A bit of the true north strong and free in downtown Toronto

Monday was a beautiful sunny day, and it gladdened my heart to see young white pine trees (Pinus strobus) glowing in the spring sunshine. (At least, I think these are white pines.) If you stand in the right place, you can almost imagine you're in a forest.

You can never have too many photos of white pine, the provincial tree of Ontario. I have a special attachment to white pine because the house where I grew up in eastern Ontario had a massive white pine in front of it.

Here you can see that in fact this pretty little grove is surrounded by highrises. This is in the courtyard behind College Park at College and Bay.

What a difference a few trees make, especially in an urban environment.

That's my handsome son Nicky posing with the sculptures behind College Park.

I always wondered how trees could survive in these little planters, which look far too shallow to accomodate a tree's roots.

Here's the secret—they're not a shallow as they look! Still, only a small tree could live in a planter like this. Maybe an eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis), a very pretty native tree that I think is woefully underused here in Toronto.