Breakfast in Scarborough

In 2007, I wrote about Deer Park for the first time, describing it as the branch where I received my first Toronto Public Library card a couple of days after I immigrated to Canada in 2002. Since then, I’ve visited Deer Park so frequently that I stopped noticing its distinctive features. Last week I decided to look at it with fresh eyes, as if seeing it for the first time.

The centre of Deer Park Library is a large checkout station surrounded by library sections on all sides. Starting at the south wall and circling the desk counterclockwise, I walked through a sunny reading area with windows overlooking Saint Clair Avenue. On that busy afternoon last Monday, several patrons had drawn chairs right up to the window and propped their feet on the heater covers. A nearby bamboo plant provided calming vibes.

As I passed through aisles of fiction, I rounded the east wall and saw a Local History Collection, something I’d never noticed before. Crouching in front of the shelves, a few titles jumped out at me: Mount Pleasant Cemetery – An Illustrated Guide, Opportunity Road: Yonge Street 1860-1939, and A Short History of the Deer Park Branch Library: 1911-1952 The Store-front Years. The latter was a bound handwritten manuscript by Joan C. Kinsella. A Short History described how Deer Park Library was initially nomadic, moving from one rented storefront to another until finally coming to rest at the current building in 1952.

Progressing through the north side of the library, what came into view were rows of non-fiction (including a full ESL collection), DVD’s and videos, the French section, reading tables, study carrels, and computer terminals.

The west side contained the children’s section, which had a “low wall separating (it) from the main entryway” (“Breakfast in Scarborough” October 2007). My previous post mentioned that I’d once seen an exhausted man asleep on the red reclining chair beside the low wall, but last week the recliner was empty.

A dragon rested on top of one of two long shelves in the kid’s section. What I liked about this dragon was that it appeared to be made by hand. The dragon-crafter had utilized material from old backpacks or raincoats to fashion a fearsome creature with red and purple horns. It was impressive at an adult’s eye-level, so the dragon probably looked even more fierce from a child’s perspective.

The other shelf supported an even quirkier decoration: an oatmeal-coloured woolen castle! The castle complex had a green felt base and some fuzzy trees surrounding it. To the right of the entrance, a yellow-green dragon was sewn to the wall. The portcullis was a quarter of the way down, and the main doors were partly open, the silver ring handles waiting for a servant to pull them shut at sundown.

(Historical note: The Woolen Castle is more populated in these current pictures due to the restoration work of the castle’s creator, April Quan. Please see this post for the full story!)

I couldn’t tell what materials comprised the underlying structure of the castle, but I was really taken by the fact that all the walls and turrets were covered in wool. (Beware invading knights on saddled moths!) One squat turret hosted a wizard in a high window, while a couple of the taller turrets had princesses in them. As an alternative to the crenelated parapets, some of the towers were topped with red roofs in the shape of upside-down cones. The circular courtyard was empty but seemed an ideal venue for a stately feast.

My day brightened by serious library with a knitted castle, I put my notes away and walked to the Saint Clair subway station.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 3:49 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.