Toronto Music Garden: a remarkable garden experience
I was reminded while visiting one of North America's great cities recently (Toronto) how easily many city dwellers can become disconnected from nature. Opportunities to experience nature become both more precious as well as perhaps more important, too.
A luminous visit to the Toronto Music Garden, listening to the wonderfully crafted audio guide as part of the visit, I was struck by a comment in an audio snippet (describing the dance forms). The commentator mentioned that during Bach's time, people in Europe were very much still part of nature, even living in cities, where he said, birds, animals, and the more gritty realities of life were always evident.
Interesting to contemplate, in an antiseptic age where it's quite easy to see nothing particularly natural while walking along a city street, much less hear birdsong.
So it's always a delightful experience to seek out those places that do remind us of the natural world, whether restored, created, or evoked.
The Toronto Music Garden and its surrounding restored wetland areas are places that give respite and restore the spirit, for sure.
A luminous visit to the Toronto Music Garden, listening to the wonderfully crafted audio guide as part of the visit, I was struck by a comment in an audio snippet (describing the dance forms). The commentator mentioned that during Bach's time, people in Europe were very much still part of nature, even living in cities, where he said, birds, animals, and the more gritty realities of life were always evident.
Interesting to contemplate, in an antiseptic age where it's quite easy to see nothing particularly natural while walking along a city street, much less hear birdsong.
So it's always a delightful experience to seek out those places that do remind us of the natural world, whether restored, created, or evoked.
The Toronto Music Garden and its surrounding restored wetland areas are places that give respite and restore the spirit, for sure.
I wish we had known about the headsets to listen to the info about the Music Garden. Loved the gardens and the setting. (and all those Lilacs)
ReplyDeleteThis garden is one of my very favorites, of all the gardens I've visited, largely because of the combined experience listening to the music while walking through the garden.
ReplyDeleteI first visited ~15 years ago; it was interesting to see how much had matured (and how the experience had remained wonderful, too!)
It's too bad it's so hard to find the audio wands (available at the closest harbormaster's office). I had to Google to see if they still were being offered...
I agree with Janet, the garden would have been so much better with the headsets! I do think the overall design was quite nice. ~Julie
ReplyDeleteI really loved the design of the garden, combining natural elements of Canadian landscapes with much more formal plantings. The woodland area with the carefully placed stones was one of my favorites (I think the "first" element).
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