Goats come to meadow's rescue

Baba and Thunder are munching contentedly on buckthorn and garlic mustard and thistle but instinctively eschewing the milkweed that can cause upset stomach.

- ROSIE DIMANNO

The pair o' bucks are separated from the nanny goats - don't want any unauthorized humping going on - and the kids grazing on the other side of the fence.

Sixty-two of the bleating ruminants are in this eco-herd, shepherded to the Don Valley Brick Works Park this week to do their chomping business in the meadow. Working goats, if you will, with only a full belly in remittance for the freelance gig.

On a pleasant Tuesday morning with birdsong filling the scented air, nature is an antidote to the cacophony of traffic noise and the staccato of gunfire, all the sirens and construction site clangour and earsplitting racket that typifies life in the city, some of it regurgitated as newspaper reportage. At the Brick Works, a foundry turned urban oasis, the prevailing ambience is serenity.