Around the Neighbourhood Part II

 

There are lots more interesting things scattered around town.  Here are a few more.

The new Long Term Care home is getting close to opening.  they've now paved the entry and parking lots.  I'm taking note in case I ever end up living there!

I watched a guy building this fence and congratulated him more than once; he was working on it during some hot July days!

And on this fence nearer home, a Pride flag has been flying, same colours as the Pride crosswalk.

I headed the other direction once recently and drove by my favourite in-town barn, though this is a spring picture to show you the context.

Not sure why I've never noticed the pattern of these doors - someone went to a lot of trouble years ago.

Of course the Goldenrod has been out since the start of August, this pointed one the typical shape of several secies you can see here.

However, this one is not typical; it must be the Flat-topped Goldenrod.

And downtown the crosswalk recognizing Indigenous people has been painted with white feathers.  It's the only such crosswalk I've heard of.

More to come.

Queen Elizabeth

I only saw Queen Elizabeth once, when I was 9.  It was their first tour of Canada after her coronation, and my mother took me to Stratford where fans lined both sides of the road to the Stratford Festival.  I have no doubt my aunt was there too; they were both admirers of the Queen.  I had my first camera, and managed to snap a picture of the Queen in her limousine as they drove slowly by.  After that my interest only grew.

Her death was certainly expected at some point - she was 96 - but it still brought a small tear to my eyes, for her family, for her thousands of UK fans and for fans around the world.  However after a brief moment of sadness, my thoughts turned to thanks.  The Queen was a woman who gave herself in service for over 70 years.  She was dedicated, thoughtful, hard-working and had a great sense of humour.  What's not to love and respect.

This recent cartoon symbolizes so much to me.  It's at Balmoral obviously in my mind, it shows her love of the outdoors and dogs (and horses), and above all it shows Philip at her side.  It reflects the famous picture of them having a picnic, sitting on a blanket, high in the hills.  The ballroom where she still lies at rest is the only room inside the castle open to the public.  We've been to Balmoral, so I can picture it clearly.  

Thank you Queen Elizabeth, for your long years of service, for being an example to so many, for your love of the outdoors, and for simply being such a nice person!

Around the Neighbourhood

I'm always on the lookout for things of interest and pictures worth taking, but sometimes these leave me with a scattering of pictures from my various rides.  So here are a few of the things I've found of interest over the past few weeks.

Right next door our neighbour has one of the amazing 'dinner plate' Hibiscus, a bright pink one, so known because the blooms are the size of (small) dinner plates!

They also have this beautiful blue Rose of Sharon that's been in bloom for several weeks.

Elsewhere the most common brightly coloured end-of-summer flowers I see are these Brown-eyed Susans.  I could probably list a dozen places I've seen them blooming.

But the most interesting flower I've seen grows outside this house, which is of interest in it's own right, with that curved porch and the remarkable stone wall.

And this is the plant, a Cup Plant.  Here growing 8 feet tall, it's a native perennial widely distributed over eastern North America, and typical of the eastern prairie.

It's bright yellow flowers go on blooming well into fall.

It gets it's name from the tiny cup formed where the opposite leaves meet at the stem and overlap slightly, holding a drop of three of water or dew, an adaptation that serves an eastern prairie plant well.

Around a corner or two from the Cup Plant is this interesting combination of colours, pink Echinacea, yellow Day Lilies, and light blue Russian Sage.  An unusual grouping, but one I find very attractive.

Part 2 tomorrow.

Harbour Visits

It's been nearly three months since I took you down to the harbour.  I haven't actually been down there as much this year, 'cause there always seems to be an onshore breeze leaving me feeling chilly - Georgian Bay being Georgian Bay.   But the times I have gone down I've been intrigued with the Sailing School known as 'Sail Georgian Bay'.  It's a premier sailing school that attracts students from across Ontario and runs 8 weeks every summer.

They've got their own building and dock in the inner harbour, with a fleet of boats for teaching.  

When I get down there (usually after lunch), they're headed out for a sail on the bay.  Students all get their boat ready and leave the dock.

Soon there aren't many left dockside and it only takes a slight breeze to get them moving.

They're headed toward the harbour opening beyond the left of the photo, and ready for a sail on the bay.

If you look closely you'll see that there are two students per boat.

On another day I was down the shore a short distance to see the first two boats pass the breakwall, almost in open water.

And behind them come the rest, open water on the left.

I wonder how many of them will develop a love of sailing and end up with their own boat someday in the future.

Once I wandered down to the gravel beach at the end, to find this large rock holding down the wheelchair access.

I took a closer look at the coarsely-ridged bark of this big tree as I turned around, and realized it was a huge Cottonwood!

Weather has changed here, with a much cooler day today than yesterday.  Fall is definitely in the air!

Crops and Dinner

Our anniversary celebrations did not end with our visit to Harrison Park.  The next day we joined our son and DIL for dinner at Pebbles, a popular buffet style restaurant just south of Durham.  Good food and lots of it!  Ironically this may have been where we caught Covid!

Pebbles is in the hamlet of Varney, at a spot where there once was an old motel, the Cardinal Motel, which we stayed in when I was about 14, while we went skiing over at the old Talisman Ski Club.  Now it's a very popular large restaurant, often with a line-up if you arrive on the diner hour.  During the pandemic they renovated extensively, creating smaller dining areas.  Their frozen meals are now available in our local grocery store.  Varney is where I last saw a train go by on one of the now abandoned rail lines in the area - about 60 years ago!

After dinner we headed home through the rolling countryside.

We drove past the only solar farm we know of around here, a fairly small property, but it was fascinating to see it under construction over the past few years.

There's a cluster of windmills along here, probably about a dozen.

The crops here are mainly corn, wheat and soybeans.  This field of corn won't likely get harvested until much later in the fall.

Soon we had turned north and were headed down into the Beaver Valley, with the village of Kimberley down there at the lowest point.

They have a huge issue with speeding and truck noise, so they've waged a campaign to slow traffic down.  Personally I find these radar signs that tell you your speed, to be very effective.  Mrs. F.G. certainly pays attention!

All the wheat here has turned a golden brown; about half of the what fields are harvested now.

And the third major crop is soybeans; it also won't be harvested until much later.

Here's another corn field.  If you see the crop rows at right angles to the highway, it's easy to identify.

And of course there are lots of fields of hay or straw bales still to be gathered in.  And thus ended our 50th anniversary celebrations!  One to remember.

Black History Cairn

When I get to Harrison Park I always like to pay my respects at the Black History Cairn, and I figured I didn't need more new pictures because I did have many in my files from past visits.  Sadly, though I have hunted for several days, I've been unable to find those old pictures.  Luckily I did find one earlier post from which I could copy these photos.

The memorial combines the image of a church with the two stone walls and the window frames, along with the patio squares including several quilt tiles.  Quilts were a main symbol for the underground railroad.

Each of these quilt symbols had a meaning, and quilts hung outdoors were used as messages signalling safe houses or the route for escaping slaves.

The windows themselves echoed the windows found in the first small black church in Owen Sound, widely considered the end of the underground railroad in Ontario.

Rocks used in the stone walls came from a number of U.S. states.

And there are a number of interpretive plaques that explain all this.  The Black community gathers for an Emancipation Picnic here on Aug. 1st, the date slavery was abolished in the British Empire.  This year was the 160th anniversary!

One Mile Trail Ride

Believe it or not, a month ago today was was our anniversary.  Now we never make a fuss over birthdays or anniversaries, but this was our 50th!  Both of us wanted to do something special, and it started with a visit to Harrison Park in Owen Sound.  I rode the One-Mile Trail and Mrs. F.G. walked the entire way with me.

She walks faster than I ride because I'm constantly stopping to take pictures.

And it was certainly a beautiful day for taking pictures, sunny and blue skies, with the sun turning the green leaves almost fluorescent.  There's another glimpse of Mrs. F.G.

There are some pretty big trees along the trail too.

Is that Mrs. F.G. in the distance?

Here she's not in the distance anymore, but still ahead of me.

This is actually a side trail of the Bruce Trail, as you can see by the blue blaze on this big tree at the end..

Mrs. F.G. suggested a picture of me as we finished.  Happy Anniversary!