"Hoots Man!, We're in Fergus"

Aye. It's a wee bonny town 'tis Fergus. Aye, and when I needed to wee we had a wee problem finding somewhere until we got to Breadalbane. No, not Breadalbane near Crookwell, but the Breadalbane Inn at the end of the main street of Fergus in Ontario.

Breadalbane Inn - Fergus, On

Fergus was founded when Adam Fergusson and partner James Webster bought 7,000 acres in 1833 and brought a group of Scottish settlers to create a community.

Fergus and Elora exhibit the same Scottish themes and traditions. It must have been an exciting time in 2008 when there were major celebrations organised for their 175th Anniversary.
Each year they hold what is claimed to be the leading Truck and family event in North America. They say there are row upon row of shining rigs and stall after stall of merchants selling truck parts and parafanalia. In 2007 the attendance was 60,000 people.

The Grand River flows through the town and on to Elora. It offers many opportunities to photograph it or use it as a secondary feature to your subject. If I take a photo and then later see it on a post card, I sometimes get annoyed that mine has been done a million times before but other times I feel, well I know a good shot when I see one! ;) (nb: I'm a definite amateur with only a $100 camera)


I didn't allow myself to see any post cards of Fergus so I don't know what I might have missed! The photo below chops off the top of the church as it wasn't the subject here. I have a shot of the church as the main subject and river in foreground BUT that appears on the Town's Tourism Book!
Fergus and Elora are only a few kilometers from each other but were founded separately. Elora a year older than Fergus. Although they share the same Tourism book, (sensible), it's one of those books that you flip over and the back cover becomes a front cover. One end is Fergus and the other is Elora. I can't help but wonder how they compete against each other in Highland Games? Who can Put the Shot further, or toss the Kaber, "tug-o-war", Haggis Hurling??? (is there such a sport? If not, there should be!)

Canada Post has a post office in each town. I don't know if it owns the buildings or if it leases them from the town. However, as you will see in the image below, they are very similar but definitely not identical.
Have you ever played the sometimes simple and sometimes difficult "spot the difference" puzzles in newspapers or magazines? I find it a must to do them ...... at any skill level.

I keep looking at these from time to time looking for more differences. Sorry, I'm not posting my answers! I don't know if that's my miserly Scottish or my confronting Irish blood refusing to co-operate with answers! ;)

Publish Post

Loving Elora

It is such a pleasure to visit the town of Elora that is steeped in heritage. Its geography is responsible for its early development in the mid 19th century.

The Grand River and Irvine River have carved deep gorges predominately during glacial times and these rivers join at Elora.

The Gorge ...... Grand River at Elora

It proved an ideal spot for utilising the fall of water to operate a a Flour Mill and a Timber Mill.

The early Scottish settlers left their legacy of beautifully styled buildings about the town. It is pleasing to see that more modern buildings have been built to reflect the original aesthetics of the town.
Log Cabin styled buildings might be relatively expensive to construct but they certainly do have a special charm and are wonderfully insular against the elements. Log cabin buildings are built off site then reconstructed on site and finished off.
Mill Street runs parallel to the river and contains lots of shops of various artisans. There are steps and a parapet that lead you to shops on a lower level of the main building closer to the river level.


The majestic Elora Mill (flour) is still standing and now is a popular Inn and Restaurant.


You can see that there is a pipeline running around the outer wall of the old mill and this is used for generating electricity by taking in water near the other end of the Mill and supplying it to the turbine at a level near the bottom of the waterfall.
One shop of particular interest was Steve's Sheepskin and Leather Products on Mill St. The range of items and the quality of workmanship was astounding.

Surrounded by Ladies

There is a major difference in traveling from one place to another in Southern Ontario compared with Australia. That is, there are multiple routes available at virtually the same distance and this provides a variety of scenery to the visitor and can relieve boredom for the regular traveler. For most of our trip to Guelph we were on different roads to when I arrived in Canada approximately 4 weeks prior.
Our main purpose for visiting Guelph was to see family again before I return to Australia. This is where Megan's mom lives and my niece Sam is living with Gran this year while attending nearby Centennial High School, where Megan and her sisters were (supposed to have been) educated. ;)
Megan's sister Beth came for the day to see us and in the evening Beth's other daughter Alex came to spend time. It was really nice seeing them after so long, (11 years), and my nieces have grown from wee 'girls' into beautiful young women.

Sis-in-law Beth

Niece Alex

Niece Sam

We spent two nights there and and spent the days sight seeing at other towns / cities: Waterloo, Kitchener, Fergus and Elora where I've made separate post(s) for that.

Visiting Guelph was all about family and friends. One such lady has been a friend of Megan's family for many years and I finally got to meet with her.

Daisy

What a character. Not afraid of technology what so ever! She is a semi-professional artist I guess you could say and has little trouble finding her way around a computer and the internet. AND there is no truth in thinking that she won me over by serving this delicious afternoon tea.

'twas hard to decline a third helping!

We spent some time with others in their homes and we dined one night with Mom at the Shakespeare Arms.

Megan & her mom Sharon

Collingwood Sparkles

Collingwood was in full sunshine when I dropped Meegs at work and went for a Sunday drive around Collingwood.
To start I went to the bay-side park, just east of the harbour. Going down a street from "Pretty River Parkway" (a multi-lane by-pass of Collingwood CBD), I spotted a fox running across the road from a front lawn of one house to another. I stopped to get my camera out an just managed to get some video of it as proof. I drove around a couple of streets hoping to catch sight of it again. Arriving at the waterfront where a number of people were fishing, I noticed a group looking and smiling in a direction that made me suspect they could have spotted the fox. Sure enough, there it was jogging along the waterfront from one backyard to the next but too far away to film.

It's a pretty area in this park looking out across the Bay or back toward the harbour and the resorts.

I drove around to the harbour and found a hive of activity. This turned out to be a fantastic day for getting those big yachts back into the water for the warmer seasons. A large mobile crane lifted one after another into the water.In all my searching of images of Collingwood over the past year, I don't think that I'd seen any from the "other side" of the Landmark Grain Silos! I was pleasantly surprised at the beautiful park that is there at the end of Heritage Drive.

A Perfect Spring Day in the Georgian Triangle

Monday May 4th was the most perfect spring day in and around the Georgian Triangle. What a shame Megan and I couldn't share it fully.
After dropping her at work I went to buy her something she needed from the Bulk Barn in Collingwood. The Bulk Barn is a large chain of stores that carry "lotsa goodies" in bulk at remarkable prices. I was flabbergasted and excited as I walked around the aisles. Not allowed to take photos, I managed to sneak one in just to give an idea for those who aren't familiar with them. (especially Aussies).Most aisles have long rows of 40 litre tubs "full" of a huge range of produce such as grains, flours, pre-made mixtures (cake etc), alllllllllllllllll kinds of chocolate, including monstrous chunks, sweets (lollies) of every known kind, and the list goes on. Droooooling yet? ;)
I made my large purchase ...... a bottle of pills for Megan. How's that for self control?

County Road 7 into Meaford and showing a part of Georgian Bay.

Making use of the perfect weather, I took my time driving back to Meaford via back roads. The scenery was fantastic and I happened to notice something that is not seen all that often I hear. A large Coast Guard vessel was cruising toward Meaford Harbour. I made my way there so I could see it arrive.

It was a beautiful day to be near the water and a delight to walk around the paths on the rock walls that form Meaford Harbour. It gave occasion to chat with a number of local residents of all ages as they also took advantage of the beautiful and still weather.

In the evening Megan and I dined with friends at the "Leeky Canoe" Pub and Eatery in Meaford.

Parking on our Anniversary

Another memorable day was had on Sat 2nd May.
It began when our eyelids opened to greet the dawn, and the first words uttered were, "Happy Anniversary .............. " :-)
The day got better as it went on. After breakfast we journeyed to Barrie, a medium city of around 130,000 I'd guess. (Photo Gallery) It is about a 1 hour drive north of Toronto but is east of Meaford and takes a little longer to drive because the highway is only one lane either way whereas it is a 6 lane freeway all the way from Toronto.
The plan was to meet up with Ryan at a park in Barrie. Ryan was conveying his two kids and his brother Daryl. From almost opposite directions we pulled into the carpark a mere thirty seconds apart. What organization, eh? ;) Especially allowing for the fact we'd called into Tim's (Tim Horton's Coffee Franchise) for a "coffee to stay" along the way.
Side note: Ordering coffee here is totally different to Australia. With the exception of Starbucks, where you add your own extras, any other outlet you just order by size of cup and quantity of extras. e.g. "a regular double" is a regular size coffee with double cream and no sugar, while a popular choice seems to be " a large double double" which is a large coffee with double cream and double sugar. Ask for a "flat white" and all you'll receive will be a look of bewilderment! ;)

Everyone bailed out of the vehicles and then there was that awkward period of me meeting a 7 yr old grandson for the first time and being careful to allow a "sizing up" period to run it's course. It was somewhat different circumstance for Gramma. The playground at the park is very well equipped for healthy kids activities. In fact, it is the best I've ever seen and "little miss live-wire" was busting to get amongst it.
On the other hand, Adan, who has been to the same park many more times, was merely keen to get onto the rides so he didn't have to be a focal point of discussions as to where I would be fitting into his life. Somehow, he had been under the impression that Megan was soon going back to Australia with me and was really surprised that we were both going to be settling in Canada. When he asked why, I simply said, "to be closer to all you guys!" He seemed pretty accepting of that and played happily. He also seemed to behave better for me when taking photographs than for either Megan or his dad. Hmmm. I got a good feeling about that.
It was a great park and we had a fabulous time with the kids. We went to a Restaurant for a nice lunch, and both of the kids were very entertaining to watch and listen to.


Afterward, I had to say farewell to my new found grandkids until I move here permanently.
Ryan took them home and Megan and I drove Daryl to his home in Bradford.

Wait for me .... Don't grow up too quick!

On the way back to Meaford, Megan and I both felt very content with life. A very nice way to spend our anniversary.

Two Days in TO

Tuesday morning we struggled out of bed, tired and with backs aching from the "incompatible" bed. To make it worse, we were to be sight seeing around Toronto City with a friend, and it was raining. Toronto is referred to in short as TO. (Toronto Ontario?)
We walked a few hundred meters to catch a bus to Dufferin Subway Station. We changed trains at "St. George" for Union Station downtown. Boarding the bus, it is a flat $2.75 single fare and you ask for a Transfer. That means you can use the same ticket to change trains, buses or trams to go where ever you intend to go within the Metro system. You must do a similar thing for the return journey.
When we arrived at Union Station we were right on time for our 10 am meeting time with Karen. Megan met Karen on her very first flight to Australia and they have been good friends ever since.
We made good use of the underground shopping area to be able to get a few blocks closer to our first destination without suffering the weather. I couldn't believe that we were walking block after block in the rain just to visit a "wool" shop that Megan wanted to see for her knitting supplies.



Here I can be seen pointing out the top of the CN Tower visible above the local skyline.







We had a nice lunch in a Pub and continued on our way. I was able to take a few photos but the rain made some impossible.

Visiting the St. Lawrence Markets was very interesting. 11 years ago, Karen had taken us to the Kensington Markets. There is no way I'd part with $25 to go up the CN Tower like I did back then. It was raining and visibility would have been low. Anyway, I remember the last visit like it was yesterday!
Toronto does have some very attractive "heritage buildings" that will stand for eons I'd imagine. I didn't get to photograph any except for the old Telegraph building that although is dwarfed by larger modern structures, remains a focal point to the visitor on Front Street.


We found ourselves getting closer to Union Station again, and when Karen suggested other places we could visit, I had to say, I'd had enough. We were tired and wet and the hustle and bustle of the city just drains my enthusiasm. I'd be more happy seeing the city between 5 and 9am on a Sunday morning I think.

Karen & Megan inside the Eaton Centre

Getting back to the apartment was a very small mercy.
That night, we got a better sleep than the night before. Only because we were able to have the windows closed.
The weather was brighter the next morning and Megan suggested returning to the city. I could feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck at the suggestion. We decided to visit Yorkdale Mall and have a look at the Apple Computer store there. It is a pretty big mall but it seemed to be over populated with women's fashion stores! The Store Directory Board confirmed just that.
From there we went to visit Megan's aunt Shirley and uncle Ken at their new Condominium in Toronto. It was fantastic to see them again. We had seen them twice in Australia and they had visited our farm at Crookwell.
It is a new complex and very plush in its appointments as you might notice from the photo of Megan sitting in the lobby. They have always lived in this area and the move was only a block or so away from there old home and its where they both grew up as well.
After a beautiful dinner, a couple of drinks and an exchange of updating conversations we made our way back to Meaford. Our trip to Toronto was reduced to two days and nights and we were so pleased to be back to a comfy bed and we slept like babes.