By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON May 5, 2012 What did you do on the Saturday part of the weekend? For once the weather channel got it right, a little breezy but this is still early May and it did get a little warmer in the afternoon..
It was one of those things the politicians had to be on hand for - they were the ones that made the funding possible - so Ted McMeekin, the Liberal Minister of Agriculture from a riding next to us, was on hand to tell us what the government had done for us and to thank all the volunteers who made it possible. The volunteers were the important part of the event.
For a gang of people the official opening of the Community Gardens in behind the Library and the Seniors” centre at Central Park was the start of their day. Much of the cost of the garden lots was paid for by the provincial government and the city – so you know what that meant – politicians of every stripe were out there taking credit. For once no one said that the garden lots were part of what makes Burlington the 2nd best city in Canada to live in.
The real treat was to see the smile on Michelle Bennett’s face when she was given a gardening trowel – she had at least half a dozen at home, all well used, but this one was special for her. It was something that marked the end of getting the project to fruition and the beginning of making it work for the community.
People milled around and jabbered with everyone just being community.
Art work done by Burlington public school students was displayed at city hall along with art work from Dutch students as part of the twin city program with our sister city in Apeldoorn in Holland.
Shortly after the city’s Mundialization Committee held their annual appreciation for the Dutch day at Civic Square. Flags were raised, speeches given and there were loads of people in bright orange T-shirts on hand listening to Jacqueline Pitrie sing The White Cliff’s of Dover – that young lady will be a great hit if she ever gets a chance to sing at the Legion.
There were enough of those orange T-shirts at city hall to make one think that there was an NDP gathering going on but I didn’t see former Mayor Walter Mulkewich in the crowd so this wasn’t an NDP event – just the Dutch being Dutch and wearing their national colour.
TD Bank style refreshment - a summer job for a student.
Trudging along the streets of downtown Burlington was a young lady offering drinks of fresh lemonade courtesy of TD Bank. Interesting summer job.
LaSalle Park - bring about a boat on its way to the water.
A break for lunch and then it was off to LaSalle Park to watch some of the boats at the LaSalle Marina get put into the water. The visibility was great, the skyline was clear and although there was a bit of wind earlier in the day it settled down. Boat after boat got taken out of the yard where they were squeezed in like sardines. The crane crept forward so that the “sling crews”, those are the guys that get the wide straps wrapped around the hulls so the boats can be hoisted out of the yard and into the water, could do their job. Then the crane did the lift and the boats swing over the pavement to the waters edge where they are gently lowered into the water. A team of about 30, maybe forty people made it seem like an effortless process as boat after boat was put into the water every fifteen minutes. The skids that they sat on in the winter months were pulled away and stowed till the fall when they will be needed again.
Nature photographer Thomas Vijayan, catching orioles as they nest.
Just outside the boat yard Thomas Vijayan, a nature photographer, was using a massive lens to get pictures of orioles in their nests. Vijanan’s passion however is what he called “live kill” photography – which as he explained it, is when lions chase down gazelles in parts of Africa.
First piece of summer cake at LaSalle Park
In the LaSalle Park itself a large family was having a picnic with one mother tenderly feeding cake to a child. You could almost feel summer working its way towards us watching that scene.
Girls selling lemonade on Palmer Drive
One the way up the street for the last stretch of the day – there were four little cuties jumping up and down just in from the intersection of Guelph Line and Palmer Drive. They were trying to catch the attention of drivers going up the street or into the church parking lot across the street. Their lemonade stand was open and they wanted to do some business.
A sure sign that summer was indeed just around the corner.
That’s the kind of Saturday it was.
