Niagara-on-the-Lake and the "Prettiest Sunday Drive in the World"

You know those bisque houses that they sell in Better Homes and Gardens magazine – you know, the Victorian-looking cottages that you can buy one at a time and assemble into a town complete with street lamps and post-boxes. Well, we found ourselves in the midst of village of them last Thursday – it was called Niagara-on-the-Lake.

So starting off, there’s the Niagara Falls on the Canadian side that everyone’s familiar with - with the light shows, the casino, the Skylon Tower, and Ripley’s Museum, to name a few attractions - and then you drive (or take a Peoplemover) for about 20 minutes north along the Niagara Parkway towards Lake Ontario and Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Driving on the Niagara Parkway you pass gorgeously green and clipped lawns containing attractions like the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory, Niagara's Floral Clock, and the Botanical Gardens. Then you pass Niagara Glen where we climbed last week. A dipsy-doodle around Lewiston and the bridge to New York and you’re back on the Parkway passing the column commemorating Isaac Brock and the homestead of Laura Secord.

Now come the vineyards and wine estates, some with an old Canadian feel, some with real “Southern” charm. Historic Fort George dating from 1802 tells us that we're almost at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

A popular local tale is that Winston Churchill, after having been driven down the Niagara Parkway, called it "the prettiest Sunday drive in the World."

So now we're in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Niagara-on-the-Lake, is often called the loveliest town in Ontario and rightly so. It could be the loveliest town in Canada. The community of about 15,000 is exceedingly beautiful and well-kempt. The municipal flower beds are simply mindblowing and the magnificently colourful hanging flower arrangements on the lamp posts drip to touch the ground.

Like Niagara Falls up the road, Niagara-on-the-Lake is a tourist town, but a much slower-paced and refined one. It has the historic Fort George but today Niagara-on-the-Lake’s focus is the Shaw Festival; which includes three theatres showcasing the works of playwright George Bernard Shaw.

My not-easily-impressed son was raving about the town. Every shop we passed was beautiful or unique, every doorway emanated delicious smells. He wants us to retire there. Senior Pup has been there a few times for annual meetings but he won't smuggle me in his luggage.

It’s a real trip back in time. Niagara-on-the-Lake was settled at the close of the American Revolution by Loyalists coming to Upper Canada. It’s hard to believe that this tiny place was once the capital of the newly-created colony of Upper Canada. Today you can walk or take a quaint horse and carriage ride around Niagara-on-the-Lake. Most of the homes have retained their original 18th and 19th Century appearance.

Time to check the real estate pages.

Again here are some pictures, but because of my lack of camera they are courtesy of: Flickr:Sage, Hamerly and Baslow,
Canada Photos.com,
Tripadvisor.com, and
Savannahcat.com

Niagara Glen

Niagara Glen is not the name of my blues guitar boyfriend or a pool shark from the Canada-US border - it's where we traveled to yesterday. It was one of the things to cross off the Junior Pup's "Things to do before the end of summer" list. We gladly accommodated his wish, but forgot the camera. Here are some pictures courtesy of Flickr of what we experienced.

The Niagara Glen trail is about 3 miles on the lower side of Niagara Falls. This is the view we experienced once we climbed down...

...these stairs.


Here's some of the mossy and primordial paths we took to get to...

...the Niagara River. Yes, it really is that nice, clean colour.

And here are some of the trails we took to get back up. It was like walking on the floor of a terrarium. There was thick moss on all the boulders. The sunlight filtered through the leaves. We wouldn't have been surprised if an ovi-raptor ran past or if we encountered a Mayasaurus making it's way through the undergrowth.

We finished the day buy shopping for jam and wine in lovely Niagara-on-the-Lake. I'll share some of that later.

Photos found on Flickr via Nature Guy's 42, PBeens, J.A.Y.M. Thanks very much.

White Castle

Oh, I've been searching for hours for the picture and article to go with what I am about to tell you, but no luck. I'll have to wing it.

In light of my most recent post I had to share a quote I read from the owner of an all-white apartment. The apartment had a great view over Manhattan. So in order to showcase the view the owners decided to go for a pure white decorating scheme.

And it was white. And meticulous. There was not another colour in the mix. And there were no personal accessories.

I've never seen it's equal.

When asked why they had no books around, one of the owners answered,

"We already know how to read..."

To top it off, they had 11 TVs, including one in the hall outside the toilet.

I guess they don't need books because their design philosophy speaks volumes...



Top image is one of my bookcases.

Second image from Wallpaper*. A bookcase designed by Gianni Botsford for his father's collection of 16,000 books. I wonder if he knows how to read?

Bottom image from Domino. Photograph by Donald McPherson.

It's....

Robbie Robertson.

Edgar Mueller - Master Street Painter

More magical than Bert from Mary Poppins is the German street painter Edgar Mueller. Please have a look at the stunning 3-D images below to see how he can play with your imagination.







The effect really depends on where one is standing.

pictures found on http://www.metanamorph.com/ and are copyright Edgar Mueller.

Once Upon a Time

Who did this little guy grow up to be?

He's not one of the Little Rascals, but grew up into a good looking rascal.

He's showing his true colours at an early age. He was one of Bob Dylan's favourite guitar players.

Any guesses?

Theme Thursday - Shadow

Jessie Wilcox-Smith

Although this poem is not my own, it has special meaning to me. As a child I had a book called Gateway to Storyland (edited by Watty Piper). It contained stories like The Gingerbread Boy, Peter Rabbit and the Three Little Kittens. My Shadow was also included. I learned to read from that book. I remember the day clearly when it all came together for me.

Here's Robert Louis Stevenson's My Shadow originally from The Child's Garden of Verses.

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes goes so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close behind me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home
behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

--Robert Louis Stevenson

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Now I don't know nuthin' about poetry but I do know of the 1893 painting above by John William Waterhouse - I gave it as a card to my husband Pup years ago.

Apparently there are two versions of John Keats' famous poem - this one is the original version is found in a letter to Keats's brother, George, dated April 21, 1819.

Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful - a faery's child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.

I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery's song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said -
'I love thee true'.

She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

And there she lulled me asleep
And there I dreamed - Ah! woe betide! -
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried - 'La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!'

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill's side.

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing

Like a Complete Unknown

So how does it feel, Bob
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown?

Oh, dear. Bob Dylan, who is like the fifth member of our household, was questioned by a New Jersey cop last month after acting suspiciously and looking scruffy in the seaside town of Long Branch.

The 24-year-old officer apparently was not too familar with Dylan's catalogue of work. When she asked what he was doing there, alone and palely loitering, Dylan stated, "I'm on tour". Well, that didn't wash with the young officer who later said, "Now, I've seen pictures of Bob Dylan from a long time ago and he didn't look like Bob Dylan to me at all."

Personally, I don't see what she's getting at (insert winky face here), but to be on the safe side, Paul McCartney should start carrying before and after pictures in his wallet in case he gets busted for jaywalking.

A Very Long Engagement

Audrey Tautou is about to go supernova with the release of Avant Chanel – the French film due out September 25 on this side of the pond, in which Tautou portrays Coco Chanel before her empire takes off.

I really liked Audrey Tautou in A Very Long Engagement – my favourite film. The time period is interesting, the costumes are great and the characters are charming.

In 1919 a young woman named Mathilde, the same age as the century, refuses to believe that her fiance is dead following World War 1. Manech was to have been executed by his own army, along with 4 others, for wounding himself to avoid combat.

Mathilde receives a box from an ailing man who knew Manech in the trenches and he tells her a long tale of what he believes happened in the trench bizarrely named Bingo Crepuscule.

Relentless Mathilde methodically pieces together events by going through the contents of the box – making contact with names she finds – puzzling out the mysteries that the photographs and artifacts present her with.

The bulk of the story is presented through the accounts those soldiers present at Bingo Crepuscule at the time. Although the narrative can be confusing, (it's fast and it’s subtitled), the story is compellingly interesting. A Very Long Engagement is beautiful to watch - the art direction is astounding.

"Un long dimanche de fiançailles" by Sebastien Japrisot is a great, poetic read. (I read it in English as A Very Long Engagement -I'm not bilingual). Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (the genius behind Amélie) has stayed true to the feel of the book and streamlined the story appropriately for the screen.

The Clever Pup has also discovered that the café used in the MMM scene is the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers - the inn housing the room where Vincent Van Gogh died.

Look out for Jodie Foster parlez-ing le français. And Marion Cotillard who won the 2008 Oscar for her role as Piaf in La Vie En Rose - this time playing the hooker with the heart of gold (not!)

Albert Dupontel in the third photo is one of my European thespian crushes. Why can't all men have the joie de vivre and the clothes sense of this character? He also bears the great name of Célestin Poux.

I am inordinately fond of this time period, genealogy and all things French. At an auction in Toronto, a serendipitous bid made me the owner of photographs of real French soldiers in the trenches with their own story to tell. A Very Long Engagement is a story that really speaks to me.

If you've yet to see it, I think you will enjoy it. I give it a 9 out of 10.

Bistro 1900

I found this image on the wonderful blog Secret, Fragile Skies, who in turn found it on Flickr. Thank you Rita Crane Photography.

May 2003 found my family and me sitting in this Paris cafe, Bistro 1900 - right there in the first window on the left. The waiter lured me in with the notion of a Mojito. Pretty wonderful.

A group of tourists stopped, and one took my picture while I was enjoying my Spaghetti Carbonara, so I guess I appear on someone's snaps somewhere. My husband had the rabbit. I don't remember what the Junior Pup had but I do remember that his orange pop cost more than wine.

Bistro 1900 is found in the Cour du Commerce Saint-Andre, which I blogged about in an entry describing my dream vacation for Theme Thursday. You can read it here if you'd like.

The picture below of the Cour du Commerce Saint-Andre is from my collection.

I've got a busy week ahead. I'll be with my Mum for three days and someone's turning 50 in my house. I'll check in with everyone when I can.

Dream On...It's Time to Redecorate

above photos - www.designersguild.com

This is a departure for me - a decorating post! We're thinking about doing a bit of redecorating around here; maybe rethinking our use of space.

Our living room's OK but we're getting a bit bored of it. (A glimpse of my living room can be seen about half-way down the side-bar). Mainly we have to do a rethink of the TV room (also known as "the study") and the spare room which was once the toy room.

I would love to do something like the above pictures from Designers Guild. Our room has good bones and new windows from Marvin are soon to arrive. I love the airy, almost ethereal, look to these settings.

I can imagine floating around in such a room in a long white dress, the breeze making the fabric flutter around my ankles, while the air wafts the scent of freesia ... Dream on...

The study has a fireplace with a ((charming)) burgundy tile hearth and a huge closet installation. It's never known if it's a den or a bedroom. Right now it's the repository for dated furniture from my side of the equation, his side of the equation plus Ikea. It's a mess. And it's papered in lovely (she said sarcastically) deep green vinyl wallpaper. It doesn't have mallards on it anywhere but it should.

My easel's set up in there and I bead at a tall table. Mainly, it's the room for lounging in front of the telly. We've tried various arrangements, but with many old houses (ours dates from 1892) the dearth of electric plugs hinders us. Whoever rewired the house in the 80s didn't-do-a-very-good-job.

The study houses the TV plus 2 sets of speakers and an old stereo. Is there anyway to decorate around these without putting them in an armoire? Stereo equipment is just one of those things that never appears in magazine photos. Most of us have them. Are they really always hidden away? I find them ugly and I would banish them but the living room also has it's quota of electronics.

Here's a couple of suitably obscure shots of what it looks like now. Oh, I forgot to mention we have 1,800 books to decorate around.......

Theme Thursday - Festival

© 2009 Festival of the Sound

The summer I was 17 the “festival” came to town. I was working at a shop at the Parry Sound Mall when a man with a dignified demeanor and a pleasantly undefinable accent came in to buy an assortment of the strange things we had on offer. Obligatory plastic pails and beach towels were purchased but also cutlery and china. I felt he was more than just a summer cottager.

As it turned out, he was. During the summer of 1979, the renowned pianist Anton Kuerti purchased a summer home just north of Parry Sound and set about organizing three concerts by exceptional Canadian musicians. Anton Kuerti has an international reputation as an outstanding musician and is one of the world’s most recorded pianists. His recordings include all of Beethoven's concertos and sonatas. At that time Kuerti and his wife, cellist Christine Bogyo, had one child, Julian. I ended up baby-sitting Julian once – I’ll never forget that he asked for change for a $10.

The response to the concerts that Kuerti had planned was enthusiastic and inspired him to launch an annual concert series. The event was christened the Festival of the Sound and with Mr. Kuerti as Artistic director, this marked the beginning of Ontario's first annual international summer classical music festival.

In 1985, James Campbell began his tenure as the Festival's second Artistic Director, a position he still holds today.

Hundreds of Canadian and international musicians have performed at the Festival of the Sound, among them: Pinchas Zukerman, Yo-Yo Ma, Denis Brott, Victor Borge, Dave Brubeck Dizzy Gillespie, George Shearing, Peter Appleyard, Moshe Hammer, Norbert Kraft and Angela Hewitt. Plus Baritone Russell Braun, the Gryphon and Beaux Arts Trios and the Elmer Iseler Singers to name a few.

As part of the annual repertoire, cruises aboard the 500 passenger Island Queen feature on-deck music from classical to Dixieland.

CBC Radio broadcasts Festival concerts yearly. TV Ontario (TVO) has filmed concerts and a joint CBC/BBC documentary was for filmed for Canadian and European audiences.

Much has changed in the 30 years since Anton Kuerti organized the first classical music concerts in the small gym at Parry Sound High School. Summer after summer, organizers had to grapple with making the gym into a concert hall, not to mention overcoming the nightly noise of the trains. Concerts were also held in people’s homes and there was a stint at St. Peter’s Parish Hall.

In 2003 the long-time dream held by the Festival of the Sound of having a concert hall of their own was realized with the opening of the new Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts on the Parry Sound waterfront. Immediately, numbers of Festival attendants doubled.

“It’s one of the best halls in the world for un-amplified music,” said Margaret Boyd, FOTS Executive Director.

© 2009 Festival of the Sound

S'wonderful

I awoke this morning to Paolo Conte on the radio - Jazz FM 91.1 - singing Via Con Me, also known in our household as the S'wonderful song from one of my favourite films, Mostly Martha. How can anything go wrong today?

Here is Paolo Conte live in Amsterdam looking like a big cartoon tigercat.




And the version from the film, with an added foodie surprise.

Something Wicked This Way Comes - Carnivàle Lune Bleue

Blair Gable for Maclean's

Inspired by the musty magic and allure of 1930s carnivals, Carnivàle Lune Bleue* is an authentic all-senses extravaganza where visitors become immersed in six hours of colourful, gritty, surreal and frequently bizarre entertainment.

At five o’clock on an Ottawa evening, a circus barker with frightening green eyes takes down the rope and sweeps a cluster of people inside the Carnivàle Lune Bleue wave of his cane. For five summer weeks visitors to the Carnivàle Lune Bleue can take in the sites of this careful recreation of a 1930s-style circus as they wander under the shimmering lights with the Delta blues drifting on the air.
Blair Gable for Maclean's

Along the Magical Midway with its vintage rides and skill-testing games, men and women in suspenders and newspaper-boy caps pull back the flaps of their canvas tents invite you to a game of skill or chance.

Found under the carnival’s colourful banners are the Clairvoyant Caravan and the reptile show and as well as The Cookhouse, the World of Wonders and the Carnival Diablo freak-show. Awesome acrobats from the Cirque Maroc are found under the big top.

There’s a Ferris wheel, built in 1917 by the Eli Bridge Company of Jacksonville, Illinois and a 1938 carousel - both carefully brought up to code.

Carnivàle Lune Bleue opened at the end of July for its second season. Found at Hog's Back Park, the old fairgrounds in the Village of Kars, half an hour outside the city of Ottawa, the carnival draws between 600 and 1,000 visitors per night during its five-week run.

Carnivàle Lune Bleue was painstakingly planned and researched over a number of years by visionary Wayne Van De Graaff; a carnival enthusiast who has been long-fascinated with the dream of reviving an authentic old-style carnival where one could transcend time to a simpler, romantic and more magical era. With Carnivàle Lune Bleue Wayne Van De Graaff’s dream has become a reality. Now he’s the boss of a real-life vintage carnival, inviting the curious to take off their watches and step out of time.

Blair Gable for Maclean's

Please visit http://www.carnivalelunebleue.com/

Inspired by When the Carnivale Came to Town, Jordan Timm, Maclean's August 2009

*Blue Moon Carnival

Precycling

Toronto recently emerged under piles of garbage after its worst and longest garbage strike. 36 days without a pickup. Thanks to the weather gods (or maybe the trash gods) the weather was tepid and the streets did not stink TOO much.

We managed pretty well and the only problem we had accumulating was 5 weeks of dog poo neatly wrapped in biodegradable bags from Norway.


We compost – a lot. We - what am I talking about? - I also cook from scratch and during the strike my Pups, Junior and Senior, ate mainly a vegetarian menu.

This got me thinking about the people who couldn’t wait to charge the newly opened dump-sites after only one week. What had they possibly accumulated? It also got me thinking about ways to reduce waste. To quote a phrase from Country Living UK, maybe it’s all about "precycling".

I’m interested in knowing what you do about minimizing waste in your house.

Here’s a list of things I do.

I avoid plastic packaging. Those hard plastic boxes that baby spinach comes in repel me. Not because of the $6.00 spinach but those plastic containers aren’t recyclable in our city. The soggy, green, pulpy cartons that strawberries come in are pretty ugly but they can be melted down to nothing in your composter.

The Municipality of Toronto charges 5 cents every time you need a plastic bag. For a while I’ve been using cloth bags or a beautiful French wicker bundle buggy (that I always get compliments on). So not only do I save plastic bags, but I get to look like Rupert Bear’s mother coming back from the market.

I never (hardly ever) buy prepared meals, boxed anything. I bought my son flatbread and hummus in a hard plastic resealable box once for school lunch and felt guilty all day. He has this habit of bringing his lunch garbage home at the end of the day. I guess that’s a good thing. I wash my Ziplock bags – they all get used more than once. I also wash my Swiffers. They work just as well.

When I make a weekday chicken dinner for example, I use boneless chicken and after making the vegetable or pasta all I’m left with is the Styrofoam tray and that weird little pad (we call it something else chez nous) that I’m really at a loss to know what to do with. I could avoid the trash altogether by buying chicken from the Chicken Lady on Roncesvalles but that’s another story.

When we shop for basics, about once every three weeks, we eschew bags and just load up the back of the car using boxes we store in the trunk. This way we get to touch our purchases 6 times before they make it into our cupboards!

When I can, I buy in bulk at the health food store (or bulk shop). Rice is affordable this way and when it comes time for baking this is the only way to shop. You can avoid paying $8.00 for pecans and spices are fresher and cheaper this way too. You can regulate how much you buy and don’t have to find a home for a year’s worth of fenugreek (unless you really like it!)

We reuse. Peanut butter jars are what we use for the kitchen scraps before they make it to the composter. Good jars with proper lids are great for decanting tomato sauce into. Fancy jam jars are great for loose spices.

We make good use of used-clothing pick up organized by the Diabetes Society of the Community Living people.

Basically I think “would I really want that (plastic box, broken dustbuster, holey sock) sitting in a landfill for all time." I’m also working on my son to become vegetarian. That way we will have next to no garbage at all. Now if I could only get the dog to use the toilet…