It’s that time of the year again, when we pull out our shovels and our winter mittens. Growing up in a small town along the French River, one of the first things I loved to do as a child was to play outside all year long. This soon included developing snow-fort and igloo building skills, and of course, skating.

Canadians in general have a great preoccupation with ice. As soon as the first frost arrives, our towns and cities open their skating rinks, and the excitement begins. I believe one of our great national winter sport to be skating, and when looking at these wonderful archived photographs, the Don River seemed to have been particularly animated during the winter.

As the new Don River Valley Park develops and shares its vision of `Creating places that integrate culture, nature and community` and `Provide moments for contemplation, where visitors can engage with the landscape`, I cannot help but wish some vision of our winter landscapes and activities could be integrated into the vision and publicity.

How great would it be to see Torontonians encouraged to come out, on the Don River, in full force with their friends and families to enjoy the cold weather and a fun afternoon on ice-skates!

The Canadian Encyclopedia explains clearly that, fundamental to all ordering of events of the Earth's history, is the principle of the positional relationships of rock and mineral bodies.

Having recently read through various surveys and historical accounts of the Toronto bedrock, I am completely captivated by our timeline, which brings us back to  the Gerogeian Bay Formation, 450,000,000 years ago.

Inspired by layers and textures of surfaces and sections, these few images are a great resource.