High Park

Beautiful spring day in Toronto and I went for a bikeride, picnic and walk with a friend in High Park.

As Toronto's largest park, there's an endless number of trails going through the park, many good enough to to bike on but some you have to get ready to trek through some mud, especially this time of year.

We walked around and stumbled upon the lovely Allotment Gardens, site of some intense urban gardening (see them here). It's the first week of the official season and much work was already underway, a group of young children were preparing the soil for some of the first seeds.

We then took a tour around the rather sorry sights living in the petting zoo, fearing for the children who put their fingers through the bars of the ostrich cage, as it played at their game, bobbing its head up and down reaching for the leaf. The baby mountain goats and llamas looked very sweet.

Since I live in an apartment with no outdoor space, let alone a garden, I've been looking into ways I can still get my hands dirty. An allotment garden is a bit too much of a commitment...

I've been considering becoming a volunteer for a group I learned about at a craft fair called the Young Urban Farmers. From the sounds of it, they round up volunteers to work on other people's gardens, the ones who don't have the time to tend to them or to start them.

Check them out here: http://youngurbanfarmers.com/