This week the Elphinstone Chronicles has a guest columnist: Elphinstone resident Claire Finlayson. She and her family have lived in Woodcreek Park since 1991 and she’s been an active member of the Woodcreek Park Neighbourhood Association since its inception in March 2018. Thanks Claire!
Rock balancing or stone stacking is an art in which rocks are naturally balanced on top of one another in various positions without the use of adhesives, wires, supports,
rings or any other items which would help maintain the construction’s balance.
At the bottom of the Woodcreek Park subdivision, a set of stairs lead into a trail down to the beach. I have been walking this trail for 30 years, and though coming back up never gets any easier, I always marvel at how fortunate we are to have such a tranquil, parklike piece of the forest right there at our feet. I love how it changes with each season. Before long we’ll be swishing ankle-deep through bright yellow maple leaves, which will eventually turn brown and decompose. Then it will be spring again and the ferns, drawing nutrients from the newly enriched forest floor, will unroll their fronds, and the cycle begins again.
One year I noticed a stack of rocks perched on a low boulder at about the mid-point of the trail. Someone had gone to considerable trouble to create this little masterpiece of balance and form. I stopped to admire it. Chugging back up from the beach, I added a pebble to the top. It was my acknowledgement of the work. My thank you note.
Next time I walked down the trail, I saw that someone had kicked over this little cairn and scattered the stones. The time after that, it was back. Someone was always wrecking it, someone restoring it.
Lately on my walks I’ve noticed that the trail is looking better than ever, as though someone was grooming it. Shallow trenches have been created to direct water away from the muddy sections. Bark mulch has been pounded into divots and depressions between the roots of the trees. Branches leaning over the path have been clipped back. I swear the stairs have been picked clean of leaf litter. Either that or someone has been in there with a vacuum cleaner!
Then I met the man who’s been doing the work. He’s 90. And though he wishes to remain anonymous and waved off my request to acknowledge his stewardship of the trail, he says he treats it as though it was his own back yard.
There are those who create, repair and tend for no other reason than anticipating the enjoyment others will get, and there are those who take any opportunity to vandalize or destroy. I have come to appreciate my secret allies in the forest.
The purpose of all neighbourhood associations is to identify those who build up, no matter how small their contributions might seem. There is much to be done, even by those who can only add a pebble to the top.
(Claire will be one of two new voices at the Festival of the Written Arts on Aug. 15 at 2 p.m., presenting Dispatches from Ray’s Planet: A Journey Through Autism, along with Michelle Good, award-winning author of Five Little Indians. Tickets are sold out, but as pandemic restrictions are lifted, more seats may be added. Check the festival website in August: www.writersfestival.ca.
