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| Toulouse and Mouse go "walkabout" |
When I was briefly in unseasonably balmy Toronto, visiting with writer friend Nina Munteanu for the Christmas season, my friend Mouse and I decided to take a break from the city and find some Nature on Christmas Day.
We jumped into the TolouseMobile and ended up in Mississauga, where the Credit River flows eventually into Lake Ontario. Mouse spotted a small park near Streetsville and we went on walkabout.
Originally named "trusting creek" (Missinnihe) by the Mississauga First Nation people, the salmon-bearing river drains about 860 square kilometres of Ontario and flows some 90 km from its source at Orangeville, over the Niagara Escarpment through several suburbs and eventually into Lake Ontario at Port Credit.
Mouse and I walked a good length of this river park. We observed and discovered many things on our Christmas Day walk:
- thriving aquatic life like water striders, caddis flies, mayflies and others
- the chewed up log-remnants of very active beavers
- an old gentleman in bathing shorts who announced to us that Christmas Day is for swimming and then proceeded to pour icy Credit River water from a bucket all over himself
- shy squirrels gathering food
- plenty of bright green moss for tardigrades (moss piglets) to live in
- friendly people and friendly dogs (and they didn't even want to eat me either!)
Best Wishes for a joyous holiday season, wherever you are.
Toulouse LeTrek
