How to Start a Garden

A bouquet of colourful zinnias cut from a garden. — *Colourful zinnia flowers grown in my garden*

Last spring I decided to dig out the lawn in front of the house and start a garden for the very first time. The stay-at-home order was in effect, and no one knew how long it would last. Doing something—anything—that wasn’t confined by four white walls helped to cope with the isolation of quarantine life.

It wasn’t long before I realized that digging up the lawn to prepare the garden bed was not an easy task. Every day I would pull out the shovel and pound a tiny area to uproot the grass. Sometimes I’d get splinters on my hands from the shovel’s wooden handle, even while wearing gardening gloves. (Gardening tip: get puncture-resistant gloves.) It took weeks to dig a small plot of land that was large enough for one row of flowers situated in front of weeds that were impossible to get rid of.

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Light it up

I ended off 2019 by stepping into the year 2099. Moment Factory had set up a multi-sensory night walk called Terra Lumina at the Toronto Zoo, complete with flickering lights, heavy fog, holograms of animals and hypnotic sounds to transport visitors to the future. (In this reality, an apocalypse does not happen.) Winter in Canada has a way of making you feel like you’re stuck indoors forever, so this was a great way to lure you outside. Even without the light installations, the cloudy sky was beautifully lit up thanks to the moon.

Dance Floor

Teepees

Lights Garden

Holographic Bison

Portal

California Dreaming

Mountains, water, sand and sunsets. That’s the best place to be. Oh, to be closer to the pier and palm trees of Santa Monica.

How High

I don’t recall when I became afraid of heights. I certainly didn’t grow up with that fear, but for some reason, the view from the top floor of a tall hotel or the nosebleed sections in a stadium would leave me feeling nauseous.

Still, the thought of passing up an opportunity this past fall to see the thunderous rapids running along the Niagara River from an old cable car suspended 200ft above the crashing waves ate away at me until I couldn’t take it anymore.

Looking ahead, instead of down, I boarded the Whirlpool aero car and found the sounds of the unforgiving river as a good distraction until the vehicle moved. As the red lift began its trip across the border, from the Canadian side of the gorge to the American side, the knots in my stomach undid themselves. It was the most anti-climatic ride ever, actually. Travelling at a whooping 7 km/hr, I could run faster than the speed we were going. Luckily for me, that meant I was able to take plenty of shots of the beautiful natural landscape, which I highly recommend seeing in person.

Postcards From Mexico

Ever notice how postcards look like they were shot in the 1980s or 1990s? The landmarks are always more vibrant in real life, and if the weather is good, you could take better pictures. Nonetheless, until instant printable postcards become a thing, I’ll be sending the vintage prints with handwritten messages in hopes that friends will receive them some time between 1 and 8 weeks to put on their refrigerators.

I’ve kept all the postcards sent to me over the years, which aren’t that many. I have ones from Japan, Paris, Mt. Everest, and Australia. Someday, I’d like to visit these places for the breathtaking views, the adventures, the food, the entertainment, and, of course, for the postcards.

El Arco in Los Cabos

Lover’s Beach

Lazy sea lions

Streets of San Jose del Cabo

San Jose del Cabo

Cabo San Lucas

Los Cabos

The mountains and desert

Places To Be

This past summer and fall, in order to make better use of my camera phone, I visited a few places in Toronto that I have either never been to or never paid much attention to before. Here are some of my favourite shots:

Don Jail

Sugar Beach

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Mimi Szeto

Writer – Editor – Digital Strategist

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