After Breakfast, Ms H and I set out on a walk around the Park System of Stratford. We started in the field behind Grandma's and went westward along the river, passing the Art Gallery, and a number of out door sculptures. We then took the foot bridge across the mighty Avon River (what else would they name the stream through Stratford??) and headed north along Lake Victoria (the Lake formed by the damming of the Avon).
We walked all the way to the dam, then crossed to the south side of the River to visit the Shakespearean Gardens:
In the warm weather, Bill (above) is surrounded by magnificent and beautiful gardens all derived from references in Shakespearean Plays. (Interestingly enough, Shakespearean Gardens pre-dates the Festival ...) But in the winter only the bust of Bill and the stone and brick walls of the formal garden remain with a few remnants of the plants. It's still a pretty place - but far more enchanting in the warm months ... From Shakespearean Gardens we walked east along the Lake to the Cenotaph ... Pictures of the incredible bronze sculptures that grace the stone momument have been featured in the past in this blog, and will be featured again. I've always loved the Cenotaph in Stratford. It is a beautiful memorial to the men and women who have gone to war and who now lie far from home.
From the Cenotaph, we continued along the south shore of the Lake until we drew near the Stratford Arena (one of the places that Montreal Canadiens' GREAT Howie Morenz got his start), where we detoured to see the winter quarters of the majestic SWANS who spend thier summers paddling up and down the waters of Lake Victoria.
Ms. H was quite taken by the enormous white birds. She also noted the pair of black swans that also live in Stratford's water ways. She tried counting the number of swans, but gave up at 32 when a couple more stepped out of the building ...
From the swan enclosure, we continued our walk east, passing the Festival Theatre's main building, and meandering our way through Upper Queen's Park, where I told her about some of the things my friends and I used to do when we rode our bikes the seven blocks from Grandma's house to the park. I showed her where our tobogganing hill used to be, and where we used to race go-carts and where we used to ride our bikes in the summer months.
Then we headed to the path way across to Centennial Park (called Confederation Park now by the Parks Board) where we climbed the bridge that once crossed the deep railway cut that carried the CN line to Hanover north out of city.
When I was a kid, I can remember walking over this bridge and thinking to myself that I was about to fall through the gaps between the concrete slabs that were its stairs. I told Ms H and she rolled her eyes in distain ...
Crossing it now, it seems somewhat smaller and less intimidating ...
Twenty plus years ago, this bridge used to seem SO high ... but now with the train tracks it once crossed, nothing more than a memory, it seems like a stair case to no where ... a bridge out of place, but still holding together a vast collection of memories ...
After our walk, we spent the rest of the day just hanging out at Grandma's and getting a New Years supper ready ... Beetle and her brother Noahkila, didn't get out of their pajamas until supper time ... and they didn't so much as poke their little noses outside ...
Later in the afternoon,Ms H and I went for a long walk around the Stratford Golf and Country Club where I worked for 10 years through High School and University ... I showed her places I bogged down trucks and machinery, and told her some of the many tales that were woven from the motley crew of folks we worked with over the years ...
All in all, it was a pretty good day ...
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