#42 THE DON VALLEY AND VICTORIAN INDUSTRY
DATE: Sunday August 1, 2010.
TIME: 12:43pm - 6:18pm (!)
Vicotrian industrustrial sites reclaimed into parkland and musuems make this lengthy walk a unique urban walk.
Lengthy! They weren’t kidding. We knew this would be a longer walk, but we were unclear how long. Good thing we don’t have dinner plans!
Must admit… this was quite the unique walk.
Wow, my hair is flat…. It’s a hot and humid day though, so it’ll get frizzy soon. Geeze I complain a lot.
You have like perfect curls! my hair on the other hand… is already frizzed up.
yup, u can tell i cut my own bangs. my hairdresser is never impressed when she sees either stef’s or my bangs. next!
1. Todmorden Mills Heritage Museum and Wildflower Preserve (67 Pottery Rd)
Now a museum highlighting Toronto’s early days of industry, it provided Torontonians with staples like lumber, paper, flour, and whiskey in the early 1800s.I had never heard of this museum until the cards. (Little odd cause in Girl Guides you tend to visit a lot of museums like this.) Guess the cards are doing there job and showing me parts of Toronto I’ve never explored. Part of the reason we chose to do this walk today is because the museum is free today – as part of the free historical museum weekends.
Yeah, I never heard of this museum either… unlike mon’s girl guide group, my troop didn’t visit much museums… i probably shouldn’t even tell people that i was a girl guide with the little amount of outdoorsy things i learned. anyhow… my dad saw some of these pictures and he’s been here before! back in the day when he used to hang out with people from Crescent Town, they actually came here to hang out. I think they picnicked here and also took a tour. His tour guide said that servants would warm up the beds by lying down on them… but they’d fall asleep and then the owners wouldn’t be able to wake them up… so they’d sleep in the same bed. I don’t know if my dad made that up or not… but it kinda seems like something unlikely to happen. maybe i’ll ask him again later and see if he tells the same story… can never trust my dad.
We walk down Pottery Road to get to the museum. A bit of a trek in the hot sun. Good thing we lathered up on sunscreen before hand.
(As we get close to the the museum across the street we see a place called Fantasy Farms that looks pretty cool. We were going to check it out after the museum but since we ended up exiting by another route we didn’t. Thought they might have horse back riding, but I checked out the website and they don’t. It’s like a banquet hall. http://www.fantasyfarm.ca/home/ )
As we approach the museum we see the bridge is under construction, so we walk via a dirt driveway and enter the building pictured below.
The chimney has the "Todmorden Mills" on it.
Clearly we’re in the right place, right?
But when we enter, we see it’s an art gallery. Alma, do you remember the name of the artist? As an artist, any comment on the work?
I’m really poor in remembering names… so no.
As for his work… some of his nature scenes are reminiscent of tom thompson paintings.. i guess cause of his colour choices, thick application of paint and flatten images. his work tends to be very blocky and i don’t really care too much for it… i.e. paintings of soccer is just not my taste in artwork. i do however appreciate the vibrancy of the colours in some of his works.
This papermill theater (which is locked) is the only thing that seems to have anything to do with "industry". I overheard some other people in the gallery say they had a tour scheduled at a certain time. Thought it was for whatever is beyond those locked doors.
This papermill theater (which is locked) is the only thing that seems to have anything to do with "industry". I overheard some other people in the gallery say they had a tour scheduled at a certain time. Thought it was for whatever is beyond those locked doors.
my friend Jordan was part of a performance that was held here. she either did the lighting/sound stuff or she played sax/clarinet… she’s very talented. i couldn’t go to support her that day… that was more than 5 years ago…
So the paintings were hung by a cord and with the ventilation system, they were moving a little back and forth. Alma in all her wisdom says that its to give the paintings the affect of movement. Which was cool for the numerous soccer paintings. I then made a weak Harry Potter reference to the portraits in the wizarding world being able to move. Weak – I know!
So the paintings were hung by a cord and with the ventilation system, they were moving a little back and forth. Alma in all her wisdom says that its to give the paintings the affect of movement. Which was cool for the numerous soccer paintings. I then made a weak Harry Potter reference to the portraits in the wizarding world being able to move. Weak – I know!
Oh Mon… another forced Harry Potter reference?
So obviously, we’re quite confused. This is the museum??? This is doesn’t make any sense.
Didn’t understand what this museum had to do with industry either - aside seeing the papermill theatre. That’s an industry…
We leave the building, recheck the signs; What’s going on here???
We decide to follow the dirt driveway a bit to see if there’s another building and to find the Oxbow trail and wildflower preserve the cards speak of.
look at the construction going on!
look at the weeping willows nearby!
The weeping willows are where Fantasy Farm is – you can just see the horse carriage display on the lawn.
Well, at least we find the trail. Though its not clearly marked.
We should really have a wildflower audobon….
We should!
I’m not sure if I like seeing city buildings near trails.
See the spider?
I only saw it after the picture was taken
Whoa! No, didn’t see it until you pointed it out… even then I still had to look extra hard.
Fuzzies!
Some pretty pics Alma but have to say I was a little disappointed about the lack of wildflowers on this walk. Guess they just weren’t in season.
While we were standing here in the swampy area of the pond, there was a pretty blue insect flying around-too fast for alma to take a picture. We should really have an audobon for insects. But then a few days after the walk, I was reading "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" (which is essentially the audobon of magical creatures) and I think I identified it. It’s a billywig. They’re so fast that usually muggles don’t see them.
Sooo… we kinda did the trail backwards. It’s funny because in starting the trail, we kinda agreed just walking for 10 mins or so and head back to do the rest of our mission. After practically every turn, we’d say we’ll walk 5 more minutes… after saying that after the ‘n’thteen time, we finished the trail!
Ending at the beginning was actually beneficial for us because we thereby found the actual museum!
Wow, if any of our friends actually read these blogs, they could play a drinking game in which they have to take a shot everytime there’s a picture of me reading (or pretending to read) a plaque or sign.
You’re not reading?! i’ve always relied on you! I do wonder how many pics i have of you like this…
We are forbidden from taking pics inside the museum, so outside shots and our descriptors will have to do.
This is the main building. When we went inside it was empty other than a lady sitting at a table doing…. needlepoint? Am I remembering that correctly? Anyway, she said that there is a free tour starting at 2pm (in like a 1/2 hour) so we decide to just sit outside and wait.
I don’t know if she’s doing needlepoint.. but i do remember how awkward it felt trying to read those banners around the museum…
You were trying to read them?
So, what do we remember about the tour? Hmmm….
In the house depicted above, the bathtub used to be in the hallway and so when you’d take a bath, everyone else would basically have to go to their rooms and shut the doors.
Oh, in the other house where the owners of the mill lived, there was a portrait of the deceased mother on the wall. Our tour guide told us that in that time period, they would hang a portrait of the deceased holding a casket in their hand. This would let visitors to the house know that that person is deceased and not to ask about them. And often times the portrait would be a premade template in which the face (for the female) is left blank inside a bonnet. Then when the person dies, the artist will paint the face in. So perhaps this would have been Alma’s profession back in the day!
Oh, and it was the task of the youngest child to empty out the chamber pot type toilet. So Alma and I would both have gotten the rotten end of that deal.
Didn’t know there was a quiz… i must admit my mind tends to wander. but here’s what i do remember or made up…
There’s a needlepoint hanging that help the kids learn their alphabet. In the yellow house, our guide spoke of a candle stick that a young single lady may own. Apparently the candle stick can dictate how long she’s allowed to stay with a suitor.. so if her father approves of the suitor, the father may adjust the candle stick to allot more time with him.. if he doesn’t favour him in anyway… he lowers the candle stick to snuff out quicker.
(Oh yeah…. I liked that one)
Acording to our guide… July 1st they serve the best homemade ice cream!
Sleep tight – refers to the bed being made out of rope and having to make sure they’re tied up tightly before bed
bed bugs bite – hay has bed bugs… and they bite
Penny prints – black and white prints that families can afford to display around their home.
On playing cards – they didn’t have backings on them and they later added them to prevent cheating cause you could see right through them. Also, for face cards they had to double the image to prevent people knowing you had a high card.
Sugar was quite the commodity and if you could afford it, it was displayed in a blue cone near a window to showcase it.
Ice box – they were able to store ice for a long period of time by "harvesting" them during the winter season and bury them in hay and sand?! so when they needed it during warmer times, they would dig it up.
Church dolls – made out of handkerchiefs, so when a kid drops it, it doesn’t make a sound.
Wow Alma, your memory is a lot better than you think! Our tour guide was really nice, but I felt bad that sometimes he’d get the oddest questions from fellow tourists. But he did a good job of answering them as best he could based on his knowledge. He’s an Art History Major. Oh, and after the tour he suggested to the group that we walk through the trail and said its about a 1/2 hour walk. Ummm…. when’s the last time he walked it cause I’m pretty sure it didn’t take us more than 10 minutes… or did we do that wrong?….
2. the viewpoint
…at the foot of Chesterhill Rd, to take in the Don Valley
The "parkway" or the actual "valley"?
what did you think of the viewpoint?!
I don’t know what I was expecting. For some weird reason, I thought it was going to be a lot prettier than it came out to be. Maybe my expectations were high…
I guess I should’ve taken a picture of the dead end where you overlook this view.
fyi:We were discussing realty and how much the houses cost in that area….
Yes. there was a place on sale there and I thought to myself that perhaps I should mention it to my bro who at the time was looking for a house. We figured if he couldn’t afford it he could take on a part time job doing Don Valley Parkway traffic for local radio stations and cable TV.
The view point is kind of cool if you live on the street. As a kid it’d probably be fun to look at or little nook to play in.
As we walk back along Chesterhill to Broadview, we pass this lawn ornament. Alma asks me what I think it is, and I come up with the brilliant idea of there being a real niche for an Audobon of Lawn Ornaments. So I guess that’ll be another side project for us.
i don’t think this picture does justice to how massive this "hamster"-looking lawn ornament is… hence the questioning what it is. I should start bringing a ruler with me to get its relative size.
3. Prince Edward Viaduct
The cards don’t have anything to say about the viaduct. I think it’s only included as a a site of note because you have to go over it anyway to get to Rosedale and the rest of the walk.
This was some project about bringing literary works into landscapes…. something like that.
so you are pretending to read these signs.. that changes everything!
Tres cool!
my favourite flower… fyi: its a flower made up of several flowers! it’s part of the aster family.
Did you adobon it? Or already knew this?
you know what those wires are for, right?! i can’t remember how long ago they put them up…
you know what those wires are for, right?! i can’t remember how long ago they put them up…
After crossing over the viaduct, the cards direct us into Rosedale, "a longstanding exclusive residential neighborhood".
4. Craigleigh Gardens
…a "leafy garden", popular with local dog walkers and families.
in search for these gardens, there were two boys on bikes that passed us… but before they surpassed us, one boy kept incessantly ringing his bell. it was so annoying… that even his friend said to stop… but he didn’t. ppl… don’t abuse your bells.
Entrance to the gardens!
Actually, I didn’t even noticed the entrance…Mon had to point it out. Good eye!
The gardens…
in all its green-ness…
and straight paths…
deviating tree root
How cool is this?! A little fountain for the puppies!
Forget the dogs, I was very grateful for this waterfountain when we passed by the park at the end of walk. I so was dehydrated.
I can’t remember, was it running cold water?
I guess this is the official entrance to the gardens…fancy. very mount pleasant inspired… but on a much smaller scale.
ooohhh! ahhh! i kinda like how you can see a small tree inbetween the opening of the gate. intentional?! probably.
5. Don Valley Brick Works & Weston Quarry Gardens
For nearly 100 years, the factory located here provided Toronto with raw construction materials. Today boardwalks intersect the former quarry, and visitors can follow raised paths to view examples of Pleistocene geology, a wildflower meadow, a stand of Carolinian trees, dynamic wetlands, and a series of ponds through which water is diverted, cleaned naturally, then returned to the Don River.
The only instructions that the card gives us is to "follow the dirt path downhill to the site".
I should say that at this point our Alma was getting a little tired. Don’t think she was too enthusiastic about finding this next one. Agree Alma?
umm… i guess i was pretty vocal about going down this rather steep hill. wasn’t wearing the best shoes and i was already tired. i don’t know why i was tired.. i love walks!
The dirt path. Now up to this point, the cards have been pretty perfect on their directions. No mistakes so far! But here we did need a little bit more info to go on. We walk to the bottom of this hill and have the option of going left or right. The map on the card is of no help – but if I were to wager a guess, based on the card it looks like the site is a bit north so I would have suggested that we make a left. Thankfully there was a lady biking with her kids who saw us admist our contemplation and told us to go right and we were about 15 minutes away.
yeah, that was awfully nice of that lady to stop and help us out. I guess you took out the card at the right moment. i guess we would’ve eventually walked in a circle… but yeah, that picture does not do justice how steep that hill is.
does that cone shape store road salt? I don’t know why i always thought that if i’m incorrect.
The sign is proof that we did eventually make it to the Brickworks.
yay!
but oh so tired…
there was some photoshoot happening around here too… besides the wedding. wonder what it was for…
There was a wedding going on there so we were prevented from exploring the Brickworks as much as we possibly could have.
i like how those cyclist at the bottom of the picture wore matching helmets. so cute
I should mention that at the time of the walk Alma was planning to purchase a bike and so we paid extra close attention to all things bike related. (And to clarify, since then, Alma has actually purchased her bike)
sooo… there was a lot of confusion on how to get to this wedding ceremony that was going on and Monica directed a couple towards the picture above this one… She only does this for one couple and leaves the rest to look for it themselves. They all go through this entrance.
Well, that first couple seemed genuinely confused. They stood there for awhile debating. Then they walked a bit in the direction where the wedding was and then they came back here. So clearly they needed help. So I told them. But I’m sure taking this path would lead them to the wedding as well. Everyone else who came by looked pretty confident in walking this way so I didn’t offer my help.
I don’t remember taking this picture, but then again.. I’m the only one with a camera.
Who has the money to just take a canoe and plant in it?!
audubon, where are you now?
wow… these pictures look a lot duller than what i actually took. Did something happen to them?!
bikes!
and a building reminiscent of the distillery.
I so don’t remember this!
that’s because you were reading the following sign… i kept trying to mention it to you but you were all about the Quarry Gardens…thankfully!
After getting down to the the Brickworks, we still have to find the Weston Quarry Gardens. Unsure of exactly what’re we’re looking for, and somewhat impeded by the wedding, we weren’t sure exactly where to look. I’m almost definately sure Alma didn’t care too much about finding it at the time. Luckily I find a plaque with a map to lead us in the right direction.
yeah, i was quite the grump! i can’t even use the excuse of being hungry.. cause i wasn’t.
just incase we got lost!
When we read the text in the bottom right corner of this sign, we both couldn’t help but laugh. I understand the importance of reminding people they shouldn’t release their pets into the wild, but was it really necessary to single out koi specifically? Isn’t koi really expensive? If you’re going to go to the trouble to buy it, why would you release it (opposed to donating it to a Mandarin Restaurant!). So a message to all you out there: KEEP YOUR KOI IN YOUR PANTS!
that just doesn’t sound right, mon…
We were both a little sketchy on exactly what a quarry is. I know that their basically rock pits/canyons and sometimes they’re filled with garbage or water (this is was the Simpsons have taught me, god bless them). Well, the wikipedia explanation is:
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often colocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement for large amounts of aggregate in those materials. The word quarry can include underground quarrying for stone, such as Bath stone.
thanks for looking it up!
Alma spying on the wedding.
what do you think of the ratio of sky:grass?
yeah, this is plain pretty. mon starts humming to the beat of the bass.. making her sound like she knows the tune.
The meadow is really pretty and tranquil so Alma’s tiredness quickly disappates as we explore the meadow walking along the various decks over the ponds.
more signage and warnings
what do you think of the sky:grass ratio here?
Alma spying on a mother and her kids illegally fishing in the pond. I shouldn’t say that… they could have permits. Think they’re fishing for koi?
cute family…
Alma spying on lily pads.
… and the couple on the bridge in the background.
more signage w/out the warnings!
Hmmm… So you think it’s safe to release our koi here?
sky:water ratio?
landscape version better?
Mon had some sort of rhyme for poison ivy… it didn’t fit this description.
I totally couldn’t recall it properly. It’s: "Leaves of three, let them be!"
now this is a spying picture!
kinda creepy…
Do you need to read my stalker poster?
Well, we actually have an audobon for this!… just not with us.
it’s a…
?
Tired, dehydrated, dirty from the sunscreen picking up all sorts of stuff, we’re finally done this walk. Whew!
The end! The bus stop across the street is what we’re suppose to take back…
Monica Rating: This was actually a really great walk. Aside from the viaduct (which quite frankly does not count) I had never been to any of the sites on this walk which made it interesting. And even though the viewpoint, the viaduct, and Craigleigh Gardens weren’t much to write home about, it was still an entertaining walk. AND the cards didn’t have any mistakes on them! (Guess its kind of hard for parks and nature preserves to close down since the printing.) Of course, the cards though almost got us lost with the lack of direction to get down to the Brickworks and Quarry. Wish I had better shoes, and it wasn’t so hot, and I wasn’t so tired, but that’s not the card’s fault. So I give it 4 wild flowers out of 5. Though this is probably more wildflower than we saw in both the Wildflower preserve (#1) and the Wildflower Meadow (#5) combined.
Alma rating: I must admit… I had a lot of ups and downs on this walk! I don’t know why, but the terrain really got to me..perhaps the combination of too many steep hills with the heat are just not to my liking. Lots of nice finds on this walk though…like the free tour and the nature trail to the brickworks. I’d love to re-visit the nature trail on a better day to fully appreciate its awesomeness. in spite of my crabbiness, i give this walk
4 crabs out of 5… i truly enjoyed it… my feet ached… but really… pleasant!
