August 1st, 2008 writerspice
Last year, around this time, Jason and I headed to the Quebec City region to toodle around the nearby island of Ile d’Orleans for a story I wrote for National Geographic Traveler (March 2008).
While in the area, we were also able to attend early August’s New France Festival, a five-day extravaganza that turns the city’s already historic downtown core into a true image of the 17th century, with costumed crowds, acoustic music and booths selling authentic food-stuffs.
Yesterday, my story on the event came out in Toronto’s NOW Magazine – giving me a great excuse to post this picture.
I may look more-or-less like a sophisticated lady-in-waiting, but truth-be-told, I’m still indebted to a stock photographer from Vancouver who lent me his camera bag safety pin to hold the whole contraption together.
I love dressing up, but by the time I got back to Chateau Frontenac and stripped off my itchy, bulky and unflattering petticoats, I was pretty thankful to be a woman of modern times (minus, of course, low-rise jeans and “empowering” pole dancing lessons)!
Posted in Other Places in Canada, Recommended, Writing Life | 2 Comments »
July 24th, 2008 writerspice
I have been lazy lately and lulled by the site of green tomatoes slowly growing in my garden. A little sun might be nice, however, to actually ripen them up.
All this percipitation brings to mind the summer of 1992, when it rained 16 weekends in a row, and I walked around Peterborough with an umbrella practically implanted under my arm.
But there were sunny times then too, when my bare feet took to the sidewalk and I sat on the patio at the Only Cafe, sipping honey-coloured pints of ale (not at the same time, mind you. You know the rule: no shirts, no shoes, no service, and even in those post-Gwen Jacobs days, I was still pretty attached to wearing my top). If the patio was even built by then… I might be getting my memories confused but in the interests of creative non-fiction, I reserve the right.
Suffice it to say that I equate the town of Peterborough with easy-going summer-time days and am looking forward to an upcoming journey to those eastern Ontario parts. If you’re in the province and you’re looking for a local-ish getaway, get thee to Peterborough. And if you’ve never been to this artsy-fartsy riverside town, here are ten fun things to do (well, fun from my own experience), in no particular order.
- Hit the Peterborough Folk Festival – the free, all-day Saturday event in late August features loads of bands on various stages, an artisan village, workshops, psychic readings, a beer tent and more, all in a bucolic setting beside the Otonobee River. The whole thing starts downtown on Thursday night, and don’t miss the pub crawl on Friday – the best way to see both the city’s thriving musical culture and its great pubs and restaurants, including the Montreal House and the Gordon Best Theatre (pictured above), on top of the Only Cafe.
- Did you know that this city was once a canoe capital? For over a hundred years (1850 – 1960), factories like the Peterborough Canoe Company and the Rice Lake Canoe Company pumped out the iconic Canadian vessel. Practice your patriotism and go to the Canadian Canoe Museum to learn more.
- Speaking of boats – get in one. Climb aboard a faux riverboat on Little Lake and learn a bit about the long holidaying history of the Trent Severn Waterway as you rise from one level to another in the over-a-century-old Peterborough Lift Lock.
- See some art. For awhile I worked at the Art Gallery of Peterborough, researching artists, writing press releases and generally being amazed by this lovely lake-side gallery that I’d only visited once before then for a Cultural Studies class excursion.
- Speaking of class, anyone interested in architecture and/or higher learning should take a walk around the campus of Trent University. I decided to go there because it reminded me so much of the rock slabs and open spaces of Northern Ontario. Oh, and its reputation spoke to my hippiesque sensibilities.
- One of the other things I loved to do in the Peterpatch was take my moody self and head to the cemetery. On the edge of Little Lake, this pocket of parkland and gravestones is a great place to do some thinking. If being surrounded by dead people and silence isn’t your thing, take a tour with the Trent Valley Archives. Offered every Sunday, from 4 to 5 pm, these tours educate on a certain themes (Their Spirit Lives On in July, August features Tragic Tales). Tickets are $10 per person. For more information call (705) 745-4404. The archives is also doing other cool stuff, like historical pubcrawls. Only in Peterborough!
- Years back, some friends of mine and I packed up our lawn-chairs and headed down to Del Crary Park to see Buffy Sainte-Marie FOR FREE. She was playing the Festival of Lights. This year, if you’ve been wondering just what happened to Glass Tiger, you can ask them yourself when they hit the stage on Saturday, July 26th. Other upcoming performers include Ron Sexsmith, Michael Burgess and Justin Rutledge. Get there early!
- The first time I ever visited a farmers’ market was in Peterborough. Once, a little boy with a dirty face was carrying around a mess of squalling kittens in a cardboard box filled with straw. Of course I took one, but that’s another story… Active since 1825, the Peterborough Farmers’ Market is just as great as Orillia’s, with loads of vendors, lots of music and that same happy spirit.
- Writer Margaret Laurence described the Otonabee as a “river that flows both ways” in her novel The Diviners. It’s true. The currents flow back and forth like a weaving. Paying homage to this local natural environment, the Ecology Park is a must-see for anyone who loves the earth. Follow a nature trail, learn about native species and pick up some skills about effective composting and organic gardening. A great place to bring the kids!
- After all is said and done, head to Hunter Street and grab a pint or a giant cookie or just a slightly- cinnamon-scented coffee at the Only Cafe, home-away-from-home for underground artists, actors, writers, addicts and those wanting to bump elbows with the town’s artsy elite. When I lived in the Patch, I spent more time here than anywhere else, and have the journal entries to prove it.
If you’re from Peterborough or, like me, a long-time ex-pat who still misses the magical city, what do you do for fun within its boundaries?
Photo of Gordon Best Theatre (above the Only Cafe) by daniel_photographer
Photo of Ptbo Lift Lock by Derek Purdy
Posted in Ontario, Recommended | 8 Comments »
July 8th, 2008 writerspice
Wisconsin isn’t really that far.
And, on a recent trip there, I was surprised to find that it is actually a lot closer than I thought. To my heart, that is.
Driving through lush forests and green farm fields, I’d occasionally spot ribs of white limestone sticking up through the earth’s surface. It seemed a lot like another place I know quite well – the Bruce Peninsula, where my mom was raised and my grandmother lived. In her backyard, there were cherry trees. And cherries are so hot in Wisconsin’s Door County we ate them every day, in various forms, at least once.
Turns out, this bucolic back-to-the-lander’s paradise, edged as it is in historic fishing villages and spotted with a mix of lighthouses and inland art studios, is the western edge of the Niagara Escarpment, a stony arch that stretches from New York State, into Niagara (Niagara Falls is actually water dropping over it), through Ontario, along the Bruce Peninsula, Manitoulin Island, and the southern edge of Michigan’s U.P., before it drops down to create Door County. For all you visual learners (like me), here’s a picture.
Being there was a bit like going home and especially since I got to hang out with some great people, like my new friend Margo, who describes this perfect vacation retreat in a bit more depth.
Posted in Recommended, United States | 8 Comments »
June 6th, 2008 writerspice
On my way home from the library last night, yet another bit about the collapsing airline industry was on the radio.
Dubbed the “airline armageddon” by blogger Lou at The Cost of Energy, it seems like passenger costs for plane trips are rising faster than anyone can book their tickets. Despite the disappointment for travelers (or would be travelers – I think of my 7 and 11-year-old nephews who might miss out on seeing very much of the world as they grow up), anyone with half a brain knows this is inevitable.
Back in May, David Suzuki said it himself:
Air travel leaves the heaviest carbon footprint among all modes of transportation and skyrocketing fuel prices are already having explosive effects…. Economists think tourism can continue to grow into infinity. But we have to realize that nothing can grow forever. This unchecked growth only accelerates us on a suicidal path.
But yesterday, when I was cruising through back blog posts at Celsias.com, a wee bit of hope for future adventures sprang up in my soul. I caught sight of a piece by George Monbiot (the writer of Heat: How to Stop the Planet From Burning
and, the newest, Bring on the Apocalypse: Collected Writing
) discussing the feasibility of relaunching airships.
I know what you’re all thinking. I know because I thought it, too. Starts with H and ends with G, right? Here’s what George says:
The word airship elicits a fixed reaction in almost everyone who hears it: “what about the Hindenburg?”. It’s as if, every time someone proposed travelling on a cruise ship, you were to ask, “but what about the Titanic?”. Yes, there was a spectacular disaster – 71 years ago. It has lodged in our minds because, like the Titanic, the Hindenburg was bigger and plusher than any craft built before it, and it was carrying rich and prominent people. The conflagration was witnessed by journalists and broadcast all over the world. It also become the technology’s funeral pyre: the Hindenburg was doomed long before it burnt, as airships were already being displaced by aeroplanes.
Granted, the solution isn’t perfect. In one of these contraptions – and four companies are working towards getting them off the ground (who knew?) – it would take about two days to get from New York to London. And the resources they would need, writes Monbiot, are somewhat scarce. But nothing in this global quandary – apart from using less and staying home (more on that in days to come) – is infallible.
Despite all our questions and confusion as we face these challenges, the article makes for an interesting read and a bit of black-and-white mental imagining of a future that might have been dreamed up by our great-grandparents, in the days before the airplane industry became the only way to go.
Photo by TeecNosPos
Posted in Going Green, Issues, Recommended | No Comments »
June 3rd, 2008 writerspice
Last year I spent some time chatting with a few local farmers to produce an article about the importance and ease of eating from the fields in the county I call home. Called Think Fresh, Eat Locally, the article is in the May/June issue of Simcoe Life magazine.
With my ever-burgeoning interest in growing food and using wild edibles and herbs (my newly-planted veggie garden is sprouting and a batch of mullien from a neighbour’s driveway is drying in the dehydrator as I type), I poured my heart and soul into this piece.
Unfortunately, in the print issue, it ran with the wrong byline.
Although this has never happened to me before, it is a fairly common occurrence for lots of writers (a few colleagues were quick to share their own tales of woe when I released my sorrows in a forum).
But do me a favour. Should you live somewhere within Simcoe County and come across the magazine, take out your pen, cross out the wrong name and write mine in. That would make me feel a whole lot better.
Chef Doug Porter puts together some locally-grown greens at Collingwood’s Simcoe County Restaurant (photo by Lauren Carter)
Posted in Food, Going Green, Issues, Ontario, Recommended, Seasons, Simcoe County, World, Writing Life | No Comments »
May 27th, 2008 writerspice
This past weekend, J. and I embarked on a bit of a staycation.
We still drove three hours to get there, but by creeping along in our fuel-efficient car, we only used about a half tank of gas (the starter went and J. had to replace it in our B&B’s driveway and then the emergency brake kinda caught fire as we were picking Ollie up at the kennel, but, hey, you can’t have everything!)
I’m still working on pitches and stories from the excursion, so can’t say much lest I give my ideas away, but suffice it to say we were in the St. Jacobs area. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the market (sources tell me that the 130-year-old Kitchener Farmers’ Market is even better, with more reliably local food and less crap), but Saturday afternoon found us in the village, a first time for both of us.
We wandered around a pottery shop in a renovated silo, sat quietly in a replicated meeting house in a museum dedicated to Mennonite culture and explored a hundred year old broom-making shop and antique store (where I coveted an ornate Victorian twine dispenser made of iron – must be all the Jane Austen I’m reading lately).
St. Jacobs reminded us a bit of Elora, that other once-sleepy Ontario village that came to fame and is now lined with expensive boutiques and crowds of bussed-in tourists eager for the authentic.
Both towns seem a bit like how I would imagine the Southwestern Ontario pavilion at Epcot Centre and over rhubarb-strawberry squares at the bakery, we wondered what the Mennonites think. In the museum, we learned that they were first nick-named “the quiet in the land” when they arrived in the late 1700s. It must be strange for such private people to have to run their errands in a town crowded with people wishing for a glimpse of their black wagons rolling down the road.
We didn’t see many horse-drawn wagons. Mostly we saw buses lined up in the wide parking lot a block from main street and lots of cars, one from Florida. But on the way home we stopped at the Kissing Bridge, the province’s last remaining covered bridge, and as I was snapping photos, one came by. I surreptitiously took a picture – not the greatest one, but you get the idea – before we continued on our way, driving down back country roads with dust around their edges, to wander our way home.
Posted in Ontario, Recommended, Writing Life | 1 Comment »
May 23rd, 2008 writerspice
Last week, I went to the countryside town of Uxbridge, Ontario on assignment. While there, I wandered into Bredin’s Bakery, bell jingling and old-fashioned porch door slamming behind me.
Inside, as a fourth-generation baker toiled away in the background, I tasted some cookies I’m pretty sure they are serving on simple china plates on a fluffy white cloud in, um, heaven.
Here’s a photo of a baked-goods buyer, perplexed over what delicious bit of paradise pastries she should purchase.
Either that, or she’s wondering what I’m doing, bent over, aiming a camera at her face. Ah, well. It made for a good shot of this simple bakery with delicious fare.
I’m glad I went. Who can argue with contented crumb-fingered sighs?
(And, yeah, okay, I guess this is me officially coming-out as no longer gluten-free – a long, controversial story that can be summed up by saying, nobody knows one’s body like the person who has to live in it).
Posted in Food, Ontario, Pretty Pictures, Recommended | 1 Comment »
May 14th, 2008 writerspice
This morning I jumped out of bed at 7 a.m., realizing we forgot to put the garbage out.
My husband took the dog for a walk as I scurried around the house, sweeping every paper receipt, toilet paper roll and stray ice cream container (hey, it’s been a hard week) into the recycling bin. The garbage was easier – tied the bag up, plastered my neon orange city-certification sticker on it and rushed it out to the curb just as the truck was pulling up.
It’s funny the things you never think about when you’re a long way from home, living out of your backpack and steadily disposing of any accumulated waste as you go (or shoving it in your journal to be either scrap-booked back home or thrown out a decade later). I probably desperately need a vacation, but that’s what I was thinking as I breathed a sigh of relief, poured a cup of tea, fired up the computer and entered my Gmail account.
Needless to say, it was nice to move from a meditation on garbage (and, believe me, I could talk a bit more about that if I had the inclination…) to the news that my blog made Travelhacker‘s list of the top hundred travel blogs.
I’m up there with such esteemed bloggers as The Lost Girls, three twenty-something New Yorkers who just, well, took off, Slow Travel, a blog by writer Ed Gillespie who took a flight-free trip around the world, writing columns for the Guardian along the way, and Nerd’s Eye View, where she’s written a great post about how to keep your travelblog alive when you’re not traveling… NOT on the list: talk about the monotonous chores that bind us to home.
Oh, well.
Posted in News, Recommended, Writing Life | 1 Comment »
May 8th, 2008 writerspice
Busy, busy, busy. Working ten-hour days this week, while the world outside shifts between grey skies and sunshine, edged in cold and warm, air weighted in moments with humidity. Off to Uxbridge tomorrow for an assignment, while another lies all over my desk like an exploded bomb.
In the midst of it all, bum sore from sitting on the hard chair, shoulder aching from moving the mouse too much, I take a break and wander over to Flickr, to look at some of my friend A.’s photographs.
They make me happy – these moments she snaps – how she can stop the everyday rush and grab the beautiful, the humourous, the graceful, the elaborate, the simple image out of the obliteration of time and freeze it into something extraordinary.
She certainly has the eye.
Posted in Art, Pretty Pictures, Recommended, Writing Life | No Comments »
May 5th, 2008 writerspice
This Saturday, J. and I took advantage of a break in the rain to head out to Grant’s Woods, a 52-acre section of forest protected by the Couchiching Conservancy, a land-trust organization that oversees the maintenance of several important acreages in and around Lakes Couchiching and Simcoe.
With Ollie on leash, we wandered the 1.5 kilometre Trillium Trail, stopping at several numbered spots to learn about bittersweet vine, yellow birch, salamanders and other facts of the forest. Most of the trilliums are just about to bloom, their tightly-wrapped white flowers waiting for the sun, but we did see a few of the rarer red variety, wide open.
But what I love most about being in the woods on a wet spring day is the smell. Sweet and spicy, that heady aroma of freshly melting mud mixed with sprouting cedar and other awakening wild stuff always reminds me of the very best times in my life – living in a B.C. rain-forest, wandering through the woods behind my childhood home.
And this forest is especially special. Says the website:
“…it is the woodlands on this property that are its true value. Except for the removal of a few dead trees for firewood, this upland forest has not been touched for over a century. The result today is a fine old-growth stand with towering hard maple, white ash, red oak, white pine, and hemlock. The soils here are deep moist sands, ideal conditions to produce tall, straight, healthy trees. They also produce water – lots of small cool streams in shallow ravines, which collect together to form one of the headwaters of the North River. Indigo buntings occur along the woodland edges. In the shade of the forest, Christmas fern and spring wildflowers are abundant.”
With several more trails yet to explore and the changes of the seasons to watch, Jason and I will be back there soon. Maybe even for Mother Earth Day, this coming Saturday (May 10) when local bands will be playing in the gazebo, accompanying a native smudge ceremony by Mnjikaning First Nation elder and storyteller Mark Douglas, a spinner who works with husky fur, snake and turtle demonstrations and bird-nesting-box building for kids, alongside lots of other activities… (for more information, go to the homepage of the Couchiching Conservancy website and scroll down). A great way to celebrate mother’s day, if you’re in the area.
Photograph by Lauren Carter
Posted in Orillia, Pretty Pictures, Recommended, Seasons | 3 Comments »
