Laurel
LightNews LightNews
banner
laurelfynes.bsky.social
Laurel
@laurelfynes.bsky.social
8.4K followers 990 following 8.5K posts
learning from the world, my family, students, birds, trees, plants, waterways, relationships. unlearning. biophiliac. growing roots along great lake ontario. settler. she/her.
class site: https://bsky.app/profile/k2westacres.bsky.social
Posts Replies Media Videos
laurelfynes.bsky.social
🎵🥁🎺🪘It’s the most wonderful time of the year… 🥁🎶🪘
A brightly coloured poster with an illustration of a large orange moon behind whimsical celestial spirits in a dark sky. Text reads: “IGNITE THE LONGEST DARKEST NIGHT 36™ ANNUAL KENSINGTON MARKET WINTER SOLSTICE PARADE & FIRE FINALE RETURNS SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2025 6:00PM - 9:30PM NON-PROFIT HAND-MADE COMMERCIAL FREE EVENT For more info: IG @redpepperspectaclearts or email:redpeppersepectaclearts@gmail.com LANTERNS FOR SALE $30 RED PEPPER SPECTACLE ARTS”
November 20, 2025 at 12:52 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
I made it just in time this morning… sunrise over calm water, and under a shelf of cloud. Geese pass by, pink spills on the waves, all under the bright pink eye.
November 19, 2025 at 1:03 PM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
A branch of black oak that was lying on the sidewalk where I was waiting for the streetcar at Windermere. The graphic I found has 2 more oaks I find in the parks around me, the swamp oak (fuzzy undersides) & pin oak (looks quite like black oak with skinny, pointy lobes).
I just really love oaks 😏
Shiny oak leaves, still green but turning brown, all pointy with slim lobes. A graphic to help identify 6 species of oaks in our area. The red oak sample isn’t a great representative of mature leaves on sunny branches. It’s got very short cutouts between lobes. Text with photos of leaves reads: “Bur White Swamp White Black Northern Pin Red”
November 17, 2025 at 2:13 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
First two leaves are Northern red oak, the oak I know best from my neighbourhood which has plenty of them. The next pair are black oak, a tree I never see out my end of the city but which High Park is known for. They’re quite like pin oak leaves, which I see in parks near me. Interesting leaf shape.
A reddish brown oak leaf with sharp points and a roughly symmetrical shape. Another red-brown oak leaf like the last, this one with slimmer lobes. A sharp pointed oak leaf in rich brown. The lines are longer and skinny and each have three distinct points on them. The leaf is shiny. Another brown leaf of the black oak tree, with deep cuts between lobes which are asymmetrical. Each love has several points.
November 17, 2025 at 2:05 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
Two bur oak leaves, and maybe a white oak? I did see white oak along the way, and kept looking for swamp oak by the water but found none.
A brown bur oak leaf. It has rounded tips and a distinctive shape with gaps in the margins. Another bur oak leaf, this one less symmetrical than the first. Another brown oak leaf with rounded tops, but slimmer lobes and not as wide near the “shoulders” of the leaf.
November 17, 2025 at 1:56 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
I went for a hike through Rennie Park this afternoon. It’s a large ravine park running half of the length of High Park and just across Ellis Ave. I was delighted by the variety of oaks, including the black oaks High Park is known for and that I never see anywhere else in the city.
The cat was glad…
A silky black cat leaning over a table on which is spread a collection of oak leaves and a leafy branch. Leaves likely from bur, white, northern red and black oak trees. The branch is black oak.
November 17, 2025 at 1:49 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
A thing I saved and now you get to enjoy it, too.
Grebe feet 🥰
Meme, with drawings of some of the weirder bird feet out there, including coot, grebe, cassowary. Text reads: “Bird Feet Appreciation Time Please take a moment to think about bird feet. When you're done, you can print yourself this sticker: BONEUS: Did you remember to think about the terrifying foot of the PARROT? I kind of regret it.”
November 17, 2025 at 1:05 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
In Trinity Bellwoods, it’s quiet if you get there early enough. Leaf litter everywhere, sunlight on treetops and starting to reach down into the bowl. Stairs I forgot about since moving from the area… lead me back up to street level where it was still quiet, few people out and about.
A park lawn dotted with large trees and covered with pale golden brown leaf litter, a grey-blue park bench standing out against the gold. The rising sun glowing at the horizon beside the CN Tower, seen from down in the Bellwoods bowl from the outdoor stage. Sunlight shining through the wooden rails cast striped shadows on the deck. Large trees glow with light on bare branches and some leaves still holding on. Concrete steps set into a grassy hill curve up past trees and along a wooden railing. The sky is wide open, bright blue at the top. Sunlight shining through fall trees over green grass and scattered leaves
November 16, 2025 at 4:33 PM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
Downtown, a street of homes and parked cars divided by a line of majestic maple trees looming over the sidewalk.
Sidewalk on a residential street. Red brick houses stand on the left behind small trees yards at left, some with black iron rail fences. Cars are parked on the street at right, behind a row of tall maple trees whose limbs reach over the path forming a visual tunnel. The deciduous trees are in fall colours: gold, orange, red.
November 16, 2025 at 4:23 PM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
Sun and moon meeting in the morning over tall oaks that bridge fall to winter with senescent leaves.
A crescent moon shines over treetops which are backlit by pale golden light in a clear morning sky before sunrise.
November 16, 2025 at 3:57 PM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
When my nature nerd self sneaks out at a staff meeting.
Meme, two sections. “When I accidentally use personality A with friend group B” horrible. how was the party? First, a cartoon drawing of a man chatting with two other men at a party, saying “spray blood from your eyes at any interesting predators lately?” The two men looking very sceptical or disgusted about what they’re hearing. “what?” Second section, same man (who has socks on with sandals) sits in a dejected position on the floor, with three spiny lizards asking “how was the party?” and he answers “horrible.”
November 15, 2025 at 3:45 PM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
Yesterday’s beautiful morning skies, a progression.
From home, where the crescent moon was shining above the golden horizon. Nearer to work, orange spilled over onto the water. At school, a gloriously complete sundog as the bell rang.
Moon in clear blue morning sky over tall treetops and roofs. The horizon glows yellow-orange with dawn light before sunrise. The tallest trees, the oaks still have leaves while other trees behind are bare. Sunrise over calm water in a marina inlet, the horizon bright orange under streaky clouds and blue sky. The sun looks like a yellow smudge in the orange, and reflects as a bright stripe on the water below. A pale sundog circles the sky over a power line tower in front of a school. Trees are in silhouette below it, the sun a white glow just above them.
November 15, 2025 at 2:37 PM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
Do I live in the right city or what?
“Find someone who looks at you like Forestry staff look at bark.
Join Forestry staff to learn about Toronto's urban forest… one of the largest in the world. We'll talk about what makes the urban forest so special…”
www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?E...
Poster by Toronto Trees. Photos accompany the text in a grid. “BARK OF TORONTO Black Walnut Juglans nigra Black Cherry Prunus serotina Hackberry Celtis occidentalis Red Oak Quercus rubra White Oak Quercus alba Manitoba Maple Acer negundo Norway Maple Acer platanoides Silver Maple Acer saccharinum Sugar Maple Acer saccharum Green Ash Fraxinus pennsylvanica American Beech Fagus grandifolia Trembling Aspen Populus tremuloides White Birch Betula papyrifera Eastern White Cedar Thuja occidentalis Eastern White Pine Pinus strobus toronto.ca/trees”
November 15, 2025 at 2:22 PM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
My favourite soundtrack when I’m outside at lunch - local raven croaking from a high perch.
November 14, 2025 at 4:39 PM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
I opened my classroom blinds to a blue of birds scattering away. Two decided to freeze, not flee, both ground feeders. One dove, one junco. A sweet start to what will be a long day.
November 13, 2025 at 12:49 PM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
It’s why I’m cerebrating the movement of birds through this city I love in a series of tattoos. My 1st, summer: chimney swifts. Next I’ll do fall, a kettle of vultures in the mirror image flow of the swifts. Winter, likely long-tailed ducks (or goldeneyes?) diving in the icy water. Spring…
Fresh inked tattoo starting at my inner elbow, a chimney with tiny swifts flying up in a swirl like smoke. They continue around the arm up to my shoulder. Below them is a leaf from a beloved old elm, a grand tree in the city which fell to Dutch elm disease after more than a century in the Exhibition Grounds. On my outer arm the swifts are seen close up in great detail, some backs and some bellies to the viewer. The tattoo continues as the birds swoop up and away in the smoke-like flow just like the birds do in flocks all summer.
November 13, 2025 at 12:30 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
Ginkgo drop day came fast in my neighbourhood, as the trees all reacted to the heavy snow the same way… everywhere, bright yellow skirts on melting snow.
A carpet of yellow ginkgo leaves cover the sidewalk beneath a tree seen here only as a trunk. A pedestrian crosswalk is in the background, and slushy snowy hugs the curb. The crown of the same ginkgo tree, totally bare. Streetlights stand behind the tree and wires cross the sky in front of it. Another ginkgo in the area with bare branches above, a heavy skirt of yellow leaves below. The foot traffic has cleared leaves along the sidewalk so the skirt has a rectangle shape. Apartment buildings, storefronts and cars are behind the sidewalk. Another ginkgo skirt along the same plaza, this time on two sides of the sidewalk as bright yellow stripes around grey with yellow speckles. The snow has melted here and the grass is completely buried by the leaves.
November 12, 2025 at 11:35 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
Squirrel up close in falling snow, a view of the birds in the shallow water, and gulls out over the waves. All beside the little spit.
November 12, 2025 at 4:07 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
Beach scenes from the east side of the spit.
It’s really early for snow that sticks round.
Snow has covered both the grass and the rocky beach, so that the park slope is all one white hill dotted with trees. Snowy upswept limbs of a tree with a black squirrel perched in the middle, tail curled around its body. Ducks and geese floating on shallow water. Several of them have snow on their backs.
November 12, 2025 at 4:04 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
It was ridiculously picturesque though I wasn’t going to step out on the last rocks to take in the full view. Slippery and jagged out at the end.
View of the shoreline to the west, seen through gaps between trees lining the spit. A large fallen tree lies in the water on rocks, all gathering a coat of white snow. A very snowy path along a breakwater spit with trees covered in both yellow leaves and sticky snow. The last tree at the end of the spit stands crooked and leafy over snowy rocks and grey water. The sky is a lighter shade of grey than the lake. The spit as seen from the far end looking back up towards the path on shore. Every plant, rock and tree is coated with snow. The houses up on the hill are obscured.
November 12, 2025 at 3:52 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
It’s snowing AGAIN (grumble grumble… everyone else is seeing the Aurora) so I’ll share the stunning views on shore from yesterday morning with the fresh snow.
The trees were NOT ready for this snowfall. Many bent over, crowns heavy with the wet snow.
A snowy scene on a park hill over Lake Ontario. The street at left is empty. The trees all along the hill are dusted with snow, many still in leaf in yellows and greens, though the closest tree is bare. Leaves have fallen on the snow, creating on odd texture like toasted peaks on meringue. Facing west from the same spot as the last photo, the end of the park is a snowy slope ending in trees at the water’s edge. The shoreline curves out past the park, a blur behind falling snow. A tunnel of trees along a snowy path covered in fallen leaves, the lake behind it a blur of white. The trees are still mostly in leaf and the snow sticks to the leaves in clumps. The end of the tunnel along the spit, here the path defined by footprints and the tree limbs fairly coated with the snow, a contrast to the dark trunks. The lake is a grey smear beyond the trees.
November 12, 2025 at 3:45 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
Well, not ALL of us… 😭
Screenshot from weather app, Toronto weather. Background is dark and cloudy. Text reads: “Toronto 1° Feels Like: -5° H:4° L:-4° Snow Forecasted Snow is expected to start in 37 min.”
November 12, 2025 at 2:25 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
Absolutely!
Here’s Alice.
To be fair, I sang her name. She will come running from another room if I do the sing-song call.
Alice, a fluffy tortoiseshell cat with a luxurious tail and ruff, curled in a shoebox beside a table. She is looking off to the right, not at me. Same cat moments later, looking up at me while I hold my phone below my face. I have just sang her name.
November 11, 2025 at 12:51 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
The last stages. Roasting added time but also flavour - worth it. I added a full can of coconut milk too, so it’s not as thick as usual but still thick enough to feel hearty. Topped with the herbs I picked from under snow. Last day to eat most, though the rosemary can take a frost. Yum!
November 10, 2025 at 12:51 AM
laurelfynes.bsky.social
It’s November, snowy and windy. I made soup, of course.
A cookie sheet sitting on the stovetop with a parchment paper lining. On top of the paper are a large carrot, cooking onion, a butternut squash, bulb of garlic, fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley and chives) and a knob ginger. On the cutting board, the bottom of the squash, a sieve with more fresh herbs, a bottle of olive oil and the roasted seeds from the squash. Roasted squash and carrot chunks cooling on the cookie sheet. Herbs are scattered around. Onion, garlic and ginger in a large pot, cooking with fresh herbs and oil.
November 10, 2025 at 12:47 AM