September 21 World Gratitude Day
How can you be thankful to your community? Have you gone out of your way to profess a heartfelt thank you to someone who has made a difference in your community? What of the countless people who make the city safe, and beautiful? Have you extended a word of thanks to those who keep your parks area verdant and the heart of your community. The Urban Forestry Program, takes care of those trees which remove pollutants from our air, creating a wondrous city free of smog.
What is it that makes a good city excellent? Shops, entertainment, shelter are among some readily picked choices.
However, is not the public park, the place where childhood memories made? Just as a healthy frog serves as an indicator of a thriving environment, does not a good park serve as measure of a world class city?
What is the difference between a park and a parking lot? Well most people agree, that a good and blissful public park has lots of trees, wetlands, and fresh fragrant woodland and meadow air. A great park has safety, and provides a sanctuary to interact within the neighbourhood, and meet new people A perfect setting for a picnic, events, recreation, and general happiness and relaxation to everyone in the neighbourhood. A wide variety of cultural events embrace musicians, yoga groups, bicycle trips, bird watchers, the young and the old.
Perhaps you bring your kids to run and play! Or maybe your dogs need to sniff and get some mental exercise. Your camera might need to be taken out of the box and out for a leisurely walk. Perhaps your son or daughter has ADHD or is autistic, and what better sense of achievement that a stroll or bicycle ride down a forest path for physical health and mental healing? A teacher may use the path to teach their students about the environment. The public park is a place for fellowship, health and wellbeing for one and all where can everyone find a safe place in nature as Saskatoon grows to a booming population of one million!
However it works for you, be thankful for your park. Its not every city that has a healthy ecosystem embracing grasslands, woodlands and wetlands.
Richard St. Barbe Baker spoke to his gratefulness, in his book My Life My Trees
“I wandered on as in a dream, all sense of time and space lost …
“I became intoxicated with the beauty all around me, immersed in the joyousness and exultation of feeling part of it all.
“I had entered the temple of the wood. I sank to the ground in a state of ecstasy; everything was intensely vivid – the call of a distant cuckoo seemed just for me …
“The overpowering beauty of it all entered my very being.
“At that moment my heart brimmed over with a sense of unspeakable thankfulness which has followed me through the years since that woodland re-birth …
“I was in love with life: I was indeed born again, although I could not have explained what had happened to me then.”
Happy World Gratitude Day!
For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park
For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
For more information:
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′
Addresses:
Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A
Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A
S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A
NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063
Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot
Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com
Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map
Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)? with map
Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park
Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
In regards to your financial donations to protect / enhance the afforestation areas, please contact the City of Saskatoon, Corporate Revenue Division, 222 3rd Ave N, Saskatoon, SK S7K 0J5 To support the afforestation area with your donation please state that your donation will support the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, or the George Genereux Urban Regional Park, or both afforestation areas. Please and thank you! Your donationis greatly appreciated.
1./ Learn.
2./ Experience
3./ Do Something: ***
Chaque fois que je fais les courses, je vote résolument “Oui aux aliments en vrac!” et “Oui aux produits biologiques!” Pour mes enfants, je rêve d’un avenir plus sain et sans déchet: je suis heureuse d’y investir mon argent chaque semaine.”
― Bea Johnson
“Has any one of us ever really seen a Tree? When we become aware of trees we may catch glimpses of them in moments of spiritual vision and, identifying ourselves with the trees, become conscious of the rising of the sap; the upward thrust of life; leaf burgeoning, their consciousness of the changing seasons; we may share their passionately boisterous exuberance of life in the height of a storm, and their tranquility when at rest; with them we will enjoy the glad murmur of the ripening seed clusters when after weeks of drought the steady warm rain brings relief to thirst; and we will know that these creatures, our elder brethern, are intimately related to us in their love and hunger for life. We may even catch their enthusiasm and aspire heavenwards while still rooted in our Mother Earth and in communion with our fellow men and, tree-wise, strive to make the Earth more fruitful again.” ~Richard St. Barbe Baker
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. George Genereux Urban Regional Park. 