Toronto Tuesday: 01.12
Volume 1, Edition 12
‘Toronto Tuesday‘ is a weekly photo feature about random stuff (landmarks, people, culture, seasons, etc.) in the city.
Spring Flowers!
I made a quick half-day trip to Niagara Falls, USA on Sunday. And what did I see? Dandelions!
Green grass! Yellow flowers! Yay, spring!
Dandelions are indicators of the arrival of spring – in most parts of the world. The grass along sidewalks gets covered with this flowering weed during early spring. After pollination and flowering is finished, the flowers dry. This stage of the flower’s death is also the beginning of new life (I’ll have pictures in some weeks). No wonder, many religions see death as the beginning of life.
The flower is called कनफुल (Kanphool) in Marathi and कुकरौंधा (Kukaraundha) in Hindi. It is used in Ayurveda (traditional Indian herbal medicine) as a detoxifier. When I was trekking in Himalayas in 2006, I was starting to show signs of high altitude sickness – I ate very little and I hadn’t visited the loo for 3 days now! A villager gave me some tea brewed from stem and roots of Dandelion. Since everything tasted awful at that time anyway, I didn’t complain. Soon, I was back in action. 
Dandelion, smile!
The grass is greener on the other side. 
I saw a couple of random flowers in Toronto, but the city is definitely few days away from a full bloom. Niagara Falls on the other hand was already covered in a carpet of green and yellow. I was so happy to see that.
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Ah, you must be the first Indian to visit Niagara and not post pictures of the waterfall, but of flowers!
Beautiful photographs. I didn’t know dandelions were medicinal.
↵hahaha, thats funny! That’s because this post was about Toronto. I’ve posted Niagara Falls pictures before, remember you even asked for one!
↵@ Priyank : So you had a nice dandelion tisané. Tell me something, how high were you when you got altitude sickness. Usually the only cure is descending. I have only suffered from it once and it was very mild and that too when I had to run to catch a bus in Sakti, Ladakh. Its a strange illness because I have known native Ladakhi people who have spent a lot of time in the plains to get very sick when they return back.
↵Hi Odzer. I was at about 13,000 ft. Fortunately I didn’t get very sick, I only developed symptoms or maybe it was a mild sickness. The mountain sickness can strike really anyone, I’ve heard some interesting stories!
↵Beautiful snaps supported by excellent narration.
↵Thanks Rajesh and welcome to my blog.
↵Nice picture! But, Toronto Tuesday, and Niagara Falls, USA? Did Canada and USA re-draw their borders recently? Somehow I didn’t get the memo…
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I was using the picture to make a comparison between Niagara Falls and Toronto. I guess it was not very convincing 
↵No dandelions here yet thank goodness, great shot of one though, you make it look almost pretty and harmless, which they aren’t,lol
↵LOL Bob, they are weeds and its their nature to weed.
Atleast they look pretty and make sidewalks look charming!
But they have certain medicinal properties too (described above), not the variety I photographed, but the one with smaller flower size.
↵Lucky you !
↵Yes, I remember. But you said you made a quick half-day trip to Niagara Falls, USA, and you post about Toronto dandelions?! No ordinary Indian would do that.
↵Ah, I am EXTRAordinary! Yeah, finally the world knows…
↵That’s beautiful. Sounds like you had a great half-day trip!
↵Ah yes, it was fantastic. The border crossing was very quick and there were few tourists – so it was nicer.
↵Ah! Same flowers! And now I know the name too!
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Yes, they are everywhere!
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