Play Outside Now

An invitation to play in the streets is exactly what is happening more and more in cities around the world – designating certain days where the boulevards become a playground for free activities.

New York City closes nearly 7 miles of streets three Saturdays in a row in August for their Summer Streets celebration.

Paris is holding their ‘Paris Sans Voiture’ day on Sept 27th, but for something on this side of the pond, Toronto’s Open Streets is this Sunday, Sept 6th.

When I was at Open Streets a few weeks ago, I was surprised by the number of different activities – walking, running, biking, making chalk drawings, and photographers taking in a new perspective from the middle of the street.

Then I saw something that surprised me – a guy rode by on a unicycle, playing a ukulele.

Who knows what I will see this weekend.  See you there.

Photo courtesy of weburbanist.com

It was a perfect weekend to take advantage of the high water levels and explore some small winding rivers where usually this wouldn’t be possible. Although there were two problems  – mosquitoes and black flies.  What’s a great defense against these?  Dragonflies.

I found there would always be one that hovered around the bow of the canoe. If we went too fast or too slow, it was gone. Since these guys can eat their weight in insects (the kind who bite us), every 30 minutes, they are great to have around.

We often think of insects as an annoyance, but dragonflies actually take pests out of our way.