Inglis Falls

Inglis Falls is not just my favourite waterfalls, but one of my favourite places in the world.  I've been visiting it since I was young, as my grandparents lived nearby.  My dad tells stories of it from before that, and my great-grandfather carried his grain to the mill here to be ground.  And now I've been visiting in all seasons and trying to get better pictures.

Last year the falls was actually entirely frozen over, but this year there's a strong flow of water over the main part of the falls, and tumbling down over the boulders below, all surrounded by ice, with lots of spray frozen on the rocks and trees above.  I was trying for those 'slow' pictures, so this is a quarter-second exposure, for which I needed to use both a tripod and a neutral density filter so it wouldn't be too bright.

This is close to the same picture, but at a normal speed of 1/125, where the water is somewhat more 'frozen' in mid-air.  You can see that actually the water is flowing over thick ice; it's just the surface that is water.  There is undoubtedly lots of water flowing under the ice out of sight though.

These are three closer views all the same, but taken at different speeds.  I'm not sure I can even tell much difference, and I'm not sure which I like best.  The first is a full 1/2 second exposure.

The second is a 1/4 second exposure.

And the third is a 1/8 second exposure.  What do you think?

The last one is a horizontal view, but of the same part of the waterfall, at a normal speed of 1/125 second.  I think I"ve learned the basics of using a tripod and the neutral density filter, but I have a lot to learn yet about composition, and lighting.  Still, it was a beautiful winter view of a beautiful waterfall.

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William Hilts 

 Feb. 22, 1977 - May 22, 2015

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Our Favourites Part II

Today, in my final post on gardens this winter, I'm going to share pictures of our last three favourite gardens among all those we have visited.  These include Monet's famous water lily garden, Hidcote created by Lawrence Johnston, and Sissinghurst, created by Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson.

By 1890, Monet was earning enough from his paintings at the age of 50 to buy additional land along a stream across the road, and create a large water lily pond.  This was several years in the making, but then became a focus of Monet's art for the last 25 years of his life.

This is one of two small 'Japanese' style bridges over the stream at each end of the pond, one of Monet's classic scenes.  He painted this numerous times, in all different seasons.  Google 'Monet', and choose 'Images' and you'll see many of his paintings.  It is of course impossible to get a picture of this bridge without people, or even with just the one person you'd like to get a picture of on it!

Monet painted about 250 water lily paintings altogether, right here in the water lily garden.  But his biggest effort for the last few years of his life was painting 8 enormous panels of water lilies, each 30 - 50 feet long, and 6 feet high.  They are displayed in the Orangerie in Paris, in two oval rooms especially built by the French government.  They were Monet's final gift to his country.
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And this is the best image I've been able to find that would give you a small sense of what these enormous paintings are like to experience.  Seeing these paintings one day and then seeing the actual water lily garden the next was one of the most memorable experiences we've ever had while visiting gardens!

Hidcote is a famous garden known for being divided into numerous 'rooms'.  It was created early in the last century by an ex-pat American, Lawrence Johnston, living in England.  It's also a garden of vistas, and these are the famous red borders in the centre of one very long straight path.

This vista looks even further, all the way past those red borders, through a gate, and out into the Cotswold countryside where sheep are grazing next door.

Another well known view at Hidcote is a shorter series of rooms including the reflecting pool and two famous topiary 'peacocks'.  They get pruned in spring and fall, so they're looking a little shaggy in mid-July.

The final garden is perhaps England's most popular garden, Sissinghurst.  We probably know more about the making of this garden than any other garden, because Vita and Harold were both writers, and Vita wrote a gardening column in the Observer for years.  Not only that, but both their son and their grandson have written books about their experience growing up there.  Try to imagine 10 years old boys racing their bicycles around the paths in this garden!

The unique thing about it (besides Vita and Harold themselves), is Vita's tower, where she had her writing room.  The garden was actually built in an old partly ruined castle.  They lived in one old building, ate in another, and slept in another - quite the 'house'.  But because of this tower, you can look down on the garden from above, a view you rarely get in gardens.

And both of these final views are of the white garden that Vita created in one part of Sissinghurst, an idea that has been repeated over and over again in gardens around the world.

Although we started out with just an interest in travel, horticulture and photography, we've ended up having wonderful experiences in gardens from Scotland to Spain and Italy.  The tea rooms are always a highlight after we've toured the gardens.  Thanks for coming along these six weeks, when pictures of gardens can balance the cold and snow outside!

Favourite Gardens Part I

I finished off my six week Life Long Learning Series on Tuesday, sharing photos and stories of our five favourite gardens.  Today we'll visit, Sezincote, Hestercombe, and part of Monet's garden at Giverny in France; tomorrow the rest of Monet's garden, Hidcote and Sissinghurst.

Sezincote, a private home in the English Cotswolds, is simply one of the most remarkable rural places we've come across.  Built 200 years ago by a family who served with the British Empire in India, this house has been described as the best example of Mughal architecture in Western Europe!  The garden above (between the model elephants and the house, is a very simple '4-square' Persian garden with paths, upright Junipers, and a water feature.

The curving orangery is absolutely stunning, and it's now the tea room, so you get to take a close look.  All the little details of the architecture remind you of India.  The fan-shaped arched windows are a specific feature of Mughal architecture.

Elsewhere, there are flowers, like these very bright red lilies, in a beautiful little stream garden that cascades down a slope beside the pasture.

Hestercombe is equally remarkable, but here it's this garden rather than the house that stands out.  This was designed by the famous English architect Edwin Luytens, and the plantings were done by the equally famous garden designer and writer, Gertrude Jekyll.

This is one of two rills, a narrow stone channel with a tiny stream in it, bordered by the luxuriant plantings on either side.  Gertrude Jekyll was perhaps the most influential English garden writer of all time, as she not only designed 400 gardens, and wrote 12 gardening books, she also wrote over 1000 practical articles.

And these are some of the plantings, backed by one of Luytens' stone walls.  As the undergardener I'm always looking at the actual structure of the gardens we visit.  This one is outstanding because it has both a formal architectural framework, and more natural luxuriant plantings of flowers, a great combination!

And finally, Monet's garden at Giverny.  This is the first part of the garden he built, extending south from his house, and providing a rampant mix of colour for his paintings.  That's the house in the background, which is also open to visit.

And this is the view from the front steps of the house.  Imagine coming out your front door to welcome the day with a huge colourful garden like this to greet you!  (And several gardeners to do the work).

Just one small corner of Monet's flower garden, with mixed red and light mauve Geraniums.  Monet is actually better known for the other part of his garden, the water lily garden, as well as his water lily paintings (one of which recently sold for $88 million! - he ranks #3 among artists for recent sale values).  But that will have to wait for tomorrow, along with Hidcote and Sissinghurst.

Mild and melting again here today, as the winter thermometer bounces up and down like a yo-yo!

Sunny February Skies

We've actually had 3 days of sunny skies here so far this month!  (That means 15 days that weren't!).  I've taken advantage of every sunny day to get out and do at least a little photography, while refreshing my vitamin D.

I hopped out of bed just as the sun was breaking the horizon this morning, and immediately saw that we had a clear blue sky.  I decided to head out for some winter waterfall shots - we get so few sunny winter days like this.  And that sun is now creeping steadily north along the horizon; it's only 4 weeks this weekend til spring!

By 10.30 I was ready, and headed out.  I was serious this time, and took my tripod and my Neutral Density filter, which you need in winter sun to darken the picture if you want those 'slow' shots of water falling.  As this view over our back meadow shows, the sky was still completely blue, and a brilliant blue too!

Last week I got some sunny skies when I was in Meaford and took these shots.  As often happens when we do get sunny skies over land, there was a cloud bank out over the bay.

There's just something about blue water and blue skies together.....

The week before when I was in Meaford during the mild spell, we also had a bit of sun, and some interesting cloud formations.  Someone said these clouds presage changing weather.  The weather has been changing pretty well every day, so I'm not sure how much that helps!

And by 3 o'clock today, when I'd finished photographing my 4th waterfall, the sky was still completely blue from horizon to horizon.  A really special day of sunny skies, this one over Georgian Bay just north of Owen Sound.  I'll get to some of those waterfall pictures by Monday next week.

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Meaford Harbour - Again

It was a few days later, the mild spell was over, cold temperatures had returned, and the snow was back.  The scene along the shoreline in Meaford was quite different from yesterday's post!

It was sunny but bitterly cold with a stiff breeze off the bay, and the Bighead River was choked with ice floes.

I like the pattern, and I expect that with even colder temperatures over the weekend, this is now a solid sheet of ice.

I walked as far as the start of the breakwalls, but now that they were snow-covered, there was no way I was going to go ever a short distance out on the boulders!

The swells were rolling in, and I left the boulders alone to enjoy winter!

You could easily see how the ice builds up on the boulders with the splashes.  What a difference a few days means!

But I stayed on the main pier.  I hope this counts as a fence for TexWisGirl's 'Good Fences' meme.

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Meaford Harbour Feb. 4th

My first recent time photographing things at the Meaford Harbour was nearly two weeks ago now, and it was in the middle of our mild spell.  Temperatures had risen above freezing, and we'd had rain (Yuck!), so there was little snow left, and even the ice along the shoreline had mostly melted.

I started at the little park west of the harbour, where I've sometimes climbed over a 6 foot snowbank, and waded through 18" of snow to get winter pictures.  Today - no snow at all, and just a little ice on the outer boulders.

It was a sunny day, and a bit of a northeast wind, so the waves were rolling in.  You could easily see how the ice builds on these boulders when temperatures are below freezing.

And I was completely astonished to see a ship out in the bay - in early February!!  This would simply never happen in a normal year; last year it was solid ice for 2 or 3 months!

It was so easy walking with no snow that I went over to the main harbour and headed out to the breakwalls.  This view is the opening of the river mouth, the same view as the last view of this that I finished with yesterday - completely choked with ice floes, after the temperature had dropped later that week.

I walked to the west light first, just a small warning light for entering the harbour.  You would never walk here in a normal winter, because these rocks would be covered in treacherous ice, and it's about 20 feet down to the water.

By this time the ship out there had come in closer, and I could see it was a fishing tug, taking a chance with the weather on a good day I guess.

Then I turned back and headed out the east breakwall, to the taller small lighthouse.  You can see that the ice is completely melted away at water level.

Somehow I managed to get a picture when the flashing red light of the small lighthouse was actually on.  It's amazing how hard it is to catch it in a photograph.

Walking out there I had seen someone just standing on the rocks, but as I got closer I could see he was flying a drone, a small quadcopter.

I went to join him and got several pictures.  I've looked at drones for some fun photography, but hesitated because of the noise they make, and the price.  But I was quite impressed with this one, and had a good long chat with him about it.  He was still learning how to fly it, and out here away from people was a safe place to practice.  You can guess what I'm thinking! ...... That might be fun!

The drone is entirely controlled with a unit like this, both for the flying and the photography.  It has a built in gps system that will always bring it back to the point where it started, at least if you set it up correctly. The Canadian government announced new regulations for drones just this December, and they're pretty stringent.  If used for work or research, you need a license; if just for fun you still cannot fly them closer than 150 yards from people, vehicles, buildings, or built up areas.  That's a fair distance, and as long as people follow the rules it would get rid of the annoying use of drones at touristy locations where other people are there.  They'd still be useful for air photos out in rural areas - like wetlands that you can't walk through. In any case, I was impressed.

I stopped by to say hello to the retired Westport CCGS ship permanently on display here.

And found two more Coast Guard ships out of the water for the winter, at the small Coast Guard base.  The Cape Commodore and the Cape Rescue are both used on Georgian Bay as search and rescue ships, but I've never seen them here before.  Turned out to be a nice walk for a winter day after a mild spell when I couldn't go skiing!

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