In the 1940’s my grandparents Doris and Dr. J. Murray Speirs purchased a former chicken farm complete with outbuildings and a cobblestone house with extensive forest behind in Pickering. I photographed it as it looked in 2018.
https://mileshearn.com/2018/10/14/cobble-hill/
When Murray died in 2001, the forest was designated as an ecological reserve:
The house remained in the family until recently with the understanding that the land would eventually be given to the Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.
When I visited this morning, I discovered that all of the buildings have been razed:
Next came a visit to the Altona Forest which contains the ecological reserve:
Some botany:
NATURE POETRY
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued. – Robert Frost (1874–1963)
Miles Hearn