Olde, Olde Toronto New

Finally, I am putting the finishing touches on mandala # 27.  I took a hiatus break for the last 2 weeks and
just got back to work on this piece yesterday.
So many interesting details have emerged about Toronto's past, that I have had to make decisions on what and
what not to include in it.  I hope it generally rounds off a good cross-section of society which evolved from
the Ice Age 12,000 years ago until now in the area of Queen to the north, Lake Ontario to the south, Parliament to
the east and University to the west.
So many of the buildings remain in Olde Toronto today and to see them would be well worth a trip from anywhere.
They represent how our city, so very young, was formed.
My mandala shows the early inhabitants of this area which lasted for 9000 years.  What an incredible story
about how they survived on the land !

I will always remember this poem as I had to memorize as a child in school ( Yes, memorize ! We always had to
memorize poetry and recite it in class.....it was a fantastic assignment, as it taught us to concentrate and
learn new vocabulary and so many other skills which I won't mention right now. )

So here it is ( maybe you know it ) :

Indian Children

Where we walk to school each day
Indian children used to play
All about our native land,
Where the shops and houses stand.

And the trees were very tall,
And there were no streets at all,
Not a church and not a steeple
Only woods and Indian people.

Only wigwams on the ground,
And at night bears prowling round
What a different place to-day
Where we live and work and play!

Annette Wynne

Every time I said it, I would imagine how it was as described in the poem.
My dad always took me to the ROM to see the displays of native culture and I'm sure that
it inculcated in me a feeling of actually being there. And now in my mandala I am bringing
alive visually a little wee bit of the past.  My journey through Toronto has many, many more
nooks and crannies to " goldingmandaleyes " and my next will be King Street.

My journey begins at Roncesvalles-by-the-lake, a little portion which is already on my
Parkdale and Roncesvalles/High Park/Bloor West Village mandalas.