Sunday, 24 July 2011

Rolling Thunder Car Show


The Smiths Falls Rolling Thunder Car Club put on the best car show of any we've ever seen. Unlike last year I didn't have a real favourite but the ones below caught my eye.

It was a beautiful day for it - sunny 23C/73F and no humidity....









If I had to choose one, this might be it! I think it was a 1937 Hudson







Friday, 15 July 2011

A Trip Down Memory Lane

This was Thursday nights's sunset at Kilmarnock
We headed out this morning around 9:30 a.m. Below are some barns we saw along the way.




Public School, Dixon's Corners, Ontario
I was getting into familiar territory here. My younger sister went to school (photo above) here. It's now closed and being used for storage.

 Monument to the McIntosh apple, Dundela, Ontario (founded by John McIntosh).


This was the largest field on our farm and the farthest away from the house

I spent a lot of time at the house shown above when I was in public school. My best friend, Carol lived there.

This used to be the one room schoolhouse (above) that I attended for 8 years. When it closed, it was purchased by my teacher's daughter, Sylvia and her husband and fixed up as a home. She still lives there, in fact, she's sweeping the porch as we drove by.

This is the house where I grew up and spent the first 17 years of my life. It's now in a state of disrepair. It was such a beautiful house!

This is where my teacher, Mabel lived just west of our place.

 My grandmother's sister's house in Williamsburg. I spent a lot of time there too.

A plaque to Dr. Mahlon W. Locke in Williamsburg. Dr. Locke was known all over the world and people would come for foot manipulation. Williamsburg was the closest town to our farm.


St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Williamsburg, Ontario
This church is the one I attended while I lived at home.

On to Morrisburg where we had a picnic by the St. Lawrence River.

This is the closest I can get to the U.S. without going to jail. I'm sitting on the dock at Morrisburg and the trees across the river are at Waddington, NY.

The car you see is traveling on US route 37. I took this photo from the dock at Morrisburg.

My sisters and I had this tree planted in memory of our Mom & Dad in 2002 after Mom passed away. There is also a plaque at the base of the tree.

The house above is where I was born in Morrisburg. Although it has been a funeral home for years, when I was born it was a birthing home. It used to be brick.




This is where I went to high school, good old MHS (Morrisburg High School). It closed the year I graduated and students were bussed to Iroquois about 12 miles west of Morrisburg.

The prettiest church in Morrisburg is St. James Anglican.

Mom and Dad lived here after they sold the farm. Mom lived here till about three months before she passed away.

 I used to work here for the Municipality of Morrisburg.

We stopped at the locks at Iroquois but there were no ships going through so no photos were taken. The lock there is so much bigger than the ones here as they are for freighters whereas ours here are mostly pleasure boats.

 At Carmen Galop Park, Iroquois

Fort Wellington, Prescott, Ontario.

Boathouses at Galop Canal Marina, Iroquois

Freighter and lighthouse at Prescott

And looking across from Prescott is Ogdensburg, NY

This used to be a windmill
This is the site of The Battle of the Windmill.

This lighthouse is also in Prescott but is an ice cream parlour.

The Marina is in Prescott, Ontario and the buildings across the water are in Ogdensburg, NY.
 As you can see, I grew up very close to the U.S.

There were two large suckers swimming around the marina.

Here is a map of our route today.
From Prescott, we traveled to Brockville and then home. It was a long day but fun and we had beautiful weather for it.

Tuesday, 12 July 2011

White Faced Ibis and Corner Cabinet

On Sunday since it was such a nice day and we had gotten some of our work done (painting) we decided to go in search of the white faced ibis. I found out about it from a local birder's blog that I follow. So off we went to the town of Carp, Ontario. Unfortunately we didn't find any white faced ibis (photo below from Bruce's blog) but we had a nice drive and had a few photo ops.

 
The White Faced Ibis
A lounging cow

Carp River

Liked the windows in this old shed in Carp, ON

Hay bales shoot out of the baler into the hay wagon

A lovely old log barn

Yesterday when I was out looking around I went upstairs at Vickie's, a local ladies' wear store as I learned (from Facebook) that she was selling used furniture there. When I got to the head of the stairs, I saw it! The corner cabinet I've been looking for so today I took Gordon over to see it and he liked it too. It was small enough to fit in the back of the Squirt so it came home with us. I don't have it entirely set up yet, that will come.

It fits into the small corner by the kitchen perfectly. I wanted to display my Grandmother's china.

Saturday, 9 July 2011

Rocks, Osprey and Sunset

Here in Smiths Falls we have a dump but it's not for garbage, it's for plant material, leaves, grass, tree branches etc. Gordon trimmed the trees this week so we had some stuff to dump but we've also been picking up free rocks there to line the flower gardens so after tai chi that was our job today.

We picked two trunk loads of rocks and brought them back and just put them near the beds. After I had a nap I went out to arrange them and I think they make a big improvement.

The rocks are lining the flower bed under the front window

And on the corner flower bed

And behind the garage

I like them so well I think we'll need a few more to put around my weeping fig or whatever it is and maybe some larger ones to plant a little bed by the shed where Gordon removed the ramp. It's left a bare spot that calling out for a couple of big rocks and some little plants. All in good time.

Tonight we went out at sunset again and saw these osprey in their nest.


Then on to Kilmarnock to our sunset site where this loon was sitting.


And some sunset photos.




That's all folks!