sad to see it happening especially because I grew up around them. It was hard to see tree stumps with no branches or leaves the following summer, and it felt like I was in some dystopian novel, living in a world that was slowly decaying. I know this sound dramatic but it was heartbreaking. I was also experiencing sadness in my personal life at the time, hence the brooding.

I remember one particular day I was feeling down and decided to go for a walk and take pictures. I walked through a small park right by my house and saw one of the stumps, but this time instead of feeling upset over it I was delightfully surprised and also a little shocked. That stump that once looked lifeless had little branches sprouting out from the roots and growing leaves! The tree started regrowing in a new way. I was humbled by nature's resiliency and reminded that life goes on as we find ways to survive.
It's now over two years later and look how much this new kind of tree has grown! <3 #fortheloveoftrees #suburbanwild #ilovenature #brampton #trees

I noticed the bird chirping from inside the wall during my break. I've noticed that birds are making nests in creative places these days. There is one in a nook between the base of my balcony and the wall over the garage. Trees are dying and new ones must be too small for them. It's both amusing and heartbreaking to see this happening. But it shows just how much wildlife space we're consuming for development. And at the same time it reveals just how resilient these creatures are. #takecareofnature #urbanwildlife

Now as an adult, I garden with my dad. He taught me everything I know so far about planting vegetables and it is one of the most important skills I could have gained.

I've been planting for a couple of years now, and because of this I have noticed a change this year. A few of the plants died from being eaten by insects. I lost two bushels of kale, three cucumber plants and three zucchini plants. The tomato leaves also seem to be suffering from a lack of nutrients or maybe from insects as well. However, the tomatoes themselves seem to be doing just fine.
There is something different about this season and I am noticing a lot of issues. We have also been going through a drought, hence the yellow grass, which is an issue I will explore in a different post. But I water twice a day so I don't think it's a lack of hydration.

Despite these problems, I have been getting a steady amount of vegetables from my garden. One of the beautiful experiences of being in my backyard is that I can walk in into a space that is filled with life and nourishment and walk out with a variety of food from the land. Aside from the vegetables I planted myself, I also have plants that grow on their own; such as the mint I get each year and the grape vine that grows on the fence.

I feel a strong connection to my environment and it is not just through the act of planting my food and picking it from the garden. It is from understanding the land, the way the soil works and knowing the conditions these plants need to thrive. And it is from knowing the changes that occur when problems arise, and being able to connect them to local issues such as the lack of soil nutrients and drought, and global issues such as climate change.

There is something wild about this connection, and it is experienced right here in my suburban neighbourhood.

#homegrown #localfood #yellowzucchini #environment #placeandspace

This was a magical view to me when I was a kid. Growing up in the suburbs with parents who worked all the time to make sure there was always food on the table meant very little interaction with nature. Forests, rivers, and everything nature was always very mysterious to me, and when I came close to it, I felt like I was in a sacred place.

I remember the day I came across this view. I must have been very young, maybe around 4 years old. My dad used to be home with my sister and I, and often took us on his errands. One day we took the Etobicoke Creek Trail and rushed passed this spot. But my eye caught it and for a moment I was awestruck. It was only a glimpse but it felt like the river was calling out to me and I never forgot about this spot.

I was too young to go back on my own to revisit it. And much too young to even explain to my dad where and why I needed to go back. I finally revisited this spot when I was old enough to venture out on my own. It still held its charm even after all those years. And from time to time I go back. The view hasn't changed at all, and I hope it never does.

What this experience and memory has taught me is that it doesn't take an espace into the wilderness for us to connect with something that we're already a part of. Even a glimpse of a river bank in the middle of the city can establish a love for nature. We just need to open up our minds to see what is all around us in the spaces we live in. #natureinthecity #locallife #cnfgram #tinytruth

One of the central ideas for this project is to show that connection to nature and land exists in urban and suburban spaces, where wilderness feels like a place far away from where us city dwellers reside. However, nature is all around us, the wild is all around us, and we can connect to it right here in our own backyards (pun kind of intended). This is my back garden, and it is one of my favourite spaces at home. As an adult I do not spend a lot of time here except for when I garden, but whenever I do come out here, I always feel connected.
 

I used to play here a lot as a kid with my sister and our friends. The backyard became many different worlds in our imagination and we would become the characters in the stories we used to play out. I also remember my dad planting every spring. He would labour away at tilling the soil, fertilizing it and then planting a variety of vegetables. There were times my sister and I would be playing in the backyard while my dad worked the land. Sometimes we would be curious about what he was doing and watched him garden. We often asked him questions and sometimes we would help. What I remember most is the way he would amuse us by showing us insects such as ladybugs, potato bugs, and creepy crawlies. However, my dad had the most fun introducing us to earthworms. One day, he asked us to hold out our hands. With excitement we asked what he was giving us, and instead of telling us, he placed earthworms in our hands. We looked at them intently, afraid we would get bitten as they lay on our palms. My dad reassured us the worms were harmless, but when they started to squiggle, we squealed and threw them back in the soil and ran away as my dad chuckled at us. But we loved those weird worms and always went back to hold more of them. #homegrown #localfood #brampton

Four years ago you would have seen a canopy of leaves over the street that blocked most of the sky from view. I miss driving down the road and seeing the canopy in motion as breaks of sunlight seep through.

The trees were destroyed after the ice storm in 2013. Although the frozen branches brought a magical look to the landscape, the consequences have been heartbreaking. The heaviness of the ice broke down the branches and the trees died. I was surrounded by them all of my life and then one day I came home and the street was bare.

Looking back, I'm now realizing that the loss of the landscape I grew up with mirrored the loss of my sense of self that occurred earlier that year. They say that destruction leads to the creation of something new. Through loss, a connection was born between myself and the place I grew up in because I became aware of my environment the moment those trees were gone.

#landspaces #are #fleetingmoments