Orange Shirt Day

Today is Orange Shirt Day here in Canada, or now more formally the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, a day of remembrance for all the indigenous children who lost their lives in residential schools, and whose burial places even now remain uncertain, and for the many more children who lost their culture, including their language.

In 1960 Phyllis Webstad was a young 6 year old, living on the Dog Creek reserve in northern B.C.  She was excited to be going to school for the first time, and her grandmother had scrimped and saved to buy her a bright orange shirt to wear.  But when she arrived at school, as in all the residential schools apparently, the children were all stripped, bathed, and de-liced.  She never saw her orange shirt again; presumably all the clothes had been burned.

Phyllis was left feeling totally worthless after the indoctrination she experienced at that school, and finally entered therapy at age 27.  She finally spoke publicly about her orange shirt on Sept. 30th, 2013 and the image quickly caught on.  Now the day is formally remembered as the National Day fore Truth and Reconciliation, but for many it will always be Orange Shirt Day.

This is the winner of the 2023 contest to provide a design for the T-shirt.  If you have a hankering to buy an orange shirt, buy it from the Orange Shirt Society - and remember the children.

More Scarecrows

Here are some more scarecrows for your photographic enjoyment.  Tonight is the Scarecrow parade; lots of kids will be downtown to see that, if not participate in it.

Scarecrows are in all kinds of places downtown, and the town provides a lot of support!  I'll let the photos below speak for themselves.

With that we'll leave the downtown scarecrows, and hope they've got people in the mood for Hallowe'en!

Meaford's Scarecrow Festival

This Friday is officially the Scarecrow Festival here in Meaford.  It almost collapsed after last year's 25th anniversary, but a new group of volunteers stepped up to lead it, and so it continues.  There's a big display downtown, and a few elsewhere, with people encouraged to set up their own displays.  Here are a few of the downtown group, which I can easily access.

The theme this year is pirates, so look for costumes that reflect that.

A lot who've lost their legs!

A welcoming lady.

And the pirate ship.

Then I took a close look at that sword he's carrying!

I think these were captives.

While these guys just relaxed.

More captives.

The pirate chief with his foot on their treasure chest of booty!

A close look at that treasure chest.

Mrs. F.G. is Finally Fed Up!

Well, it had to happen eventually, I'm sorry to report.  Mrs. F.G. finally got fed up - but she had to get rid of the body.  

Going...

Going...

Gone.

But the Market Has Changed!

We got to the market with no trouble, apart from the fact that we had to park on the far side of a large gravel parking area!  But let me give you some background on the market first.  

There are really two parts to this market, one the farmers selling local veggies, maple syrup and Niagara fruit, etc. and the other three or four long aisles of travelling vendors selling everything from sheets to sunglasses.  (There's a third part, the livestock auctions, but we're not in the market for livestock).  Keep this in mind as I describe what we found.

 

There were still two or three farmers selling fruit and veggies, as we always find.  But after that it was as if the market had been taken over by the travelling vendors and all the rest of the farmers had gone home.

There was a two-story emporium selling dresses.

And nearby, some stuffed animals of a sort.

Sunglasses galore - but note the long empty gravel laneway in the background.  In the summer that would have been filled with more travelling vendors.

How about some giant bags of popcorn?

Or kids books?

Ok, I admit, mushrooms may belong in a farm market, but with the end of summer we found the market changed almost beyond recognition, at least for what we wanted to buy.  Mrs. F.G. never did find her tomatoes; she went and got them at Goldsmiths in Thornbury a day or two later - though the drive was nice.

But this isn't a 'market' in any sense that I know!

Another Drive to Keady Market

Mrs. F.G. wanted to get a quantity of plum tomatoes for making tomato sauce, so we decided to drive to Keady Market the Tuesday after Labour Day.  Cottagers and tourists would have gone home, leaving us with thinner crowds to battle.  Little did we know that the market changes a lot itself after Labour Day.  This time I thought I would bring you some pictures of barns on the drive over, though we did find a couple of other interesting things.

Heading down Grey Road 12 I always like this barn. It's mostly hidden behind trees, but the giant Canadian flag on its roof still shows up fine.  I have the distinct impression the flag was repainted in recent years.

A little further on is a farm with this incredible dry stone wall all across the front.  It had become overgrown, but has been cleaned up nicely.  I suspect that this is evidence of a nearby outcropping of the thinly-bedded Manitoulin Formation, one of the lower layers of the Niagara Escarpment.

Just beyond that we saw how quickly the crops were changing.  This bright yellow Canola field had been green three weeks earlier.

Most people fly by this spot, the sign isn't really big enough to slow them down.  But on a sandy knoll hidden among those trees back there is one of our local pioneer cemeteries, this one still in use.

Then we came upon one of the most interesting crop combinations we've ever seen, sunflowers and corn, though it's an immature stand of corn presumably being grown just for silage.  They had taken advantage of the sunflowers popping up in the fields to offer a few for sale.  Has anyone ever heard of anything similar?

I'm quite sure this is a new barn and silos, built in the last few years.

This one is obviously an older barn, now the only building left on a large community pasture just south of Waters Falls.

This is also obviously an older barn, with an interesting set of outbuildings and additions.  By then we were close to the market, so I'll bring you photos of the surprising change there next.

Fall Fair!

Labour Day weekend was the annual Fall Fair here, and we had a nice visit there over lunch, which was delicious roast beef sandwiches..  We even met a few people we knew, including one of my caregivers and her family.  And I got the approval of the Farm Safety Association as I rode around with my orange hat and flag.  

The first exhibit I noticed was the full-size bed quilts on the far wall.  This is the most beautiful of the quilts, a large piece embroidered with flowers.

Quite close, on a table was the rug hooking exhibit.  Since my aunt was an enthusiastic rug hooker, I stopped to take a close look.

There were lots of flowers on display, and I thought this was one of the nicest.

I think this must have been the most misshapen vegetable contest!

But down the table there were lots of veggies, these the onions, garlic, and tomatoes.

A closer look at some prize-winning tomatoes.

There were lots of crafts, this snowy owl one of the best.

There was a big photography display, a contest I once entered at the Markdale Fall Fair.

And more flowers.

And two antique tractors, outside by the fire truck and kids playground.