Where the Wild Things Are

Yesterday was first of the week of spring holidays and the wind still whistled over the frozen white dunes of our backyard desert.

I was reminded of Dr. Suess' "My Many Colored Days", of the gray day in particular,where, "I watch but nothing moves today".

Then I thought of another Children's book favorite of ours where a little boy suffering cabin fever (likely) is stuck indoors (literally) and suddenly, "That very night in Max's room a forest grew and grew- and grew until his ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around".*

We too, needed to take a trip...

to where the Wild Things are:

...wild things of the plant variety that is.

We've been planning a date to the Muttart Conservatory with some friends for a while now, but today, it could wait no longer. We embarked on the trip into the city in favor of our mental health, and our mental health sure appreciated the favor, I'll tell ya.

My kids had the opportunity to skip about and explore the different biomes of the conservatory, bending to sniff flowers, crane their necks to look at the tree-tops and get a little lesson on Elephant's Ear, Baby Tears, Snow Banana's and Japanese Maples.

In the Temperate Zone Biome, we got to see "Gaia" the sleeping lady of the Earth (which Ava cannot stop talking about) and her companion tree, an Ancient Wollemi Pine tree. A cutting from Australia, recently planted in the conservatory after being in quarantine for 2 years.

You can read more about this amazing tree and it's home in Canada here.

It was so wonderful to sit by the waterfalls of the Tropic Zone and even play hide and seek 

among the brilliant tulip displays.

I was like a plant myself, my roots drinking in all the loveliness of color, warmth and air,

scented with all manner of wild, living, growing things.

It was a "wild rumpus" of the very best kind.

*Quoted from "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak