Gorgeous Ontario Day

 

On Friday we ventured to another little town nearby called Coldwater. The weather was a perfect 70 degrees and low humidity. Coupled with abundant recent rains, the flowers, trees and crops are pretty happy.

 

Below is the mill in the town on the Coldwater River and the building is still functioning long after its 1830 start; housing a café, museum, and real mill products.

 

And here is a typical stone bungalow with beautiful flowers and landscaping ...

... including this old iron bed now transformed into a "bed of tulips" and other flowers.

The flower boxes and hanging baskets throughout town were a photo bonanza; the same goes for my traveling companion!

After a good walk through the little town we stopped at this café called Ms. Ems for a bite.

Which ended up being a BLT sandwich on some really good grain bread accompanied by chicken noodle soup and a bowl of veggie rich chili; all washed down with a hot cup of Earl Grey tea.

For the next two weeks is forecast to remain in the 70-50 degree range with light showers from time to time ... what a refreshing summer in the north can be; time to get out and bike and hike.

The chips are up!

 

 

OK, Alvin (or Alveena in this case) is up on my knee and above has stuffed one peanut into the right cheek. Another peanut is offered ...

and she whips the previous peanut from one side to the other hoping for more room ...

... but realizes that both sides are equal and then takes the peanut out and re-stuffs back to the right side ... and then realizes that she can't get both big things in ... terrible chipmunk decision ...

... and in a split second before I could react she just grabbed the remaining one offered and hauled back to the den ... aaahh Darwin, eh.

Wye Not

 

Actually Wye, Yes, as last weekend we went hiking through the Wye Marsh which is about 20 miles north of our park here near Barrie.

 

The Marsh is a private environmental area just on the south side of Midland, Ontario. It's next to the Saint Marie among the Hurons as well as the Martyrs' Shrine, both wonderful historical attractions.

Through the 3,000 acres are many different hiking trails and places to both view the marsh as well as take a guided canoe trip around the place and put your mind back about 400+ years to the normal mode of native travel then.

And speaking of one of the "natives" here is my intrepid guide in front of one of the interpretive cabins.

This marsh is one of the world's largest trumpeter swan recovery and breeding areas and above is one of the birds thinking about his own wingspan. This wasn't a really great shot as I wish we could have gotten closer ... this bird is huge and probably has a reach close to the 8 feet in the diagram he's looking at.

And finally the "Hobbit" himself as we walked from the marshy area back to the visitor center. The fern and cypress forest here is really impressive and could be spooky in the twilight.

Home in Barrie

 

 

We are back at our old site in the Barrie KOA just north of Barrie, Ontario, for our fourth full summer at this beautiful park. The site is just as we left it and now in full summer blossom. We reserve it and pay in full for the summer by the first of April and the rent covers all utilities ... simple life ... just add wine and some occasional food, eh.

The picture above is looking directly east and the community hall just for the permanent residents is visible to the rear of the Flying Scotsman. After a bit of a trouble filled trip up here the bus and the car are now in fine shape and we are enjoying chatting with the neighbors. A lot of the folks in this park are Canadian and yet they go to Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California for the snowy winter months.

Below is another view of our site just to show the large space we have and the mature trees giving us shade in the evenings.

When you come to visit us you can end up in one of these transient sites just to the end of our street. 90 feet long with wrought iron furniture and bench and a stone fire pit to roast the marshers on. This is what you should demand from the parks that claim to be the best rated ones.

Now that we are back in Barrie we decided to continue the gastropub theme we found out about in New York. Right downtown on Dunlop Street is the Local Gastropub by name and here are a couple of samples of their art we tried out.

In front of me is the hot sausage board. This is German exemplified. Two mildly spicy brats with a fresh salad, a maple honey dipped pretzel, a slab of aged white cheddar, and really nice dipping mustard. Washed down with a medium lager from Creemore (been to the brewery) a really neat plate.

Jo-Anne had their Cesar salad poutine ... Yeah I know there are so many things wrong with that idea for ingredients ... but wait. 

They started with the poutine in the cast iron pan (nice fat fries covered with cheese curd and gravy) and then laid a warm bed of wilted greens, pulled chicken, cheese, tomatoes, and the salad dressing over that. If there is a definition of comfort food this one is pretty close to it ... back on the diet!!