Green World

In this part of Canada there are many farms which grow bountiful crops for local and world markets. One farm is situated beside a creek where I used to hike as a young boy.

The creek begins in a vast swamp. On the shores of the pond there used to be a summer day-camp. It was almost 45 years ago when I used hike along the shores and fish from the dam which used to be behind me in this photo.

Next to the creek the vast farming estate is approached through a green canyon.

In the traditional way of Ontario farms, there is a garden, a barn, and a house.

A sacred shrine holds paintings created to honour famous residents of the estate including:
Bessy the Cow

Howard the Chicken . . .

And Friends

In the grounds of the estate the wild inhabitants go about their business of making honey in their tree-houses.

Flying Time

The industrious people of this region have created complex and educational rituals to celebrate technology and personal history. The region has many old airstrips which participated in the training of pilots during the war of the 1940s. Almost one quarter million commonwealth pilots were trained in the skies above this land leaving many memories of the old Harvard training aircraft which prepared graduate pilots to step in to planes-of-the-line on the other side of the ocean. The acquisition, restoration, and flying of those old aircraft is now the goal of the Canadian Harvard Association.

Two recently acquired craft are beginning the work of restoration in the airport hangars.

Technical displays show the old training mockups – this one showing the instrumentation systems for the Harvard.

Several of the associations now-flying harvards participated in the air show.



Special guests at the air show included a very rare original flying ME-109, a well engineered compact plane which served German flying crews from the 1930s to 1945.

Also, present – and participating in the “Battle of Britain” flying show was a Hawker Siddeley Hurricane, a contemporary of the ME-109 but slower and less manoeverable – as the flying show demonstrated.

Ghosts of Harvests Past

A few kilometres far from a town called Tillsonburg there was a gathering of antique tractors and small implements. Located on the property of a famous country store . . .
http://www.coylescountrystore.com/
. . . . this exhibit of old farm equipment displayed some tractors, cars, and small gas engines that were used on regional farms way back before WW 1. The industrious and skilled residents of this strange land have saved these ghosts of harvests-past from the erosion of time.

There were some tractors which have been restored to near-new condition. In their day, some of these pieces of equipment were cutting technology incorporating new engines and ploughing systems.

The oldest of them moved slowly – but with sufficient power to pull heavy ploughs across fields not yet fully drained.

Wherever local sources of power were needed there were small gas engines – hardy, tough, able to run for hours without stopping. >> Pics of engines

Some of these old engines have been found in trash heaps, hidden away in basements, or in a pile of pieces long forgotten.

Skilled craftsmen and hobbyists have repaired them piece-by-piece and returned them to working order to become time-travellers of a sort.

And if the tractors helped the farmer to make enough money from his farm – he may have bought a car like this Model T.

And, if they lived long enough in their old age they might have watched movies stars drive on the silver screen in a Chrysler Imperial like this one.

This small gathering of technology tells a story stretching across most of the age of oil - barely one human's life span.

Volunteering Time

A reflection of the quality of people in a town might be seen in the ambition and achievements of its citizenry in the realm of public activities. In this small town of 11,000 people a yearly festival features three days of entertainment in the form of famous musicians, crafts, midway rides, and Scottish dances at venues throughout the downtown.

The main park features the traditional beer garden and café where the signature Pork Roast Dinner (Schwein and Wine) is served on opening night.


The main stage is located in a park near the heart of town.

Where the acts play a variety of music – some folk tunes – many from the Canadian maritimes

The park is short parade distance for the oldest “non-military” pipe band in North America. (100 years old this year)

Past the stage with the dancing Scottish lasses.

And also past a mini amusement ride midway featuring some true antiques . . . .

– all kept in good order and well appreciated by children.

.

The Canterbury Folk Festival is held every year in the second week of July in Ingersoll, Ontario with the support of hundreds of local volunteers.

Travels in a Small World

In the strange world of the very small the ongoing drama of life can easily escape notice.
Here, where physics is less encumbered by mass, a bright world buzzes in life-times squeezed between the last frost of spring and the first frost of autumn.

Some of the players are familiar and travel to destinations on a well known route.

Others are mysterious in their purpose and exist for unknown reasons – somewhat like the punk rock bands of the 1980s.

A casual glance across a garden table witnessed a battle to the death between a curious fly and a predatory wasp less than half it size.

A recent exhibit in a town near here featured a rare exhibit of specimens

As presented by Mr. John Powers – a pioneer in the creation of butterfly pavilions at museums throughout Ontario.

North World

Time and motion recently carried this time traveller a little to the north of here. A “little north” in this country is a six hour drive - to a place called Sudbury one of the world’s largest sources of Nickel.

In this strange landscape the landscape is comprised of solid rocks . . .

Through which fine roads are built with considerable difficulty.

The rocks hold many lakes around which homes and cities are built.

These lakes sometimes make good places to put Island cottages and to park boats

The hardy dwellers of the northern land build their homes out of stone . .

and put small water shrines in their yards to celebrate their northern environment.

A relative of the Time Traveller lives here among the rocks. He and his family own several sports cars . . .

. . . and a pet moose.

As the guest, it was my pleasure to take the pet moose for a walk everyday, which is the custom of the nature-living northern Canadian dwellers.

Time of Glory

On a hill in a cemetery about a kilometre from here is a testament to a family which was one of the proudest in Ingersoll’s history.

A fine man named Norsworthy arrived from England and married a young woman with the last name of Cuthbert. Her dowry included a grand house which was home to a family of three sons and one daughter. Like so many other families at the time their sense of duty met with the First World War and with it, an unexpected loss and a great thinning of an entire generation, rich and poor alike. One remnant of their story is found on a monument in a cemetery in northeast Ingersoll . . .


. . . . which documents the brief lives of Norsworthy’s sons and nephews who remain buried in Europe.

The story of the family and the deaths on the battle field are told on an Ancestry website.
http://www.annebrooks.ca/getperson.php?personID=I4296&tree=6126
http://www.annebrooks.ca/getperson.php?personID=I4268&tree=6126

The Norsworthy’s story lives into this century in part because of the pride and vision of the family which led them to hire two prominent Canadian sculptors to create the monument.
H MacCarthy - who created the portrait bust.

http://www.goldiproductions.com/thecanadasite/art/art34a_maccarthy1.html

and Henri He’bert - who prepared the plaques.

http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artist_work_e.jsp?iartistid=2602
The gaze of the fallen are directed across the river towards the house where they were raised.

2/4 Jig Time

Near a town called Embro, Ontario, immigrants to Canada settled and established what was to become one of the oldest Highland game festivals in Canada.

Every year on Canada Day weekend heralds a celebration of Scottish heritage with Scottish exhibits, competitions of dancing, Scottish bands, bagpipe playing, sheepdog contests, tugs-of-war, displays of clan heraldic costumes, an as much fun as can be squeezed into one solid day of activity.

One well known Clan with an exhibit is Clan MacFarlane - one of the most dangerous in all the Highlands.


The dance competitions include a variety of age groups and dances.


According to the Federation of Highland Dancing ( http://www.fusta.us/dances.aspx ) "The Scottish version of the Irish Jig portrays an angry Irish washerwoman discovering neighborhood lads have knocked her clean wash to the ground. Another version describes a woman who shakes her firsts and flounces her skirt in fury that her husband has been out drinking until the wee hours."




Also, here is another link to dances on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9ZtZSghIU4&feature=related

All competitions are now co-ed . . .





Including the Tug of War


The Scottish ceremonial costumes are worn for display . . .



The bagpipes are practiced . . . .



And a local squadron of WWII Harvard aircraft fly a salute to the gathering below.