Tuesday, June 11, 2013

our woods


As I wind my way through the familiar streets to work each morning the backdrop to my 12 minute commute seems busier than usual to me.  The workers are out pouring concrete and it’s before 8 o’clock.  A new neighbourhood park has magically sprouted from a rocky field of disarray.  Colourful bobbles hang on the end of tubes covered in bubble wrap of the newest splash pad to be.  Young trees lie on their sides protected in burlap waiting for the crew to lower them into their new home.  A suburb has been growing on the sidelines of my shortcut to work.  It seems to have come from nowhere, the rows and rows of houses look endless instead of sparse as they did a year ago.

I wonder to myself how many kids venture past the orange netting on the play structure when the workers go home at night.  The kids and families in this development must be craving their man made park after living in dust and construction for over 2 years, not a sidewalk or tree in sight until this week.   I immediately feel a pang of guilt for coasting through the freshly installed stop sign like all the others that morning.

All this hustle and bustle on the way to work makes me think about my little piece of paradise that I’ve called home for the past 5 ½ years.  It too was the same in its infancy, a forest and field, converted to construction zone, and ultimately a 35 home subdivision.  Trucks and workers invading what used to be untouched land.  The older neighbours tell stories of how their kids used to catch frogs in the very place where my home stands today.  I wonder how different it may have looked prior to the development, but I don’t have to go too far to see.

I have been lucky enough to have enjoyed the beautiful forest that stands tall right outside our front door.   The beauty and accessibility to the woods is what drew me to this special place and it will be the thing I miss most about living here.  I have run miles and worked out life’s problems on these trails.  Cycled with my kids, taught them both how to skate on the pond and most recently how to cross country ski.  Every visitor to our home is proudly shown “our woods” and it has become a place that my children covet as though it were their very own. 

I am hopeful the newcomers to Tofino Private will find the beauty in our woods and love it as much as we have. 





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