Park path in Beach area of Toronto, right off busy Queen Street |
Something about pathways through woods, parks and deep-dark forests has always been compelling to me. Did it start with watching The Wizard of Oz? A journey through strange places amongst strange peopl
e where you can’t get lost, because you have a surefire path to follow. There’s safety amongst the strangeness.
It is what has always ap
pealed to me about nature trails, even the lamest ones at a kid’s park or petting zoo. See a sign for the nature trail, and I’m the first one on it, dragging various adults and children with me.
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Petticoat Creek Park in the Scarborough bluffs area has a wonderful path along the cliff. A stopping ground for monarch butterflies in the fall because of the asters and goldenrod. |
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Forested area along the cliff path at Petticoat Creek. A few steps to the left would have you crashing over the cliff to the lake below. |
The first step onto the path has always felt
magical to me: the beginning of an adventure. The path may turn up ahead, leading you into t
he unknown, but you won’t get lost. You stay on the path. The adventure unfolds, through the twists and turns, but it’s safe. Idiot-proof, you could say, if you were being hard on yourself.
Many public gardens and parks also have this aspect, the path, preferably curving, leading you through. I think that’s one reason why I love garden tours, garden walks, because I get to exercise my “path fetish’.
Even certain sidewalks in our city neighbourhood get a yellow brick road effect when people plant on both sides of the sidewalk
, the way many
are doing now. A garden path I’m happy to be led down.