The pain of leaving Meaford

The day has come too quickly that I have to leave Meaford and begin the trail back to Crookwell. It was weird. The day before, I was saying to myself, this will be the last time I drive this road until I come back; this will be the last time I'll see the sunset in Meaford until I get back, etc. etc.
Then there was the saying goodbye to Marcie and her dogs and cats! I'll miss them all.

Once we left Meaford in the morning, we would travel south and at the end of the day we would be at the Americana Resort in Niagara Falls. It was to be a very full and enjoyable day, even if it meant saying temporary goodbyes along the way. There is too much to cram into one post so it will be divided into separate posts chronologically.

On the way south from Meaford, we had a luncheon appointment with the delectable Karen at Port Credit. Megan drove so I could 'rubber neck' as she calls it, to look at the sights. Taking photos through the window isn't perfect. Some come out and some don't. (The passenger window doesn't open at the moment!) Getting Megan to stop at a given place is like asking the captain of the QEII to pick up a fallen water skier! ;) Actually, I'm sure I'd have more success with the captain!

Meaford is surrounded by Apple Orchards. In the last couple of days, the leaves had begun to appear on them. It would have been a real sight to see them all come into full blossom. The grass is really green now and all the trees are showing new leaves as Spring gets into full swing.

Beaver Valley Ski Resort - Beaver Valley

There is a real "Neatness" about the farms here. One of the things I had wanted to make a photo study of, before leaving, was of the old barns that are falling down. Some being preserved but most decaying, like they are in Australia. The old timber barns giving way to more modern materials sadly. Another study was to show the typical old style "squared or cubed" farmhouse.



In an early post, I showed a glimpse of the wind farm near Shelburne. This time we passed them again. Although Megan agreed to stop for photos, we seemed to overshoot the logical place to stop :- on top of the hill. Oh, well you can't complain about small mercies! ;)


Ontario was looking beautiful with its lush green pastures extending as far as the eye could see until it became a blue vista of Lake Ontario.
We were pretty well on time to meet with Karen at Port Credit which is near Mississauga. Now I'd been to Mississauga on my previous trip, but I didn't recall it having such a dominant skyline!

Just a small sample of Mississauga's skyline.

Mississauga in relation to Toronto and Port Credit.


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Meaford Factory Outlet.

Meaford can count its blessings to have a large older building that is suitable for use as Factory Outlet. People come great distances to browse and shop for a vast array of goods from trinkets to tools and footware to furniture. All of the goods are new and are sourced from liquidators or manufacturers overruns etc.
During my stay I visited it twice. Neither time did I travel by car as it was just across the street! So close, and yet I missed getting back on my last day to pick up two very small and cheap items I'd considered buying the day before but procrastinated about spending the couple of dollars. Yikes!
The pain of my stupidity!


I've only managed to post a few of the photos I took inside. With the reasonable crowd that was there, I didn't want to use the flash and nor did I want to alert the staff that I was photographing. Consequently, some of the images are blurred due to increased exposure times.

I'd only be guesstimating that the area would be around 60 metres by 60 metres (200ft x 200ft) from memory. It is divided into a number of areas as well as each area divided into sections or departments.

Being a handy man of sorts, I love tool and hardware departments! Not to forget electrical and electronics. The Meaford Factory Outlet (MFO) has a large supply of things in all those departments to keep you browsing for quite some time. If you are accompanied by your wife, let her spend as much time as she likes in the other departments because you'll find the time slip right on by while your around the tool and hardware section.

One of the bargains I'm sorry I didn't buy, was a 15 ft Steel Tape measure. It was rubber cased with 3/4 inch wide steel blade with both Metric and Imperial scales on it and was priced at just $3.50. The same thing in the Super Stores would cost at least $12 or so. Megan had previously purchased one for her own use before I got there. In the electrical section, I bought a microphone for my computer or my portable mini-disc recorder for just 99 cents. I bring home some other very good bargains in the under $5 category.

There is a large range of both indoor and outdoor furniture. Some in the unstained state and sourced from the Mennonite manufacturers. (Mennonites as in the community spoken of in my post about St. Jacobs Market)



As you can see, there is a full gamut of household furniture to suit a variety of tastes. One particular item I spent time looking at was mattresses and bases.

I expect to spend more time (and probably money) here in the future.

New Friends and the Meaford 100 Mile Market

Time was quickly running out and there was still a lot I'd like to have seen and done in and around Meaford before I looked back on it in the rear vision mirror.

On Sunday evening, we went and visited a family with which we have made friends with in Meaford. I'm tickled pink that these were people that I became acquainted with via their Blogs, before I went to Meaford. So for a change, it was me introducing Megan to new friends in her own community!
We got to know more about each others background over coffee and it was such a delight to meet their mirror identical twin daughters aged about seven. I've always known what identical twins were but was unfamiliar with "Mirror" twins.
It is pretty self explanatory if you think about it, but just visit here for a very quick explanation.
Apart from being identical twins, their individual personalities are gorgeous too.

This friendship had led Megan and I to visit the Hundred Mile Market in Meaford that they have a connection to. It was here that Megan got to meet Natalie and in the process found special produce that agrees with dietary requirements.

When I asked Natalie about the Architectural style of the building, she produced from a nearby shelf, a book which was about all the heritage homes and architectural styles within the County. The cover had a nice coloured picture of this particular building. When I looked inside to see what was said about the cover picture, it said that the picture was of the Cleland / Clarke house.

It was built by James Cleland in the late 1870's and later sold to a Mr. Clarke. James Cleland was a prominent businessman in Meaford and acquired his wealth from Cleland Hardware of Meaford and the first private telephone line into the district in 1884.
James Cleland was born 1839 in Glasgow where all of my Cleland ancestry was from. He was Mayor of Meaford and then became a member of the Provincial Parliament. He had a son that took over the Hardware, another became a surgeon in Toronto, and another which I can't quite recall what business he developed, but I will follow that up.
One of my friends on Facebook is a descendant of his but lives at St. Catharines near Niagara Falls. Unfortunately we didn't get to meet this time around, but we will when I move there.


The Meaford 100 Mile Market is becoming very well known. The produce is sold on consignment with a small fee retained for operating cost of the market.







All the Organic produce, that includes vegetables, fruit, grains, flour substitutes?, meat, fish, dairy and poultry and many other things, is sourced from within a 100 mile radius. You will see the range of products on their website.

Getting up-to-date

As many of you will be aware, I've arrived back in Australia, but this blog has not been able to keep up-to-date for various reasons. (Time, no computer access and finally Jetlag.)
I will continue to document my trip in the sequence it happened. I'm pleased to be able to share it with you but I know it isn't the same as being there, eh?
Hopefully, when we have settled there, we will have lots of family and friends come and visit and maybe use our home as a base? (We won't charge much! )

St. Jacob's Farmers' Market

It's a special day out when you visit St. Jacob's Farmers' Market near Waterloo, Ontario. You don't have to spend any money to enjoy it if you are a tourist but I doubt that you will leave without something to remind you of your visit besides photographs. Even if it is one of those Oktoberfest Sausages on a roll like a 'hot dog'.

There is a lot to see and do around St. Jacob's country! Unfortunately, it seems my tour organiser thinks it starts and ends with the Farmer's Market, as that is all we visited. So now it will be a priority to visit all the other attractions when I get back over there!

There are many store holders in the open and more inside of two large pavilions.


As the name suggests, (Farmer's market), you can buy all the fresh produce that comes from farms in the form of vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, nuts, dairy and juice/preserves. Megan was able to buy some special bread that agrees with her dietary requirements.
International tourists are more likely to peruse the many stores of crafts and souvenirs and trinkets. OK, so if you've been to one market then you've seen 'em all, right? Wrong!

St. Jacob's Market is within a community that has a strong "Mennonite" population. You will see many "Old Order Mennonites" as you wander about the market. Most actively selling their produce just like any other store holder. I had quite a few conversations with various Mennonite vendors (nothing to do with their religion or culture) and had I been blind, I'd not have been able to distinguish them from others. Well, maybe I would have sensed I was speaking to a more gentler than average person.

Just before I left Crookwell to visit Megan in Canada, we had four young Mennonite girls visit Crookwell and I spoke with them in the Sock Shop. They were from a Mennonite town south of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. When I got home, I "googled" Mennonites as I had been curious since my last to St. Jacobs 11 years ago.

I don't want to make too many statements about Mennonites or Amish culture or history as it would be too easy for me to get it wrong! All I will say is to make you aware that these religions came to being between 4 and 5 hundred years ago. Initially, the Mennonites broke away from the Roman Catholic Church, and became persecuted. About a hundred years later, the Amish were a breakaway group from the Mennonites. Sometime much later, the Mennonites split somewhat into two groups, with one of those groups becoming known as "The Old Order Mennonites". They are distinguishable by their traditional way of plain dress, and horse and buggy etc. They shun things of the modern world and use horses rather than cars or tractors, candles rather than electricity etc. Exceptions are made for things like manufacturing sheds where Maple Syrup may be produced.

Children attend regular schools and ride on the "Yellow School Bus". In some communities there are special schools provided by their own community. They are renowned for their belief (as imitating Jesus Christ), that they will not respond with any form of violence, and as I guess it could be said that they would turn the other cheek. For that reason, I'm very curious about how the children cope or are protected from bullying both at school or the wider community?
Other's have indicated that people of these orders don't like to be photographed. I'm not sure exactly what the reason is but thinking about it, "I would be too", even as a inconspicuous person in the population! They don't want to be seen as "freaks" and nor would I like them to feel that way.














I stood at a distance to photograph this young mother with her two children without them knowing. They were standing in-line at a take-away food vendor's caravan where I previously had purchased my Oktoberfest Sausage on a roll. I was taken by the neatness of dress, grooming, posture and the gentleness of the three of them. OK, so their dress is different and plain within their community. The rest of the world dresses for fashion to attract attention to themselves. These people don't possess such vanity!

If you are as curious as I have been to learn and become more familiar with the culture and heritage of the Mennonites, Amish or Old Order Mennonites, then googling and reading wikipedia will be a good way to start.

St. Jacob's Country A highly recommended tourist destination!
Where is Market?: here

"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.