Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

Last May 12th 2010, we at Momentum 1 'community in motion' hosted a 10th anniversary celebration for the Kay Gardner Beltline Park during our Toronto Trails Festival. Joining us for the celebration was none other than world-renowned nature painter/environmentalist Robert Bateman. It was on this Beltline trail where Bateman lived (287 Chaplin Cres) and played from yearly childhood till he was 30 years old., it is also the area that he often refers to as the inspirational source for his creativity as an nature artist and environmentalist.

Mayor Miller who was also with us for the celebrations that day vowed to declare the Park next to the Bateman family home as the Robert Bateman Parkette. That has happened and now we are officially dedicating our Environment Day Walk as the Robert Batman Nature Trail ...see enlarged map below.

So join us in celebrating nature and the environment on our Robert Bateman Nature Trail where you will sense the source of Bateman's creative genius!

Explore the Trail on our interactive map below in preparation of our Walk.

UPDATE:

Robert Bateman joins us for the unveiling on October 23 2010!!

** We will be walking to the Parkette for the Ceremony.

A Quote from Robert Bateman

From: Thinking like a Mountain

Penguin Books (2000)

“Over the years, I’ve often spoken about one of the most memorable experiences of my childhood, a golden day in May, when I was perhaps ten or eleven. That morning – it must have been a Saturday – I ventured down the steep path into the ravine behind our house, one of many ancient river valleys that provide a tracery of wildness through Toronto’s urban landscape. That ravine held the first forest that I got to know; from the time I could walk, I explored it and made it my personal domain. As I grew more interested in wildlife, I began to learn about its inhabitants; the resident birds, raccoons and squirrels. To my fledgling eyes, my ravine seemed impossibly rich and varied…

"In my memory, the day dawns sunny, with the promise of unseasonable warmth. As quietly as one of the characters from Ernest Thompson Seton’s “Two Little Savages” – I devoured Seton’s books from a young age – I creep down to my favourite spot, a bower of wild plum blossoms that gives me excellent views of the branches below, already brushed with spring’s first greenery. There I wait, breathing the rich smells of damp earth and decaying leaves mixed with plum blossom perfume, and listening to the chirp and chatter of the local birds –totally at ease in my familiar territory. Time passes without any sense of urgency. The sun rises and the day grows warmer. Then suddenly, as if at some prearranged signal, the migrants come. Within the space of less than an hour on that unforgettable morning. I saw legions of migrating warblers, as well as kinglets, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. It seemed as if every branch of tree was dripping with birds. If perfect happiness is possible, then this was the day I experienced it.”