VISITOR INFORMATION
Schedule: Open year-round.
Admission: FREE
Address: At the southwest corner of Queen East and McGee Streets
Phone: Website: www.naturalplaygrounds.caNearby restaurants: • A favourite destination of local kids (and their parents) in the area is Ed’s Real Scoop and its amazing homemade ice cream and gelato (920 Queen East, www.edsrealscoop.com).
While you are there: • You’ll find a large wading set in a lovely playground in the southern end of Jimmie Simpson Park, just across Queen east from McCleary Playground.
Age group: 2 - 5 years old
Attraction suitable for:
Toddlers
Preschoolers
Cutting-edge design
One day, I found the biggest tree in my local parkette lying down in pieces. Months later, I had the surprise to see that some ingenious designer team had found a way to give it a second life. Let’s hope it’s a new trend. Every section that could possibly get reused from that fallen tree was used. The main part of the trunk was installed upside-down to form a natural arch. Two park benches were made out of logs. That’s not all! Two large Chesterfield chairs were carved out of the tree base, with matching coffee table. They even got a picnic table out of it. Who are “they”? They’re the Bienenstock people under the umbrella of Gardens for Living with major funds and time given by ING DIRECT Canada, in partnership with the City of Toronto (with no corporate signage to be found on the premises, by the way).