behindtheax

closed to the public

Monica and I biked to her camp this morning. Beautiful morning. Lovely breeze. More like a wind really. After dropping her off I kept biking. Ended up at Leslie Spit and was so very content to sit by the water for a while. The waves crashing up over the cement blocks and twisted iron rods. There was a lot of metal strewn everywhere, coppery and weakened with rust. Weeds and wildflowers had found homes in the cracks and crevices of broken slabs of white cement, which may or may not have come from old highways, bridges, buildings? I don’t know why this small peninsula is like this but it would be a great place to film a post apocalyptic film. Oryx and Crate comes to mind when I’m there. There was once an old abandoned gas station, which looked forlorn and kind of spooky on the edge of this cement shore, but they tore it down a few years ago.
It wasn’t until I had dropped my bike in the grass and went down to sit near the water did it occur to me that no one was here (except for dump trucks coming and going) when usually this place is full of people jogging, biking, walking. And it wasn’t until after leaving the gates agian did I notice the huge sign (which for some reason I didn’t notice on the way in) that read Open to the public weekends and holidays ONLY. That explained a lot.

It also finally explained a day that Greg and I had spent there fourteen years ago. We were only in the city for maybe all of eight months and it was my birthday and I was a little melancholy for home. I remember having to work that day but I called in sick and rather sitting home feeling guilty that I called in sick, Greg and I decided to go explore the city and have a picnic somewhere. So we took our bikes and a bottle of wine (which was usually the only item our picnics ever contained) and found Leslie Spit for the first time. (I think we were trying to find the ferry for the Island) Anyway, we often think back very fondly on that day and wondered how we seemingly had it all to our selves. I guess we must have missed the sign that day too?

posted by mary j. @ 12:31 PM