While walking on Sunday I turned to thinking about places. I've always been interested in place. My geography studies were predominantly about how people and place entwine with each other... how people affect the land and also how the land affects the people. And it got me thinking. What are my favourite places?
There are many categories of place to consider. A favourite place could be as vast as the country you live in. Or it could be as small as a comfy chair on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
In the end, I've come up with a list of 27 favourite places. Broken down in categories as big as a province or as small as a home. So, in no particular order...
27 Favourite Spots in the World.
Homes...
53 Gleneyre Street... I lived in this home for 28.5 years (from ages 0-27 years old). Mom and dad are still there and I spend one to three weeks a year still laying down my head each night in this house. It brings a feeling of solidness and relaxation. I love the view towards Signal Hill out the back windows. And every corner has a childhood memory.
44 Hayward Ave... I lived here for 3.5 years (27-31 years old). A one hundred year old semi-detached row house on the edge of downtown St. John's. With a loft that looked out over the east end of the city and had an original chimney holding an old wood stove in the middle of the room. Living here gave me a new view of my home city and there were few things better than late night walks along the downtown streets.
2218 Bois Vert Place... My first home in Ottawa and where I lived for 8.5 years (31-40 years old). A Terrace Home. It was a cozy spot. I'd sometimes spend entire weekends not even leaving the house... just decompressing after a busy week. And the pond across the street was a pleasant place to stroll and get in touch with nature.
282 Trailsedge Way... My current home in Ottawa. I've been here for 2.5 years (40-present). A townhouse. My first garage and the comforts of a cool basement with fireplace as well as a fine soaker tub. The biggest selling point has always been the forest across the street. A place I can walk or snowshoe in on a daily basis. I can be out there for more than an hour at a time and see nobody. I've got a beaver living in the creek a few hundred yards away. And herons patrol the ponds of the area.
Other Favourite places...
- Newfoundland... The province remains home. Even the tourism commercials for it can have me wanting to plan a trip back. I love the sea... the rocky landscapes... the wide open spaces and the glacially carved hills.
- British Columbia... Oddly, despite never spending more than a few months in BC, it can feel more like home than Ontario does. Again there's the sea. And there's also the mountains. I have the same feeling of wonder looking out at the mountains as I do peering out over the waves. The idea that so much can be hidden within a scene so easily viewed.
- St. John's... My home town. I've never been fond of the wind there and Spring can be non-existent. But there is no town I feel as comfortable in as this one. Walking the downtown streets on a summer evening or even just a trip with friends to the mall to see a movie. It's always going to be home.
- Gros Morne Park... The most spectacular part of Newfoundland. It would be almost impossible to spend time here and not see a moose. Place it contains so many of my favourite individual locations for hiking. Those places to follow.
- Fogo Island... The place my father is from. It's isolated. Unique. Quiet. And full of amazing views and places.
- Vancouver... My second favourite city. Especially the area around False Creek... where I spent a summer living with my sister... walking the sea wall daily... and enjoying the panoramic view of the downtown core.
- Galiano Island... Where Brother-in-Law Duff's family used to have a summer place. The quiet. The views of Saltspring Island. The great BC forests. Blood pressures are guaranteed to drop when you arrive on Galiano.
- Joe Batts Arm... Dad's home community on Fogo. There are so many memories of childhood summers here. In my grandmother's house, listening to the rain whip against the windows. Looking out from bedroom windows at the stark landscape at the mouth of the harbour. Playing along the stages and wharfs... fishing for sculpin or catching crabs in tidal pools.
- Botwood... Mom's home community. My grandparents house there was a sanctuary. The greatest sunrises I've seen have been from their back deck, overlooking the harbour. And going exploring over the hills, where blueberries were in the millions was a favourite thing to do.
- Bath... The small English town. I've only been there for a few hours and have seen very little of it. But the few blocks of the town which surrounds the old Roman Baths is one of the most beautiful places I've seen. Small shops... a church... the river running through town. I hope to go back there this summer.
- Wester' Shore... This is the area of coastline just outside of Joe Batt's Arm. It's now the backdrop for the resort hotel on Fogo Island. But for as long as I can remember, it's been one of my favourite places. Great slabs of rock slopping right into the ocean. Excellent tidal pools for exploring. Nooks and crannies where you can tuck in out of the wind and have a snack while watching the surf break against the rocks.
- Cape Spear... The most easterly point in North America. About twenty minutes drive outside St. John's. The trails right along the parking area are fine. And the lighthouses are good. But the best part, for me, is the East Coast Trail section past the old lighthouse. Where you are walking along the edge of the world, hundreds of feet above the sea. I have a large rock from that trail sitting in my basement, next to the fireplace... reminding me of the place. This is the only location where I actually enjoy wind. Wind belongs at Cape Spear.
- Signal Hill... Overlooking the harbour of St. John's. I've walked the trail around the hill more times than I could imagine. As a kid, I'd go off the trail with my dad, sit upon the rocks at the harbour's narrows, and eat molasses sandwiches for a lunch.
- Stonehenge... Been here once and would go back anytime. The time we went was a perfect foggy morning. It feels like Stonehenge belongs in mist and fog. I was amazed that it's just sitting there among the farmers fields. You're driving along looking for cows... and then there is one of the most famous places on earth.
- Mykonos Island... I'm sure I wouldn't want to live on Mykonos. From what I've heard, it's more of a party place than I'd be looking for. But it's the first place I think of when I think of Greece. All the whitewashed houses... the maze of a town... narrow cobble roads surrounded by brilliant white walls of homes and shops. A spectacular place.
- The Plaka... The market area in Athens. Busy but so historic. So many places to eat and shop all tucked under the Parthenon. You round a corner, see a good place to grab lunch, and then happen to glance up and see the Parthenon towering above you.
- the woods across the street... My woods. Where I can go for a walk anytime I feel like it. Just throw on some boots and walk across the street. I know every trail there now. Every corner. I know on a sunny, warm day I'm likely to find a snake sunning itself around this bend. Or that there'll be an abandoned birds nest over there. That heron's like to patrol a particular area of the ponds and that I'm assured to see frogs along a particular inlet.
- Salmonier Nature Park... To drive a half hour outside St. John's and be able to walk along a boardwalk through Newfoundland wilderness. You are assure to see some animals on your walk. But not all of them. Sometimes they're hidden away in the bushes or lounging in their enclosures. But that makes it good. Like a real walk through real woods. Where you may or may not see a wild animal.
- Mistaken Point... Went two years ago for the first time. A forty-five minute walk along the Newfoundland coast. Then needing to wear booties in order to step out onto a slab of ancient sea floor. To be able to view such rare fossils. To stand there, only feet from the ocean, looking at the oldest animals ever found... millions of years older than dinosaurs.... It's hard not to be in awe of that.
-Western Brook Pond... In Gros Morne Park. This is the massive fiord you see on the tourism ads... where the waterfall cascades down from the plateau above. The water is pure and hundreds of feet deep. And the views are simply spectacular.
- the Tablelands... Also in Gros Morne Park. The hills that look like Mars. The only really accessible place on earth to view the Earth's crust. It's magical. I hiked to the top of the Tablelands while on Geography field school.
- Pippy Park... St. John's is like a city in a bowl. Signal Hill and the South Side Hills make up one rim of the bowl. Pippy Park makes up the other rim. The highest point in the city is here and I used to have to hike through many of the trails of the park for work. Great views and nice ponds. A good place to get away from it all in the city.
- Lake Louise... I've only been here once but I would think that the view you get from the head of the lake, next to the hotel is probably the most spectacular view I've ever seen. To look across a glacial lake at the mountains on the far side and the glaciers atop those mountains. Simply amazing.
MONDAY...
--- Busy day. Lots of shoes and tires to look through today. And it's hot outside. After lunch it climbs to 27 degrees out with the humidity. Makes the office pretty stuffy for the afternoon.
TUESDAY...
--- So much for summer. 24 hours after 27 degrees I'm scraping my windshield after work. Windchill of -12 by the time I'm leaving work today.
--- Quite tired after the two dayshifts and I've decided to take the nights off. So six days away from work starting tomorrow.
WEDNESDAY...
--- Go to the grocery store. Also make a pit stop at the liquor store next door... Food and drink in one go.
--- Go for an afternoon walk. The wind is enough to kill. Too cold. Windchill must be -5 or worse. For winter it's fine... Now, it's death. See the first of the fish in the creeks today. So despite the cold, Spring is sort of here.
THURSDAY...
--- Not much for me today. Decompress day. Sleep. TV. A walk.
FRIDAY...
--- Up around 9:00. Walk and BBQ for supper. Easy going, around the house day.
SATURDAY...
--- Much like yesterday. Only instead of BBQ it was Bearbrook Farm's chicken pot pie.
--- Shovel away the last of my front lawn snow. Though there is a layer of ice remaining where it's shadiest.
SUNDAY...
--- Bearbrook Farm bacon and toast to start an Easter Day. Best bacon there has ever been.
