Snowdrops in the garden, showing during the first major melt since mid January.
#TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic #springgarden

The world is very full of awful. And so I am heartened to have just today discovered the charms of the meyer lemon. #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic

A close-up shot of a couple of branches of a Norway Maple tree, its curled leaves (in deep shades of yellow, red, and orange) are cupping small drifts of white snow, which is still falling & coating the branches.

First snowfall of the season. The maple tree in my front yard hasn't dropped its leaves yet, but has finally changed colour, and is holding the snow in little leafy-bowls. #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic

And then there’s the *literal* bushel basket full of fresh dill.

#SmallOrdinaryMagic

Plus, of course, there was Turkey Day with the fam & then a full-day road trip to & from Belleville for lunch with my other mom. And two batches of chili as well. It’s been a very full, very productive, satisfying “week off”.

#SmallOrdinaryMagic

Yesterday I bought new earbuds at a big box shop. I asked about the return policy; the cashier told me, & asked why.

“Because once I’ve bought these new I’ll find the old pair I’ve misplaced. See you tomorrow.”

Today, I walked in to return them unopened. Wearing my old pair.
#SmallOrdinaryMagic

a raccoon is playing with a sprinkler in a garden . Alt: A GIF of a raccoon (not the writer of the post) playing with a sprinkler in a garden.

My mom & I spent the whole day in our shared allotment plot, even though it was over 30 degrees celcius. Partway through the day we turned the hose to its mist setting & worked under it. I felt like a kid playing in the sprinkler. #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic

Four jars of bright green dill pickle cucumbers (sliced lengthwise in quarters) & three jars of toorshi turnips (dyed pink by the addition of one small slice of beet) rest, cooling, on a kitchen counter.

Dill pickles & pink pickled white turnips (toorshi-style) - the turnips came from the allotment garden.

#Homegrown #allotment
#TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic

The shadow of my head & torso off the edge of a sidewalk onto a newly paved & marked city street, surrounded by a large rainbow halo of light - a trick of the reflective glass grains used to paint road markings.

My shadow has a rainbow halo, which suggests that my shadow is nicer than I am, but definitely as queer.

#TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic

One large black raspberry being held close enugh to the camera that the fuzz on the individual segments show.

First black raspberry is ripe. #TinyJoys, #SmallOrdinaryMagic

Yesterday:
*we saw THREE swallowtail-butterfly caterpillars on the dill stalks at the allotment
*the red currant berries glowed like small jewels against their leafy branches
* a house finch kept us company while we worked

Pics: 1 caterpillar & some berries, no finch. #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic

A leafy green branch with more than twenty cherries dangling from it, photographed looking up at the cherries. They are varying shades of streaky cream-&-red, and they are ready to be picked.

My cherry tree is FULL this year, and the fruit's just ripe. This is just one little bundle. #TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic

The world is a messy, difficult place full of people doing terrible things, but we must also celebrate the wonderful parts.
#TinyJoys #SmallOrdinaryMagic
Though, of course, Midsummer is also a time for big magics. So have at. Set stuff on fire for a good world-redeeming cause.

Delicate Flanders poppies in multiple shades of red & a few pinks wave on thin stalks in from of orange stock & ox-eye daisies.

Lady of Shallott, a pink-edged yellow-orange English rose by David Austen nurseries, climbs a thin black metal trellis in a West-end Toronto backyard.

Flanders poppies in the allotment garden & Lady of Shallott roses in the backyard. #TinyJoys
#SmallOrdinaryMagic