The first week of a slight easing of COVID restrictions! Yeah!! It hasn’t made one bit of difference to my daily life but psychologically it’s nice to know that numbers are going down again and vaccination rates are going up! Fingers crossed that we’re finally on the right track and I hope that we don’t now rush into anything which could well result in another setback.
Some beautiful weather days for Week 66 as well as a couple of days when I remember walking in the pouring rain and getting soaking wet. Good thing it was nice and warm.
Baby chestnuts
Flash thunderstorms today - thankfully I found cover as I watched the street in front of me turn into a river!
Todmordon Mills was a small settlement in the Don River Valley. It started out as a lumber mill in the 1790’s and in 1820 a brewery was built next to the mill. The lumber mill expanded to include grist and eventually paper mills, mills which produced the first machine-made paper. Currently the site is a Heritage Museum and Arts Centre with part of the property also a wildflower preserve.
The Helliwell House is the oldest structure at Todmorden and one of four historic buildings.
The old brewery.
And back to more of the Don River Trail
There was a little friend on the path I was walking!
Here it is - the point where the Lower Don River splits into the west and east branches.
You can leave the main Don Valley River Trail at one point and you’re in an area of the ravine known as Crothers Woods, Sun Valley and Cottonwood Flats. Crothers Woods is an ‘Environmentally Significant Area’ due to its diverse, mature, and relatively undisturbed forest that is more than a century old. Nearby Sun Valley was used as a landfill until its closure in 1965. Now it has reverted to a naturalized state, with over 5000 trees planted to connect it to Crothers Woods. For the first half of the 19th century, a mill stood on what it now Cottonwood Flats, and from the 1960s to 1999 the area was used to store excess snow cleared from Toronto roads. Now it too has been allowed to renaturalize. The whole area now is a great place for birdwatching and has an extensive network of walking and mountain bike trails.
After a while on some of the trails through the woods I have to say I was quite glad to see this sign…I bet you can guess which way I chose to go!
Alexander Muir (1830-1906) was the composer of The Maple Leaf Forever which he wrote in 1867 to celebrate the Confederation of Canada.
Sir Oliver Mowat (1820-1903) served for nearly 24 years as the third premier of Ontario. He was also the eighth Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and one of the Fathers of Confederation.
No story to this one - I just liked it.
The gates at both ends of a ‘private’ road - which is ever open to vehicles at one end.
I guess when your house looks like this though it can be one of a few on a private road!
Calvin Presbyterian Church, one of many in my neighbourhood, built in 1926.
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