Donation Stations

Location: Outside Riverdale Farm, Winchester St.

Date photo taken: 20 October 2013

It's strange to see a parking meter in the middle of a park but some of Toronto's best loved green spaces now have them.This one is outside Riverdale Farm. There are two more in High Park and the Toronto Botanical Garden also has one. These parking meters have been specially programmed to accept donations and issue receipts. While kids love dropping coins in the machine, they also accept credit cards. The money is processed through the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation, a charitable foundation dedicated to making the city's parks better. Money raised is passed along to the location at which it was collected. Donations can also be made online and can be targeted to support a specific park or project, to expanding Toronto's tree canopy, or be assigned to a general fund to support projects as needed. 

Lambs!

Location: Riverdale Farm
Date photo taken: 13 April 2015

It seems like spring is finally here. The beautiful sunny weather and warmer days have started to coax some colour back into gardens across the city, but flowers aren't all that spring traditionally brings. It's also the season for cute baby animals and the city run parks around town offer a chance to see them up close. Riverdale Farm has an adorable collection of Cotswold lambs that were born in mid-March. Not to be outdone, the High Park Zoo has a rambunctious bunch of Barbary sheep lambs. They have also just welcomed Khione, a Highland calf. If you haven't seen one before, baby Highlands are some of the cutest things out there. Check out the Friends of High Park Zoo Facebook page if you don't believe me. Or go see for yourself.

Topiary Horse

Location: The garden by Simpson House, Riverdale Farm
Date photo taken: 5 June 2013

Topiary figures are whimsical and wonderful additions to parks and open spaces, but you rarely see them these days. One of the reasons for this is that they are time-consuming to construct and maintain. This horse, formed by carefully training English ivy around a metal form, was created over the winter in the High Park greenhouses by a City of Toronto gardener then moved to Riverdale Farm in the spring, where it currently sits gazing at the barn.

Red Eared Slider

Location: Pond at Riverdale farm

Date photo taken: 25 October 2012

The ponds at Riverdale Farm have all sorts of interesting things to watch, including lots of turtles. The day of this shot, there were four turtles visible, all red eared sliders. This image captures two of them - the second turtle’s head is just visible in the water, to the right of the log. This species isn’t native to Ontario. Normally they’re only found in the southern United States but they’ve become established elsewhere – including Toronto apparently – due to pet releases.

Heritage Pig

Location: Riverdale Farm, 201 Winchester St.
Date photo taken: 7 April 2013

Riverdale Farm is a small oasis on the eastern edge of downtown and the best part of a visit there is walking around the pens and saying hello to the animals. This is an Irish Tamworth pig, a hardy heritage breed that does well in more extreme climates like Canada’s, but isn’t well-suited to modern meat production methods and so is now listed as Threatened. Riverdale Farm’s animals are all chosen to represent animals that would have been present on area farms at the turn of the 20th century.

Giant Goldfish

Location: Pond at Riverdale Farm
Date photo taken: 25 October 2012

When the ponds at Riverdale Farm were covered with green algae in the summer, I noticed that something underneath was coming to the surface and eating, or breathing, or something. I was intrigued. With cooler weather, the pond cleared, and one day while searching for movement, I saw this guy. I’m guessing it’s a released pet goldfish, grown large in the relative freedom of the pond.