A Place to Walk: A Naturalist's Journal of the Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

A journal is, by definition, a one-way communication. Journal-keeper to
paper. No response expected or required. This closed-door tone dominates
Aleta Karstad’s journal. She’s alone with her subject. As readers,
we can observe her being a journal-keeper, but cannot move past that to
relate to her subject.

The journal covers an exploration of the north shore of Lake Ontario,
from Hamilton to Trenton, Ontario. Transportation modes included foot,
bicycle, and canoe, with truck and trailer never out of sight. The 325
kilometres covered are heavily populated, a mix of residential and
industrial areas—no open wilderness here. Specimens collected comprise
plastic garbage and dead gulls, along with shells, bones, berries,
seeds, plants, and “drift”—whatever washed ashore. There’s an
emphasis on frog songs and on sightings of crayfish and snails.

The prose is flat, tedious, and confusing—characteristics that add
bricks to the wall that the author builds between the reader and her
subject. Even given all that, there is one strong reason for buying this
book—the illustrations. Karstad’s drawings and paintings are
wonderful: light, delicate, almost ephemeral. They’re integrated into
the pages in the style of Victorian journals, nestled like jewels into
the text. A visual treat not to be missed.