It’s easy to love the colours of a Caribbean sea, captured during my first ever vacation to a warm place last month.
But there’s beauty to be found in the often monochromatic world of a Canadian winter too. On the first day of this winter, I was struck by the bits of ice forming on the branches that overhung a widening of the river near my home and the pattern they made. (My dog was more interested in the sticks.)
A ten-minute walk from my home, I can enjoy this lovely view. Well, not quite. Since this photo was taken two years ago, a metal barrier of sorts has been embedded in the rock with a sign attached warning hikers “Deep Gorge Keep Back from Edge”.
If I were drunk or otherwise inspired to foolhardy behaviour, the barrier would not prevent me from falling over the cliff, but the installation of the bars, complete with the defaced (of course) sign affixed to them, probably means that the Grand River Conservation Authority cannot be successfully sued if such a thing were to happen. It also means that people like me, sensible enough to keep back from the edge without the warning, can no longer enjoy an unobstructed view of this gem of a landscape.
I used to go there often with my dog (she’s sensible enough to stay back from the edge too), to sit on the rock and contemplate the beauty of the trees, the water, the sky. It’s not the same now that we have to stand to enjoy it.
Big deal, I guess. There’s still lots more woods and water and rock to enjoy in our local conservation area and I’m grateful every time I go in there for the daily opportunity to do so. Still, the desecration of natural beauty in a futile attempt to protect people from their own stupidity? Well, sorry, but that’s my beef on this lovely spring day.
