Author Archives: Roy Murray

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About Roy Murray

I live near Raymore Park and have been visiting the park since 1993 and began blogging about it since 2012.

Winter digs in; 29 December 2012

Copyright © 2012 by Roy Murray, all rights reserved.

Humber River footbridge with an abutment of the old suspension footbridge bridge visible on the far left.

Another snowfall today and the view towards Raymore Park is very ‘picture postcard’ seasonal. This shot is taken during snow from Lions Park on the other side of the footbridge. This crossing over the Humber, installed in 1995 replaced the suspension footbridge that was swept away during Hurricane Hazel in 1954. The old footbridge was actually blamed for many of the deaths during the hurricane as it formed a dam and directed the flow of water towards housing on lower sections of Raymore and Gilhaven Drives. Interestingly, the abutments of what is probably the old bridge are close by the footbridge and still visible.

One abutment is on the Weston side and the other is currently hidden under the driftwood on the right bank in the second photograph.

The river flows quite quickly under the bridge and will take a few more days of these temperatures before freezing over. Downstream, around the bend, the river is already covered with ice.

Driftwood covers the abutment; centre right of the picture.

Looking downstream from the bridge.

The Raymore Park Sign, December 26, 2012

Copyright © 2012 by Roy Murray, all rights reserved.

This is the sign that greets visitors arriving by car, and on foot from Weston. When I first saw it I was confused by the slogan ‘A city within a park’ as there is an implication that somewhere in this park is a city. If the slogan writers could only have come up with ‘A city within its parks’ it would have made more sense to visitors. The good thing is that the sign gives the address so that people on bikes and those needing emergency services know where they are.

Welcome

This is the first post of an advocacy site for Raymore Park here in Toronto. The idea is to celebrate the good things happening in the park and correct the bad. My focus will be on allowing nature to thrive by protecting the park’s flora and fauna. Since this is (for now) a one-person site, the content will be opinionated and arbitrary. It is hoped that like-minded people will bring their own agendas to the table and join in this effort to help the park be what it is meant to be.