Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Alley Rink




In one of the alleys in upper Mile End, an enterprising father has built a sweet ice rink. I've stumbled across it a few times but only this weekend did I actually see the man responsible. I stopped and had a chat with him. He said that they used to go to the park to play hockey, but that his kids have so much homework this year he thought he would try to build a rink nearby to cut out the travel time. It turned out to be a big hit. "You come here at night and it's black with kids!".

He also said it was actually not that easy to build or maintain. He bought these special rectangular plastic bags from Canadian Tire that you fill with water and then lay on the ground. Once they have frozen, you tear the plastic off the top and sides. This builds a consistent base that you then fill in and on with slow additions of water. The thing always seems really well maintained when I've been by it.



We are supposed to get up to 8 degrees on Thursday and then back to normal temperatures. I hope that doesn't ruin the rink
too much!

Plus, some bonus winter alley walk images:



1 comment:

Christian Jarry said...

I really like your pics. It's fun to follow you around your neighborhood.