Part II of my Adenturous Ride Downtown

 Picking up where we left off yesterday, there's a big beautiful Sugar Maple outside that art deco house we stopped at yesterday.  I backed up a little and waited for traffic to pass (there wasn't much), and snapped a photo of the entire tree.

I don't think I go past any other Sugar maples this large.

Across the street is this enormous old house.  The design is remarkable, and it sold 2 or 3 years ago so I presume the new owners have been fixing up the interior.

Down in the next block is the large First Baptist Church, the only larger church in town that is not wheelchair accessible as far as I know.

And finally we reach the library, my most common destination downtown.  I personally think the renovations they did to the old grocery store to create a library were very well planned  This building is totally wheelchair accessible, right down to the washrooms.

After that I reach the harbour, if I'm going that far.  That's the bench I usually stop at to just relax a bit.

Heading back home I ride back up the same street usually, passing this nondescript building beside the old library.  It's the townhall.  I presume they're using the old library for office space.

Across the street is another old stone church, one of the smaller ones, which became the Rotary Club's Thrift Shop, and then they purchased the building and host the local food bank downstairs.  A great use for an older church in my opinion and a good project for our local Rotary Club.

My Adventurous Ride Downtown

Back earlier in the spring I thought it would be interesting to share with you my usual ride downtown, this being the extent of my wild adventures now that I'm in a wheelchair.  With a heavy duty power chair like my own we can't even fly anywhere, so I make the most of where I can explore here in Meaford.

All of these pictures were taken about a month ago, so it's definitely a taste of early spring again rather than today's near-summer weather.  I pull out on my own street and turn left, headed toward downtown.  No sidewalks; almost all of my ride is on streets rather than sidewalks.

Even before the end of my own street I pass over a small stream, deep in its own little valley.  If nothing else this stream serves as a corridor for wildlife.

Around a block or two there's a house with a seriously real flagpole in the front yard.  Good to see.

Then I have to ride down the Collingwood Street hill, as it abruptly drops over the ancient Nipissing post-glacial shoreline.  There's a sidewalk here, but it's so narrow it's unsafe for a wheelchair, with a very uncomfortable bump at the top.  The road is the worst pavement I face, but I wander back and forth trying to avoid as much of the 'alligator pavement' as I can.  As for the overhead wires, I can't do much about those!

After I turn at the bottom of the hills, beside the daycare, I come to another landmark for me.  I's a four-unit group of townhomes, built what looks like 100 years ago.  A far cry from today's townhouses.

Then I cross the busy Nelson Street and pass the large Church of Christ.

I prefer the route down Trowbridge Street, one of the oldest streets in town, with some beautiful big old homes.  This one is an 'art deco' home from the 1930s, which was heavily renovated a few years back.  The renovated home was listed for $1.3 million, and sold quickly.  I'd love to see inside!   And we're now more than halfway down town.

Down by the Harbour

On Saturday last, I went out for a ride, heading down to the harbour.  I stopped at my favourite coffee shop and picked up my usual coffee from my favourite barista, taking it to go.  I went down to the harbour to sit and relax a bit.  There were people and cars everywhere, a dance recital apparently, in Meaford Hall.  It was chaos until I got down there.

I was surprised to see a pair of swans out in the harbour, and as they tipped up in search of food, I realized our harbour must be pretty shallow from all the sediment the Bighead River brings down.  They were a long way away.

After awhile they swam over quite close, as if they could recognize a person who might feed them.  Mute Swans are an introduced species in North America, easily identified by their orange beaks.  They mate for life and in this area, do not migrate.

Sitting there I was hearing music, and looking around I spotted a gentleman sitting on a bench on the far side of the harbour, playing his saxophne!

I was down there again yesterday, and found two municipal staff testing a nearby fire hydrant.

Then I heard a growl coming from down the dock at Richardsons.  Watching I saw their big crane approach their dock carrying a small sailboat. gently lowering it back into the harbour.

And all the time I was down there on Saturday, I was serenaded by a good saxophonist playing some nice jazz!  Always something interesting going on down at the harbour!

Flowers by the Furry Gnome

A day or two after Mrs. F.G. I was out in the garden myself, drawn by the first of our large Peonies, a bright pink one, bursting into flower.  We have several of these bright flowers which will dominate the colour for the next couple of weeks, but I think this one is my favourite.

When Dominion Nurseries in Georgetown was going out of business, they held an open house where  gardeners could come and dig up Peonies for free, since the fields would soon be bulldozed.  We got several and the six we still have are the descendants of those plants.

All of our Peonies are 'singles', with wide-open flowers which the bees can get into easily.

The pistils and stamens are an open lesson in botany!

We have several Columbine, which I think of as the 'travelling' plants in the garden.  They self-seed easily, so we never knw where they're going to pop up the next year!

The first of the Pinks are starting to bloom, another of my favourites.

Jacob's Ladder is a beautiful blue flower, and this time I was able to get a separate flower stem, which shows the flowers much more clearly.

Our tall Allium in a distant corner of the garden are in bloom.

And the beautiful little Coral Bells are adding a bright touch.

And finally, you may remember the big White Ash trees we had removed last fall.  Rather than pay a huge sum to have the stumps removed, we chose to keep them, providing another spot for Mrs. F.G. to display some plants.  Quite effective I think.

Flowers by Mrs. F.G.

The other day Mrs. F.G. came and got my phone to go out in the garden and get some pictures.  She was thinking of one flower, I forget which one, but she just carried on and got a lot of nice shots of emerging flowers.  The garden is changing rapidly these days, amid the rampant growth of dozens of plants.

We have two Rhododendrons, which have incredibly beautiful flowers, even though the plants have stayed quite small.

We've also got a small Azalea, which looks white to me, but which Mrs. F.G. claims is a very light pink.  Her eyes are much better than mine!

This year she has planted lots of Marigolds which will brighten up several corners of the garden.

The Maidenhair Fern is unfolding quickly, in my mind the prettiest of ferns.

The Forget-me-knots continue to spread through the garden.

The delicate flowers of the Solomon's Seal hang beneath its stem like tiny bells.

And out by the front door the first of our many Clematis has burst into bloom.  These blooms are quite large and completely white.

I'll add this close-up, my only contribution to this post!

Hummingbird!

I was sitting at the window as usual, doing some morning exercises, when I noticed a blur around the pink Bleeding Heart right in front of me.  I looked more carefully and it was a Hummingbird, a Ruby-throated, by far the most common kind we see here.  I grabbed my camera and tried to get some pictures.  Even at the best of times it moved so fast it seemed blurred, and the wings were just a blur all the time.

It hovered first at the farthest blossoms, and I had to be quick to get it in my lens.

Then it moved to the closest flower and went patiently (although it always seemed to be in a hurry), from blossom to blossom.  It was almost too close and vibrating too fast for the camera to focus.  However, given the general lack of birds I've been seeing at all this year, this was a prize!

Trees

 As I ride around town and we go on drives, I regularly see trees that have been ruthlessly trimmed by hydro crews.  Sometime there's virtually a hole in the centre of the branches.  I'm always observing trees, noting what species they are, and thinking about whether they're healthy or not.

In the distance, partly blocked by our own maple tree, you see two lare Sugar Maples out on the golf course.  The right hand tree looks unhealthy to me, and since it's a beautiful tree, I'm concerned.

A closer look shows the difference.  Sorry about the tree trunk blocking the view.  This is the tree that spurred me to write this post.

So while I was out the other day I got a clear view.  The difference between the two trees is troubling!  As they say on the news, 'This is a developing story'.

While I was looking past our own Sugar Maple, I noted a healthy coating of greenish lichen.  It only shows up in certain atmospheric conditions, but it intrigues me.  This is not a sign of poor health as far as I know, but it's interesting.

Then driving downtown I spotted this poor specimen, a deep V cut out of the top to accommodate the hydro lines.

And here's my favourite chestnut tree, half of the top completely removed!

But it still has amazing flowers!