If you've ever driven down the Lakeshore in Mississauga, Ontario you may have noticed a driveway with a little white gate marked "Private" blocking the entrance. This has always been a mysterious driveway to me because I always wondered why it was blocked off. Are they snobby? Is it a single house? What would happen if I went in there?
Alison Pentland from the blogs In Disguise, Black Oaks and Off the Porch explains the true meaning of the white gate in my my next instalment of In My 'Hood.
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| Jack Darling, Rattray Marsh and Rhododendron Parks feature four season outdoor fun opportunities like snowshoeing, birdwatching and wedding photo locations |
What we love most about blogging from our home offices is that it let’s us physically #live #love #work #shop #play in our own 'hoods, but its digital nature also stretches us outside the domestic to continually connect with a larger world. Educated as an anthropologist everything I do is through its lens.
I have several small businesses where I express myself through photography, writing, podcasting and, yep, costuming. FeeFiFoFun is an online store offering costumes and accessories all year round. My blog In Disguise complements my costuming, exploring pop culture and consumerism. Black Oaks is my online journal for our arts and crafts home. My main blog, Off the Porch came out after a trip to Blissdom Canada, an eclectic mix of stories, photography and links about nature, travel, politics, parenting and food.
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| Lorne Park Estates has many old historical cottages and some new ones like this Arts & Crafts home under construction. |
My husband and I are drawn to water. In an urban forest of South Mississauga, a stone’s throw from Lake Ontario, we found a piece of property severed from a larger estate and set out to build. First settled by the Mississaugas, Lorne Park Estates became a wood lot for harvesting masts during the Napoleonic Wars. In the Victorian era, the enclave became “cottage country” with a steam tram delivering Toronto folk to the cottages or the one hotel. The hotel was destroyed in a fire, but the promenade remains and sometimes I picture the ladies and gents strolling in their Victorian attire. Eventually the little villages of Lorne Park, Clarkson Village and Port Credit became part of Mississauga, also now technically part of the larger Toronto GTA.
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| Jack Darkling Leash Free 22 acres depends on volunteers to fundraise and physically maintain the park with the City |
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| Saying good morning to Toronto from the beach at Jack Darling Park picnic area and splash pad |
Commercially, my neighbourhood is set between Port Credit and Clarkson Village. Port Credit is a tourist area well known for water front activities like Dragon Boat Races, Paint the Town Red and the Mississauga Waterfront Festival. Clarkson Village is home to spaces that meet your daily needs. Plant nurseries, pharmacy, grocers, yoga, childcare, vets and auto repair. It also boasts hidden gems like Benares and Bradley House Pioneer Museums, Karma Furniture Consignment and The Barn Antiques, the famous family friendly Pump Restaurant, Altered States Comics, CLP Sports and our small, but mighty HomeSense.
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| Clarkson Village is home to many of Mississauga’s heritage buildings like the Bradley House here serving up pancakes and fresh maple syrup |
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| Lake Ontario often has dramatic winter weather and summer lake breezes lower temperatures by approx 10 degrees |
Born on the prairie, I’d like to highlight the lush green spaces of Mississauga that I've become very attached to. Due to the repeated interference of residents since 1903 to keep it from being over-developed, the community has unique status. The community is private and the residents are members who are responsible for voluntarily repairing and plowing the roads, maintaining boulevards, tree lots and the beach front. All homes are on septic with no city waste water [sewers]. The two roads into the community are narrow, without sidewalks and are marked “private” not to be snobby, but to alert people that residents are the caretakers, not the City. I clean the beach of glass and beer cans and spend many an hour pulling weeds from the common areas. If a tree falls, city workers don’t come come to free your car, my husband’s chainsaw does. We are proud to be part of maintaining what can be seen from Goggle Earth as the largest forested area of South Mississauga housing thousands of native species of flora and fauna.
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Our Leash Free Dog Park integrates with seven stories of
Mississauga largest Water Treatment Plant
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| This is typical of the woodlots maintained by LPEA residents to promote native species |
As a nature lover, I can’t think of any better way to spend my days. Particularly because we are connected to a series of parks along the lake shore like Rattray Marsh, Rhododendron Park and Jack Darling Park which has a beach, picnic areas, a splash pad and 22 acres of the best leash free dog park in Canada and I can walk to it all.
Thanks for sharing your special neighbourhood Alison! For more information on this series, see the other posts below. If you'd like to contribute, please email me at lealoulemonade (at) gmail.com
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