Doors Open Smiths Falls

Today (Sunday) as part of Doors Open Ontario we decided to take advantage and see parts of our own town.

Our first stop was the Station Theatre.

This is the front of the theatre

The stage and seating from one (of 2) of the boxes

This really neat bridge is on the upper level and goes to the intermission refreshment area

This is looking toward the desk at the entrance from the old railway station (now part of the theatre).

The bridge from ground level

The Station Theatre was built over many years whenever they had the money to complete a part so it is completely paid for. It's a very interesting building. One more thing on our list is to get to a play.

Next up was the Rideau Canal Gate Shop. The Rideau Canal is a UNESCO Heritage site. We've lived here for 2 years and had no idea that the gates to all the locks on the Rideau Canal are built right here in town.

This line is where the gates are built

They had hoped to have the wood there to show us how they're made. They are made from Douglas fir and comes from British Columbia so it's somewhere in transit.

These gates destined for Jones Falls locks were moved outside in preparation for the setup however Murphy's Law prevailed.

Another interesting thing for me was the host was Al Smollett, a guy that was part of our group when I worked at Nortel, Corkstown.

We definitely want to go back when they're in production and you can make arrangements to do that.

The third stop was the Gallipeau Centre, formerly the Rideau Regional Hospital. The hospital closed in 2009 after some 58 years in operation as a hospital for severely disabled young people both physically and mentally. The Gallipeau Centre is planning to turn this into an apartment complex complete with doctor's offices, shopping and much more. The first apartment models are scheduled to be opened this year.

This is the entrance to the Gallipeau Centre. Very pretty.

The auditorium

The pool

While this is within the town limits, it is quite a ways out. I sure hope it goes over well!

Part of the Gallipeau Centre is Hart Laundry Services. The laundry was part of the Rideau Regional Centre and also had outside contracts. Larry Hart ran the laundry at that time but retired when the hospital closed and was brought back out of retirement to run the laundry again. It's a very interesting place. The machines they have are run by computer. 

Larry Hart showing us how laundry is dropped by computer from every 1.5 min. to 2.8 min. then goes through the 'continuous' laundry machine. They can dry 220 towels in 18 min.

After lunch we headed over to our local radio station Jack 93.2.

This is John, our morning guy showing us that everything is computerized. They don't even need someone there for it to run. If a problem occurs, the computer calls one of the engineers to come in.

I was really happy to find out when we moved here that the local radio station is an oldies station.

Next stop, three churches.

1. St John the Evangelist Anglican Church

2. Westminster Presbyterian Church

3. Trinity United Church

Neither of us were aware that there is a Mausoleum just outside of town. This 19th-century stone vault containing the remains of Alexander Wood, one of the founders of the famous Frost & Wood agricultural implement company.

Although there were a few more places to visit we were both running out of steam so our last stop was the Heritage House Museum.

Baking biscuits in the wood fired oven

Note the front and back of the house are identical.

 Some interior photos depicting life in upper middle class 1861.

This house boasts a two storey privy

This is the upper level

That's quite a rolling pin!

The unique mirror image facades are a distinctive feature of this home’s design

We really enjoyed our tour today. Everything is free at Doors Open and it was nice to see that a lot of people were taking advantage of it but thankfully nothing was overly crowded.

When I got home it was nap time for me!

We Visit the Diefenbunker

Yesterday, the Diefenbunker was open as part of Doors Open Ontario! So we took off just after lunch for the one hour drive to Carp, Ontario. It was cloudy with threatening skies, a perfect day to go underground. The Diefenbunker was named after the Prime Minister of Canada at the time, John Diefenbaker.

The Diefenbunker was built in the 1950's to protect the government from nuclear attack. This once secret bunker is now a museum and National Historic Site of Canada.

I have to say that I'm not a great history buff, probably due to an inept history teacher who failed to make history interesting to me anyway. We arrived and were told that the next tour was in 1 1/2 hours so rather than wait for the tour we were allowed to go on a self tour so we didn't see as much or learn as much as we would have if we had waited. Oh well, maybe next year.

This is the entrance to the underground bunker

The blast tunnel leading to the bunker

Radioactivity

A dry toilet-not nice

One of the many hallways

One of the offices - note the dial phone

Cafeteria

One of Gordon's friends used to work in the Diefenbunker repairing communications equipment. Lots of old technology there!

A Saturday Drive

A couple of weeks ago I woke up one morning with a debilitating pain in my shoulder. I put up with it for about four days until it started radiating down my arm so finally headed to the chiropractor who ascertained that it was coming from my neck. I had very little range of motion in my neck that day. He managed to loosen up my neck but despite a couple more trips I still have the pain in my shoulder. It improves a bit here and there and then flares up again. Consequently I haven't been walking since that causes pain or doing much of anything else unless absolutely necessary. Thanks to my husband, the cleaning gets done and I'm able to prepare meals.

So, yesterday being such a beautiful day we decided to go for a drive. We headed west toward  the little village of Maberly taking a small detour to go through the hamlet of Brooke (which isn't much). However we did see a landart exhibit called Fieldwork.

The Ah, Ooh and Wow were all we saw of it but apparently there's more farther on. I wasn't up to walking to see it. It's out in the middle of nowhere but is an interesting idea.

We saw quite a few barns but this one I particularly liked.

We also took a rather pretty road that looks like you're driving on white sand but actually it's gravel.

These two llamas came running toward us as soon as we got out of the car. I guess they wanted some company.

Up close and personal with one of them.

It was a pleasant couple of hours and nice to get out and see some scenery on such a beautiful sunny day.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Sunday to all our family and friends!


We went on a little drive yesterday so hopefully I'll get another post together soon!

My sister and her husband were hosting Easter dinner tonight at their house in Ottawa so we arranged to kill two birds with one stone and Gordon also picked up his new glasses at the optometrist. He lost his others last summer.

After running some errands we arrived at my sister's house and had a chat with Margie, John and Danica for a while before the star of the show arrived-Jack! We hadn't seen him since Christmas and he has grown!

At 13 months he can almost open the door

Jack and his Daddy, my nephew, Nick

Jack and his Mommy, Becky

Jack with his toys that he keeps at his Nanna's house

Great meal as usual, thanks Margie & John! We also managed to make it home before dark! Love these longer days!

Happy Easter Everyone!

We're having Easter with my sister and her family in Ottawa. Hope you're all enjoying a beautiful Easter weekend!

Grandchild #9 arrives!

Update:
Length- 20 inches
Time of Birth- 2:16 p.m.
Name-Max Rylee Kelly

Congratulations to the family!

Who would have thought that I'd be posting again so soon. We have news! Grandchild #9 arrived today. Max weighed in at 9 lb 7 oz and that's about all the details I have right now. Here are a couple of photos thanks to his Daddy and his Aunt Kelly.

The Past Month

I know I've been lax in blogging but since I'm getting really tired of seeing those hearts pulsating at me every time I open my blog, I thought I'd better get something new up there.

Not much has happened here in the past month and a bit but such is life in Sensational Smiths Falls!

On February 21st I went to see a nutritionist. She did another food sensitivity test and found that I have sensitivities to many more foods than originally thought. On the positive side I was able to reintroduce a couple of foods back into my diet on an occasional basis that I was sensitive to back in 2009. However, I am now on a four day rotation with turkey, chicken, salmon and tuna (ugh!). I'm getting to really hate tuna and I am substituting other fish for it at least for a while. The good news is there's quite a variety of vegetables that I can eat. The diagnosis along with food sensitivities is candida and leaky gut syndrome. I know that doesn't sound nice and it's not but it is apparently what has caused the food problems so now I have to pay the piper and try to get the leaky gut healed. Once you have candida, it doesn't go away but can be controlled to a degree. So I feel generally unwell but am hoping that I will feel better as time goes on.

We have gone out for a couple of drives and had to make a trip to Ottawa this week to take our income tax to our financial advisor's office. They do it for free for clients. We have been with Canada Retirement for quite a few years now and are happy with them.

While in Ottawa we stopped by a few of our favourite birding spots. This little black chipmunk was right beside me while I was sitting on a rock. I thought it was a baby squirrel but one of the photographers said it was a chipmunk and it's been around for a year or more. I didn't even know there were black chipmunks. He was really cute!

Although we've had record setting hot temperatures for the past few days, the ice is still on the Ottawa River but is receding. Here's the little lighthouse at Andrew Hayden Park.

A flock of geese came in for a landing and I managed to get a decent photo of them. Did you know that a flock of geese are called a skein of geese when in flight and when on the ground they're called a gaggle of geese? There are some who would say that a flock of geese on the ground is a crap fest and I would have to agree with that!

There were also severeal Bufflehead ducks on the river but every time I went to take a photo, they'd dive so I was lucky I managed this one although it's not quite in focus.

And, of course, I had to take a photo of this guy looking right at me.

We also saw Bluejays....

and woodpeckers, I think this one is a Hairy. He was pretty big.

It's been a quiet, fairly warm winter for us. We didn't get a lot of snow but we did have some and I'm not sure we won't get more as temperatures are supposed to turn more seasonal this weekend. 

So that's it for me, Gordon has posted a few times recently. If you're interested, click here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Trip to the McDonald's Corners Area

We're having an abnormally mild winter up here in the land of ice and snow. This afternoon started off cloudy but Gordon wanted to go for a drive so we headed for McDonald's Corners which is west and north of here. He had found a back road that he wanted to check out. As we we heading in the general direction of where we were going Gordon noticed that there was some blue sky in that direction and by the time we got there, we had sun! The sky was gorgeous!

These white-tailed deer weren't at all afraid of us.

We got really close.

We also had sun on the way home and by the time we returned home it was bright and sunny here too! What a pretty afternoon!

Mystery Solved!

After receiving my quilt, I contacted an avid quilter, Paulette of Sweet P Quilting and Creations. She came through for me with this link, click here. Paulette put it on her blog and her readers came through for her. It's called the Mohawk Trail Quilt. The thing that amazed me was the price quoted!

A Special Gift

Today I met my cousin and her daughter at the cafe at Davidson's Court. Ethel had brought me a special gift from another cousin of mine that I haven't seen in years. This is a quilt that my mother made for Carol Ann and she had never used so thought I might like it and I do! When we sold the house I had sold or given away a lot of my quilts so I'm very glad to have this one. Now, I wonder, can any of you quilters out there tell me what the pattern is?