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.

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.

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.