20th June
Young helpers join us in stewarding
For our stewarding activity on Saturday 8th June, on the top of the hill beside the path that leads to Suydam Park, we were pulling out an invasive plant I was not familiar with: celandine (see below). A group of young children were engaged in activities of their own nearby. This young guy decided that his activity would be to help me:
This is celandine, the plant we were removing (all photos by Cathy Riches):
Another young lad joined the first. I instructed them in the use of the trowel in removing invasive plants. The lad on the left is holding my trowel in his right hand:
We left the plants we had pulled out lying in piles like this:
Sports in Cedarvale
Several different sports are played in the park. One of them is soccer. I happened to pass by the upper playing field at the time of the final of an organized series of games run by the Catholic School Board:
This was the final in the Grade 8 series, between Holy Rosary and St Alfonsus:
Another sport played every summer weekend in the “bowl” is cricket:
I sometimes have to explain the rules of cricket to bystanders. Different teams play against each other:
One day I am planning to sit down and watch a match, finding out the names of the teams and the league they play in.
Mulberries ripening
For those of you who like the taste of mulberries, there are several trees in the park whose fruit will soon be ready for picking. This is one of them:
Here is a closeup of the fruit:
I myself like them. There are also cherries and raspberries in the park.
Mysterious barrels appear
Recently, some mysterious green barrels appeared in the section of the park that leads to Suydam Park and in that park itself. Here is one of them:
Here is the post beside it:
and the inscription on the post:
There were about 5 of these barrels all together:
I asked an operative in a vehicle belonging to the contractor performing the work. He said they were digging holes to take soil samples and storing the extracted soil in the barrels. He did not know the reason for the soil sampling, but surmised that it had to do with prospective work on the underground sewer pipes. He did not explain the relationship between the posts and the barrels, if any.
Their equipment created quite noticeable tracks in the park:
This is the equipment that caused those ruts:
End of the fallen branch story
On 18th June, I came upon workers clearing up the remains of the latest fallen tree in Suydam Park that I had reported on in earlier posts. They were not City staff but contractors:
As mentioned before, I am leaving on 24th June for the West Coast of the US and Canada, returning on 23rd July. Please look after the park in my absence!
John Cummings
Friends of Cedarvale 