Less is More

Took the nipper to Riverdale Farm this week in Cabbagetown. It used to be a zoo way back when but now houses what look like rescue farm animals. There are two horses, one of which looks like a retired workhorse that has a bald patch on its nose from years of wearing a bridle; a donkey that's exceedingly happy to be there; one huge pig - at that size, you only need the one; a handful of lucky but scrawny hens and turkeys; a cow with it's heffer that has adorable saucer like eyes and eyelashes that Rimmel would kill to patent; finally 4 baby lambs - the sort you just want to nestle in your crook. The piece de resistance of course was the fluffy, temperamental ginger cat. It ain't a real farm if it doesn't have a cat. My little one loved it though she wasn't keen on the pig when it yawned. It's a big pig - have I said?

The farm itself feels and looks like something out of Tim Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow', there is something very gnarly about the foilage that divides the paddocks. The ramshackle barn buildings would not need much to transform them into a horror movie set. Actually a horror movie based on a comic book was being filmed in the streets around Riverdale Park the day we visited, which may have affected my impression of the place. It was an odd sensation to see fake snow on the ground laid by the special effects guys for said film ambiance on such a gloriously sunny day. If only every day of a Canadian winter was this sensational and mild.

But it was precisely in the ghostly and overgrown appearance of the place and it's immediate surroundings that I found its charm. Everything about Riverdale, the zoo, the very neighbourhood which incidentally houses the Toronto Necropolis (spooky!) is in a very natural state - I would say decrepid but that suggests negligence which isn't the case at all. I mean it in a stylized way. Even the Tim Hortons on Parliament and Winchester has a brick interior with a single chandelier illuminating the sugared treats. Add a few cobwebs and you'd be forgiven for thinking you were refuelling at Bleak House. Loved it.

The important thing is that the animals are very well cared for and enjoy roomy sheltered beds at night. Wish that it were the case for all living creatures - human and animal alike. It gave me an idea as I meandered down Parliament towards Queen St. E where there is a coffee house I love called Dark Horse that perhaps I could volunteer at a shelter of some sort. I'm not sure what the ins and outs entail or even where I could be of most value and then I passed the Toronto Humane Society as if beckoning me from my thoughts into reality.

I have time and I'm going to give it to a deserving cause - it's the least I can do.