I used to make-believe a lot when I was little. Faeries and ghosts and magic and Ogopogo and the whole lot -- it was all real. I craved the unknown and the unreal, had to seek out everything hidden (fast forward 10 years and I can hardly watch The Ring. Shut up.) I loved all the little places in my gloriously suburban neighbourhood that didn't quite fit the mold -- the "Spanish villa" at the end of the street, or the string of trees along the pathway that had gone slightly wild. They were more interesting than orderly flowerbeds, anyways. Grownup me doesn't believe in faeries or Ogopogo (ghosts are still up for debate, really), but I haven't really lost my taste for the places that exist outside the norm.
When I go wandering, I love taking back alleys and green belts, crossing fields, using paths instead of walking on the main road -- essentially, anything to avoid using the sidewalk. Partly because it feels like an instant adventure -- probably this is a feeling left over from pretending I was a voyageur -- but also because it's straight up more interesting and usually prettier. There actually aren't many alleys around where I live, but there are a few green belts, and it's weird, because the nature in there is so ordered, trees in straight lines and all that nonsense, but if it's done right (or you're in the right mindset), it really can feel as though you're outside the city. Even with the backyards all around, it's just more peaceful, quieter. We need those spaces, I think. It can't be all urban, all the time. So thank god for gas lines?
The alleys, too. I think I love them because oftentimes what's in there is overgrown from people's yards...it's really just accidental, an afterthought. And it sets off so well against the crushed cigarette boxes, hey? I've seen everything from daisies to overgrown raspberry bushes in alleys, and really, it's that starkness that makes it appeal to me so much. It doesn't fit. It's rather like in Mike Davis' article, with the post-firebombed places where the flowers would spring up, new and in abundance. Life where you wouldn't expect it, I suppose. There's one in particular, not very far from here or the river, and in the summer it's just utterly filled with wild roses. The gravel on the ground and these beautiful pink flowers just above it...I really like the juxtaposition, I suppose.
Which is really what it comes down to, isn't it? What's really so appealing about all of this is how it contrasts with the ordered nature of our usual existence. It's a little beyond the ordinary, and to use a cliche it's often (literally, even!) off the beaten path. It's freeing in that sense. So go exploring.
I completely agree with you about alleys-- I love wandering in them as well. They are an afterthought, generally speaking, and it is so great to wander and really look at what people don't give a second thought to, just like the cigarette boxes smushed into the overgrowth. :)
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