Living in Aurora, Town of Aurora, Ontario » Christmas Tree

Christmas Eve Almost Frozen Night Rider Around Town of Aurora

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 06:32:07 +0000

I couldn’t resists. What else can I do late at night when children are asleep. I took my cameras and went for a drive around Aurora around ten o’clock. It was a beautiful cold night. I didn’t realize this until later.

Iced Trees, Superstore Parking Lot, Aurora

Frozen Bushes, Superstore, Aurora

The images you are seeing here were taken in Aurora ON on Christmas Eve night on December 24th, 2013. I drove to the nearby Superstore on St. John’s sideroad. The parking lot was empty and beautifully illuminated – for nothing. The iced trees dispersed light even more.

I pull over and took some surreal images of the iced trees and bushes. I couldn’t believe how beautiful these bushes looked just with a naked eye. On the other hand they kind of looked painful as well – frozen.

Frozen Bushes, Superstore, Aurora

On the side note getting out that late I had to pay small prize – I was freezing myself. My fingers especially where there is not much of human mass and the metal lenses and metal case on one of my cameras didn’t do much justice. Not to mention my nose was kind of turning into – no mystery – a frozen nose. But that wasn’t the it.

Frozen Bushes, Superstore, Aurora

I knew the ice will eventually go away. Last couple of days we have been experiencing meltdown – thus my urge to go out and take night photos that day. My backyard tree survived. Word of advice – plant flexible trees. The more flexible you are the better chance of survival you have – a life note here, as taken from the tree.

Frozen Bushes, Superstore, Aurora

I had a choice to turn around and go home. No I needed more. I drove on the Earl Stewart Drive along the newly installed sidewalk for which I asked and finally after 2 years the sidewalk is here. Then it hit me – oh no, I missed most of the Rebook warehouse demolition. All ruins now.

Wellington Street, Near GO Station

Yes I wanted to see the Aurora Borealis at the Town Park. When I arrived the place was beautiful and scary at the same time. All the iced trees were squeaking like they were about to fall down. But the sound was not the same compared to the creepy noises coming from the roof tops – ice expansion.

Aurora Borealis, Town Park, Aurora

I kind of dragged myself to the middle of the ice ring and I tell you that was – it. I started to freeze. I literally was there for a minute or two and my fingers were about to turn into icicles and not to mention the nose. I went back to the car for de-frost. Drove a bit along deserted Yonge Street and headed home.

Victorian Hall, Aurora

Yonge Street, Aurora

And this is how I will remember the 2013 ice storm in Aurora – beautiful, cold and painful. But it wasn’t that painful for me as it was especially for those who lost their power for many days. There are still some unfortunate families that just getting their power back on today.

Caruso and Company, Yonge Street, Aurora

Wishing you awesome year 2014. Stay warm another cold front is coming our way.

Christmas Tree, St. John’s sideroad, Aurora

Winter-y Evening Drive Near John West Way, Construction Site & Year 2012 In Review

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 03:47:01 +0000

I enjoy photographing everything and to extract some of the things from everything are the night shots. However, it all depends what you take picture of. Note, I am still practicing. No tripod just using very high ISO.

The Ridgewood, John West Way, Town of Aurora

Few years ago I was following a fellow photographer from US and he took these amazing photos of the construction sites. I was hoping one day that I will have an opportunity to do so.

Well I have two here in the Town of Aurora and one of them is the condominium construction site (The Ridgewood) on the John West Way right across the Hollandview Trail Retirement Community.

The Ridgewood, John West Way, Town of Aurora

I went for a drive today and my first stop was behind the movie theater Cineplex. At this moment it is probably the biggest construction site in the Town of Aurora. I have been following progress mostly during the summer, and now from this view point you can hardly see the Hollandview Trail place.

It felt like it was moving slow at first, but once they started to stack up the floors and walls I was able to see changes at the construction site at much faster rate.

The Ridgewood, John West Way, Town of Aurora

This area on the John West Way, near the Aurora Town Hall, is definitely a high density area. I wonder how the traffic is going to be. It wasn’t so bad when I drove by around six o’clock. I actually was surprised to see two buses in the span of five minutes.

Hollandview Retirement Community, John West Way, Town of Aurora

Other High Density Buildings on John West Way, Town of Aurora

On the end of my journey tonight I dropped by the Town Hall and snap some pictures of the Christmas tree. I may be wrong but the tree seems much bigger this year, and it seems dressed more with lights. Well when I get some time I will check if I got some older photos to compare.

This brings interesting point, the landscapes don’t just change because buildings rise or fall, but in addition because trees grow and tress fall down and sometimes not by themselves.

Christmas Tree 2013, Town Hall, Town of Aurora, Ontario

Well this may be my last post for the year 2012, so let me summarize few things. I just checked statistics for this site and this site had about 17,300 visits and 35,800 page views in the year 2012. I think that this is not that bad for a local blog. About eighty percent of my visits are from Aurora and surroundings (York Region).

I published 110 posts, slightly less than last year, but this was because I launched community FOCUS (LivingInAurora.COM) site and spent some time writing some content there. I don’t know how many images were published on this blog in 2012 but all I can tell you that this blog has a library of over 1,400 images of the Town of Aurora or photos that were taken on the grounds of Aurora.

My list of subscribers is constantly growing and if they don’t subscribe to my mailing list I know I am being followed using RSS feeds. I do have a twitter account and interesting spread of followers. My site is mainly found via search engines because someone is looking for something specific. It is nice that some actually drop me emails and write me interesting things they know about Aurora.

This year I have engaged more in photographing changes happening in Aurora, and I will do that more in the following year. I have extensive library of photos of the former Wells Street Public School and there will be more as the main construction didn’t start yet. I also have extensive library of photos of the Petch Log House reconstruction which I have been photo shooting since October 2012.

To conclude this post, let me list few of many interesting keywords through which people found this photo journal blog: trees that cry, who lives on my road, aurora issues, environmental issues in aurora, is there water good for drinking in aurora ontario, aurora mystery solved, aurora ontario horror and brave naked. However, the most used keyword and variations were for wells street public school.

“Whether we want them or not, the New Year will bring new challenges; whether we seize them or not, the New Year will bring new opportunities.” a quote by Michael Josephson.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013.

GO Station, Wellington Street, Town of Aurora

Christmas Tree Collection, Oh What A Shame, Short Life Of The Christmas Tree

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:43:51 +0000

Christmas tree collection notices are out in town. On the town’s site the message is to remove all decorations, nails, tree stands and plastic tree bags.

Ensure that the tree is not buried under the snow because town will not pick it up: ‘Please note that crews are unable to dig out a tree or climb a snow bank to retrieve a tree.‘ Cut the tree into pieces if necessary.

Christmas Tree Collection

Every year in Canada millions of trees are cut down to be displayed for Christmas in our houses. It is such a shame that we take away a full grown tree away from the nature for that purpose. We put the Christmas tree on life support for three weeks. We hang extra decoration weight.

If I had a choice to be a tree no matter how prestige my purpose was – I would never want to be a Christmas tree. It just seems such a waste to grow a beautiful full size tree just for that purpose.

Evergreen Trees, Hamilton Park

I don’t meant to be a Grinch or a Scrooge. We have Christmas tree at home but artificial one. We all can have that option and the tree can be beautiful as the real one. You will save yourself money in the long run plus more.

Then there is the environmental benefit in the long run. Evergreen trees improve air quality. Trees evolved to remove CO2 from the atmosphere thus they are also good at removing pollutants.

In addition … ‘Tree canopies intercept and capture rainfall, reducing the amount that reaches the ground. In urban and suburban settings, a single deciduous tree can intercept between 500 and 760 gallons per year, while a mature evergreen can intercept over 4,000 per year.‘ – Source.

Wouldn’t be just good to have the evergreen tree seedling planted on your lawn and every Christmas to decorate a bit.

A Decorated Tree, Rush Road, Aurora

It is not like you go to the forest and cut down your own tree. I am sure you already know that all the evergreen trees are farmed, but did you know that all the farmed evergreen trees are also treated with pesticides?

You know that if you bite an apple and there is no worm, the apple tree has been sprayed. If you brought home a Christmas tree and you haven’t found any bugs in your house, most likely the tree farm is using pesticides to remove all the insects off the tree before they get to your house.

After tree is removed from your home it is recycled and back to the soil, with what, of course with the pesticide.

It is not that hard to figure out that I am hinting for the artificial Christmas tree option. It is all in your hands. Above are some of the hints I presented and I am sure someone may argue back why real Christmas tree is much more environmentally friendly. Believe me, I already did my research in that area too, but still I think that the artificial tree for holiday season is a better option. In the long run its $50 or $100 in your pocket. Think about it.