Magnolia Tree

I love magnolia trees. Coming from Winnipeg to Toronto, magnolia trees were a pleasant surprise - I don't recall seeing anything like that out west. Maybe they were, and I was simply too preoccupied to notice things like this. Now I do and am totally mesmerized everytime I see one of these trees - the flowers are beautiful and only bloom for such a short time. There are quite a few in the area in which I live, but on the streets with the muckity-muck houses -- and I don't get there often. But I do pass this particular magnolia tree on the grounds of the Canada Life building at Queen and University on my way to work each day. I've been documenting its progress for the last little while. I was stressed that the big storm last week -- which had winds so strong it took out power for 40,000 people across Ontario (including us: no power for 12 hours on Saturday night) and sent boxes of yarn at the Knitter's Frolic cartwheeling across the parking lot -- would have damaged my tree or caused the flowers to fall before they came to full bloom, but fortunately my tree is fine. It's so beautiful and peaceful nestled in the midst of all the concrete. You'd never guess that it was steps away from the ruckus of the Tamil protests on University Avenue outside the US consulate.