friends of dufferin grove park
April/May 2003 Newsletter

In this issue:

ARSENIC IN THE PLAYGROUND?

In the last newsletter we reported on the findings of Environmental Defense Canada concerning the levels of leached arsenic from pressure-treated wood in city playgrounds. Their report listed our park as the second-highest in Toronto, showing 48.2 parts per million of arsenic in the sand surrounding our playground climber. At the time of that newsletter the city was just putting the finishing touches on their report about arsenic levels, based on testing that had been done all over the city during the previous summer. The city's results turned out to be quite different from those of Environmental Defense. They showed our playground as having arsenic levels much lower than the federal government's safe limit. Our levels were listed as 6 parts per million.

Since we have a pressure-treated playground structure, that finding is just as puzzling as the first one. We spoke to Steve Ruminsky, a Richmond Hill environmental consultant from Decommissioning Consulting Services Limited, which did the city's study. He said that whereas the Environmental Defense study was based on taking one soil sample per site (which that group admitted is not considered adequate as a research method), his company took 6 samples per site. These were: one composite soil sample taken from 10 locations directly under the play structure, two soil samples around the structure, one control sample ten metres away from the structure, and two surface samples ("dislodgable particles") taken from the structure itself, one on a hand rail and one on a vertical post.

We asked Mr.Ruminsky why our treated wood structure would be so low in its leaching of arsenic if treated wood has been banned from sale in most of North America. He said he didn't know, although it's possible that older structures gradually have less arsenic to leach (ours was put up in 1984). We asked him how much it would cost to re-test our playground. He said the actual lab cost is $18 a sample. The technician to collect the 6 new samples would cost between $500 and $600, and the interpretation of the results would bring the consulting company's fee up to $1000 plus lab costs. Whew!

RE-TESTING: We asked Mine Elbe at Environmental Defense whether they might be interested in re-testing our playground. She said yes. They would be willing to cover the cost of 3 soil samples plus one control sample. As soon as the date and time is set for testing (there may be several different dates because Mine is interested in testing before and after a rainfall to see if that makes a difference to the results), we'll post that information on the new web site (www.dufferinpark.ca). Anyone who wants to see how the testing is done can be there. (If you want to be notified by e-mail, get on the "kids" park list by e-mailing dufferinpark@dufferinpark.ca.

And if there seems to be a need to paint our playground structure with a wood sealant to protect the children playing on it, park manager James Dann has said that the city would pay for the materials if we want to have a playground-user painting day. (Could be fun, with a campfire lunch and games for kids off to the side).

GRANTS FOR THE PARK:

A BOOK GRANT: A few years back, Jutta Mason decided to retire from applying for any grants for park activities, because she didn't want to twist what happens here in the park into a pretzel for the funding applications anymore. However this is the year of exceptions. A visit last fall from Sandy Houston of the Metcalf Foundation resulted in a conversation about writing a book, about this park and about parks in general. The conversation was brokered by John Broley of the G.H.Wood Foundation (remember the roller towel dispensers in public washrooms that had the slogan: "G.H.Wood, Sanitation for the Nation"?). John Broley has been a steadfast friend to the park for a number of years, and he thought the Metcalf Foundation might be interested in what goes on here. He was right: they have just given us a grant to research and write our book. This means that most of the laid-off rink staff from the winter are now busy researching the history of Toronto parks, at the city archives. They're coming up with lots of good stories and pictures. (The point of the book is not just a good-old-days story-telling, but also an inquiry into what our parks were meant to be, and what can be done to keep them being that way).

A RESEARCH PRIZE: The research group's funding is augmented by the third and final year of the Jane Jacobs Prize which Jutta got this March, funding which also allows a political science student to try and unravel the mysteries of the city parks budgets over the last 90 years. But that's not all.

A KITCHEN GRANT: Last fall, Leslie Toy, a park friend who works for the Toronto Food Policy Council, told us about a city of Toronto one-time grant program called the "Food and Hunger Action Project." There were grants available for community kitchens because the provincial government had given the city a kind of "rebate" of about $10 million for exceeding its workfare targets. It was too complicated to just give that money to the families who had been cut back in their social support money, so the city decided to put the money toward food instead. That seemed like a sign to us. We had been wanting to put a slightly bigger kitchen into the zamboni garage alcove for several years, since the converted slop-closet that we currently use in the rink house is very small. We had already got an estimate with drawings from Nigel Dean (the neighbourhood contractor and friend of the park who helped build the bake-ovens). Also the G.H.Wood Foundation had paid for Richard Boehnke, a public health consultant, to make a report for us on our food safety arrangements. So we were ready, and this grant program seemed like a fit - until we saw the city's application form, which was 46 pages long. Good grief! But three of the part-time park staff said they would help us work on the application, as a way to learn how funding applications are filled out. (They learned more than they ever wanted to know.) If it hadn't been for the bravery of Anna Bekerman, Jenny Cook, and Caitlin Shea in the face of paperwork, the grant would have never been submitted.

Park manager James Dann wrote us a letter of support, and on December 17, with 10 minutes to go before the deadline, Anna Bekerman sprinted across Nathan Philips Square into city hall, went up the elevator, hurried along a hallway, and laid our great big fat application package down on the table in the designated room. 46 pages to say: "Please give us $20,000 to build a better park kitchen."

And then in the middle of March we found out we were approved for the grant. One reason we got it, perhaps, was that the G.H.Wood Foundation wrote us a letter saying that they would give us a conditional grant of $8000 in addition, if we were approved for the city grant. Another example of their steadfastness.

City council still has to approve the grants in general, which won't happen until the end of April. But after that it's ready to go.

A grant for nesting boxes and a dishwasher: Our long-time park friend Pat MacKay topped up this good fortune by giving us another $500, some of that to build some nesting boxes for birds in the native-species gardens, and the rest to go toward a dishwasher/sanitizer in the new kitchen. There are still some expenses not covered, but the community pizza-day income should take care of that. (If you want more detailed information about the Friends of Dufferin Grove Park expenses and income, you'll find lots in the 2002 Summary of Income and Expenses PDF.

USES OF THE NEW KITCHEN:

The new kitchen will have some space for park friends who need a starter kitchen to set up small food operations. We're particularly interested in street food. If you - like so many people coming to this city - used to sell food on the street in another country, and you brought your giant cooking pots with you but you haven't got the capital yet to set up a public-health-approved kitchen and get restarted here in Toronto, call the park (416 392-0913) and leave your number. We'd like to talk to you.

NEIGHBOURHOOD ARTISTS AND PERFORMERS:

The neighborhood around the park is home to many artists and performers, many of whom are friends of the park as well. From now on we'll try to post their activities in this newsletter as they come up (also on the web site: please notify dufferinpark@dufferinpark.ca if you know of any new performance date of event). Currently the following things are going on:

Art show: Anne Freeman (who's also on the farmers' market board) has an exhibition of her paintings (semi-abstract oil paintings inspired by Anne's love of plants and natural forms) at the Robert Birch Gallery at 241 King Street East (King and Sherbourne area), running from March 26 to April 19. Their hours are Wednesday to Saturday, 11 to 6. There were sure a lot of familiar faces from the park at the show's opening reception on March 28, including kids.

Gospel sing: Ellen Manney's husband Ken Whiteley (Ellen is also on the farmers' market board) is doing a non-denominational Sunday Gospel Series for three Sundays at Hugh's Room, which is a restaurant and performance space at 2261 Dundas Street West (between Roncesvalles and Bloor). Ellen says that the March 30 show was lots of fun, with everybody joining in to sing (she says, "singing is good for you.") There are two more shows coming up: May 4: Ginny Hawker, George Koller, Amoy and Ciceal Levy, and Chris Whiteley; and May 25: Calvin and Grace Cooke &the Detroit Sacred Steel Ensemble, George Koller, Pat Patrick, David Wall. Doors open at 1 p.m. for lunch, and the sing-along show is from 2-4p.m. Tickets are $15; call 416 531-6604 to reserve. Ellen also says that Ken's February fundraiser for homeless housing at University of Toronto Convocation Hall raised $16,000 and "people had a ball singing their hearts out."

Theatre Performance: Part-time park staff Alex McLean is part of the theatre company Number Eleven, whose show The Prague Visitor is running at a warehouse theatre space at 376 Dufferin Street until April 6. Park friend Jane Wells (who has been doing children's theatre and arts programming in Toronto parks and schools for some years) is also in this show. The others in the ensemble are Varrick Grimes and Elizabeth Rucker. Under the direction of Ker Wells, the group has made a kind of magical-realism play using material from Franz Kafka and others. It would be hard to exaggerate how remarkable and singular this performance is, involving much singing (often in Hebrew) as well as luminous, often humorous dialogue and movement that includes dance and acrobatics. Some of us who work with Alex at the park went there first to show support of our co-worker. But then when we saw the performance, we got the idea that we might not get to see a play of so many layers more than a few times in our lives, so we went again, and again. The show has been held over into April, playing from Wednesday April 2 to Saturday April 5 at 8 p.m. (tickets: $12/$15) and Sunday April 6 matinee only at 2 (pay what you can). For reservations call 416 591-0964.

SOCCER:

In case anyone hasn't noticed, soccer is BIG with kids (and their parents) in Toronto. That makes it very tough for all the soccer clubs every year, to find places to play, especially because their membership is growing so fast. And the huge number of kids' soccer clubs also makes it tough for adults to find places to play. In our park, a group of mainly (but not only) Sudanese players have been coming to the park for years to play on some evenings and weekends. (Many of them earn their living as taxi drivers, as is obvious when they're here - taxis are parked along the whole north border of the park.) This year it seemed that they might get no playing time at all, nor would the informal drop-in soccer players (including the teenagers) from the neighbourhood get time to play. We told our park manager (James Dann) that we were unhappy about this. So he worked out an arrangement with the city permits department, that balances the kids' soccer clubs with our wish to have some unscheduled park space for the neighbourhood. The park soccer field, which was totally re-levelled and re-sodded last fall, will be available for open soccer on weekends: from 3 to 9 p.m. on Saturdays and all day on Sundays. This probably won't start until some time in May, when the city takes down the fencing that's currently protecting the new sod.

On week nights, the field is permitted to the Toronto Eagles Soccer Club on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday nights from 6 to 9, and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3p.m., and to the Portugal 2004 Soccer Club on Thursday nights from 6 to 10. "Portugal 2004" is so named because the Euro Cup tournament is taking place in Portugal next year. Nataly Barros-Vilela, their co-ordinator, told us that their soccer club started very small in 2000 but now they have 10 house league teams and 5 competitive teams. Their players range in age from 4 to 16, and this year there will be two girls' teams too. In the cold weather they play at the St.Raymond's School gym (on Barton just at the north of Christie Pits), and that's also where kids can go to sign up - Friday nights between 7 and 9p.m. For $90 kids also get shorts, a jersey, and socks. The coaches are all volunteers. Some are parents and some are older high school students who are putting in their mandatory 40 hours of community service, and learning how to referee or coach at the same time. To get in touch with the Portugal 2004 soccer club, call 416 537-2233.

The Toronto Eagles are a huge club: they have 74 house league teams and 15 Rep/All-star teams. Co-ordinator Joe Silva told us that one of their Rep (competitive) teams is an adult women's team. He said that as of the last day of March they had almost 1000 kids registered for the Eagles. Another 200 spaces were still available with the warm weather arriving. The cost is $95 for house league. Most of the coaches are also volunteers (mainly parents). Registration for the remaining spaces continues on Wednesdays from 6 to 9 p.m. and Saturdays from 9a.m. to 12 noon, at the Eagles' clubhouse at 779 Crawford Street (the old rink change house, the building right beside the rink just north of Alex Duff Pool). You can get in touch with the Toronto Eagles soccer club by e-mailing soccer@torontoeagles.com. And they have a web site, with game schedules and all their other news: www.torontoeagles.com. Their phone number is 416 392-7145.

GOOD NEWS ON RINK HOUSE TOILETS:

The city department in charge of toilets has just replaced all the automatic flush toilets in the rink house with good old-fashioned manual ones. The automatic ones were often a problem; either they didn't flush unless you held your hand over the sensor and counted to 1000, or they started flushing as you approached and didn't stop until you got right out of the bathroom (if you sat down on the toilet it was sort of like sitting on top of a waterfall). Some little kids were scared to use the toilets at all in case they attacked. And when a sensor quit working, it cost $600 to buy a replacement. Whoever talked the city department into those automatic toilets when the rink house was rebuilt in 1992 must have been one smooth-talking salesman. However, that's all just a bad memory now: we have five brand new heavy-duty toilets at the rink house, with shiny silver handles, easy for anyone to flush, in the old-fashioned way.

MARGARET MIKKLEBORG summons a vigil

On Sunday March 16 between 300 and 400 people gathered at the park between the bake oven and the rink house garage, to show opposition to the proposed war in Iraq. This assembly resulted from a web call for a worldwide candle vigil, beginning at 7 p.m. at sites all over the world. Margaret Mikkleborg registered our park as one of the sites. She arranged for a campfire and bought cider and cups and extra candles.

The warm weekend had turned the plentiful snow in the park to slush. Far more people came to the vigil than were expected. They crowded together as tight as they could, to try and stay on the concrete pad adjoining the rink house. But as people continued to arrive, many had to stand in the slushy snow, and soon the slush turned to puddles and moats and flowing rivers.

The web site called for a silent vigil. But silence is very hard to do. So the gathering went through a number of stages: an aboriginal fire/ smudging/ and tobacco ceremony, done by a couple who had read (on the web site) about Margaret's intention to have a campfire; group singing of old anti-war songs and canons; a song performed by the Darbazi choir, which was having its regular Sunday night rehearsal in the rink house and took a break to come out and sing; recitations from anti-war plays and speeches both past and present; and then more and more old songs, some done by small groups, some by the whole throng.

Close to the firesite it was not the informal campfire scene that is usual at the park. People were admonished not to throw anything into the fire because that would be polluting the tobacco ceremony. So some of the children went away, over to the snow hill that was left over from the rink plowing, and set up their own small fires with their candles, and played there. They stuck the candles in the snow, and more and more people followed suit until the hill became a little forest of candles. Meanwhile the hootenanny continued with a gradually diminishing group until about 8.30, when the last stragglers put their guitars in their cases and splashed back home across the park.

WAL-MART SECURITY COMES TO THE PARK:

On the first farmers' market day in March the farmers were lined up in front of the rink house to unload their food, when park staff member Caitlin Shea heard some angry shouting and she ran over to take a look. Not ten feet from the front door, two men were shouting at a man sitting on the bench, and they seemed to be pushing him around. Caitlin asked what was going on. The two men said they were Wal-mart Security, and one man flashed his badge at her and told her to go away "for her own good." But Caitlin hadn't been able to see the badge clearly, only the words "Wal-mart," before he put it away again and shouted at the man on the bench some more. Alarmed at the situation, Caitlin didn't go away. The men (not in uniform) told her that she was interfering with their investigation, that she had no right to be there, and that she might herself be arrested if she didn't leave.

At that point Jutta Mason came out of the rink house and found the two men apparently trying to force the man on the bench to come with them. The man was protesting, the Wal-mart men were shouting, the farmers were backing away - a mess! And Jutta's arrival didn't help. The Wal-mart men told her that she, too, was in danger - of maybe being knifed by the man sitting on the bench, or of being arrested for "interfering with their investigation." Jutta said she didn't think the man would stab her and that she didn't intend to interfere, but that she wasn't leaving either. They said she wasn't allowed to stand there. But she did anyway. The Wal-mart men called the police, the park staff called the Wal-mart manager, and then everyone stood around and waited, still arguing.

Waiting sometimes helps. When tempers had calmed a bit, it emerged that the man on the bench had been seen on Wal-mart's closed circuit cameras, walking through the store. But he wasn't allowed to be in the mall because a year before he had been caught stealing shower curtains, and part of his sentence was to stay off mall property. So when the guards saw him on the video, they went running to find him. They found him at our park.

The man on the bench said it was true what the guards said. He said he knew he shouldn't go into the mall but that winter was cold and the mall was way more pleasant than out on the sidewalk. He said the guards had given him a few warnings to stay away, and he knew they were right, but he had always weakened and returned again. The guards told him that now he was in much bigger trouble, that he'd have a lifetime ban and on top of that he would be charged with resisting arrest. Apparently that charge was because the man had refused to come back to Wal-mart with the guards when they found him sitting on our park bench.

However when the police arrived, they made no arrest, just gave the man a ticket for trespassing. The Wal-mart guards left. The man on the bench sat there for a while, folding the ticket over and over, and then he left too. And since the Wal-mart manager, Wayne MacLean, had never showed up, Jutta went inside the rink house and called him again. She asked him whether the store's plain-clothes security guards have the power to order park staff to leave park property, whether they can charge someone with "resisting arrest," whether they can try to force someone to accompany them. He said they are licensed by the Toronto police, and that Jutta could find out the answers from the police, but that he was not interested in sharing what Wal-mart security guards can and can't do.

Sigh. This means we'll have to look into it ourselves. He could have saved us the effort by just telling us. But friendly, candid talk is underrated. So we'll have to do some digging. Any information from the neighbourhood is welcome: to be continued...

EVENTS IN APRIL AND MAY:

Sunday April 13:the date of the sixth annual matzo making at the park oven. Run by Annie and Ron as always (this year with official parks support), beginning at noon and ending at 3p.m.. The big oven will be kosher and all the materials and tools for making kosher Passover matzo will be available. This has become a wonderful get-together for families to make unleavened bread and exchange lore about the Passover traditions. (Riddle: how many minutes can elapse between the rolling of the dough and the baking, until the matzo is no longer considered unleavened? Ask Ron.) For more information about April 13, e-mail Annie at annricki@sympatico.ca.

Tuesday April 22: Earth Day. That's the day to clean up the marsh fountain, add mulch to the little tree nursery and the other native-species gardens, put compost around the base of the trees, clip and smooth out broken branches so the trees can heal their bark. We'll have leaf compost and wood chips, tree pruners, shovels, and litter-pick bags available. We'll also have the pizza oven going, to sustain the earth day gardeners. More information: call the park at 416 392-0913.

Saturday April 26: Dog walkers' clean-up morning. the annual spring clean-up of the winter's debris in the park, including those doggie bags that didn't make it to the trash basket. 10 a.m. to noon. Judy Simutis writes: "I'm going to have a pot over an open fire as I've asked each dog walker to bring their favourite vegetable to make stone soup -AND- of course I would like to make use of the bread oven for tentatively making bruschetta for us, tuna melt, sloppy joes and Elmos' Veggie Slop for the hounds. If there are OTHERS i.e. not dog walkers who will be participating in the Environmental Clean-Up day and have chosen Dufferin Grove Park as their contribution, please let me know so I can include them in the refreshments."

Friday May 2: The first Friday night supper in spring, outside by the larger bake-oven if the weather is nice, otherwise in the rink house. With Dan DeMatteis and Lea Ambros, cooking food from the organic/local foods farmers' market. And possibly a maypole: call the park for information (and to reserve your plate -- $5 for the main course, soup and dessert extra.) There will be lots of room in the oven after 6 p.m. for people who want to cook their own supper. There will also be inspiring organic-gardening films playing on our 16mm projector, in the rink house zamboni room (now, without the zamboni, there's space!)

Tuesday May 27: Bike week event. Kyla Dixon-Muir and George Moore will have four showings of the driver safety film Driving By Cycles, between 12 and 5, in the rink house. This is an hour-long documentary-style video made by Kyla which explores road safety between cyclists and motorists. The video was made as a training video for truckers but its highlighting of the danger moments can be very useful for cyclists also - including kids who are old enough to bike on the road. The pizza oven will be going that afternoon: a fun and useful spring outing for all cyclists and for drivers who need to share the roads with them. Visit them on the web at www.web.net/~outburst.

Wednesdays in May: pizza days are back, weather permitting. Make your own pizza and meet your neighbours, or make a date with your friends. At the big oven between 12 noon and 2p.m. If it's raining or nasty, it won't happen. Call the rink to confirm in doubtful weather: 416 392-0913. We'll keep the message up to date.

HOMELESS IN THE PARK

The 34-year-old man from Hong Kong who spent the winter in the park has made it through the coldest season. He sits on the bench outside the rink house, sleeping, for parts of every day and every night. The rest of the time he stands at bus stops or walks around carrying his many bags - who knows what he does. Despite the harsh winter, he looks fit and he still declines all help and most talk. He is very skilled at keeping in shape - we often see him doing stretches in between his sitting spells. Now that spring is going to bring a new wave of older kids into the park, we have to keep an eye out for kids who try to play tricks on this man or bother him. Last year two kids stole two of his bags and spilled them all over the park. We found all the stuff and gave it back to the man. If you see anyone tormenting him, grab them and kick them out of the park. They'll laugh and jeer but they'll be ashamed.

The other homeless person in the park - the young woman without an identity - told us during the winter (when she was spending lots of time at the rink house) that she loves dogs and she wished she had one. At the beginning of March, after we hadn't seen her for a few weeks, she turned up with a friendly black dog and said it was hers. This worried many people, since the dog was grown and obviously well cared-for and must have belonged to someone. But "Jane Doe," as she calls herself, insisted that the dog was hers. People gave her money and food for herself and the dog, and tarps and blankets for the cold rain. She and the dog spent some of the colder nights sleeping in the rink house. Some of the park's dog owners called the Humane Society in case someone had reported the dog as lost. But the Humane Society staff said no, they had heard of no lost dog fitting that description.

One day in the middle of March, one of the dog owners from our park happened to be walking in the east end, along Queen Street near Logan, when she saw a ‘lost dog' poster with this dog's picture on it. She called the number and within the hour the dog's owner arrived at our park. The dog was beside himself with joy at seeing his owner. But "Jane Doe" was full of grief, and ran away.

The dog's name turned out to be Tony. His owner told the other dog owners that her husband had tied the dog up for five minutes to go into a drug store, and when he came out, Tony was gone. They had been looking ever since, and had called the Humane Society too (but those folks for some reason were unable to connect the two reports).

A few days later City TV came to the park to interview Elke (the person who had seen the poster in the east end). They were doing a story on the miraculous re-uniting of the dog and its owner. No wonder they thought it was news-worthy: it was an against-the-odds happy ending for the family that owned the dog. But during their taping, "Jane Doe," was sitting in the background - unbeknownst to the City TV people. To the people standing near her she still insisted that the dog was hers, even though the dog's implanted microchip identifies it as the dog that was taken from the drug store.

The park's dog owners are very glad that the dog has been returned to its former life, but to them this was not quite the "feel-good" story that City TV was pitching to its audience. It's not possible to put up "Jane Doe's" picture on hydro poles the way the dog's picture was posted. But the mystery is very troubling - where is this young woman's family? Do they miss her and wonder where she is?

ASK YOUR FRIENDS elsewhere in the city or even elsewhere in the country. Is there anyone - a mother, a brother, a friend - who is missing a fine-looking woman in her twenties, with short light brown hair, intelligent, perhaps with a university degree, a lover of animals, a traveller, and schizophrenic?

In the meantime "Jane" has disappeared again. While she was around, many people in the neighbourhood looked out for her, gave her food and sometimes even shelter, and talked to her. She never gave away her secret - her real name, where she comes from - to anyone, yet she told many people that she needs help. Agencies, social workers, psychiatric assessment workers, shelters - all have tried to respond here. But "Jane" always drifts away again. So the question is: can anyone find the people who miss her?

RINK SURVEY:

When spring comes, nobody's interested in thinking anymore about the outdoor skating rinks. Basketball and frisbee and soccer are much more exciting. However, the follow-up report on the past winter's rink season and the prospects for next season (opening date, maintenance, permit policies, and so on) will be ready by the middle of April, and this report will be posted on our web site. Our efforts to get enough people reporting from rinks all around the city to make a kind of ongoing "e-correspondence course" for people in the municipal government, didn't work. Not enough people sent enough reports. However, we got enough material to make one pretty thorough summary of what happened last winter. Next fall, when people get interested in winter again, that report should be helpful in a number of practical ways. It will include a short transcript of the city council's recent (eyeblink) budget consideration of ice rinks too. Look it up on our new web site at www.dufferinpark.ca; click on "sports."

GOOD WORKS:

Wood for the oven:

Since we put up our "help, we need wood" sign on the front door of the rink house, we have received a lot of wood donations. Occasionally we get treated wood, or plywood, or painted wood, and we can't use any of that, so there's an extra effort involved in bundling up that wood for garbage disposal. But most of the wood we've received is useable, and so we've been able to keep on baking bread. The person who has been most constant in hauling wood to the park, head and shoulders above anyone else, is Peter Thillaye, who claims that it's a therapeutic break from work for him to track down skids and throw them in his trunk. All the staff have gotten good at prying skids apart, taught by park neighbour Ben Figueiredo, who's handy at everything.

Maple sap collection:

A few years back we got permission from the Parks staff to drill the park's sugar maples and collect the sap, to experiment with making maple syrup. This year we were ready to try. Gene Threndyle (the park's main native-species gardener and creator of the marsh fountain) came to the park and brought the "spiles" (the spigots that are put in the trees for the sap to flow through) and some white spray paint to mark the sugar maples. He got the spiles near Walkerton, where his family's farm is. After Gene had marked the trees, a small group of parents and children went around drilling holes and inserting the spiles in five sugar maples. Charles Shillolo brought his manual drill from home and helped the kids to drill. The next day Zalia Conde (from the park farmers' market) brought us six maple sap pails. So now everything's all set up for sap collection. Only one problem: no sap is flowing. It turns out that this is not a good year for making syrup. The temperature difference between night and day (ideally, below freezing at night and then much warmer in the day) hasn't been great enough to make the sap flow. The sap pails have been empty except for the occasional bit of trash (from people who think that the pails are enlightened new trash receptacles, complete with lids). We'll wait a few weeks and if there's still not much sap, we'll try again next year.

OUR NEW PARK WEB SITE:

When the ads on our free Tripod park web site began to strobe, that was the beginning of the end. We began to talk about getting a for-pay site that was ad-free, but we weren't sure how to find a cheap but good web provider. Joe Adelaars came to the rescue. He helped us find a good site and set it up for us. Jane LowBeer made a wonderful composite drawing for the new home page, and Caitlin Shea programmed it to respond a bit like a virtual walk in the park, a "walk" with your mouse. We got this idea from the "Memory Palace" site put up some years back by Queen's University film professor Clarke Mackey. (That site has beautifully coloured paintings rather than photographs, and one of the paintings they included from the beginning was a wood-fired bake oven - click here to take a look.) April 1 is the first day of the new site: www.dufferinpark.ca. The site still needs quite a bit of work but it's a new start, without the ads.

The process of rethinking the web site began with a wading-pool meeting with Emily Visser last fall. Emily is the person who talked us into trying a park web site in the first place, in February 2001 when things looked bleak for the park. She had it all set up within weeks, always insisting that the extra work was no problem. Later, Emily's partner Bernard King added a park list serve, and in that way the two of them laid the groundwork for an ongoing neighbourhood conversation that has certainly contributed to making the park more solid again. The Friends of Dufferin Grove Park have been lucky. Talented, capable people seemed to turn up when we most needed them.

For ongoing updates on Dufferin Grove Park, and to share your views on community issues, join our Friends of Dufferin Grove email listserve. Just click here to join.

Newsletter prepared by: Jutta Mason; Illustrations: Jane LowBeer

Technical support: John Culbert

Web site: Joe Adelaars, Henrik Bechmann, Caitlin Shea

Park phone: 416 392-0913; street address: 875 Dufferin Street

E-mail: dufferinpark@dufferinpark.ca

List Serve: Emily Visser, Bernard King

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This page last updated: 14-Mar-04