It was a new Spring for Queen’s Park this year. No, I don’t mean the Legislature of Ontario (although some might hope for a new Spring there), but the actual park to the north of the Legislature. For the past year arborists, gardeners, and construction crews have been busy and still are busy at the Southside of the park, trimming and pruning dead wood, planting new trees and shrubs, leveling the fields and paths, and building new entrance gates.
The Emperor King still rides his charger at its very centre, but now surveys a plaza paved, as are the new leveled paths, with hexagonal tiles. His vantage point is planted with new bushes and surrounded with comfortable benches.
Picnic tables have been fastened down on concrete slabs that, hopefully will eliminate the previous pools of water that used to surround them after a good downpour. New lawns have been planted and with them a thick array of bluebells that greeted the warmer weather.
At the west entrance there is a new gate (where the tulips used to bloom). It is made up of a low wall of stone and invites you into the park. At the north side, the cenotaph centred on University Avenue has been repaired and polished.
I am anxious to see if by Autumn there will be a new fountain on the south side replacing the one that was demolished.
All of these renewals and repairs make the park more open and easier to walk through on my way to Regis. But I am very happy to see my old friends: the omnipresent squirrels running about searching for tasty morsels, the giant oaks who watch over the smaller trees with an air of antiquity, and close to the path heading East, the London plane tree with its white patterned bark and delicate leaves that greets me in the morning.
To have this glimpse of nature in the heart of Toronto, to be able to watch the turn of the seasons so closely, and to feel so welcomed as at home is a wonderful blessing!