Toronto and Area

All I want for my birthday is a sunrise and a long trail

/ Oleksandra Budna / 4 Comments

I haven’t posted anything in the past couple of months. Our four-week trip turned into a lengthy vacation from all things Internet, and with planning, preparing, packing and unpacking, there was little time to write and post updates. Now, back home with both my camera memory card and the one inside my head filled to the brim, I am slowly making my way through all the experiences. That may take some time so in the meantime here is a post I wrote right before we left but never got a chance to publish.

view from Lakefront Promenade Park in Mississauga at sunrise

What’s your idea of a perfect birthday celebration? Mine usually starts with a sunrise. Continue reading →

Forest Bathing at Hockley Valley

/ Oleksandra Budna / 4 Comments

For me, the forest has always been a magical place. Not a scary locale of many fairy-tales and horror films, but rather a trove of endless wonders. As a child I spent many summer days wandering through the woods behind my grandparents’ house, listening to the trees whisper to each other, their branches touching tenderly up above, their roots in a tight embrace breaking through the ground under my feet. What thoughts ran through their trunks, I wondered. What dreams nestled in their canopies?

forest in the spring at Hockley Valley Nature Reserve Continue reading →

Breaking out of the loop: Hiking Bruce Trail in Hamilton

/ Oleksandra Budna / 4 Comments

Recently, I’ve been guilty of allowing myself to fall into the same home-work cycle, at times feeling like an android host in Westworld, going through the same narrative loop and desperately wishing for the writers to introduce a new twist to my story. Weekend microadventures slowly gave way to other engagements and fickle spring weather. The month of April got compressed into a blur, and no matter how much I tried to grab at its edges to stretch it out just a little bit, it kept slipping away leaving me craving greenery and silence. So when a work event came up in Hamilton, I used the opportunity to stay behind and do some hiking.

Bruce Trail in Hamilton Continue reading →

Falling into nature at Nottawasaga Bluffs

/ Oleksandra Budna / 4 Comments

Nottawasaga Bluffs Conservation Area has been on my microadventures list for quite some time. But with one and a half hour drive, there never seemed to be enough time to go. Last Saturday, inspired by beautiful weather and lured by the promise of fall foliage, we finally made the trip.

view from Nottawasaga Bluffs

The view from Nottawasaga Bluffs is spectacular in its fall attire

Continue reading →

Geocaching at Rockwood: Adventure with a side of science

/ Oleksandra Budna / 5 Comments

The first fall weekend this year felt more like mid-August bringing us two of the hottest days of 2017. I will admit camping was on my mind for most of those two days. But with Great Lakes Water Walk scheduled for Sunday, we didn’t have time to go anywhere. Instead we decided to launch the fall season of microadventures.

Rockwood Conservation Area

We opened our fall season of microadventures at Rockwood Conservatio Area Continue reading →

Spring into microadventures: Bruce Trail and waterfalls

/ Oleksandra Budna / 4 Comments

Getting outside in any season comes with lots of rewards but spring offers a special kind of magic. In the spring, the forest looks like a giant colouring book and every day nature fills it in with more colours. Sure spring adventures can be a messy affair, quite literally. But if you focus too much on the mud under your feet, you risk missing the fascinating transformation happening around. And as we return to the woods every Saturday, I savour the colours splattered around where nothing but grey contours were seen the week before. All to the glorious bird song reverberating through the trees.

first green leaves on a branch Continue reading →

Fun day at Mountsberg Conservation Area: raptors, sheep and maple syrup

/ Oleksandra Budna / 5 Comments

Hard to believe it’s been four weeks since our last microadventure at Terra Cotta Conservation Area. Not that the break wasn’t fun. It included a glamping trip in Killarney and a day at the Outdoor Adventure Show, where we gathered information for our summer trips and bought a new tent (can’t wait to start using it). Plus there was our son’s birthday, which we spent bouldering at Boulderz (we had a blast and it only took three days to regain the use of my arms). So all in all the time was well spent.

 Toronto outdoor adventure show    Eurika El Capitan 3 tent

bouldering at Boulderz centre in Etobicoke   bouldering at Boulderz centre in Etobicoke Continue reading →

Winter adventures at Silver Creek and Terra Cotta

/ Oleksandra Budna / 1 Comment

Those who have been following this blog are aware of my frustrations with the extremely un-wintery behaviour of this year’s winter, at least in my part of the world, and the extent to which we’d been going to find even a little bit of snow. So you can imagine my delight when we woke up to a major snowfall this past Sunday. We knew this winter spike might no last long so we dropped all our chores and headed outside. It was magical.

snowfall Continue reading →

Searching for snow at Hockley Valley: our first microadventure of 2017

/ Oleksandra Budna / 2 Comments

I love snow. I love it when it falls softly, inaudibly, in large cottony blobs and blankets the whole world. I love how the world slows down almost to a halt, spellbound, as if trapped in a giant snow globe. I love how it muffles all sounds, softens sharp edges and turns even the ugliest urban landscapes into works of art. I love how the snow cover sparkles and squeaks under my feet on a crisp sunny day. I love to walk through a fresh layer of snow, testing its depth, drowning in its soft whiteness.

shadows on the snow Continue reading →