High Park Cherry Blossoms 2011

The cherry blossoms in High Park finally came out to play today and the park was filled with appreciative visitors happy to see the sun and the flowers bloom and take a few pictures.

Not all the buds had opened, but there were enough to provide beauty and colour in the park.

See more blossoms from May 7th after the jump.

A number of animals in the High Park Zoo had little babies, dogs frolicked in the leash free zone and a swan was in Grenadier Pond - what a great time to visit High Park.

I also found some blossoms at Queens Park but the trees along University Avenue are still free of flowers.

High Park anticipates cherry blossoms

Getting in and around High Park this long weekend was easy, the cool weather, grey clouds and the lack of cherry blossoms kept the big crowds away, in fact birds, squirrels and chipmunks easily outnumbered the visitors to the large park. A few people had started spring cleaning in the allotment gardens, getting ready for the upcoming growing season. The train was already carrying passengers through the streets in the park.

I wanted to check out and see what nature was up to in person after finding out that the blossoms were a little late. Some green buds have sprouted on bushes, you can see the cherry buds are swollen (see my photo update here) and some blue flowers are covering the ground in some areas.

Hikers and nature lovers were joined by puppies and dogs in the leash free zone - there was a lot of butt sniffing going on there, let me tell you, but I stopped when people started to get mad. There was a really cute shepherd dog that was wearing special sunglass goggles waiting to play fetch with his orange ball (pictured at top), this dog had been featured in a few newspaper and magazine articles. Caution signs warned of coyotes but I did not see any around, nor did I see any bunnies either, they must have been out delivering chocolate eggs.

Relaxing at the big maple leaf down near the Grenadier Pond

See more dogs and nature after the jump.

A squirrel looks for peanuts in the bird seed

A little Downy Woodpecker

Red Winged Blackbird

A cute Bulldog

The leash free zone gathering place

A snow white ball of mud

High Park in winter

Fun in High Park happens year round and it is much easier to get parking in the winter than it is in the other seasons. Besides the restaurant, cool wooden castles and playground, the ice skating and hiking you can still see the animals in the zoo. Many of the animals even come up to say hi - I think they are looking for food but you shouldn't feed them, besides most of them slobber on your fingers if you try to give them peanuts or anything.

Another must see place to visit in the park is the leash free dog zone. The large area on a hill has it's own doggie fire hydrant, poster stand and picnic tables where you can relax and watch the dogs sniff, run, play and  engage in other fun doggie entertainment. On the doggie hill you can also find a tree, strangely not a coniferous tree, that has been decked with various Christmas decorations.

Fun in Berczy Park

There were gangs of youths having fun in one of Toronto's greatest areas - The St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood and Berczy Park. They were playing a weird game where two groups faced each other, took a couple of big steps, then pointed their fingers by their heads and then one side charged and the other side ran. I think it was a love story.

While this was going on someone, maybe HBO, was busy filming some kids skateboarding beside the backside of the Flatiron building along the large art installation of a side of a building.

No one was swimming in the famous fountain but that would have been a three for three day at the park.