Joanne Sisco

Changing Seasons: August Summer Glory

No story this time … just photos from this month.  My summer hasn’t been an entire pity party – there’s been a lot of beauty experienced.  Click on any photo in each section to enlarge and scroll through.

From the plants growing wild in my backyard …

Ok – this is actually my neighbour’s backyard

To the splendor of Northern Ontario in my home town of Cochrane …

The Band Shell on Lake Commando
Fletcher’s Lake
Gardiner Ferry crossing the Abitibi River
Lake Commando

To a hot and sunny day in the heart of Toronto …

St James Park
Heritage building near Allan Gardens
Historic St Lawrence Market
Riverdale Farm

This has been my August.  I hope your’s has been full of beauty too.

Changing Seasons is a monthly photo feature hosted by Cardinal Guzman.

68 comments

  2. Was that a real bird in the fountain at St. James Park beating the heat? I hope so. 🙂 The little red bridge in the lake, and landscape composition you made of the lake and bandstand are my favorites. You had a beautiful August!

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  4. I really like the photo of the grass in your backyard. I love the use of prairie plants in yards. The old bell tower is impressive too. Never been to Ontario but looks like a good place to visit. Hard to believe that summer is about over already….

    Peta

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  7. August has been an odd month here too for me. I haven’t really been anywhere except for the supermarket. It’s very busy with holiday-makers and I have been content to stay at home and enjoy my garden for the first summer. Now getting itchy feet though and desperate for a walk on the beach. Already the sun us setting around 8:30 pm and I feel as though summer is slipping away. I want more. Or is that being greedy?

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  8. Those are lovely photos, Joanne. I’m fond of the coleus growing in your back yard, since I also have it growing on the patio. They are doing really well this summer.

    It seems like August has flown by, which makes me sad. I don’t want to see summer go away. I never want to see summer go away. It’s especially bad when the maple trees behind our office are starting to turn red…actually they started the end of July. I don’t know what’s up with that.

    Enjoy the rest of the month and let’s hope we have a really nice autumn.

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    • It’s interesting how some plants have been really thriving with the heat this summer, and others haven’t. This is the biggest I’ve seen the coleus grow in this corner so obviously they like the heat.

      I’m happy to see the changing weather – cooler nights especially. It makes it much nicer to be outside doing stuff.
      Hope we have a great autumn too 🙂

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  10. Lots of beauty to be had here that’s for sure Joanne. You would be totally entitle to a pity party but good for you to see some shining stars in the midst of it.
    I wondered if you had ever considered going on the trip and not cycling? Perhaps that would just be too hard to be there an not be able to ride?

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  12. This is what I really love about you, MoJo…..that even when you’re down you can still find beauty and realize that there are still things to be enjoyed! I do hope that neighbour comes through with homemade wine….sounds like a perfect gift for a girl recovering from such a devastating injury (see how I showed you how to play that sympathy card there…..take note!) 🙂

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    • hahaha!! You’re doing an excellent job on the sympathy play 🙂

      I’m going to have to talk to my neighbour one of these days and find out what she does with those grapes. They don’t strike me as the wine-making kind.

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  16. Lovely! We haven’t done much this August because of all the fires in the area. Practically every day has been a Spare the Air day. Talk about pity party!

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    • I love it when someone posts a photo and I recognize it from my travels! Glad I could oblige you 🙂

      It’s so weird how some plants seem to have thrived in this heat while others are a wilty, brown mess.

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  20. Great garden shots – it was such a dry and hot summer! Glad you enjoyed staying closer to home. We have had fun on most of our hikes in spite of the extreme heat – just surviving after sweating that much brings a special exhilaration!

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    • The two of you were so smart to keep your hikes relatively short in the heat. It gave you a chance to actually enjoy them in spite of the sweat-fest.

      In looking at my yard, it is so interesting that some plants did very well in the heat, while others are burnt and shriveled in spite of my attempts at regular watering!

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      • Yes it’s interesting that even the drought tolerant ones – like coneflowers – faded early because they couldn’t take the heat. Guess they were never meant for the tropics – me neither!

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        • This has definitely been a summer for the record books. As much as this summer’s heat has been oppressive at times, I’m starting to savour every minute now … ever since the Farmer’s Almanac forecast for this winter surfaced. If the rumours are true, it’s going to be a rough one.

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  22. Looks like a beautiful August in a beautiful country. Not ready for summer to be over in SW France, despite the lack of rain and the heat, Ijust wish it would continue, another month or two at least!

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    • Last week I was starting to feel ‘over it’ about the heat and humidity we’ve uncharacteristically had since mid-May.
      Then I remembered how short summer really is and I should be reveling in each and every day. Already the evenings are much cooler and winter will be here before we know it!

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    • Thanks Karen. It’s actually a Buddha head sitting on a tree stump. I’ve never had coleus plants grow so tall. Obviously they’ve really loved this summer’s heat!

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    • Thanks Suzanne.
      Like most Northern Ontario towns, Cochrane is a blink-or-you’ll-miss-it kind of place, but it is my home town and therefore I have a special attraction to it 🙂

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    • Thanks Bridget … but actually my backyard is a bit of a disaster. Everything – the pool, the deck, the stonework – are all in need of a major overhaul.
      There however pockets that I love at various times of the summer. Obviously I’ve showed my favourites.

      My front yard which had a major face-lift a few years ago, has really suffered from this summer’s heat. I’m hoping it will bounce back next year.

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  26. You know, I’ll concede it does look hot in Toronto. It has that slightly scorched colour to it. Cochrane looks so pretty. I had to go look up “band shell”, though, because I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before. We would call that a bandstand.

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    • It’s a funny thing. They are called band stands here too, but until I wrote this post and automatically started to write “band shell”, I never considered it odd that in Cochrane we always called it the ‘band shell’. Go figure.

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