This morning was beautiful and sunny and my boy and I couldn’t wait to get moving. We stopped and picked up his friend. I had decided to do the half hour walk to his house instead of driving as it would burn a little of my guy’s wild energy. It was my first attempt at walking them together and, excepting an incident where the two of them decided they should try for cat for breakfast, all went well for me (and the cat too; no animals were harmed in the making of this blog). It was nice to get the boys together again and they had a grand time. All my worries about it being too hard to handle them both at the same time went out the window, minimal pulling and silliness, just lots of walking, exploring, and sniffing all the new smells.
Today we explored a portion of the Kingsview Village neighbourhood in Etobicoke, focusing on the area north of “Little Mogadishu” (Kipling & Dixon). Past the bustle of this very busy neighbourhood lies a very quiet community of tidy homes, mostly constructed in the 1950’s and 1960’s, although there is evidence of recent homebuilding activity. The lawns are huge, something rarely seen in the 416. The atmosphere is strong with quiet pride of home and the hard working attitude of its residents. There are few routes of access from the main roads, so traffic is minimal and local. This does make walking the area somewhat constricting. I chose to walk without a paper map or map app on my phone and stumbled across many dead ends. Some streets meet the retaining wall of the 401. Others are fenced off, ending at wooded areas, backyards or high rise complexes. Several schools and a Seventh Day Adventist Church are tucked away on different stretches of streets. Sidewalks frequently come to an abrupt end in the middle of a block forcing the user to cross the street to continue. Typical of the time and attitude that this neighbourhood was built, sidewalks usually only line one side of the street. This was not a neighbourhood made for walking but rather built for the burgeoning cult of the car. There were lots of people out for strolls however, mostly retirees. This is obviously a close knit neighbourhood, one of those ones where everybody knows your name. Judging from the prolonged stares, it was obvious that I wasn’t from around these parts or else they just weren’t used to dog walkers. But it was friendly; many who I passed gave a friendly “hello”.
In the lower portion of this neighbourhood is a small park. Basically just an alleyway between Kingsview Boulevard and St. Andrews Boulevard, it consists of one brief paved path with a playground and splash pad on one side and tennis courts and something that looked like it may be a petanque court.
The hour passed quickly and we made our farewells to our little pal and made the stroll back home, tired for the day.
- Duration of Walk: Roughly one hour (based on short legs, picture taking and doggy care)
- Difficulty: EASY. Relatively flat terrain. You will need to cross some streets. However traffic is low here. Sidewalks are paved and in relatively good condition.
- Parking: Street parking all the way.
- Washrooms: No
- Local Coffee Haunts: There is a Coffee Time at Kipling and Dixon.
- Safety Factor: Medium. I would walk this in the daytime. Fair number of people about.
- Special Gear?: No. A sturdy pair of sneakers is sufficient.
- Suitable for Dogwalking?: Yes. Dogs must be on leash. Be mindful of possible unleashed dogs.
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