Changing Skies

For the first time this year, we've had five sunny warm days in a row!  It actually feels like summer.  Farmers have been making hay as fast as they can go while the sun shines.  But the dark skies arrived again tonight, just like last weekend, when we had a thunderous downpour.  It's Grey County, the weather changes!

These two shots were taken today, the one below two days ago.  Got a little too warm for me the past two days, but in general, it's been perfect weather for outdoor work, just about the best time of year.

As you can see, the Canola is suddenly in bloom, responding to the sun and warmth after all the earlier rains.

On the other hand, this was last weekend, ominous dark clouds passing over.

Resulting in a heavy downpour, here bouncing off the deck.

And tonight we're back to those dark skies.  I fear it's going to be a wet few days again.  I hope all those farmers who were racing to harvest hay with several dry days in a row, got it baled and stored away.

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Meanwhile, yet another medical apt., this one in Kitchener.  At least the results were good on this one!  And of course there were stores available to stop at.  I thought this sign for Lens Mill Store was neat, but the store itself on the other hand (if you've ever been in one of this chain), is the biggest jumble of fabric, yarns and crafts (as the sign says), I've ever seen.  Glad I'm not the one shopping for fabric!

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Sunday Afternoon Drive

We headed out for a Sunday afternoon drive a couple of weeks ago, trying out our new GPS for the car, and learning a bit about its foibles!  Not entirely intuitive, but we did have a nice drive.

Our first stop was the little church at Leith, up on Georgian Bay near Owen Sound.  Now it's used for summer concerts, but it's very well maintained.  Do you remember why pilgrims stop here?

Tom Thomson's grave is here, the light coloured one on the left.  Thomson was perhaps Canada's greatest painter, at least the best known.  Google Tom Thomson and see some of his famous art.

Tragically, Thomson drowned in Algonquin Park at the age of only 39, in somewhat mysterious circumstances, a source of controversy ever since.  Several books have been written about the mystery.  Regardless of that, many of his famous paintings are Canadian artistic icons.

People who know of Thomson stop by regularly to leave small items to mark their pilgrimmage.  The grave reads:  "Tom Thompson, Landscape Painter, drowned in Canoe Lake July 8, 1917, aged 39 years, 11 months, 3 days".

On looking around I'm reminded that this graveyard is not just for him.  Many families must come here; some graves are recently decorated.  It's a beautiful, peaceful spot.

Quite a while later on our drive, we came to the tiny hamlet of Rob Roy (talk about Scottish connections today!).  There the Osprey Township Museum is in this old one-room schoolhouse.

I'd heard that this was interesting to visit, entirely maintained by volunteers, and only open on summer weekends.   The architecture is typical of many old one-room brick schoolhouses.

This one still has the belfry, though it could do with a coat of paint.  It even still has the bell in the belfry!

The inside is fascinating, set up mostly as an one-room schoolhouse would have been though they recently had an event here, so have tables set up in the centre instead of the old desks.  Manikins play the role of teaches, but I'm not sure why there were three of them.  My dad taught in a one-room schoolhouse like this about 80-90 years ago, so it brought back lots of memories of the stories he had told.

Meanwhile, we're enjoying a run of sunny days here; farmers are out haying as fast as they can go.  Our new house is coming along quickly now, the interior is being painted at the moment.

A Few More Quilts

Tonight, a few more quilts from the very successful Queen's Bush show two weeks ago.  A long busy day today, with more driving than I like!  But finally, some beautiful weather, and I find myself watching the crops wherever I drive!

As you can guess, this was a wall hanging I liked, with its bright colours, and that northern pine tree.

One of the more spectacular quilts, with an incredible amount of 'paper piecing' to fit all those tiny pieces together, and quite the interesting design.

From a distance, this could be embroidery, but it's a lot of careful piecing to create these different designs.

I should give credit to the Rug Hookers group too, who were part of the show.  Markdale has quite an active group of 'hookers'.

Another of Mrs. F.G.'s wall hangings.

And another of her submissions, an exercise in learning embroidery designs.  An acquaintance stopped me in the grocery store out of the blue a few days later and commented on how much she liked this piece - each little circle was a 'meditation' in its own right.  And it took forever to do!

And then there was this sewing machine that a certain someone pointed out to me that might be coming our way in the future.  I'm not going to tell you the price!!

Queen's Bush Quilt Show

The local quilt guild held a big show a couple of weekends ago, so Mrs. F.G. was inevitably involved, and had submitted several quilts for display.  I only got in a quick visit this time, but was really impressed with the work of all these creative local ladies.

This pattern has been popular with quilters this year, with a wide variety of specific fabric choices.  Of course the theme of the show this year is Canada 150, and these make a great display when they're all lined up like this - the work of 11 different quilters.

There were a number of other quilts that picked up on the maple leaf theme in one way or another.

Others made use of Canadian symbols, this one with symbols representing ten provinces and 2 territories.  Can you associate each block with the right province or territory?  My guesses are below.

The quilt show was held in the arena in Markdale, and it was full of quilts!  It's a lot of work to set up these frames, hang the quilts, and afterwards take them all down.  This seems to be the role of a few hard-working volunteer husbands.  I organized this last time, 3 years ago, but I only helped a little this time.  I was partly impressed by the sheer quantity of quilts on display.

As you know, I'm a magpie, so my favourite quilts are always those with bright colours.  This one certainly qualifies.  I suppose I should also look at how carefully the quilting is done!

This is one of Mrs. F.G.'s small wall hangings, with a very strong horizontal quilting pattern.  This sort of quilting makes a big difference to the final appearance of the quilt; some other quilting patterns are much less obvious, such as the one above where you can't even see the quilting pattern.

Mrs. F.G. also organized the Fabric Challenge, a common element of quilt shows.  Quilters are given a kit with selected fabric, and a theme.   The theme this year was 'My Canada'.  Quilters can add other fabrics, but the three fabrics they were given should be used in clearly recognizable amounts on the quilt.   They also have to provide a brief explanation of how their quilt represents the theme.  Mrs. F.G.'s contribution is the one in the lower right.

There were also several of these small dolls, quite striking to me.  Mrs. F.G. first made these several years ago, but other members have picked up on them since.  Overall, it was an impressive and successful Quilt Show for a small community like Markdale.  And I'm sure that this creative outlet makes a big difference to many of the local women.  (Lest you think I'm being sexist, there are male quilters, but none in this guild).

So if you want my answers to the Canadian symbols quilt above, here they are, going clockwise around the outside first, starting with the puffin in the upper right - Newfoundland (puffin), New Brunswick (Hopewell Rocks), Nova Scotia (Peggy's Cove Lighthouse), Prince Edward Island (Confederation Bridge and Lady Slippers), Manitoba (owl), British Columbia (totem pole), the Yukon (dog sled), Nunavut (polar bear and Inukshuk).  The inner four starting with the loon on a northern lake - Ontario (loon), Quebec (making maple syrup), Saskatchewan (wheat farming), Alberta (bison).

***As Shirley pointed out, I had Nova Scotia and New Brunswick reversed when I posted this.  I've correct it now.***

Royal Blue!

Here's one of the bluest flowers you can find, the Blueweed, Blue Devil, or Viper's Bugloss.  It's a mediteranean  plant, but widely naturalized in eastern North America.  And once you look closely, it's a glorious royal blue colour.

I actually rescued this plant from the mower.  I had been watching for them to come into bloom, because it's such an interesting flower, and saw this tall stem growing in the gravel right beside the road on my morning walk.  But the township's mower was headed toward me, and would chop this into oblivion.  So I rescued it, just in time, took it home, and put it in a vase 10 days ago.  I got out my tripod and decided to try and get some pictures with greater depth-of-field than my usual hand-held efforts.

Here it is, quite a tall spike of blooms, with stamens sticking out obviously.  It's a very hairy plant too, and grows in dry soil like gravel or sand, along roadsides or railways.

You can see the fine hairs, which almost feel sharp if you grasp it, making it feel like a soft thistle.

It actually has blue pollen, on the ends of the red stamens, and the bees love it.

One of those unusual flowers I watch for each year at this time.  It's still in the vase on the kitchen table.

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Kilsyth

Kilsyth is a small village southwest of Owen Sound, where my grandparents lived, and where my parents met.  And where I spent a bit of time as a child, and my wife and I lived for one summer early in our marriage.  They were advertising a 'Canada 150th' celebration, so my son and I went over to see what was going on.

The heart of the village as I knew it was always the general store, which my grandfather took over in 1917 I believe, and ran for about 30 years.  My father, his sister and brother, lived in the attached house, and I have pictures of my elderly Aunt at a gas pump out front.

But the store is a private residence now, so we parked at the church, and walked around pointing out for my son all the old homes that our family had a connection to.

My maternal grandfather was the preacher here, his final church, I think in the 1930's.  My mother was still at home, in her twenties, and that's how my parents met.  By that time my father was back at home, and teaching in the one-room schoolhouse up the road.

The old schoolhouse is a residence now, but my father used to tell stories of teaching 8 grades here, preparing hot meals for lunch, keeping the wood stove going, and of course 'walking to school uphill through the blowing snow both directions'!

The manse next to the church was where my mother and her parents lived.  It's now another private residence.

Down the street is the home of one elderly Aunt.  There were four sisters, and when I knew them, they all lived in the village, including my grandmother.

Another Aunt lived in this house.  One year when I came up from London once a week to teach a night course, I stayed in this house every weekend.  My Aunt was long gone, but her daughter, my second cousin, was here on weekends.

The old stone wall out front is just as I remember it.

And this finally, is my grandparents home.  They had retired from the general store by the time I was born, so this was the house I was brought to as a child.  And then my wife and I lived here for one glorious summer after the last living Aunt died, while the house was put up for sale.

Me memories are of the chickens in this barn, gathering eggs with my Aunt, and picking raspberries in the big garden (which is now all gone).  We boldly walked in the driveway and introduced ourselves, and had a good visit.

The house was an Eaton's Catalogue house I believe, and the new owners have fixed it up nicely.  I think they've added that upstairs dormer.  My wife and I had a truly idyllic summer here in 1975, while I was preparing to talk up my first teaching job in London.

They were getting ready for the celebration parade, so we said good-bye.  We couldn't stay for the parade, as my son was here to do the final walk-through of the house they've purchased an hour west of us.

And today, a week later, they have moved, from Cobalt in northern Ontario, 6 hours away, to a a big old but new-to-them house only an hour and a bit away.  They moved north so our daughter-in-law could go to Northern College to become a Vet Tech.  Having succeeded at that, she starts her new job on Tuesday!  We're so glad to have them living a little closer!