Canada Blooms

These flower creations look like real cakes!

Sometimes the stars align and things just fall into place.  Imagine our joy when we arrived at Canada Blooms show and found out today was free parking.  It doesn't take much to make our hearts glad.
There were some very unusual displays this year.
My favourite exhibit was the Garfield Thompson Landscape Limited. His use of natural settings and water features are incredibly original.

Such detail!

Water comes out of the stone fountain, across the table, and falls into a recirculating pool. 

Incredible flower dresses.

Loved the use of natural stone.

My favourite exhibit had a fountain which tracks across a table slab. 

Trumpeter Swans

La Salle Park in Burlington has a program to reestablish Trumpeter Swans. There is a colony of about 200 swans in the basin at LaSalle Park.  They are all tagged and hand fed in the winter by volunteers.  You can see how big they are compared to the Canada Geese.  They are pretty noisy, honking, bobbing their long necks and flapping their wings.

Compared to the mute swans they are much taller.  They are easily distinguished by their black beaks.  Mute swans have orange beaks. Trumpeter swans are the largest species of native waterfowl in North America.  They were nearing extinction in North America. In 1933, Overhunting by early European settlers had reduced the numbers of trumpeters to just 77 breeding adults in Canada.
Harry Lumsden, retired from the Ministry of Natural Resources, with the help of dozens of volunteers has brought the swans back to Ontario. He started the program in 1982. There are over 1,000 trumpeters in the south-central part of the province now.  For more information go to: http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/2009/03/29/trumpeter_swans_making_a_comeback_in_ontario.html

Looking across Hamilton Harbour from LaSalle Park. this spot is a haven for ducks, Canada geese, Trumpeter swans and mute swans.

Bobbing, dancing and weaving to their loud trumpeting.

Ice storm

The ice storm was really hard on people.  Many people lost hydro power and some sewers backed up.  But if was beautiful.  The trees and bushes sparkled in the sun and it looked like a wonderland.