November 18, 2011

0044 CANADA (Ontario) - The colors of autumn in High Park in Toronto


"In Canada the autumn is the most beautiful season", sais Pompilian, the friend who sent me this postcard. And it seems that he is right. There's never a grey day when autumn sweeps over Ontario. Between mid-September to mid-October, the landscape becomes a fiery tapestry ablaze with golden hues, crimson reds and fiery oranges. And it seems that he is right, and High Park in Toronto is an example that could not be more appropriate.


Can say that High Park is an old park of an young city, because it received the name in 1834, that is exactly the year when the Town of York became the City of Toronto, and 177 years are many for a park, but few for a city. After 42 years, in 1876, John George Howard bequeathed the 161 hectares located to north of the Humber Bay to the municipality, with the condition that the park to be used free for ever by the citizens of Toronto, and its name to remain High Park. Thus began the public history of the park.

Nowaday High Park isn't only the largest park located entirely within the city (between the almost 1400 located in Toronto), but is also one of the most cherished, especially because in it you can find all you want, from wild landscapes (one third of the park remained in a natural state) to an ornamental garden area, two children's playgrounds, a big restaurant with outdoor patio area, a municipal swimming bath complex, several sports fields and a zoo.

The landscape in the park is hilly, with two deep ravines, a broad plain in the central section (with an open habitat called oak savannah), and a large body of water (Grenadier Pond) in the western edge. Probably the best known landmark in the park is the large maple leaf-shaped flower bed. In short, seems to be a place that you can scour with pleasure many weekends in a row, each time discovering something new or hidden corners, because the park has many faces.

About the stamp
The stamp is part of a series of five definitive stamps, Baby Wildlife, about which I wrote here.

References
High Park - Wikipedia

Sender: Pompilian Tofilescu
Sent from Toronto (Quebec / Canada), on 29.10.2011 

1 comment:

  1. Great picture....I actually live beside High Park.....:-) in Toronto.

    ReplyDelete