Recreational soccer tournament in King City

 Photos by Barry Wallace

I headed out to get a picture or two, in that 33C temperature on Sunday afternoon, and got no further than King City Secondary School, which is just a couple of blocks from where I live.   I spotted a girls soccer tournament and figured a King City team would be part of the mix.   It was late in the weekend tournament however and I don't think that King City had advanced to the final matches.    I hung around for several minutes however as a semi-final match had resulted in a shoot-out to decide the winner.   A team from Oshawa won this shoot-out and I got a few shots of the action.

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Barry Wallace

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church ~ King City

Photo by Barry Wallace

Simple and welcoming

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Barry Wallace

Roses later and smaller - better than not at all

Photos by Barry Wallace

Three weeks into June and our roses finally bloomed.   They are not big and there are not many of them, but it's so nice to see them.   Unlike my maternal grandfather, Syd Thomas, I've never had much luck with roses...fussy fiddly things.   They do perform a little better for Linda however, so I follow her instructions for protecting them over the winter.

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Barry Wallace

Take-out at a strawberry supper?

Photo by Barry Wallace

I've been to many strawberry suppers in my 74 years but I didn't know that church strawberry suppers now offer take-out service.   I drove through Kettleby last Wednesday and went by this sign in front of the York Pines United Church.   TAKE OUT?   Ahhh, the times are a changing.   Maybe this is a regular feature now, here and elsewhere, but it was a new one on me.   Strawberry suppers are social events to me - not fast-food forays.   I have to commend the church however for trying to be all things to all people.

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Barry Wallace   

King City Skatepark gets new paint job

 Photos by Barry Wallace

Stopping by the King City Skatepark on Doctors Lane this past Friday, I was impressed to see a major change to the paint job in the bowl.   Nothing shocking or cryptic in the message, but bold nevertheless.   For the first time, I could even read the message.   It is seen in the two photos here, above and below, and simply states KiNG CITY SKATEPARK.   The three teenage boys in the 3rd and 4th pictures, at bottom, told me they were brand new to this pastime and after watching them for a minute or two, I needed no further convincing.

Looks like a professional paint job to me, but it sure is colourful.   Are there rules for the skatepark?   Yes, and they are posted on site.

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Barry Wallace

Classic convertible at Hogan's Inn

Photo by Barry Wallace

Ford Torino Grand Touring 390

They were built between 1968 and 1976 ~ this beauty looks like a 1969 to me

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Barry Wallace

Our garden insect control

Photo by Barry Wallace

Bug-B-Gon or toads?

 Actually I have on occasion used Ortho Bug-B-Gon to solve a difficult insect problem in the garden.   But our day-to-day bug control are toads, one of which is pictured above.   They are always on patrol in the backyard gardens and look quite well-fed and healthy.   They've been around for a few years and tolerate Linda's and my presence fairly well.   They even seems to accept their fate that they will always be tapped a few times, by our cat Jamie, each time they pass by.   We always have to be careful where we step in the garden and take it slow.   Who wants to rush in the garden anyway?   And no, they do not have names other than 'Toad'.

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Barry Wallace  

King City Farmers Market ~ this Sunday

 Photos by Barry Wallace

The farmers markets in Schomberg and King City are underway, with the opening of the first market in Schomberg last Sunday and King City this Sunday, June 26, at All Saints Anglican Church on Keele Street.   The hours are 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.   The markets run on alternate weekends in both villages until Thanksgiving.

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Barry Wallace

King Township Centennial Park

Rebel William Lyon Mackenzie

reported to have hid out on King Ridge

I spent some time on Sunday reading through the 1954 entries of the King Ridge Women's Institute to the Tweedsmuir History records.   The King Ridge area of King Township was located in and around the intersection of the 5th Concession (Jane Street) and the 16th Sideroad.   Today, the area is known as the Sacred Heart Catholic Settlement.   In the early 1800s, the King Ridge area was covered with forests and they would be logged for lumber for many years.   Huge pines were highly valued as possible sailing masts and oral histories still exist with some King old-timers, of the last time massive cut pines were loaded onto multiple wagons and hauled by dozens of horses to the waiting railway cars in King City.   Meanwhile provincial politics were descending into violent confrontation, culminating in the Rebellion of 1837 in Upper Canada.   Mackenzie and his followers were defeated at Montgomery's Tavern, three miles north of Toronto.   Thus began a long flight from justice For Mackenzie before he landed in the United States.   Regarding Mackenzie's flight for justice through King Township, the King Ridge Women's Institute has the following to say, on Feb. 1, 1956.   "In the year 1837, the time of the Rebellion, William Lyon MacKenzie hid in the bush in the middle block lot 18 rear of the fourth concession.   There was a man by the name of Thomas Watson who lived on lot 26.   He used to go every day between the hours of of 12 and two o'clock to take him food to eat.   At this time no one lived south of the Aurora side road.   It was all thick bush.   In 1910 there was a tower built on the fifty acres south half of lot 17.   No one really knew why it was built".

     

 Photos Barry Wallace

The photo above shows the entrance to King's Centennial Park which is located on Lot 18 on the east side of Jane Street, between the 16th and 17th Sideroads.   The front portion of the park (seen below) is fairly open but quickly becomes a mature rugged hilly forest which is utilized regularly by mountain bike riders, on three courses of different degrees of difficulty.   One of the extreme trail u-turns is seen in the second photo below.

The photo above shows the plaque on the right-hand pillar at the entrance to Centennial Park.   The park/arboretum was created to celebrate Canada's centennial in 1967.   Today, almost 50 years later, it is mountain bike riders who celebrate the park's existence as one of the Greater Toronto Area's best mountain bike riding venues.

In the photo at left, the park's many visitors are warning about the existence of poison ivy growing on the grounds.

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Barry Wallace   

Remember these two log cabins back in May?

The archives folks at the King Museum
asked last month, in this space, if anyone had any information about the origins of these two historic log cabins, on the west side of King's 6th Concession (Weston Road) between the 16th and 17th Sideroads.   I received a comment a few days ago on that blog entry from Bert Duclos of Kettleby.   Bert is one of King Township's residents who knows as much about King's history as anyone else I know.   Bert passed on the following info.   The house pictured on the right (at top), is located at 15,040 Weston Road and was built 156 years ago in 1860.   The house pictured on the right (below), is located further south at 14,600 Weston Road.   It was built in 1870.   Bert's understanding is that both cabins served loggers of the forest that covered what was sarcastically named Happy Valley during its mid-19th century logging heyday.
It will be interesting to see if this 
information leads to other significant clues about the origins and histories
of these two remarkable buildings.
Thanks for the input, Bert.

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Barry Wallace

More King City Trail photos

Photos by Barry Wallace

The wetlands that occupy the central portion of the King City Trail

system is either a marsh or a swamp.   The photo above may help you to decide which is the more accurate term.   It covers almost 10 acres and is a wildlife gem.   On Thursday of last week, I watched as a Black Squirrel made a rare mistake, jumping from one branch to another.   It lost its grip and fell into the water.   It swam a short distance to dry ground and quickly raced up another tree.   It was the first time I had seen a squirrel swim.

At right is a picture of a tree that is located in a spot where the Humber River floods in the late winter and spring and washes away the topsoil leaving this tree's root system almost bare, but viable.   It has survived for years like this.

The Gray birches pictured at left are quite mature, well over 30 feet and probably in the 30 to 40 year range.   They are readily identified by their gray or whitish-gray bark and the dark inverted chevron markings where their branches grow.   As the tree matures, lower branches fall away leaving the black inverted chevron marking.

In the first picture below, a black inverted chevron takes on the a distinct frontal outline of a flying Great Grey Owl, its wings on a down-stroke.

In the second photo below, a younger Gray Birch is seen with a growing branch still in place and anchored in the black inverted chevron.   

The Gray Birch photos above and at left show an interesting aspect of the physiology of this tree.   The tree appears to be healthy and maturing well, but it has that extreme leaning position.   My National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees has this to say about about Gray Birches: "Its trunks are so flexible that weighted with snow, the upper branches may bend to the ground without breaking".

The guide goes on to say that the Gray Birch grows rapidly but is short-lived.   "A nurse tree, it shades and protects seedlings of larger, long-lived forest trees...the long-stalked leaves dance in the slightest breeze. 

The last photo in this series is a sad one.   It shows two white Birches that have had their bark cut and stripped for God-only-knows what purposes.   The damage girdling these trees seals their doom.   Pity.

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Barry Wallace

King City Trail offers splendid maturity

 Photos by Barry Wallace

I've familiarized myself again with the King City Trail, between Keele Street and Kingcross Estates.   It begins behind St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, follows the East Humber River west and then makes some loops north around swampy marshlands and the mature softwood plantation.   When the three Barrys ( Barry Moir, Barry Glenn and me, Barry Wallace, were part of the King City Trails Committee, the lands along the Humber looked quite different 30 to 40 years ago.   Many areas were quite open and begging for 'greening' hands.   Today, the trails system and the lands it occupies are quite mature and the meadows, woods, and marshes/swamplands are natural treasures for the village of King City.   I took several pictures which I am including in this space and will feature more in a following blog entry.   I hope you enjoy the photos and get out to walk the trail sometime soon.

Gray Birches (above), uncommon this far west of the maritime provinces, Quebec and the New England American states, are found throughout the Humber River route and trail lands in King City.   They are more common in eastern Ontario.     

Springtime means the banks of the East Humber River are covered in swathes of wild flowers and wild phlox in particular (see below).

Dwarf Lake Iris

Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly 

The photo at right shows the 38-step stairway from the Presbyterian church and the adjoining township park down to the East Humber River and the King City Trail system.   There are several access points for the trail system west and east of Keele Street and they are easy to find on a new map provided by the Township of King.   It can be viewed online.   See this blog for Tuesday, June 21, for more trail photos.


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Barry Wallace 

Slow down...turtles do

 Photos by Barry Wallace

Some caring person has posted the sign above at the side of the road, bordering a marshy pond, on the 8th Concession of King, south of Pottageville.   Good for them.

Pictured at right is a King Township Snapping Turtle sporting a shell that certainly says 'Keep King Green'.

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Barry Wallace  

Early evening at Seneca Lake

 Photos by Barry Wallace

Seneca Lake is one of the natural treasures of King.  
It sits in the middle of the huge campus of Seneca College, on Dufferin Street.   In the days of the Eaton family, the lake was known as Lake Jonda.   Today, the Oak Ridges Trail borders half of the lake and is an extremely popular route for naturalists, hikers, bird watchers, and cross-country skiers in winter.   In the bottom photo, the message on a trail plaque has completely faded and a hand-scrawled message encourages walkers to "just listen".

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Barry Wallace