Through the woods to grandmother's house
My usual running route around my house involved a tour around my neighbourhood. Streets of suburban 50's style houses defined only by whether the garage is on the left side or the right intermixed with newer monster homes built by people who decided that they didn't want to pay massive amounts of money to live in a bungalow. It's flat and boring, as you would expect. On the weekend, I decided to mix it up a little and go through Earl Bales park, a park I thought that epitomizes suburban parks. I had been there before on numerous occassions, and had only noticed the mowed grass aspects of it. But this time I entered the park through a different entrance and took a path that I never had before. Now, I feel foolish for never having noticed it before, but it's part of the West Don Valley park system and it's gorgeous. There are ravines and cliffs and the woods around it feels wild, not national park type of wilderness but enough that you can pretend that you're not in the city anymore. Of course, that wilderness comes with a price and today while out running I was stopped by some people in a City truck, who warned me to be careful because someone had been bitten by a coyote there earlier in the day. Awesome, I thought--coyotes! In Toronto!

Fortunately, however, I have not seen any large predators yet and hope not to have to "make a lot of noise" as the City animal control person advised me, but I am very pleased that they are so close. It makes me feel that much better about this neighbourhood.