Toronto, Ontario - My Town Monday

I first learned about My Town Monday on Travis Erwin's blog and have been invited to join in.

Being a person who enjoys nature and wide open spaces, I like going to High Park where if you stand in certain places it seems as if you have entered another existence. There are no telephone poles, telephone or electrical wires, houses or rooftops to be seen. High Park is situated in the west end of Toronto on approximately 400 acres of wilderness and groomed landscape within an urban area. There are woods, meadows with linking trails, ponds and a teahouse.

At this time of year you are in a lush green area where birds twitter and soar, squirrels and chipmunks scamper, swans, ducks, geese and storks congregate in the various ponds in the park. There are probably other animals, like possums and racoons which frequent my neightbourhood area to the west of this park.

According to the park information site at Toronto.ca there are “oak savannahs in the park which are the remnants of the sand prairie system that once covered much of the Ontario landscape”.

John Howard, an early architect and philanthropist of Toronto, founded High Park. (A future post will be written about him).

Within High Park there is a zoo, first built in 1890, when deer were kept. Now there are a variety of domestic and exotic species: bison, llamas, peacocks, deer, highland cattle and sheep. The animals kept at High Park have large paddocks to roam in and they appear content to be there. It is one of the features that draws children to the park, and its enjoyable to seeing their faces light up when they see the animals as they approach.

Photo Credit: wikipedia.