Thursday, April 12, 2018

The Hundred Acre Wood...Forever!

Dearly Beloved, I found out something Wonderful the other day. 

I have mentioned the Hundred Acre Wood several times over the years of writing here. 

There's this:

http://ronnisrants.blogspot.com/2006/02/house-in-wood.html 

and this:

http://ronnisrants.blogspot.com/2006/02/walk-from-school.html

There are more.  Just put "Hundred Acre Wood" in the search box.

I loved the Hundred Acre Wood.  There was always something new to discover, from a hidden meadow with flowers I never saw anywhere else, to a neglected orchard with the best plums and pears I had ever had.  There were paths made by animals, unusual wild edible mushrooms, mossy cliffs, a craggy mountain, rich meadows, trees to hide under or climb to hide in, wild berries to pick and eat on the spot...it was a paradise for a lonely child.

I have thought about the place many times over the years...thought about sitting on the back porch, looking up at the looming crag of Mt Tzouhalem, or gazing out at Cowichan Bay from the front porch.  Happy adventures exploring, and gruelling walks home from school in the snow.  The time I rode my bike to school, and almost ran right into a cow (an escapee from the school farm), and the many times I fled parental control and wandered the woods for hours, ignoring alike the faint shouts from Mom and the prodding of my conscience.

I suppressed the thought that the place was probably divided up into lots and sold, stripped and built up.  I perused Google maps, found out the St Ann's School is now a therapeutic organic garden known as Providence Farm.

Thanks to a Facebook group I recently joined, where members reminisce about the area and nearby towns, I found out that the Hundred Acre Wood is now known as Chase Woods, and is part of the Nature Conservancy of Canada

The Chases, who hired my parents to be caretakers of the place in 1957, held onto it until David Chase reached the ripe age of 98, and donated it to the NCC.  I am sentimentally thrilled by this.

Thank you, David Chase, for doing it right.  If I could ever go back there, I could see the woods much as they always were, but enhanced by walking trails.

Dearly Beloved, I am a happy camper.

2 comments:

  1. Sometimes it is so good to remember and realise that the world is not a horrible place and that beautiful things can still happen. I am cheered to read this.

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  2. I was so cheered I cried when I found out! Yes, it's good to have some good news once in a while.

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