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| Swans at LaSalle Marina. Copyright Heather Vallance 2011. |
LaSalle Park is about family. On a warm day the lawns are cluttered with tumbling children, wedding parties and dogs which make me think of Jacquie Lawson cards.
A recent windstorm toppled several venerable guardians of the lake, creating new vantage points for the chipmunks who extract a levy in seeds from walkers. Not all trespassers pay the levy, leaving the chipmunks in a state of utter disbelief as they anxiously scurry to new positions on the trunks just in case they were unobserved.
The path curves down to the lake and follows the shoreline. This is the home of yet more chipmunks - and squirrels. The usually robust squirrels seem to be suffering from mange this year. Things breed in the excess damp, and we’ve had damp.
The shore is a combination of mottled green marsh and beach where waves lap against the shale on which ducks and gulls rest. The sound of the water is like enforced meditation. Walkers stop, not because they plan to, but because they have to.
The marina comes into view with its rows of boats and collection of people, but the path holds one final surprise. It does not stop at the marina. The path continues across the road, down an old pier line and into the bay. There is history here, and otters.
To go full circle and back to the car, walkers have to climb the hill to LaSalle Park, toward the wedding parties and splash pool, but even this journey holds one final secret - a memorial to an explorer who stood where once Lake Iroquois lapped, on land that was only a promise of the future.
