There is a mural along Lawrence Avenue in Toronto that I pass on my way home. It depicts human impact on the planet culminating in apocalyptic vision of the future.
fall
Trail Tales: fall, friends and hiking at Dundas Valley
In one of my previous posts about our microadventures at Dundas Valley Conservation Area, I promised that it wasn’t the last time we visited the park. It took us a few months, but one Saturday in October we finally made a trip back.
Fall season of microadventures launched at Hilton Falls
Last Saturday, we opened the fall season of microadventures with a trip to Hilton Falls. The day couldn’t have been more perfect. It had that special early fall quality – just the right combination of leftover summer heat and fall’s fresh breath.
In the fall every warm day feels like the last, and it is my deep belief that it is a terrible waste to spend it anywhere but outside. It looked like a lot of people agreed because there was a huge line-up of cars in front of the park entrance. It took us close to twenty minutes just to get to the gate. Continue reading
Fall magic in Killarney
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
L.M. Montgomery
Last week, I went for a walk in a nearby park during my lunch hour. It was a beautiful day with summer-like temperatures but the first signs of fall were already present: that earthy smell, the crunch of the first fallen leaves, yellows and reds breaking through the shield of green. That’s when it suddenly hit me that it was already October. I did know the date, of course, after all I have a calendar at work but I’d never fully processed it. Ever since we came back from our road trip, I was thrown in the work vortex . Plus with the deadline for a translation project I am working on fast approaching, the month of September flew by. If it wasn’t for a request to record my favourite summer memory for CBC Radio and to write a piece for Parks Blogger Ontario about the best places to see fall colours, I doubt I would have registered the change of seasons.
A lack of nature was beginning to take its toll, so needless to say I was excited about the upcoming long weekend and our trip to Killarney.
The Best Camping Moments of 2015
It is the season to tally up accomplishments over the past year and make plans for the next one. Our New Year resolutions are usually summed up with “camp as much possible, visit as many new places as possible, try as many new things as possible.” Putting together a list of 2015 best camping moments is a slightly more difficult task since there were so many of them. Nonetheless, here is my attempt to narrow the list to our 10 favourite camping memories of 2015 (in no particular order).
Exploring Hamilton Waterfalls: Webster’s Falls, Tew’s Falls and Dundas Peak
You know those lists of “Ontario’s Natural Wonders” or “Places You Wouldn’t Believe Are in Ontario” that are often circulated on Facebook and Twitter? There is no shortage of them on social media so you’ve probably seen at least one. I occasionally click on those links to see which places we should visit in Ontario. Every time I scroll through those lists, I am amazed that while we have been to parks like Sleeping Giant, Kakabeka Falls and Ouimet Canyon that are two days away from Toronto by car, we haven’t visited any of the places that would take less than an hour to get to.
Rethinking Wild Places or Search for Trees in the City
“Let’s go find some trees,” my friend said a few days ago. So here we are sitting on a rock in High Park where trees are not hard to come across. They are right in front of us, sticking their bare branches into the sky. I try to block out the noise coming from Queensway and imagine I am in the forest. Not an easy task so I focus on birds chirping and twittering instead.
Hiking at Rattlesnake Point: no rattlesnakes but lots of lookout points
At the end of last week, my husband finally emerged from under a pile of tests and report cards. So on Saturday we decided to celebrate by going on a hike at Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area.
A Trip to Scarborough Bluffs
It is a beautiful November afternoon. We are on our way to Scarborough Bluffs, one of Toronto’s famous natural attractions that I have heard so much about but never got time to visit. As we drive through the east end, my friend and I listen to Queen and talk about our cell phone obsessed culture and Toronto’s diverse neighbourhoods. My son falls asleep in the back seat. It is a long drive. Sometimes it feels we are in a different city altogether.
We finally turn onto Brimley Road South. It winds its way downhill through the fall-coloured parkland, half of the trees already spot bare branches. We round another turn, and the blue waters of Lake Ontario come into view. I can hear my friend gasp next to me. I must admit that even though I knew the lake was coming at the bottom of the road, this inundation of open space and water is startling.
Embracing Microadventures: Exploring Jack Darling Park and Rattray Marsh Conservation Area
Every year as the fall rolls in, we find it more and more difficult to get out of the city. School, work, homework, extra-curricular activities, Halloween costumes, piles of tests for my husband to grade, somehow these activities take up more and more space and all of a sudden we can’t go camping every other weekend anymore. But it is not necessarily a bad thing because it frees up a lot of time for local explorations. Lately, I realized that quite often when I think about nature and adventures I cast my eyes far beyond the horizon to places up north or parks south of the border. Richard Louv, author of The Nature Principle and The Last Child in the Woods, calls this phenomenon ‘place blindness,’ a tendency to overlook the beauty of nature close to home. Don’t get me wrong, I still need my quiet and solitude that can only be found in remote places. However, by embracing microadventures, I discovered that lots of beautiful natural spaces can be found close by, even in a big urban area like Toronto.
Gone Camping 