Mucho miscellaneous!

Okay, I'm playing catch up here, so this is a real hodge podge post ... my apologies. First of all, update on Kevin ... he has not used a cane in a month! He's doing very, very well! The last time he went in to the doctor's office sans cane, Dr. Blanchard was pretty much stunned, in the nothing-short-of-miraculous meaning of the word. (Sadly, Kev's cane, the cool one with the flames, was actually STOLEN while Kev was at the car wash in Picton. Can you imagine??? I guess it looked a little too much like Dr. House's cane!).

Secondly, two Picton Fair submissions:



Here is the felted purse that Claire made for the Fair this year. It won first place! It was a lot of work for her, and took her most of the year -- she's not as much in to fibre-y stuff as other pursuits. However, she did do everything but attach the handles (and I helped her by designing the loop closure as well). So fun!

And below is Iain's entry; "A Selection of Heritage Tomatoes". There wasn't really a category for his entry, but it was so fun he put it on display anyway :-). The tomato plants were given to 4H members by Vickie's Veggies in the County. We have had a glorious August eating tomatoes with names such as Trent, Quinte (canning varieties from this area), German Striped, Sungold (the BEST and FIRST tomato I can pop in my mouth like candy!!!), Yellow Pear Tomato, and others whose names escape me at the moment. We will definitely do this again next year.



Now some shots from last weekend's Milford fair. Milford is a village in the south County, and they put on an adorable one day fair. We don't make it every year, but this year since Claire is playing "Annie" she (and Kev) had to be on the Marysburgh Mummers Float.

This is Mount Tabor Theatre, in Milford. This is the old church, build by Dr. Bredin, that has become the home of the Marysburgh Mummers:


Just down from the theatre, across the road, is the mill pond that Milford is known for:


Here is the Mummers' float, with Claire in front. She was pretty nervous but managed to do the smiling and waving thing for most of the route. Daddy Warbucks is played by the son of Claire's voice teacher! For the production, we'll put a rinse in her hair and do ringlets; she had a wig provided by the theatre company but vetoed it instantly :-).




Side view of the Mummer's float ... Kev is wearing the cool hat, and our good friend Ann-Marie is up their as well! They both have 3 plus parts each. Kev was initially asked to consider being Daddy Warbucks, however it's a bad time of year for him to be that invested in a performance so he's pleased to be playing several minor roles, including the policeman.



Here is my friend Michelle. Her family (the Frasers) are a big county family. One of her sons is in the front seat ...


... and here is her oldest son, Blake, playing as part of Grandpa's Goodtime Gang. Blake was Alison's fiddle teacher.


I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE a good rural Fair!!!

More Rural Economy: Grapes and Apples

Apple picking in Prince Edward County, October 2007

Even I, a newcomer to the County, recall that days when locals could wake up after a windy night and race over to the nearest orchard for $4 per bushel windfall apples. How I miss those days! Many of the orchards are now "bigger business" than they used to be; and often associated with the rapidly expanding viticulture industry in the area.

For those who are not aware, Prince Edward County is "the new" Niagara region, after some entrepeneurial sort noticed two things; that the county has been blanketed with wild grapes for decades, and that the soil (in the Hillier region especially) is pretty much identical to the soil in high wine-producing areas of France. I highly recommend the book "A Fool and Forty Acres" by Geoff Heinricks for those who want insight into a small winery start up by a fellow from TO. It is warm, inviting, informative and replete with county gossip and lore. Here is the publisher's short for the book:

About this Book

---

foreword by Jamie Kennedy

A Fool and Forty Acres is Heinricks’ beautifully written account of leaving behind the rat race, slowing life down, and establishing an intimate relationship with one small parcel of land in a magical corner of Canada.

You won’t find Prince Edward County on any map of the world’s great wine regions. Yet it is to this dollop of rolling limestone in eastern Lake Ontario that Geoff Heinricks brought his young family in pursuit of a dream of creating a truly world class wine. The County, as the locals call it, is a long way from the Niagara Peninsula, and three thousand miles from Burgundy, yet Heinricks and a few hardy souls like him claim that their wines will one day rival those of the legendary French province.

A self-described 21st-century peasant, Heinricks follows the seasons in his vineyards with exquisite attention, from digging the earth, to grafting and planting the vines, to trellising and pruning, to tending the young grapes, to harvesting the fruits of his labours. Along the way, he sketches the human history of the area, the native peoples whose tools and clay shards are heaved up by the soil, and the United Empire Loyalists, whose tidy barns and farmhouses still dot the landscape today.

He also presents a cast of his colourful County neighbours: from old-school farmers to refugees like him from the city, convinced in the wisdom of producing and consuming locally the very best food and wine in harmony with the land.


Anyway, back to apple picking and things of family concern :). We joined our friends the Cylka family and the MacKay family the weekend before Thanksgiving for our traditional hike into the orchard. Here are some photographs:

Claire and her best friend Angie digging in!


"A-tisket, a-tasket, fresh apples in a basket ..." Alison and Brenna.



"He did it!" Iain and Ben.

Alison and our buddy "Eli"

Photo of "our" pond ...

This quarry pond lies between our home and and the neighbouring road. It was blasted out in the 40's or 50's, and the gravel was used to build the road bed. Over time, it has been transformed into a lovely pond. It is owned by the county, not us (they get the liability!). But the whole neighbourhood benefits from it's presence.

We are truly grateful for this pond. This pond is home to red-winged blackbirds, painted turtles, mud turtles and snappers, various kinds of fish and 8 species of frogs, American Bitterns, Green Herons and Great Blue herons; all have been spotted here since we arrived on Forty Foot Road.This pond also ensures that our home insurance rates stay low; it is the rural equivalent of a hydrant on our lawn. Were our house to catch fire, the pumper would draw from here. We sit and contemplate life here; we skate here in the winter; we sail homemade toy boats on it in the spring.

The County has been experiencing drought all summer. I don't remember the last time we had rain ... oh yes, the Sunday of the Fall Fair, although our neighbourhood experienced very little accumulation (less than 1 mm). Yesterday we were thrilled when a heavy fog rolled in. It doesn't take much precipitation to excite us. Great for a vacation spot; not so great for residents and local farmers.

The water haulage trucks have been traversing our neighbourhood for weeks. I am aware of families that have had an unbelievable 5 loads of water delivered already this summer. My friend Arnold, up on MacHill, has run out twice in the last month (only for brief periods); his house is situated on underground rivers and his well was built on a spring. The last time he ran out of water was 30 years ago.

Our well is a dug well, and is about 21 feet deep. Dug well is a bit of a misnomer, as our house is situated on bedrock. Dynamite was used to blast the well out, which also fractures the bedrock resulting in fissures that the water percolates through. Apparently the pond is also about 21 feet at it's deepest point (it was blasted out about six years ago to act as a reservoir for a local dairy farm). Right now at least a dozen farmers are drawing out of the pond to water their cattle and other livestock.

So we are thankful. Thankful for this pond, whether it is feeding our well, or whether it's just an indicator of the health of our well ... it seems as long as it has water, so do we. Thankful that we are learning to live wisely, and not waste this valuable resource like we might in the city. Thankful for the huge number of birds and wildlife we see due to our proximity to the local watering hole. Thankful ... so I thought I'd photograph "our pond" to commemorate it on this beautiful fall day.