Four Walks at KSR, Part 4

September 19, 2012. Three days from the fall equinox. I'm just home from a drive to Jokers Hill with Kelley Aitken. We walked for an hour and a half, chilly at first, under a cloudy sky. I think fall is here. The rich greens of summer have faded and the place shows a different palette.

We pulled our jackets round us against a strong and blustery wind and I felt the city blowing out of my head. As we walked the cloud began to break up into huge, fast-moving cumulous bundles, the sky around and between them a brilliant clear blue.

         

It rained heavily last night, cleaning the air and making the edges of things crisp and defined. The land at KSR rises and falls, the road we walked curved past fields now a mix of beiges, golds, purples, often edged with greens.

I wonder at what point of colour the season shifts? There’s a time, often in late August, when the greens go flat, all shine and glossiness gone. Is that the real beginning of fall, the equinox just a symbolic marker we’ve claimed for it?

Kelley and I walked mostly through the open areas, following the road past the lab and around by the pond and climate change research plots. The wind, space, and sky were exhilarating. Where the road became grassy the grass was wet from the night’s rain. Before long our feet were squelching in our non-waterproof hiking shoes, but it didn’t matter—the pleasure of moving through crisp air and wind compensated for wet feet.   

We talked about place and writing, about painting, about time management, about the challenges of getting to what one really wants to do. What a wonderful place to paint! said visual artist and writer Kelley. I add, also a wonderful place to take photographs, or to sit and stare at things from one of the white chairs that composed themselves as a still life on the raft by the pond.

The pond, edged with reeds, shone the clouds back at themselves, and at us. I love that momentary disorientation of the world reflected in water one looks down at—for a few moments “as above so below” becomes a literal statement.

We ended our walk following a path uphill into the woods from the edge of one of the fields—a path I was pleased to discover did join the one Peter and I walked in August. In fact, it was the path where I took the photo of the wooden fence posts. It led us back to the driveway and then the car park by the barn. I am not known for my sense of direction or orienteering skills, but I begin to have a sense of the shape of the Reserve. Or some part of it.

Once again I didn’t take field notes… but I did write the bones of this post when I got home.  

Four Walks at KSR, Part 3

August 23 – a hot humid late summer day. Peter and I drove to Jokers Hill and went for a late afternoon walk in the woods, following a path that drops down from the wonderful curving driveway that leads to the Estate House. We’d trailed Art along that path on my first visit, through open woods strewn with dried leaves. How different it was now with the woods full of green light.

In the shade I felt cool at first, but when we sidetracked onto a narrow path where smaller trees crowded its edges, the wind vanished and humid air folded around us. We moved slowly. I kept stopping to look at detail after detail—berries shining brightly in the green shadows, horsetails growing along both sides of the path, patterns of light flaring from the surfaces of leaves or turning them translucent. There we were, hovering at the peak of summer, with thick glossy greens everywhere, but berries and seedpods hinted fall was in the wings. 

Once again I didn’t make field notes … but I did take photographs … 

I was startled by how translucent the horsetails were. The spider wen is a bonus, not seen until I looked at this photo.

Can anyone tell me what this plant is?

Four Walks at KSR, Part 2

In early July I drove to Jokers Hill with Jenny Kerber, who teaches in the Department of English at the University of Toronto. Jenny is the author of an excellent book on prairie literature: Writing in Dust: Reading the Prairie Environmentally, from Wilfrid Laurier University Press. She took the photograph I used in my first post as well the photos below. Jenny wanted to see the Reserve for herself, and with an eye to whether she could make use of it in her teaching.

The day was very hot and sunny, the sky bright summer blue. Art walked us along a network of forest paths through the woods east of Dufferin, past an abandoned maple syrup hut and a beaver pond that’s well on its way to becoming a beaver meadow. He had a story about the pond outflow being blocked that I’ve now forgotten. I’ll have to ask him to tell it again some time and write it down. It does look like I need to make take field notes my mantra—

We ate lunch with two graduate students, Emily and Suzanne, who were just back from a conference where they had presented well-received papers. They'd also taken part in the demonstration on Parliament Hill protesting the Federal Government’s cuts to funding for science just as we move deeper into the climate crisis. (If you want to know more about the protest search “I Stand with Canada’s Scientists”.) Talking to these young women about their research and their involvement in their work was inspiring.  

After lunch Art drove us past several research plots, explaining what was going on in them. 

Art Weis with undergraduate students, and me, checking out the ant sites. 

Art also introduced us to a non-human member of the KSR community, a young praying mantis. Notice that amazing eye staring right at you ... I'll have more to say about that another time. 

FOUR WALKS AT KSR, Part 1

Terrain at Jokers Hill is varied. The KSR website describes the site this way:

“Most of Jokers Hill is blanketed by a mosaic of wetlands and forests, including Ontario’s largest remaining stand of old-growth hardwood. In this Ecological Observatory, scientists monitor, measure and analyze natural processes as they unfold. The hayfield and pastures--relics of the equestrian days--are an Ecological Laboratory where researchers perform intensively manipulative experiments that subject theories about the environment to scientifically rigorous testing.”

I first walked through a part of this mosaic in late March, following Art along a series of forest paths that went up and down and wound around till I had no idea where I was. With little undergrowth the forest felt open and spare, though we did have to clamber over some downed trees. The ground was coated with last years’ leaves, the trees bare, but we found hepatica emerging, pushing through the leaf carpet.

                           

It felt good to be walking outdoors, even on a chilly and overcast day—stretching out after the hunkering down of winter. The fields and pastures were post-winter pale, the colour of faded straw. At the pond willows and birches were beginning to leaf, throwing lovely reflections into the water.

On our walk we met a couple of students—both named Emily—who had been out checking research plots. They had also found hepatica, but spoke of it by its Latin name, anemone, giving me some new vocabulary. I do in fact hope to master some technical vocabulary during my time on the Reserve. By “master” I mean learn… and remember.

While we walked Art talked about the site, telling stories of former owners, of areas regenerating, of watersheds, of relationships among plants. By now I’ve forgotten many of the details, so I’m no surer of those stories than of the paths we walked. Another nudge to work on remembering.

Note to self: take field notes … or write up what you’ve seen and heard when you get home. 

To Begin ...

The Koffler Scientific Reserve at Jokers Hill* is a 350 hectare parcel of land on the Oak Ridges Moraine, donated to the University of Toronto by Drs. Murray and Marvelle Koffler in 1995. The University has established a field research and study centre for biodiversity, ecology, and conservation biology on the property. It is a beautiful place.

                           This photograph of the pond was taken by Jenny Kerber.

KSR is about an hour’s drive north of my home in Toronto, and I’m delighted that, beginning this month, I will have the privilege of spending a few days a week living there. My involvement with the Reserve came about because I wanted writing space out of the city. Last spring I met with Dr. Art Weis, the Reserve’s Director. He told me that, once the summer programs were over, a small house would be available for rent.

Though the Koffler’s prime mandate is to support its scientific research and study projects, it also supports the arts in whatever ways it can—even choosing a director whose name is Art...  Art wondered if I was interested in being involved with the Reserve, and indeed I am. The upshot of our conversation is that I will be the first participant in the Jokers Hill Artist-in-Residence Program. Art has asked that I give a reading at the Reserve some time this fall, and offer a workshop in the spring. I have some ideas of my own for the Residency, this blog being one of them. 

I’m very excited about growing a connection to Jokers Hill. In Field Notes: Jokers Hill I will be writing about my explorations and discoveries there—land, light, weather, birds, plants and other inhabitants, as well as people and their activities. I want to come to understand the Reserve as a place with history and meaning, one that has been and is important to many people.

My thanks to Art Weis for inviting me in, and to Ann Zimmerman, the first Director of the Reserve, for making the connection.

*To learn more about the Reserve go to its website:  (http://ksr.utoronto.ca) There you’ll find a list of the impressive variety and quantity of research being carried on, as well as species lists, maps, and public activities, a photo gallery, and history.