Quilting, Callee and other Things

Prep Work

2012-01-25T21:03:00.000-05:00

We had the first of the $10 classes a week early in January so part of last week was cutting out house number 3 (its getting done first, then #1). It all got cut out and ready to paper piece but I didn't get to stitching

Hard to believe that those will eventually make a house.
I've really been enjoying working on the Friends on Chelsea Lane quilt so decided to stop and prepare several of the blocks. During the week I traced applique shapes and stitched the layered sections together where I could. Friday night Karen and I went to a sit and sew evening at Cockadoodle quilts. I spent the evening preparing background blocks and by the end had most of them basted as well. Saturday I stitched the Joy block and between Sunday and Monday stitched the Bee Happy Block. Friends is underway as a purse project. Those houses for the $10 class need attention in the evening.

Joy

Bee Happy

Friends

Harvest Moon

Bloom

Gourds

Gourds isn't basted yet. Its the only block without words on it. I'm thinking about changing the words on Harvest Moon and adding something to Gourds. The words are all things like Hope, Family, Love, Friends, Joy, Dream, Bloom. Some how Harvest Moon doesn't seem to fit that string of words. Gourds looks kind of lonely without a word. Once I figure out its word I'll baste the shapes in place but they need to move from their original positions to make room.

Little House top done and other progress

2012-01-16T17:59:00.000-05:00

I found a border fabric I like for the Little House quilt and it now has mitred borders

and the bias binding is prepared (since the fabric has strips, I decided mitring and bias were in order).

I had another reminder about how often I don't put mitred borders on quilts -- it took almost 2 hours to put borders on a 32 X 37 quilt. Then was the fun of calculating the length of binding, how big a square does it take. Pulled out my Quiltmaking Tips and Techniques book and the formula is

A = Calculate the perimeter of the quilt 2*(length + width) plus 24 - 36 inches
B = Multiple that number by the width of strips to cut
C = Take the square root A*B

Round that to a nice easy number to cut. I cut the square a little bit bigger. I'd rather have too much than not enough. If I'm not making bias binding, the its just A and cut strips of the required width until you have enough to add up to that length. For smaller quilts 24 - 36 is overkill on the joining and turning corners bit.

When making the bias, I have a dress maker sleeve roll that I use to help press the seam open when the floppy piece has been joined into a tube. I used similar fabric for the $10 quilt a few years ago. Its in the quilt me pile (already sandwiched). When I make its binding I'll take photos.

The third block is done for the Friends of Chelsea Lane quilt. Mom had a light box (I think Dad made it). I brought it home for me. Its opened a one end and an old florescent lamp is inside. Pull it out a bit to turn on and move around where needed. I used it to trace the applique shapes.

I missed a really important sentence in the pattern instructions -- the directional shapes have been printed in reverse for fusible applique. Discovered that after I cut out the directional shapes and they didn't sit right on the block. For two of the piece there was sufficient left overs to re-cut in the same fabric. For the other piece, I just used a scrap from the same tone value. The print is bigger but that's OK.

Since there won't really be too many options about how to sew the blocks together, I've stitched the first three together. I have the shapes prepared for block 4 and am almost finished prepping block 5 as well. I think I'll take the blocks to the sit & sew Friday evening and get all the prep work done so I can just applique.

Saturday was the first of this year's $10 quilt class for O Tannebaum. (Elaine has info about it on her blog here) You pay $10 for the class in month one. If you do your homework each month you don't pay anything else. If you don't finish the homework, you need to pay $10 to continue. (Dad thinks its a badly misnamed class since it sounds like the quilt is going to cost $10). It looks like it should be a really fun quilt. Part of this weeks to do will be to work on one of the houses (or both).

The other goal for this week is to quilt the little wall hanging from the Guild Thread Painting workshop. Its been sandwiched and ready to quilt since the a few days after the class was finished in May 2009 but I still haven't quilted it. I'd like to finish that one this month.

A History of the World Objects

2012-01-15T20:35:00.001-05:00

During the trip to the UK last year, I made a very brief visit to the British Museum to see a six of the History of World in 100 Objects. All of these are very creative objects -- the details in the reindeer using stone tools, the ornamentation and similarity in patterns across the backgrounds. I see lots of quilting patterns in those details.

The first on my list was a pair of swimming reindeer carved from mammoth tusks during the last ice age.

The next was to see the Benin Plaques. The museum has a wonderful collection of these. The one in the History of the world shows the King of Benin in Nigeria with some Europeans in the background.

TVO showed a series last year about the Lost Kingdoms of Africa and one of them was about the Benin Plaques.

The third was the Lewis Chessmen carved from Walrus Ivory and Whale bones.

The fourth was the Chinese Bronze Bells called a Bo Bell.

The fifth was the David Vases which were originally altar vases, commissioned by a man called Zhang Wenjin, and presented as an offering to a Daoist temple in the 1300`s as a prayer for his children.

I also had the Holy Thorn Reliquary on my list of objects but it had been removed from its usual place and included in a special exhibit.

I would have like to see all 100 but there was only the morning to spend at the museum and I lazed away so much of the morning I was pressed for time to see these ones. As it was I was late meeting Karen for lunch before heading to see the Railway Children. She had given me her cell phone. I tried to text her to let her know I was coming and managed to send the text to her work phone number instead of her work blackberry.

Progress

2012-01-09T20:28:00.000-05:00

I finished appliquéing the two blocks Mom had begun and then spent most of Saturday adding the embroidery. The pattern calls for small black Rick rack for the balloon and stems as well as other elements in other blocks. I used a zig zag chain stitch instead. Its a chain stitch but each chain is done at an angle to the previous one so that it forms the zigzag. Next to do is prepare the March Block.

The guild Block of the Month for 2010/11 was a pattern by Linda Halpin called Quilting with Laura. I took for of my scrap boxes (red, orange, purple, pink and beige/white) and worked on the blocks.

Somehow, it doesn't look like anything has been removed from the boxes even though the quilt centre is finished. Almost everything in the centre came from one of the boxes. A few of the larger pieces had to come from the shelves. Next challenge is picking a border fabric. I pulled a few but so far none of them seemed right.

Quilting Again

2012-01-02T21:50:00.001-05:00

This morning was all about errands -- drop off the bag to the thrift store that's been in the cupboard for months, get groceries, get my calendar. On my way out to the car, this little guy was sitting in the tree having his morning snack.

I don't think he really wanted to be my model. He was in a better location before I got the camera out. He and his apple disappeared further up the tree a few moments later.
After errands, I watched the Tournament of Roses Parade and put the decorations away. This is near the beginning of the Parade (I missed the first few minutes)

This is near the end. I had my lunch while watching the tail end of the parade.

Then downstairs to work on laundry and the guild BOM from last year (2009 / 10). Its Quilting with Laura by Linda Halpin. I got stuck on the second last block --- Doves in the window and printed it out for paper piecing. Last night I sewed the last of the little pieces and tried to trim them for sewing the sections together. Trimmed on a sewing line instead of the cutting line for one piece so had to try that segment again. Its still not entirely right but its well enough. Also got the last block finished and can now start sewing the top together.

This is one of 45 UFOs on my spreadsheet. Over Christmas we spent some time going through Mom's quilts and UFOs. A recurring question from Dad was "how many do you have?" "Do you have this many on the go?". So when I got home, I found a spreadsheet I had started a few years ago and updated it. The spreadsheet lists the Start Date and Completion Date for each project as well as columns for the state -- Piecing, Applique, Assemble Top, Borders, Make Binding, Baste, Quilt, Bind, Embellishment, Label & Sleeve, Finished Size, Notes. I ended up with 45 started things (including two of Mom's that I brought home to finish but not the other two I have my eye on). Karen has given me strict instructions to
1. Get all my UFOs into boxes with all fabric and instructions.
2. Identify all completed tops and get bindings together for them (If the fabric isn't with the top its in a box with the UFOs for the most part)
3. STOP STARTING NEW THINGS AND FINISH OFF WHATS ON THE GO.
As an obedinet older sister, I naturally signed up for a quilting class on Saturday.

I'm working on two of the UFOs. I'll have to spend some time figuring out which ones I want to work on this year. Once the guild bom is a completed top, I'll probably concentrate on getting some of the sandwiched ones quilted.

This is one of the UFOs that Mom had and I've brought home to work on. Its called Friends on Chelsea Lane. The smaller block needs some embrodiery. The larger block has two flowers left to finish and leaves to add as well as the embrodiery. Since the photos were taken, I've finished stitching the two flowers down and have the leaves ready to add. This one may go to work as a lunch time project.

It was fun to be stitching. I haven't done much more than the $10 quilt class the last little while. It was good to spend the afternoon stitching.

Kobos Don't Bounce Very Well

2011-06-07T22:20:00.009-04:00

I dropped my poor Kobo getting ready to go out one Sunday morning in May. It was in its case so I just put it in my purse and went off to met Dad for lunch in Gravenhurst. On the way home, I stopped for a break at a rest area and pulled out the Kobo to read. It wouldn't turn on and there was a pale grey smudge behind the logo shaped like a book. I thought it had turned on accidentally and burned out the battery. Also thought it was weird I hadn't noticed the book shape in the past. Charged it when I got home and it still wouldn't turn on. By the end of the evening it looked like this -- that middle bit should be all white like the top right corner.

I called Kobo to find out if there was somewhere I could take it to get a repair estimate or was I better to just buy a new one. Kobo actually sent me a new (refurbished) reader since mine was under a year old. Given that the damage was my own fault I'm really impressed they replaced it. It was nice to get the new working one and get all my books back on it.

Baskets

2011-03-25T21:00:00.001-04:00

10 years ago, we made baskets in a swap. Elaine blogged about hers recently and had photos of some of the others. Mine are still individual blocks. One block is significantly larger than the others and 3 are very heavy. I pulled them out of the stack and put them up over the guild BOM

Need to figure out how to put this together and finish it off.

The Guild BOM needs a rest -- the dove in the window block is not going together well. I'm not sure if ripping, pressing and hand-stitching is the answer or if it needs to be re-cut before I sew it again.

$10 Quilt - 2011

2011-03-20T19:51:00.000-04:00

After finishing the first month's work weeks in advance, this month's work got done today (Sunday). Class is next Saturday. Fortunately it was 5 very easy blocks. The piecing was all done still listening to A History of the World in 100 Objects. Object 77 is the Benin Masks from Nigeria that were in the Lost Countries of Africa program that we watched on TVO last week end.

PSE9 Part 2 - Lesson 1

2011-03-13T16:06:00.003-04:00

Back to elements 9 classes at LVS This class is about selections. I used these two photos from the Butterfly conservatory near Guelph. They are both of ~~Owl~~ Blue Morpho Butterflies which have the most beautiful blue on the inside of their wings but its very difficult to see when they land as they immediately fold their wings together. The nursery at this conservatory didn't have glass so I was able to get a reasonably clear photo of a newly hatched Blue Morpho Butterfly on the nursery floor with its wings open.

First was to select the butterfly resting using the Magic Extractor. It took a little to clean up the edges

Next was to make a snapshot composite

I decided the first selection should be added to this exercise using the copy and paste instructions and then redoing the steps to add a second snapshot

In doing the initial selection in the lesson with the brush and the rose photo I ended up with a number of pink lines showing through after doing the colorized version of the rose. There were no unselected bits in the rose that I could see -- the ants were only around the edges.

ROM Visit

2011-02-20T20:38:00.002-05:00

I went into the museum today to see the items on display from the ROM episode of Museum Secrets. There were two curators available for Q&A sessions this afternoon. One for the head dress and one for the baby mummies.

ROM Museum Secrets
Originally uploaded by imhalca

This is a sandstone formation. Its in the ROM's mineral collection. I think I'll be going back to see it again soon.

ROM: Gogotte
Originally uploaded by imhalca

Guild BOM

2011-02-19T22:23:00.000-05:00

This year for the Mississauga Quilters Guild Block of the Month (BOM) program they've given us a choice of two patterns. I'm working on the Quilting with Laura pattern by Linda Halpin. The patterns in the quilt are all inspired from the "Little House on the Prairie" series. The first few months we got copies of the pattern. Then we received copies of the book and can now work at our own speed.
I briefly considered hand piecing as that's how the instructions are written but that thought didn't last long. So I've been machine piecing. I took the book to work one day and spent my lunch time coming up with a list of all the pieces I needed to cut for the blocks. A colleague saw me in the lunch room with my paper and pencil and came over to scold me for working at lunch. Once she saw it was quilting, all was well.
So far this is my quilt. The extra bits on the side are either the missing half square triangles (missed counting six of them) or an extra goose that may become a filler block.

The fabrics in this all (except two larger pieces of red) come from the scrap boxes -- beige, orange, red, and purple. Even once I get the dove and school house blocks done, I don't think there will be much of a dent in some of the boxes.

$10 Quilt 2011 -- Christmas Heart Lights

2011-02-05T11:40:00.001-05:00

The first assignment was the background squares. Some are just 8.5 inch squares of fabric and others have pinwheels in the block -- either one or two. Here are the stacks of completed blocks. The class isn't until the 4th Saturday of February. Its only the first Saturday and I'm ready.

I listened to the BBC's podcasts of A History of the World in 100 objects while working on this. It worked out well. Each podcast is 15 minutes. It was surprising how much could be accomplished in those 15 minutes. At the end of the cast, I'd look at the next object and then start the audio and continue work. Made me change my position regularily.

PSE9: The Journey Begins Lesson 5

2011-02-05T11:28:00.000-05:00

The sign and two images are from the ROMs Egypt collection.

This is the photo the tools came from. The photo the head comes from is rather shaky I haven't added it here.

Back to Quilting -- $10 Quilt for 2011

2011-02-01T21:18:00.000-05:00

Not having done much quilting last year I'm ready to get back to it. I signed up for one of the block of the months at guild and actually did get some of the blocks made for that quilt over Christmas. I haven't taken any photos of it yet.
Tonight I made the first two pinwheel blocks for the $10 quilt class at Hobby Horse. I'm signed up for Christmas Heart LIghts designed by Susie M. Robbins

Both pinwheels hare made of the same fabrics but the left side has a snowflake sheer fabric overlaid on top. I think I'm going to make a mixture of the two blocks. Need to use a pressing clothe with the sheer as its a polyester and wants to stick a bit to the iron.

PSE9: The Journey Begins Lesson 4

2011-02-01T18:55:00.000-05:00

This little hedgehog container is from the Royal Ontario Museum. It is one of a pair and is from 800-700 BC. I used Colour and the picker to choose a colour for one of the vignette backgrounds instead of black.

This butterfly was on a brightly coloured wall in a butterfly garden at the Museum of Natural History. Butterfly gardens are so fun although my sister's camera didn't like the humidity in this one.

PSE9: The Journey Begins lesson 3

2011-01-23T14:23:00.000-05:00

Rose with carved effect.

One of the squirrels that lives in the complex was playing on my bbq, hose and in the garden near the end of Christmas. This picture is snapped very quickly through the window. I was trying not to move very much as the squirrels are jumpy. The correction is the Auto Smartfix. I tried a number of corrections and the smartfix seemed to do a reasonably good job.

The cage and life ring were floating at the edge of the Thames. I wanted to get remove the people in the bottom right but keep the pier as well as remove the little thing under the pier in the top right. The cage and ring were protected so that they didn't get smaller.

I did go back and play with the OOB edit. WOW. That is so much easier. This is my sister during our walk at Hadrians Wall last fall.

PSE9: The Journey Begins. Lesson 2

2011-01-22T22:17:00.000-05:00

This is the provided photo with the Sepia action applied.

This photo is from a conservation area display. They had a long house setup. I used the Lighten and Darken guided edit to retrieve a bit of the details -- mostly in the log in the background.

Terracotta warriors at ROM

2010-12-31T15:38:00.000-05:00

I had a chance to go through the terracotta warriors exhibit at ROM twice. I'd seen a exhibit in London a few years ago during a visit with Karen. The nice thing was the exhibit was different and focused on other aspects. There were other emperors after the First Emperor who also had warriors buried with them but no where near the scale of the First Emperor.

These are some of the motifs that caught my eye during the first visit.

These are some of the warriors that caught me eye during the second visit.

ROM Visit November 13th

2010-12-27T20:40:00.034-05:00

I had a ticket for the symphony on the 13th so went to the ROM for a few hours and visited sections 301 - 303 which covers Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific; the Middle East and South Asia. Most of these pictures are from section 301-- Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. The descriptions are generally summarized from the tags that appear with the items.

Wayu culture, Kashure, Colombia c 1965 The size of the pompom varies with the social status of the wearer. The pompoms protect the feet from prickly pears. The big pompon requires a very slow, straight step which helps the women walk with dignity, "as a woman should"

Wuramon (soul canoe) Asmat culture, West Papua Province, Indonesia, mid 20th century. The wuramon combines death and rebirth. The wuramon represents the great voyage to the land of the dead in a bottomless canoe.

Double jar in the Carretas polychrom style. The shape of this reminds me of the binocular-like object that the ROM had in a display about Trypilian Culture.
In the Trypilian exhibit we weren't allowed to take photos. The sketch of the binocular-like object is in the bottom left corner

Sumerian earthenware from about 3,000 - 2,000 BC

I was at the ROM again when the 24 part choral piece played but this time I stayed up in the 3rd floor gallery of the crystal and just enjoyed the music. The acoustics there really are excellent.

Deserted Beaches of Wasaga Workshop 2010

2010-12-23T12:26:00.000-05:00

Last December I joined the same workshop It was fun so I signed up to join Mike Guilbault of Photography Workshops again this year. We got snow and ice this time.

Mike took this picture of me admiring the view

and this photo of the group

I'm having problems picking favorites this year. The milkweed at the last stop was very interesting
but I really like the icy ones too.

The photos from both years are here

100!

2010-12-23T11:40:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I reached 100 donations at Blood Services.

ROM Textile Collection

2010-10-31T14:28:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I had two hours at the ROM on my way to the symphony. Since it was the day before Hallowe'en I went back up to the textile area on the fourth floor as I guessed the other areas would be very busy with families (lots of activities at ROM this weekend for families). Also I'm very fond of the textile area.

The first set of displays was about different types of fabrics used for clothing. This is a katanga (sp?) from Kenya titled Ancestral Proverb. The words translate to "He who likes doesn't care" meaning don't see the bad in someone or something. Karen has brought us back some Salvation Army katanga's from her travels so it was fun to see some other ones on display. I like the umbrellas which are also to help protect you from seeing the bad.

This beaded basket was to commemorate the birth of a child. There's a band around the bottom that reads WHERE VERTUE IS THE CAUSE OF LOVE NOTHING BUT DEATH CAN IT REMOVE. ANNE ROUNDELL ANNO 1656

This doll's corset was made in Ireland in 1830 by Mary Haslam. It was part of her schooling.

This sweater jacket was knit some time between 1630 and 1650. It silk yarn with gold and silver metallic thread. They are still trying to decide if its hand made or made with an early knitting machine. There are no paintings from the time of anyone wearing one of these that have been found to date. So the theory is that it was for home wear only.

This sign was right next to this dress:

While it may have been a simple dress at the time, to my mind its very dressy. They also had a few quilts on display. Both of these were made in Ontario in the 1800's. The hexagons are approximately 0.5 inches across. The basket quilt was made by Mary Drummond.

While the crystal addition to ROM is not my favorite thing, I discover a redeeming feature to it yesterday -- it has amazing acoustics. If you happen to be at the ROM around 5pm, head upstairs to the bridge area of the crystal. At 5:07, they play a 24-part choral piece. Next time I'm just going to sit and listen. It was wonderful. Yesterday I chased the sound to see where it came from. There's an area on the main floor called the spirit lodge where the music is played and it goes up in the bridge area.

Fish and Fruit

2010-06-27T12:29:00.000-04:00

One day when I was wandering through the veggie section at the grocery store, I saw this little thing

It turns out its a donut or Saturn peach . I'd never heard of them so I brought one to try. Its very tasty. Naturally I had to goggle to find out about them. Turns out they've been around since the late 1800's. Here it is with a one inch tall spool of thread so you can get an idea of the size.

On the day of the last guild meeting I stopped for a burger on my way. There is an aquarium in that store. This spotted fish was very shy. The clown fish, not so much. I really like the spotted one.

A visit to ROM

2010-06-27T12:20:00.000-04:00

On June 6, I went into the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) to see a presentation about the creation of the Terracotta warriors exhibit that is opening June 26th. So far they have identified more than 80 artists who made the warriors. I thought this would be a repeat of the exhibit we saw in London a few years ago but it turns out that its a made for Canada exhibit. I'm looking forward to heading in later this summer to see it.
After the lecture I spent some time wandering through an exhibit about Canada.
There were tools and molds used by the Indians and the pioneers to make maple syrup. In the first picture, there is a bucket for collecting the sap, then two molds -- a house and a prayer book. The second picture shows several molds. The third picture shows a skimmer used to clean the foam and debris from the surface of the sap as it boiled.

Another section showed powder horns from the 1800's. This one is from Quebec.

In the middle of the exhibit was a group of quilts. This exhibit is African Canadian Quilts From Southern Ontario. The quilts ranged from 1848 to 1976. The first quilt that caught my eye was the Juladoo quilt. It was made in 1884. Juladoo is an abbreviation of the makers name.

The other quilt that really caught my eye was this nine patch quilt from 1848.

Hiking on a hot weekend

2010-06-27T12:00:00.000-04:00

On May 29th, I went back out to the Calcium Pits (Km 107.1) and hiked south from there to km 100.1 There's a 2.5 km side trail in there that I followed on the way back. It was really hot and humid that day. In the woods it wasn't bad but in the open areas, it was sticky. When I got back to km 102.2 I realized I could follow the trail back to the car (about 5 km) or walk straight up the road in front of me for about 2.5 km to the car. I choose the shorter route so in total the hike was almost 15 km.
This is the view over the calcium pits where I began. From 1920 - 1950, this area was mined for materials to make whitewash, culvert tiles and a bug killer that was a precursor to DDT.

Throughout the Bruce Trail there are bridges, stiles and boardwalks built by volunteers to help cross wet areas and fences. Some of the land areas are privately owned and the trail has permission to cross the land.

The wildflowers are out in bloom and the bees were very busy

I came across a few mushroom patches.

And saw several dragon / damsel flies. Also some birds and frogs but not much else in the way of wild life. The frog was a long way away from water but I was reading last year on one of the conservation web sites about a brown frog who lives in the forest not the water.

It may not be visible in smaller versions of the photo, but there are two side trail instructions in the photos -- for the same side trail. One says to take the left fork and the other the right. A little confusing from a distance. The High Water Route photo, is the explanation. The trail runs near a river. When there is danger of high water, take the left fork otherwise, take the right.

May Long Weekend Hike

2010-06-12T17:10:00.001-04:00

It poured on Saturday, so Dad and I went hiking on Sunday. We went out towards the end of the Iroquoia section and parked at the Calcium Pits (km 107.1) and hiked through the Crawford Forestry Tract to were the trail crosses Guelph Line (km 109.4). According to the maps, this is suppose to be a little flatter than continuing at the other end. (I hiked km 109.4 to 125.5 last fall -- those pictures are still to come). This week, Dad has his own pack and his (Mom's ?) walking stick.

Part of the trail is nice flat forestry roads and there are some ponds and streams. The dragonflies were all over this one.

Then the Bruce trail veered off the forestry road and head down. Dad paused on the way down to take a picture of some flowers. He was playing with the flash

We paused here to admire the water bugs. Volunteers build the bridges and walkways over marshy bits.

We saw several frogs

And some frogs in waiting. They are very shy and disappear before you know something is in the silt. You just know that something moved. But if you stay very still, they will resurface.

Brueckner Rhododendron Gardens

2010-06-10T20:55:00.001-04:00

I've known the gardens were there for a long time but I've never remembered to stop in the spring for a visit. This year, I finally took time to go to the Brueckner Rhododendron Gardens. Actually I've made several visits. The first visit in mid-April was when the Magnolias and Azaleas were in bloom. Its also when Dad got his new little camera so the pictures of Dad and I and of Mom and I are some of the first pictures taken with the camera.

Apparently, the flowers start blooming in April and go through to the end of June.

In mid-May I went back and this tree was in bloom. I'm not sure what it is. It has tiny flowers like a lilac but they are all over the branch. Its very beautiful. (Its a Red Bud Tree -- Thanks Elaine!)

The fruit trees and rhododendrons had also started bloom and the bees were very busy

On the May long weekend, after Dad and I went hiking, the three of us went to visit the gardens again.

I think I'll try to swing past the gardens again soon to see how they are doing. The flowering is suppose to end by Father's Day which is coming quickly.

Iroquoia Section -- km 6.7 to 11.8

2010-06-09T21:14:00.002-04:00

I parked at the Cline Mountain Side Trail which is at km 7.3 and hiked back to where we ended the previous week. There is a side trail that joins the main trail at 6.7 but its a longer trail and the parking was on a busier street. This section of the trail stays below the escarpment top. Its a little rocky in sections and parts were muddy.

Some trillums were still in bloom

and the mushrooms have started to come back

I like the colours and shapes of the mushrooms and fungus. They are fun to take photos of but I never pick any. I borrowed a book from the library last year and very similar looking mushrooms are benign, tasty and deadly poisonous. Photos are much safer.
This tree piece looks like its a transplant from the west coast...

That's my walking stick leaning against it in front of the knot.
This is the back of my jeans when I stopped for lunch at km 11.8. After eating, I turned around and retraced my steps to the car so the jeans were a little worse by the end

While I was changing out of the hiking boots at the end of the hike, this bumble bee came to check out the dandelions

Most of the bees I've seen this spring on nice big ones like this one.

Poor filter

2010-06-05T14:37:00.002-04:00

Poor filter
Originally uploaded by imhalca

Iroquoia Section 2.1 to 6.7
This is why a filter on the front of your lens is a good idea. When we were getting ready to start our hike, I managed to bounce my camera on the ground. The camera was sitting on the back seat and when I grabbed the pack the camera came flying out as well. It must have been sitting on one of the straps. The lens cap drove into the filter. The filter was broken but the lens itself is fine. I was nervous about hiking with no filter on the front of the lens so put the polarizing filter on even though it wasn't a good day for that kind of filter. I forgot to change the camera settings to accommodate for the darker filter so have had to play with some of my pictures. Dad was busy playing with his new camera so I have some of his photos too.
The first 2.5 km were road walking. Once we got back onto the escarpment, Dad took the pack for a while since we had one pack between us. I felt like I was floating hiking without it. Dad thinks I must carry several large bricks in it. Actually its mostly the 3L of water (and our lunch).

The trilliums were out and Dad had fun taking flower photos. We must be rubbing off on him!

We didn't see a lot of wild life although we heard lots of birds. Saw a lost feather

and this little guy

When the rains finally come, I'm sure the hikers will appreciate this.

It had been dry enough that the stream below didn't have a lot of water.

Beamer Falls Conservation Area

2010-06-05T14:11:00.002-04:00

Beamer Falls Conservation Area
Originally uploaded by imhalca
The Bruce Trail is the Black dotted line in the map. I started in the parking lot by Quarry Road and followed the trail to where it crosses Forty Mile Creek (top Right) then turned around and went started back. On the way back I followed the dotted brown line which is a side trail to see the Beamer Falls. if you go to the conservation area in the spring, there is a Hawk Observation Tower. Hawks, Falcons, Turkey Vultures migrate past this area each spring and there are people in the Observation tower to count how many of each kind are migrating through the area. When I started to follow the trail to toward the quarry, I heard some rustling in the leaves beside the trail. There were several little snakes scurrying around the area.

Near the second lookout area, I watched the turkey vultures soaring out over the thermals but, as usual, they stayed out of camera range. This guy flew into a tree near the lookout deck. I thought this was a woodpecker when I took his picture but looking at photos on the internet, I think he's really a sapsucker. Take a look at his feet. He has such long claws!

The trail descends down into Grimsby beside Forty Mile Creek

I went down to the street as that is where the Iroquoia section begins. On the way back up, I put my walking pole infront of the steps

This covered the first 2.1km of the Iroquoia Section

Easter Weekend

2010-06-04T20:38:00.007-04:00

On Good Friday afternoon Dad & I went for a walk along the waterfront trail. The pussy willow was budding. Sure sign of spring.

From the path, we could see this old? graffiti covered water tower

The waterfront trail also encourages bikers. This one was strapped to one of the trail signs.

On Easter Sunday, I went for a walk at the creek near my home. The trees were budding.

This Cardinal was very cooperative. They don't usually hold still for photos but he posed in the tree.

He also posed by the creek where he enjoyed an afternoon drink.

Good Friday Morning

2010-05-29T08:12:00.000-04:00

On Good Friday I got up early enough to head down to see the sunrise at the waterfront. Got there a little later than planned but the sun was still on its way up.

The birds were just getting up

And there were lots of great reflections.

Etobicoke Quilt Show

2010-05-27T06:50:00.000-04:00

Slowing starting to catchup. At the end of March, the Etobicoke Quilters Guild had their show. Here are some of my favorite quilts from the show. The Zebra and Witch were made by Judy Makinson; The Blue Footed Boobie, by Linda Bright and the Toucan, by Mary Salus

Swan conference

2010-03-21T16:55:00.005-04:00

This is one of the photos I took on the first day of spring down at the Mississauga waterfront. The temperatures during the week had been up around 17 - 19 C. Saturday, the temperature only made it to 7 and the sun forgot to come shine. Had fun taking photos anyway.
Others photos from the last couple of months are here

Deserted Beaches of Wasaga Workshop

2009-12-11T07:01:00.007-05:00

On Dec 5, I went to Wasaga Beach as part of a winter photography workshop with Mike Guilbault The workshop was Deserted Beaches of Wasaga. Its been a mild fall so not much snow and ice (the folks on this weekends workshop will probably say differently since there's winter storms in that area today). Mike has a post here about the day including a group photo. I'm having problems picking a favorite photo from the day. There were lots to choose from. This ranks up there:

The others are here

Learn to Love Layers Lesson 6

2009-12-10T20:07:00.004-05:00

Spinning Ball Rolling Ball
Other pictures from this class are here

$10 Quilt Reveal and Layers Class

2009-11-29T08:07:00.005-05:00

So yesterday was the reveal at Hobby Horse for this years $10 quilt classes. I was a bit late getting there so missed getting photos of some of the quilts. Elaine was taking photos, so hopefully she'll post some too. The quilts are here or you should be able to watch this slide show.

When I got home yesterday, I got busy right away and download the photos from the camera. But then got side tracked by this weeks layer's class lesson. (Sorry Mom) Its about making out of bounds (OOB) photos. The ones where things seem to be coming out of the pictures. This is as far as I got with the one of the donkeys at Carisbrooke Castle. They were being lead around the ring and the announcer was telling us about the donkey. This one got hold of his lead and wasn't going any where.

2009 $10 Quilt -- top

2009-11-27T21:45:00.002-05:00

So this is the top -- it still needs a border or two -- I'm thinking about wood cut / mat style fabric for the borders. The dark brown I have is a little dark to go as the inner boarder but maybe as the outer if I can find a lighter one to go between.

Sunrise

2009-11-15T21:34:00.003-05:00

I was up early Saturday morning so went down to the lakefront and took some sunrise photos. Of all the photos I took yesterday morning, this is my favorite. Ten others from my morning session are on flickr here.

Ladies Retreat

2009-10-22T07:27:00.006-04:00

We had a ladies retreat at Deerhurst last weekend with Rosemary Flaaten as the guest speaker. The topic was A woman and her Relationships and was based on Rosemary's book. It was an excellent weekend. Rosemary spoke about the relationships God wants to have with us, how we damage relationships and how to avoid the damage.
Both mornings I got up early and went out to take pictures. These are some of my favorites

There are additional photos in the slide show

Thanksgiving Weekend

2009-10-22T07:05:00.005-04:00

On Saturday morning I went up to North Bay. This time I pulled over at the High Falls Rest Area (Hwy 11 and 117). Had a wonderful time wandering around taking photos. The trans canada trail runs through here. When I discovered I'd been at the rest area for 45 minutes I called Mom to let her know I'd been distracted and would be a little late. She said the drive they'd done the week before through Dorset (Hwy 117, 35 and 60) had been very pretty. Since it was a nice day I drove that way instead of getting back on the highway. I left my house and 8 am and finally got to North Bay about 4:30. Should have been there by 1.
These chairs were facing a canal at Baysville.

There's a selection of photos from my drive in this slide show

On Sunday Dad and I went over to Duchesnay Falls. We didn't get very far before we need to go home as Karen was going to be online for a chat.

England Vacation 2009 -- August 23

2009-09-15T20:50:00.004-04:00

Karen has dumped the suitcases and got started on her laundry. Helen Anne put pictures onto Karen’s computer. We had synchronized the clocks on our cameras but they are out by seconds so not all the photos sorted correctly. Close enough though – much better than the year we were out but hours and minutes.

We finally headed over to the train station and got the12:2? something train to Victoria. We were going to get the open top bus tour but the coupons for the discounts, if you have come by train, are being done differently now and we decided it wasn't worth it. So, we jumped on a double decker bus and had fun riding from Victoria out to Hammersmith on the 211. We then got the 9 or 10 bus back and jumped off at Hyde Park. We went and stuck our feet in the Diana Memorial Fountain and got them nice and cold. It felt rather good as the day was nice and warm.

We then wandered through Hyde Park, had an ice cream, and eventually made our way to the gates near Buckingham Palace. We explored the round about there - lots of memorials and monuments. The one commemorating the relationship between New Zealand and Great Britain is rather intriguing. At first it looks like steel beams stuck in the hillside. When you get close, you find that each beam has a picture, description or poem describing the relationship between the two countries.

We then jumped a bus to Victoria and went to Yo Sushi and used Karen’s birthday coupon. We should have waited until 6. They don't restock the conveyor belt until then. However, we were able to order the off the belt stuff and still have the coupon apply. So we both got enough to eat. We were going to have Krispy Kreme for dessert but it was closed. Helen Anne went and looked at puzzle magazines for the flight and Karen got us some pop for the train -- we both finished our pops before the train came.

Once we got home, Helen Anne added more pictures to the computer. I had decided to take my camera for a walk but didn't use it. She also checked in and copied all the pictures to a jump drive so it would be easier to put them on her computer. Then she pasted all the emails to a word document and printed them. She is going to start on the blurb book on the plane home.

Pictures

On August 24, Helen Anne flew back to Canada. Here are some photos taken over Canada on the return trip

England Vacation 2009 -- August 22

2009-09-15T20:24:00.004-04:00

Today, we went to Alum Bay and then home to Karen’s flat. We left our suitcases in the office and came back for them after seeing Alum Bay.

Alum Bay opens at 10 so we got the 9:20 bus (the buses run hourly from Freshwater Bay) and arrived about 9:45. Some of the shops were open but the chair lift down to the beach didn't start until after 10. It is possible to walk down but involves over 200 steps. Karen's toe didn't think that was a good idea. They sold a book of twelve tickets that could be shared. With the chair lift, and two demos there was enough tickets in one book for both of us. We got one of the first chairs down and discovered a short boat trip out to the Needles at the base of the chair. So we got the first boat tour out. Good one to get as it wasn't very full and the tide was still low enough that our feet didn't get too wet going across to the dock. The next few groups of passengers we saw going to and from the boat were getting wet feet. Apparently, there had been some heavy waves and it had washed some of the beach stones away and the ramp was lower then normal.

Alum Bay has 21 different colours of sand -- white, black, yellow, brown, rose and some greenish with different shades of each. We wandered around the beach and admired the cliffs (the beach is actually all stones and the colours are in the cliffs). You use to be able to collect the sand from the cliffs and falls but now you aren't. They do the collecting and processing and you can buy some sand up in the shop and fill an ornament if you want to. We looked but didn't get any sand. We had elevenses on the beach then looked at the other part of the beach and headed back up the chair. We used one of our left over tickets to watch them make chocolate candy (hard sugar candy with chocolate flavoring). At the end we got a sample. It was fun watching the sugar change colours on the puller.

Then some lunch and over to watch the glass blowing demo. They were making very pretty black glass with gold leaf vases. It was really warm outside and even hotter in the demo. Karen was taking some photos then her camera decided it was too hot and she had to wait a bit to finish getting the last few pictures she wanted.

We got the 14:09 bus back to Freshwater Bay to collect our luggage. Then we waited for the next bus (at 15:20) to Yarmouth. We took advantage of the wait for one last look at the bay. Over the coastal path, the parasails were out. Sometimes it looks like they are about to land on the cars. Once we got to Yarmouth, we went to a coffee shop and had a nice tea (the scones weren't hot so Karen says they don't get full marks).

On the ferry, we got the same corner looking out a window and Karen made like a pussy cat and basked in the sunshine. Helen Anne went up to the top deck for a bit and admired the view then came to sit with her. The train back to Brockenhurst was the same old style, slam the door behind you train. The guard took a picture of us beside it.

The train at Brockenhurst was very full and we had to stand. At Southampton lots of rowdy fans got on despite the guard saying the train was full and they were not to board. They wouldn't get off so the train got cancelled and we were told to get off this train, go over to platform two and get on a longer train. There was another London train expected shortly on the platform where we were so we waited for it instead. It was also full but eventually they made it a fast train to London. Karen had gotten the smaller suitcase and her pack up onto the shelf but there was no where for the bigger case. Once we were a fast train, I put the bigger case on its side and went into the main compartment were it was cooler. The nice man sitting beside Karen let me have that seat and went to stand. After the last stop before London, he got a seat as well.

We got dinner at Sloe's in Waterloo about 2130, missed the 2155 train so got the 2225 train to New Beckenham. It was shortly after 2300 when we finally got to Karen's and went to bed. (note from Helen Anne: She keeps keeping me out past my bed time.)

Except for the train getting cancelled and the confusion there, it was a very good day. Good thing we took time for tea in Yarmouth though.

Warning: Lots of pictures for this day. Still sifting. Pictures

England Vacation 2009 -- August 21

2009-09-14T07:03:00.007-04:00

Today we did the medium walk Winkle Street to Hulverstone. It was 14 km (8.5 miles) and 300m (975ft) of ascent. We were dropped off in Calbourne (SZ 424868) and walked back to the house.

The walk started with a visit to the Calbourne church. There is a brass memorial from 1379 in the church placed there by the Earl of Salisbury in memory of his son William. William was jousting with his father and was blinded by the lance and later died.

From the church we headed to Winkle Street (or Barrington Row). There are a couple of explanations for the name Winkle Street – Winkle use to mean “to twinkle”. It also meant a lane that goes around a corner but doesn’t lead anywhere. It might also refer to a type of seashell. The lane has some older stone cottages and thatched cottages on one side and a stream on the other. At one spot in the stream there is a stone wall with vertical groves down into the stream. They can drop wooden pieces into the vertical groove and let the water come up. It then becomes a sheep wash, last used in about 1976. There was a flower called Monkey Musk growing in the stream - it looked like a cows face. The sign board warned not to pick these flowers as they don’t last long once picked.

We then wandered through some fields and past a farmhouse and out buildings. They were busy doing something with grain, it was pouring into the top of something like a silo but we didn't see a top for it and it was much shorter, not quite as high as the building. We stopped for some elevenses just before leaving the last of the farm fields and entering a wooded area. The rain held off until we were into the wooded area, so some put rain coats on and some didn't. Helen Anne had already put the rain cover on her camera (it has a very cute rain coat) and Karen put her camera into her pack and put the packs raincoat on. Otherwise, we didn't bother with wet gear. It did rain heavily for a very short time but didn't really get through the trees to us. As we left the woods, the rain stopped.

From the woods we passed some bronze age barrows and then went down to the longstone for some lunch. Legend has it that St. Catherine threw the big stone at the devil and it land standing upright and the devil threw the little one back, but it is laying down. St. Catherine's Oratory, from where the stone was supposedly thrown, is about 3 miles away. It is apparently something like Stonehenge and was possibly used for 'council' meetings of some sort.

From the stones we made our way to Hulverstone and had a drink at the pub, plus a comfort stop for those that wanted. We then made our way to the coastal path via Brook where we stopped to visit Saint Mary the Virgin church. When lifeboat stations were all around the island, each station maintained a list of every rescue. When the stations were closed, the lists were removed. Saint Mary’s has the list for the rescues at Brook. Each list contains the date, the name of the ship and the number of lives saved.

The coastal path led back to Freshwater House. The tide was out so we were able to do part of the walk on the beach. There were people kite surfing. It was very windy and they looked like they were having great fun. We saw some rocks that are supposed to be fossilized dinosaur footprints and just had fun wandering along the beach. (The Isle of Wight has one of the largest concentrations of dinosaur fossils in the world.) The Coastal Path is rather hilly and it was a lot of up and downing. We ended up dropping back and coming at Karen’s pace as her toe was acting up (note from Helen Anne: Karen, don’t kick the bed – note from Karen: I didn’t kick it, it attacked me).

The evening was the guest talent show and we had some rather talented guests participating. There was a group of 15 walkers from Germany. Many of them are in choirs at home so they got together and formed a choir. They sang in German and English and got the group to sing with them as well. Another lady claimed to have gotten access to the leaders secret guide for 2009 and then read us some of the “guidelines” including

#3 – mention frequently the number of loos available on the walk

#130 – Above all have fun.

The pathway fund raiser was limericks again. They asked that we submit limericks and Friday evening people vote with coins. This time £34 was raised. Helen Anne’s limerick was

We came to Freshwater Bay

The leaders had lots to say

About all the views

And plenty of loos

So we were all very gay.

Karen’s still needs to send me her limerick. Maybe next week.

Pictures

England Vacation 2009 -- August 20

2009-09-09T07:31:00.005-04:00

For the last few days the forecast has been for heavy rain today however this morning it was for light rain between 10 and 1 so we went hiking. Helen Anne took just the little camera in its waterproof container. All the walks were circular walks from Godshill (SZ528816). We did the alternative easier walk – Godshill, the Worsley Obelisk and the Donkey Sanctuary. It was 9.7km (6mi) and 210m (675ft) of ascent.

It was raining as the bus drove into Godshill so everyone was busy pulling on wet gear (jackets mostly). Before we were 10 minutes up the road, we stopped to put the jackets away. It did rain again for a minute or two after lunch but not enough to bother with jackets again although the pack covers did stay on. From Godshill, we headed out via the Sunshine path to a Donkey Sanctuary where we had our morning break. The donkey sanctuary takes in donkey’s that are in need of care. They really didn't want anyone to feed the donkeys -- we counted at least six “Don’t feed the donkey” signs in a very small area.

From there we headed to Wroxall along an old railway bed -- nice level walking. We stopped there at the Worsley pub for lunch. Their kitchens are still under renovation so they didn't mind us eating our lunches at their picnic tables. Helen Anne was going to have tea with her lunch but their coffee machine was broken so no hot drinks. She got an Orange and Mango J2O fruit drink instead. Karen had diet coke. We then all took advantage of the facilities.

After lunch we headed to Appuldurcombe House. Most of the house was destroyed during the war. At one point it had 52 rooms, 365 windows and 7 stairways. (HA: I think that’s right but I thought there was a 12 as well) We went out through Freemantle Gate and headed up and up and up to the Worsley Obelisek (the ugliest monument going -- looked like stacks of cement bricks). It was really windy up there -- tried to blow us off our feet -- we expected one of us to do a Mary Poppins imitation.

From there we climbed down 205 steep steps to Godshill. A short visit to All Saints Church then a cup of tea before getting the bus back to the house. In All Saints church, there is a painting of a Lily Cross (the crucifix is made of lilies). The church is on top of a hill and difficult to get up to. Legend has it that the original building site was lower down and much more accessible. But three mornings in a row the workers found the building had been moved to the top of the hill. So they gave up and decided that the top of the hill must be where God wanted the church (therefore Godshill). One of the monuments in the church is has two beaders praying on the bottom of the man’s feet.

After dinner, Karen went disappeared for a while. When she reappeared it turned out she’d been down to the bay with her camera and gorilla pod to play with taking photos of water at sunset. She had a lot of fun.

Pictures

England Vacation 2009 -- August 19

2009-09-08T21:50:00.003-04:00

Helen Anne

I got up early and went to take some photos in the bay area at sunrise. All the articles I’ve been reading about photography say that first hour and the last hour are the best time (only time in some) to take photos. Karen stayed in bed. Last night, for once, I was in bed and ready to sleep and she wasn't. I stayed down for the first part of the evening then went up to read. Karen stayed down for the whole evening and had fun playing games. The leaders have organized an optional trip to Osborne house for the rest day today.

Both

First the bus took us to Whippingham to see St. Mildred’s Church. Prince Albert helped design the church. He died before the church was finished. In the design, the choir loft was moved to the back of the church so that no-one would be able to stare at Queen Victoria during worship. Near her chair is a memorial to Prince Albert.

There is a church calico cat name Henrietta that came to get attention from Karen. Apparently Henrietta wanders in and out of the church and loves attention. If the ladies working at the church don't watch her carefully, she curls up for a nap on Queen Victoria's chair. Sometimes all they find is a circle of white fur.

While we were at the church, the bus driver went over to Osborne house and got our admission tickets. We had 4 hours at Osborne House but could have used a few more. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert purchased Osborne House as a family residence in the country in 1845.

We went through the house first. Its very well organized to keep people moving. The only spot they couldn't use ropes to guide use had a guard directing traffic -- the route crosses itself. The paint colours were really intriguing -- lots of pastel walls and ceilings with very bold colours in the border at around the ceiling. There was a glass floral chandelier in the dining room that we both agree we like a lot but neither of us would want to be responsible for cleaning it. The last room was all about the things Queen Victoria received as Empress of India. The room has been carved in the detailed patterns of Indian temples and buildings. It was beautiful.

We had a picnic lunch in the grounds looking out over the Solent on one side and the house on the other. Then we strolled down to see Queen Victoria's bathing house -- much larger than the usual machine, and the Swiss cottage. It was used by the royal family as a place for the children learned about cooking, gardening and marketing. On our way to the Swiss Cottage, we came across a form of stile that we hadn't seen before -- a very civilized float up and down them set of stairs to get over a fence. This year I got to model them. They could use a set like in place of some of the ladders and step overs that we've hauled ourselves over.

Then it was back to the bus for the trip to the house.

When we got back, the tide was still out so we were able to walk out to see some caves on the other side of the bay. Peaked in the tide pools and saw little shrimps, some minnows and lots of snails and other shells.

Pictures

England Vacation 2009 -- August 18

2009-09-03T23:32:00.003-04:00

We were ready for the bus a little early this morning so took some photos overlooking the bay and the grounds.

We did the easier hike today called Hills & Hollows from Shorwell (SZ456829) to Carisbrooke Castle. It was 9.5km (6miles) and 255m (825 ft) of ascent. By doing the easier hike, we had a few hours to go into Carisbrooke Castle and wander around.

The first stop was the Church of St. Peter in Shorwell. The church was founded in 1100. There is a mural of St. Christopher from 1440 over the doorway. It was covered over during Cromwell's time but uncovered when renovations were being done. During Tudor times, every town and village was required to have a cannon. Like many towns, Shorwell kept theirs at the church. The bricked up doorway is still visible.

In the church there are some old bibles and prayer books on display. One of the bibles is called the Vinegar Bible (1717). Its a King James bible. For some reason, the sub-heading for Luke 20:4-16 is “The parable of the vinegar” instead of the Vineyard. That's an improvement on the wicked bibles at the British museum I think.

From Shorwell we headed up to a field and eventually picked up the Shepherd's Trail.

Lunch was sitting up on top of a hill with a nice view of the coastline in the distance and a large clock tower which is part of Whitecroft Hospital in Newport. We went through Hollowpath and Darkpath. Both are hollow ways -- routes for transporting goods. Darkpath is well overgrown so on a hot sunny afternoon like today, it is very pleasant to walk in there. One theory is that early tribes made ditches along the borders of their lands with each group putting dirt up on their side, then planting trees and such on top. Over time, the ditches deepened and became the hollow ways. The last piece of the hike up to Carisbrooke was through a tunnel formed by a hedge.

Parts of Carisbrooke Castle are over 750 years old. The ruins on the left are from a mansion built in the 1580s. The main hall was built by Countess Isabella in the 13th century. The last resident was Princess Beatrice in the early 20th century. The chapel is St. Nicholas chapel, rebuilt in 1904. The chapel was originally founded about 1070 by William the Conqueror and has always been a soldiers chapel. When the monasteries were closed, the chapel was left untouched even though it belonged to a local abbey. King Charles I was held at Carisbrooke from 1647 - 1548. By 1856 the chapel was in ruins but was rebuilt in 1899.

When the castle was besieged by the French in 1377, an archer named Heynoe's went to his captain. He had observed the French commander coming to a specific spot every day and was confident he could hit the commander with an arrow. He was given permission and the next day shot the commander. The French forces went home. That was the last time the castle was besieged.

The castle's water supply is in a stone building form the 1580s. The water is about 37m down. A treadmill was originally used from 1292. Prisoners may have been used to move the treadmill at one point but, since 1696, donkeys have been used. When King Charles I was imprisoned at the castle, he signed the letters he had smuggled out as J. Tradition says that, since then, all the donkeys that live and work at the castle have names beginning with J. It takes a couple of years to train the donkeys to walk on the treadmill. We weren't able to see the display as the first showing was 15 minutes before the bus was due to leave.

Pictures

England Vacation 2009 -- August 17

2009-09-01T21:48:00.004-04:00

The hike today was called The Northeast Coast & Bembridge Trail. It was a medium walk and covered 15 km (9.25 miles) and 115m (375 ft) of ascent. We started at Ryde Pier (SZ593928) and walked along the coast to Bembridge and then inland to Brading.

The bus dropped us at the Ryde Pier and we walked out past where two hovercrafts were parked. We stood at the edge of the pier admiring them. The military became interested in developing viable hovercraft after D-Day because they needed a better way to land troops on beaches. According to the leaders notes, one of the first commerically operated hovercraft ran from Portsmouth to Ryde starting in August 1962. It takes 10 minutes for the hovercraft journey. The catamaran journey is 18 minutes. If you are coming by car, its 40 minutes on the car ferry then 10 minutes drive back to Ryde. While we were standing there a hovercraft arrived from Portsmouth. We got a little damp from the spray.

Up the beach a little ways was a coastal Folly called Appley Tower. It was built in 1875 by Sir William Hutt. He called it The Watch Tower. Across from the tower is a brass relief of HMS Sirius. According to the plaque, the Sirius was part of the first fleet which sailed for Australia in May 1787 arriving in January 1788. The Sirius also sailed to Cape Town to get supplies for the new colony in South Wales, saving them from starvation. In 1790, the Sirius sailed to Norfolk Island where she sank. The relief was commissioned by Mosman Council in Australia to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the settlement. There are similar plaques in Mosman and in Norfolk

We walked along beaches; walking along hard wet sands was easiest the choices were rock, dry sand and wet sand. The rock had a lot of sea shells in it. We had our morning break on the beach. The two camera's were sitting between us. We thought perhaps they were plotting what photos they should take.

We wandered up through some woods to skirt areas of beach we couldn't cross for various reasons. Part of the path had recently had work done on the stairs and railings. The Pathways fund (that HF Holidays raises money for) supplied some of the funding for that work. At lunch, we stopped at the Tower that is all that this left of St. Helen's church. The tower dates from 1220. The church was closed in 1703. The church is gone -- sailors took the stones as Holy Stones for scrubbing the decks!After eating, Karen wandered up to the cafe and got drinks for both of us. The cafe was on the route we were to follow.

We had to circle to a crossing point over the Duver and crossed a tidemill causeway to do that. The tide was out and there was all sorts of green algae and moss to see. We turned inland and went to the Bembridge windmill. It was the only windmill on the island but no longer works. We had a short stop there. The windmill was built about 1700 and used until the 1890s. There's a Turner painting featuring the windmill. From the windmill, we continued across fields to the Bembridge airfield which we had to cross. You just never know where these walks will take you. There were caution caution signs to walkers to look both ways for planes. We crossed runway 23 but they were using the other runway so no dodging planes for us.

We then wandered through woods and across fields to get to Brading. We had a detour because part of the path was closed for maintenance. There was enough time in Brading for a quick break - we had afternoon tea but with diet coke. We both wanted a cold drink. The scones were good but they don't get full marks - they weren't hot and it would have been better with more clotted cream and jam. Helen thinks there was enough clotted cream (she might not be feeling very good) but not enough jam.

Pictures

England Vacation 2009 -- August 16

2009-08-29T21:11:00.007-04:00

There were to be four walks offered today but the fourth leader has injured his knee and can't lead any walks. They hope to get replacements in for the rest of the week as there are 50 guests. We decided to do the medium walk today along with 24 others. Its called The Bays and Downs of West Wight. The walk is 14 km (or 8.75 miles) with 310m (or 1025 ft) of ascent. They get the ascent by adding the total climbs for the day. The descent is not mentioned. If an HF leader tells you its all downhill or perfectly flat the rest of the way, don't believe him (you thought "the cheque is in the mail" was the worlds biggest lie).

The walk started and ended at the house. We went down the driveway and headed up the street to St. Agnes church. Its a Thatched roof church (one of 18 in England). There's a date stone in the wall that says 1694 but the church was actually built about 1908. They recycled stones from another site.

A bit further up the road, we turned onto a path that lead us beside the property of Farringford House. Alfred Lord Tennyson lived there for a while. He had a bridge built that let him easily escape up to the downs. He claimed the air was worth 6 pence a pint. We had a brief glimpse of the house from the path but kept on going through Totland to Colwell Bay where we had our morning break sitting on the pier admiring the view across the Solent.

After the break, we followed the promenade to Warden Point in Totland Bay then went up Widdick Chine to Headon Warren. A chine is a very narrow valley formed by water. There are 19 on the island with a 20th currently being formed (Karen thinks the numbers were 18 & 19).

Before heading up the chine, we stopped at one of the old life boat stations. Every coastal town and village use to have one and maintained a list of all the rescues. Most of these stations are closed now and the island is served by three modern boats stationed around the island. This old station had a poem on the side of the building about the tide.

Headon Warren is an acidic area and grows heather. The heather was just starting to bloom. It is also the home to lots of rabbits (hence the name warren). While we didn't see any rabbits, holes and droppings were very visible.

We had lunch in the ruins of Hatherwood Battery, just above Alum Bay overlooking the Needles. Then down through Alum Bay and up to the Needles New Battery. England did their rocket tests here. We had a chance on the walk up to the battery to get a look at Alum Bay from above. It has many different coloured cliffs which yield coloured sand. (rose, black, yellow, brown and white) .

We had time for a cup of tea and a look at the Needles from below the battery before heading up onto West High Down to Tennyson Monument. From the monument, we went back down to the house. We were able to go in the back way and not all the way around and up the drive again.

Afterwards, we had a swim in the pool and got ready for evening briefing and dinner.

Pictures

England Vacation 2009 -- August 15

2009-08-28T20:36:00.004-04:00

We left, complete with Karen's two smaller suitcases and both packs full about 10:40 to walk over to New Beckenham station for the 11:10 train. Its a longer walk than to the Beckenham Junction station we usually go to. We had to go to Waterloo East and walk over to Waterloo. We wanted enough time to get lunch before getting on the train for Brockenhurst.

We both ended up at the Pasty Shop for lunch. Karen got chicken & mushroom and Helen Anne got steak and Stilton. They were very tasty although Karen isn't sure hers actually had any mushrooms. Shortly after we finished eating, Karen heard them announce the earlier train to Brockenhurst so we jumped on it. The train from Brockenhurst to Lymington Pier was an old fashion, slam the doors behind you, train. So Karen did.

On the ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth we got two seats in a corner by the front window. It was a very pleasant way to travel -- lots of sailboats out. Both ports have a large pier / anchorage area. Some boats anchor and tie up away from the pier and get either a water taxi or have their own dinghy to get back and forth.

We arrived in Yarmouth about 30 minutes before Karen had booked the taxi so we wandered around the harbour area for a bit. Some of the shops had fairy tale displays in the windows. Eventually, we went back to the pickup area. The taxi wasn't there so Karen called and he came about 10 minutes later.

We arrived at Freshwater Bay in time to dump our stuff in the room (top floor) and have tea. After tea, we went for a walk around the grounds and a quick walk down at the beach area. The leaders took us on a short walk around Freshwater Bay. Saw a car being consumed by a hedge, a thatched church, and where the photography museum is. We took some time to play on the big swing in the house garden.

Freshwater Bay house started as The George Inn in the 18th Century. During WWII, it was requisitioned for troop accommodation. According to local sources, it may have housed Canadian troops.

Pictures: DSC02984_edited-1, DSC02985, DSC02994, DSC02996_edited-1, DSC02993, DSC02982_edited-1, DSC02992, IMG_4157, DSC02966, DSC02974, IMG_4143, IMG_4142, DSC02964, DSC02961, IMG_4146, IMG_4154

England Vacation 2009 -- August 14

2009-08-27T21:16:00.006-04:00

Helen Anne

I was in bed asleep about 9:30 last night – much later than I expected. This morning about 7:30, I woke up feeling pretty good. I heard Karen so went to say Good Morning. She’d crawled back into bed so I lay down to visit. Next thing I knew, it was 9:15.

Karen

Helen got up about 7:30ish and crawled into my bed, so we could visit but fall asleep. I was ready to be up and didn't want to toss and turn and wake her up, so got up. I managed to have breakfast, a shower, slip in and grab the clothes I had worn the day before and leave without waking her up, it was about 8:30 or so when I left. I went to do some errands and got home about 9:30. She had been up for about 15 minutes.

Both

We packed everything for next week into Karen’s two smaller bags, as that is easier for moving around train stations. We finally wandered into London about 11. We got the train to Herne Hill and then changed trains to get to St. Pancras International. There we got some lunch at Prets, a sandwich shop and then went over to the British Library to see the Codex Sinaiticus Exhibit.

The Codex Sinaiticus is a Greek bible from the 4th century and is the one of the oldest known text of the full Christian bible. Older copies do exist but they are incomplete. Its hand written by three or four scribes and there are a lot of handwritten corrections. They have digitally reunited the full text. Most of the pages are held at the British Library but some are held at Leipzig, some in Russia and the remainder at St. Catherines Monastery. Digital images have been taken of all the pages and the full text is now available on line. http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/

The display wasn't large but had some rather interesting displays to it. The obvious - history of the text and what is 'known' about its creation. Along with how the British Library acquired so much of it (it was bought from Russia). They also had a few electronic displays. One of the website, one showing the 'development' of one page - the original writing, the various corrections added at different times and then what it looks like today. The last one we looked at the first 40 pages or so of but it was a few hundred pages long and neither of us where prepared to stand there all day. Each page had some notes with it, it described what portion of the Bible it was and then pointed out some features of the pages - corrections and why, how they can tell different people wrote the pages, how things were written.

From the British Library we went and found a drink and the tube to Green Park. We were going to take it to Victoria but the Victoria line had problems, so used the Piccadily line and walked a little further. We went through one end of Green Park and into St. James Park. During the walk through Green Park, we admired the trees. They look like ladies holding up skirts to wander through the park. From there, we went to Ruebens - where we enjoyed afternoon tea.

Helen got Darjeeling and Karen had English Breakfast (they didn't have Lady Gray). It came with finger sandwiches (egg mayo, smoked salmon, cheese with cucumber, chicken salad and ham with mustard. Four scones (not big scones, some what bigger then a two bite brownie) of course it had clotted cream and strawberry jam and various sweets. There was a cinnamon donut with custard filling, a strawberry tart, a raspberry dessert, a steamed pudding and a chocolate mousse. We split all the sweets in half and each tried them all.

After tea we came home and did a little surfing. Ed picked us up about 6:30 and we went over to Chung's for a night of Mexican Train. It was great fun. We always start with snacks in and then start playing, part way through we have tea and last night we had more snacks. Ed was winning but then got caught with some large scoring tiles, so Helen took the lead but got caught as well and finally Karen snuck in and won! Despite getting caught on the last round! We got home about 11:30 and both fall into bed.

Pictures IMG_4129, DSC02944/6/50/1/3/4

England Vacation 2009 -- August 13

2009-08-25T21:33:00.008-04:00

Karen

I had a quiet morning, heading out to Heathrow about 10ish. I bought to zone 1-6 travel passes for Helen Anne and I and when I got onto the platform, a new officer at IHQ from India was waiting for the train as well. We visited on the train to Herne Hill and she changed there to get to Blackfriars and I went on to Victoria. I had to wait for a few minutes for the District train that would go through Baron's Court, so I could change where I like to change but was out to Heathrow in plenty of time to meet Helen Anne. Her plane landed about 11:23 and she came through around noon. I had got a couple of waters and greeted her with a 1L bottle of water. She was thirsty!

She was looking at some thing in her rucksack on the way to Victoria and I had a few pieces of Bridge Mix. I was even nice and shared but she did provide the twist tie to keep the bag closed.

Helen Anne

It was a smooth flight over to London. I got some sleep doing my usual tuck me in my corner as soon as the main announcements are over with eye shades, ear plugs and noise reduction headphones. I missed the end of dinner and drinks service. When I woke up, the one available movie that interested me was Star Trek. It's the one I saw at the theatre last month but I watched it again. It still had some really funny moments. We got a large muffin (no butter) and a beverage for breakfast. Despite the line up in passport control, I had my luggage and was meeting Karen around noon. She had a litre of water for me, so I gave her one of the bags of bridge mix when we got on the underground.

Both

We went to Victoria and checked Helen Anne's bag in to the left luggage and went to find some lunch. We both tried the newer fast food restaurant upstairs at Victoria called Oporto's (a chicken restaurant). It was very good and not to much over McD's in price. Karen wasn't sure what the British Library's security was like and Helen Anne had her rucksack. So, we decided to go check out the outdoor stores for socks and hats today and tomorrow we would go to the British Library and wander through some parks ending at Rueben's for afternoon tea.

We went over to Covent Garden as there are 5 or 6 outdoor stores there. We checked them all out and Helen Anne got some coolmax liner socks in at one and we got some light hats in at another. The hats have some beads in the inside band that absorb water and help keep you cool. We had them clip the tags off the hats, so we could wear them. It was drizzly when Karen got up but turned into a nice sunny day. From Covent Garden, we walked over to Fortnum and Masons. On the way we passed the Coliseum (London Opera House), a Ben & Jerrys (we stopped for ice cream) and some buildings with carved fruit / flowers for the "stone" decorations. The building in front of the Coliseum had a model of a cooper at the top.

Fortnum and Masons had a Day at the Beach set of windows with deck chairs on the roof over the doors. We got some Cranberry sauce for Christmas - just encase Karen doesn't get a chance to get in and Helen Anne wanted some Apple Chutney so we got that too. As we were leaving, a double decker bus pulled up infront of the store. It looked like the deck chairs were on the bus.

We then walked back over to Victoria and rescued Helen Anne's bag from left luggage. When we went up to get the train to Beckenham, one of the few express trains was due to leave soon and we got it. So we got into Karen's about 6. We stopped long enough to use the washroom and wandered down to the High Street for dinner. We went to Misos, an Oriental Noodle House. We had some spring rolls, some gyozas (stuffed dumplings), a prawn noodle dish and a chicken one. It was very tasty.

Karen

Helen Anne has unpacked and I now have a neat calendar about the history of flight and pen with a built in scroll from Mrs B.! She also showed off her drying kit for her camelbak (the water drinking system for her packsack).

I now have a very yawny big sister but it is almost 8 so .... that should be okay.

Pictures: DSC02917 or 19 (play with setting – combine?), DSC02121 (crop out centre section, upper right), DSC02123, DSC02124 (in colour and in B&W), DSC02934, DSC02935, DSC02940 and DSC02941 (crop out second bus on left hand side)

WorldWide Photowalk -- Midland

2009-07-21T22:11:00.006-04:00

I came home with lots of pictures from the two hours (partly because I had the exposure bracketing on so it took 3 photos when I pressed the trigger and partly because I tend to hold the shutter a little bit too long and get multiple photos). I've now gone through all the photos and removed the junk and the duplicates. I think I'm left with less than half. Of those, this is a slideshow of my favorites.

If this doesn't work, the photos are on flickr here

ROM and Not Queen Anne's Lace

2009-07-19T18:57:00.006-04:00

Last weekend I went to the Royal Ontario Museum on Saturday to see the Dead Sea Scroll Exhibit. No photos are allowed in the special exhibit area. Ten fragments were on display. Not all the scrolls are books of the Old Testament. There are some that sound like they are commentaries and some are rules for community living. I think it was a total of 400 scrolls found. They’ve pieced together all the fragments and there are books available of the translated scrolls. I’d made a reservation to go up to C5 for Afternoon Tea. I finished looking at the scroll exhibit and had time to wander through another part of the museum. The museum website has a couple of pod casts that I’d downloaded so I played the Egypt one and wandered through that section. The beaded piece is a covering for a mummy. It’s a richer colour of Blue in real life. I need to learn to take photos through the glass cases. The papyrus fragment is part of the Egyptian Book of the Dead that the museum has on display. One of the figures is the dead man appearing before the gods.

Then it was off for afternoon tea. The restaurant is on the fifth floor. I had a window seat. This was the view from the table.

There was a very tasty piece of quiche before the tea tray arrived. The bottom level had some little tastes. Then the top two layers had sweets and the scone. Take a closer look at the side of the tea pot. It was very shiny!

The restaurant wasn't very busy so before I left, I went to the window and took a couple of photos of the view

I also took pictures of some vases and carvings while I was wandering at the museum. I like the lines on the bottom of this pot and the carving in this warrior.

On Sunday I went for a walk at Riverwood in Mississauga. There are trails there that go down by the Credit River. I saw this plant. I thought it looked like Queen Anne’s lace on steroids (the plant is taller than I am). I was busy taking photos looking up at the flower when two city workers stopped. They’d been cleaning up storm debris when I passed them a few minutes earlier. They warned me I was getting too close to the plant and that it is poisonous. The oil is corrosive if you get in on your skin. Apparently its called Giant Hogs Weed or Cow Parsnip and belongs to another family of plants, like mushrooms – some are very edible and tasty and some are very poisonous and deadly. Good reason to just take photos. I was really pleased that they took the time to stop and warn me when they saw me getting too close. Yesterday I went for a photowalk in Midland as part of a world wide photowalk. I'm still sorting through the photos I took of the dock area. I need to pick my favorite 1 or 2 to upload to the walk site before next weekend.

Bruce Trail -- Finished Toronto Section, Start Caledon Hills Section

2009-07-05T15:44:00.005-04:00

On Saturday I went out to finish the Toronto Section of the trails from km 46.2 to 50.5 then the beginning of the Caledon Hills trail to see the badlands. Came across this old car wreck around km 48.3 (its on the closed portion of Boston Mills Rd).

The trail then follows the road to the end of the Toronto Section at the corner of Boston Mills & Creditview Rd. Didn't find a trail marker to indicate the switch of clubs at this end, just the blazes on the pole to turn left to keep following the trail. There are lots of farms in the area. Lots of cut hay in the area but not many are in rolls yet -- too much rain I guess. A short ways up Creditview Rd, the trail goes off the road again. This is the edge of the badlands area. At first, this was the only part I saw. A little disappointing. But a little ways on, I came to another road that the trail was crossing. I could see cars parked up a little ways, so I walked up the road and this was my lunch view Badlands are unusual in Ontario because usually the shale is protected by harder rock. They think this area started to form in the early 1900s when the land was cleared for cattle grazing. Much of the area is closed to try to preserve and rejuvenate it.

I heard something large go crashing and snorting off into the woods first thing in the morning (tan backside with white on its tail but it moved fast and I couldn't get a good look). Beyond that, butterflies, bees and birds were mostly what I saw.

Before I left the Bruce Trail, there was one more glimpse of some of the badlands. Instead of turning around and retracing my steps when I got to km 3.8, I followed the Caledon Trailway Link Side Trail to reach the Caledon Trailway. The Trailway follows an old railroad bed and is very flat, easy walking. Along the way, there was the remains of a Brick works factory. It appears to have been very large. There were several chimneys and 3 or 4 visible buildings on the site.

Bruce Trail -- km 42.8 - 46.2

2009-07-01T16:27:00.008-04:00

The office is closed today in honour of Canada Day. It was suppose to rain all day but when I got up this morning, the forecast was no rain until mid afternoon so I decided to grab my stuff (including boots this time!) and head out for a short hike. Good thing I took the boots. Although it was a mostly smooth, level trail again, it was also a very muddy trail in sections since we've had a lot of rain since Saturday night. Almost as soon as I started down the trail, I saw this dragonfly. I'm amazed at the variety of colours they come in. This is the path I was following. As soon as you enter the dark hole in the middle of the trees The path opens out into this Saw lots of mushrooms today. I borrowed a book from the library to get a general idea what some of these are. Not exact names as there isn't enough details in a photo to determine that. One the same page in the book, some mushrooms are edible, some are undetermined and some are very poisonous. So I'm sticking with admiring and photographing. The second one seems to belong to an Ear family. Sometimes the sun peaked through clouds and trees and sometimes it stayed hidden. Did fun things to the lighting in the woods. This wall went off in both directions. I'm guessing it was a boundary wall at some point in the past but the notes don't say. More mushrooms. There's a Coral Family that these appear to belong to.

On the way back, I found half an egg -- robin maybe? I looked up but didn't see any nests. I did see a female robin a little way down the trail This fungus was furry. Again I think maybe it belongs to the Ear family. The path on the km 45 & 46 was very muddy. Having tip-toed through the mud (my boots and pants need a good cleaning), I came to this bridge. Made it back to the car and no rain drops. When I came downstairs a bit ago, still no rain drops. Saturday is suppose to be a nice day (according to today's forecast) so I should be able to finish the Toronto Section of the trail then. Just km 46.2 to 50.5 to do. I'll do some of the Caledon Hills section as well as the badlands are at the beginning of that section and I'd like to see them. The badlands in Alberta were pretty impressive.

Bruce Trail -- km 39.0 to 42.8

2009-07-01T15:45:00.007-04:00

When I was a little over half way to the starting point Saturday morning I realized I didn't have my hiking boots with me. Going on a hike and no boots? Decided not to turn back and just use the little runners I had on. Fortunately most of the trail was smooth not rocky. I did miss my boots on the few rocky bits though. Started by doing the Walking Fern Sidetrail from km 39. It goes down for almost 1 km then you turn around. I saw a heron take flight but the pictures are way to blurry. I like the mosses and lichen on this rock. The other picture is the walking fern. Apparently it will send out shots and sprout another plant so it looks like its walking.

Then back to following the main trail. At this point I started watching the clock. The $10 quilt class started at noon and I figured I needed 15 minutes to get over to the store so I had a little more than 90 minutes before I needed to be leaving. From what I've been reading the Terra Cotta Forest Conservation Area marks the outer edge of the Cheltenham Badlands. Ever once in a while, there's a glimpse of the red earth. At one point I saw some woodpeckers tapping against the slope. The trail goes past some ponds. Found fish, snails and a turtle in this pond.

I'd hoped to get up to km 42.8 in the morning but had to turn around as I was at the 50 minute marked. I'd figured I needed to be heading back around 45 minutes. On the way back, this bird was singing in one of the trees. There's a small pond/lake near where I'd left the car. I saw two bird houses like one on the far side of the water. Off to the class -- made it with time to spare. It was a show and tell and we have lots of stitching to do before the class at the end of September. Since it was a nice day, decided I'd go do some more of the trail afterward. I parked at the Terra Cotta Conservation Center this time and got a little side tracked following their trail back to the Bruce Trail. The trail I was on when by a small lake that was full of very large bullfrogs and very large tadpoles.

When I did get back onto the Bruce Trail, this little fellow hopped across the path. I thought he was a little far away from the water but from what I saw at the conservation web site, I wonder if he's a Spring Peeper. They spend most of their time in the woods not the water! When I got up to km 42.8 I decided it was getting a little late to continue the original path so I went back down to the conservation area along the road and wandered around the wetlands trail. There's a pond there surrounded by cattails. A boardwalk takes you across the middle of it. In the centre, it opens into lots of waterlilys.

Then back to the small lake where I saw the bullfrogs to walk along the other side of the lake. Found this fellow and more tadpoles. Some of these tadpoles had begun to sprout very tiny legs.

2009 $10 Quilt -- for June

2009-06-25T21:29:00.002-04:00

With the class on Saturday, I have the two applique blocks done now (Thursday evening). I was beginning to think they weren't going to get finished on time.

Hiking on the Bruce Trail

2009-06-23T21:01:00.005-04:00

Gerda, you asked a question and for some reason I cannot comment on my blog tonight. Hope I can publish a posting.

When I plan a hike, I look for side trails along the way that help me avoid returning exactly same way I went. Sometimes that works (like this hike) where there was only a couple of kilometers of repeat. Sometimes it doesn't (like this hike) which was turn around around and retrace your steps. I did see a couple of things on the way back that I hadn't noticed going though.

On the Bruce Trail website, if you go here and click on one of the map sections, there are usually some selected hike files for that club. I used several of these when I first started going out to the trail. Most of the ones I used were planned so you go in a circle. Some are linear and you walk back the way you came.

Each of the clubs has organized hikes. Some are public. Some involve meeting at a certain point then car pooling to the beginning of the hike. At the end of the day, the morning drivers get a ride back to where the cars were left. I haven't tried any of these hikes yet but hope to one day.

My sister and I had fun on the trip to Holland. The photo elements class was shortly after that trip so most of the photos I played with for the class exercises were from that trip.

A quiet Sunday

2009-06-14T19:29:00.005-04:00

This morning I got two of the blocks for this month's $10 quilt assignment done. Now just the applique to do -- and two weeks left.

This afternoon I sat outside with my pop, a book and my camera. For a couple of hours I took pictures from my chair. Except for the iris, the others are a selection the wild life that wandered across fences, trees and the yard.

Bruce Trail Toronto Section -- km 29.9 to 39.0

2009-06-13T21:29:00.010-04:00

My shadow and I started out to hike along from km 29.9 to 39. Starting from Scotsdale Farm, there are a number of side trails that helped keep the trip from being there and back like most of there others. The route looked something like this and was about 16.5km. The trail was very muddy in spots. I climbed over this stile before I realized I could have just walked around it. Then I got a good look at the ground. Just as well I climbed over. This tree must have been pretty small when the fence was strung. I saw several spots where the tree had grown over the barbwire fence. I found lots more mushrooms and fungus today. Beige ones, grey ones, orange ones and black ones.

When I climbed to the top of a trail, I found a picnic table! I'd had a yogurt a few minutes earlier but stopped for part of my sandwich and some coffee. It was too good an opportunity to rest and relax. The second photo is what was growing in the hole in the tree to the right of the picnic table.

Can you spot the trail going between the rocks? Sometimes its hard to pick out. Sometimes its nice and easy. I was pretty certain summer was coming when I found these. But then I saw this. Sure hope its just a confused tree. Actually there were lots of leaves with a reddish tinge but usually the other, older leaves on the trees are green. There weren’t as many caterpillars this week but I still found several. Coming back along one of the side trails, I stopped at a pond and found several frogs and a salamander. The Salamander was trying to eat a dragonfly when I first saw him.

I was sitting on a rock getting ready to continue after a break when a cyclist came back and said that a moss-covered snapper was up on the side of the road. I think it was laying eggs. I’m not sure what the big bird did. There were actually several big birds and the little birds were chasing them. Eventually they focused on this one. I had no idea we had spiders this big in Ontario. I’m not sure I wanted to know they grew this big! There were lots of red, black and grey squirrels out today

Bruce Trail - Toronto Section 25.2 to 29.9

2009-06-07T20:50:00.012-04:00

So I decided to do the section from Scotsdale farm back to where I ended yesterday. It simplifies the planning for the rest of the trail. When I parked, this little guy was sitting there and singing. Found different kinds of fungus today. I did see lots of the big plate ones and some of the bells that grow on trees but also found these ones

A lot of the walk today was over swamps so there was lots of sections of boardwalk. This section came out at the edge of Trafalgar Road. Just to make sure you know where you are The hike also went along the side of Highway 7 (the map notes have a bold warning about walking well over on the shoulder and facing traffic. ) This sign is on the side of the highway near where the trail comes out of the bush The trail then went down Sixth Line before going back into the bush. This was my view where I stopped to eat my sandwich. The birds were singing very nicely too. Saw lots of wild grapevines growing along fences and tree stumps. Climbed over the stile. It was missing the landing area on top -- in fact the top is really just the top step of each ladder and is at a weird angle for getting over. Having finally got over I discovered the fence section to the left is open and you can walk around it. Did that on the way back! Having come off the stile (or around it as you prefer), the trail goes through more swampy areas with more boardwalks and bridges

Used the stile at km 25.2 to get a photo before I turned around again. Noticed this wood pile on the way back. Some of the trail sections go through private property. I don't remember a sign indicating that this section was private property but maybe it was. Notice the mossy log next to this section of board walk. Someone was being creative with it And made a little seat.

Bruce Trail - Toronto Section 14.4 to 25.2

2009-06-06T20:37:00.009-04:00

I started at Limehouse today and walked up to km 25.2 --by the road on the way there and by the proper trail on the way back. Going by the road cut out a couple of km. Then I went back to km 14.4 where I turned around last week. It was about 19km round trip (since I did the road bits in a couple of spots to save distance). Where the side trail from the parking lot joined the main trail, there was tree fungus on the tree by the sign. Starting at Limehouse put me back at the Hole-in-the-wall. The first photo gives a glimpse of the lower ladder from the top of the trail. The second is standing a the top of the ladders and looking down. When you come off the bottom ladder, the trail turns immediately left and goes between a split in the rock. On the way back I sat and sketched the upper ladder

I managed to turn the wrong way when I got down to the next section of the trail. I missed the blazes on the tree again. I really need to watch the trees as well as my feet. This sign shows the different kinds of blazes. Today I was mostly on the main trail so was following white ones. The next spot is the lime kilns and the remnants of an arch of the water way. I had fun playing with the camera settings and blurring the rushing water.

A great deal of the trail today went near fields that have grown corn in the past. I found lots of cobs in the woods. It was a lovely spring day. I think this is a May apple. Kathy sketched one at the end of May otherwise I'd have called it a pretty spring wild flower. Stiles are very handy for getting photos. I did see two large animals today -- there were two ladies riding horses when I headed down to km 14.4. Didn't get photos of them. Beyond that, it was small bugs on tiny grapes Dragonflies on plants Lots of grasshoppers (they've really grown since last week) Busy spiders And lots of catepillars At lunch time I sat in a field of dandelions gone to seed.I'm half way through the Toronto section now. Its 50.5 km long.

Clock Face Quilt

2009-06-05T19:25:00.002-04:00

The two additional blocks are finally added to this quilt. Couldn't continue with the fussy cut clock faces because there wasn't enough of the clock fabric left. (the clocks are the polka dots in the background) This was originally a guild mystery in 2005/6. I originally made the 4 blocks it called for but wanted it a little longer so added two more blocks.

Bruce Trail -- From Pear Tree Parking lot

2009-05-31T19:59:00.008-04:00

Yesterday I started from the Pear tree parking lot at km 11.8 and went back to St. Helena's side road. When I returned to the parking lot, I had some lunch and then went up through Speyside and the Speyside Side Trails to km 14.4. That made for an 11.2 km circuit. Near the parking lot, was this picnic table. There was a bench on the other side of the trail also covered in weeds. I was sure I took a picture of it as well but it wasn't on the camera and there are no missing numbers. Must have been dreaming. The little waterfall coming out of the pond was very full. From there it was off back to where I started last weeks hike. The only animals I saw besides birds were bees, dragon flies and a tiny, camera-shy mouse like creature. And lots of caterpillars.

The cement barricades at St. Helena's Rd made a handy tripod for a picture this week When I got back to the parking lot, it was almost noon so I sat at the picnic table, with this little fellow, to eat my sandwich. I did not share. The trail then follows the 15th side road over to Speyside park. This butterfly actually landed long enough for a picture. Then a car went past I think this tree is confused as to the season (I know I am) Still only very small wildlife in the afternoon. A tadpole, more caterpillars and grasshoppers (lots and lots of grasshoppers)

Where the Speyside Side Trail (north) splits off from the main trail, there was a lot of tree fungus at the base of one tree. When I got down to take the picture, I found water droplets underneath.

I was so busy watching where I put my feet on the side trail (lots of puddles) that I came to this Decided the side trail must have flooded with all the rain this week so to around to go back to where I'd left the main trail. A couple of minutes later I found a turn here marker for the side trail. This wasn't the side trail. Turned up where I should have and made it back to the main trail up where I had originally been heading. Gotta make sure I watch the trees and my feet. On the south end of the side trail, there's a break in the trees. This is the view. After the hike, I came home via Scott's farm. Their sign said they had fresh asparagus. Sounded good for a veggie for tonight. At the edge of the parking lot, they had this machine parked. I assume its some sort of harvester -- hopefully not really for rocks The birds seem to like the back side of it.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Lines

2009-05-31T19:35:00.005-04:00

Exercise 4 was about copying different line styles from masters. Then draw something of your own. My hand was holding the book so was handy. At the symphony last night, I sat right in front of the cellos (row 3 on the main floor and had a pretty good view of the basses as well. During the warm up, I drew on my program. During intermission, I got my book out of my purse.

After the Rain

2009-05-31T19:11:00.003-04:00

We got lots of rain this week. Thursday morning I was ready for work early and went out with the tripod and camera. Thursday evening, I played some more. These are the photos I liked the best

This one was taking from the kitchen door after 10pm. To me it was dark out. The camera had other ideas. There was a faint tinge to the sky but not really this light.

After the Photography Show

2009-05-23T20:42:00.003-04:00

I thought the photography show was next weekend. Fortunately someone in the class at Hobby Horse said something about it. So I came home, dropped the hiking and quilting stuff and grabbed the ticket. Wander through the show and sat in on a couple of presentations about taking travel photos and landscapes. When I came out, the sun was streaming through this cloud, so I grabbed the little camera from my purse and took a photo. The sea gull flew through for me which was kind. The landscape session had talked about exposure compensation so I tried that with the sky photo. This one is the same setting as above but with an exposure compensation of -1.0 (less light coming in) This one is the same setting as above but with an exposure compensation of +1.0 (more light coming in)

Bruce Trail -- St. Helena's Side Road

2009-05-23T20:37:00.008-04:00

I left early for Hobby Horse this morning so I could walk a little more of the Toronto Section. I parked on St Helena’s Road and picked up the trail there. Headed back to where I stopped the other week. There was just enough time to go there and back before I needed to be leaving for Hobby Horse. It was a little overcast but the sun kept peeking through the woods. There was a small creek to cross with a tiny waterfall coming off the side. Someone or something knocked this tree fungus off. I’m curious what kind of flower this will blossom into. I think this guy was upset because I was checking out his lunch. If these are all tent caterpillars, its going to be a busy year. There were lots of tents in the bush. On most of them, the caterpillars were outside the tent.

I’m still not positive what this is. I think it’s a porcupine but I’m not sure. The little guys were out in force today having snacks.

Something hit this birch tree. I didn’t think the wood was red for birches.

Spring Gardens

2009-05-22T20:29:00.000-04:00

Last fall I planted bulbs. These were an addition to the ones I planted a few years ago. This spring, these are some of the flowers in my garden

The lily of the valley are spreading from next door. But they may have gone next door from higher up in my yard....

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain -- Before

2009-05-18T21:14:00.004-04:00

I got the book in 2004 and this is one of the pre-instruction drawings from then. I've worked through bits and pieces of the book and workbook off and on since. Here's the most recent set of pre-instruction drawings.

I think I need to get out the class notes on drawing faces.

2009 $10 Quilt -- Heart Row for May Class

2009-05-17T15:18:00.002-04:00

The heart row for next Saturdays (May 23) class is now done.

Thread Painting Workshop with Judith Peckham

2009-05-10T15:16:00.007-04:00

This month's guest speaker at the Mississauga Quilt Guild was Judith Peckham. On Saturday she taught a thread painting workshop. I worked on a chickadee. Here he is so far. Ready for a little stitching along the tree branches, then borders and quilting. He's 8.5 x 11 inches at the moment. Both the chickadee and tree stump are created with the thread painting. I think this photo from the other weekend would be a fun candidate for this technique

Bruce Trail: Start of Toronto Section

2009-05-03T15:09:00.005-04:00

I started at the beginning of the Toronto section this morning. The plan had been to park at the Kelso conservation centre but I missed the turn and ended up parked at the Hilton Falls conservation centre and hiking back to the beginning of the section. A short pause near where the first blaze was painted in July 1962. Up and over several stiles. England has lots of different styles of stiles. The Bruce Trail seems to like this one. The creeks were full. There’s been lots of rain lately. I was having fun playing with the camera settings. This was my favorite at this location. The trilliums are out – and lots of them. Also saw some very beautiful fungus on the trees.

The trail goes only the edge of a golf course. No bells to ring as we aren’t actually crossing the fairway. Watching this little guy have a snack, gave me ideas about lunch.

I went up the Restoration Side Trail to see what was there. It’s a look out over an area that use to be a rock quarry. Its being reclaimed. There were picnic tables there so I sat, enjoyed the view and my lunch. The turkey vultures were soaring overhead most of the day. Its fun to watch them – they spend a lot of time floating with their wings locked in place. Along the way there were several lookout points. This is the panorama shortly after the lunch break The Dufferin Quarry Bridge is 40m long. It gave a really good view of the rock quarry behind. Its massive!

Another viewpoint along the way let me see another golf course. I got up some where around km 7 when it started to rain so I turned around. During the return trip, it rained off and on. So much for less than 1 mm. Fortunately it wasn’t as windy or rainy as last Saturday turned into.

Bruce Trail Sidetrail: Credit Valley foot path

2009-04-25T22:07:00.007-04:00

Today the temp was suppose to go into the mid to high 20's so after the $10 quilt class, I got a sandwich at the Glen Oven and then decided to walk part of the Credit Valley Footpath I parked the car across from the cemetery on Prince street and was going to hike to the end past the paper mill dam but the trail is closed about 500m in on the side leading towards the golf course and paper mill so I followed the trail on the other side of the road. It heads in behind Sheridan Nurseries and comes out near the corner of 22 sideroad and Tenth line. Found this little guy sitting on a tree stump. I don’t think he really liked the flies There were still remnants of last year’s flowers and seeds on the trail. They looked very pretty.

There were several butterflies out enjoying the sunshine today. This one almost flew into me several times. He and his friends also danced ahead of me on the trail like they were showing the way The snails were also out When I bent down to get a photo of some tree fungus, I found more snails enjoying the shade This log seems to be waiting for tiny creatures to make it a home or perhaps it already is a number of homes and I just missed everyone. I saw a few of these flowers in bloom and lots of leaves for other flowers. Every once in a while, the trail goes past the long green houses for Sheridan. This was part of the Sheridan complex I was on the look out for some large birds near the end of the trail because I often see them soaring on the thermals when I’m heading out to Hobby Horse. This is the only one I saw. He disappeared almost as soon as I took the picture. The bees and wasps are being kept busy This tree looks like its waiting for someone to have a rest The last part of the hike was done at a very quick pace since the sky was getting dark. By the time I’d changed back into regular runners, this was the sky view I drove around to the Georgetown McDonalds to get a cold drink. The sky really got dark and the rain came down in sheets.

2009 $10 Quilt

2009-04-23T21:25:00.002-04:00

The fourth Saturday is coming quickly, but I'm now ready.

More PSE 7 Lesson 12

2009-04-18T21:13:00.003-04:00

I used all three healing and cloning tools to remove the person and vehicle from this photo

before

after

These three photos are from last fall when Dad was building the new deck. At this stage in the process the chipmunk lost his bolt hole.

More PSE 7 Lesson 11

2009-04-12T14:41:00.003-04:00

Cropping From a ski lesson last year in Lake Louise

Before

After (Using Grid)

Cookie Cutter With Mom at Niagara Falls Easter 2008

Before

After

Filters From the Train window near Washago

Before

Filter 80

Colour Curve

Black & White From Niagara Easter 2008

Before

After

Skin Tone and Sharpen with Adjust Sharpness My sister and I with Grandparents (from a scanned photo)

Before

Skin

Sharp

More PSE 7 lesson 10

2009-04-06T11:43:00.003-04:00

I used the colour of one of the pink fishes to sign this photo from the London Zoo. Playing with a photo of Birdie bear sitting in the fall leaves

More PSE 7 Lesson 9

2009-04-03T21:25:00.002-04:00

Played with the sunrise lesson. The background is the orange gradient with a radial gradient applied behind the dot of the i. I tried the text horizontally and vertically but it caught the light better in the blending for the grunge text when it moved diagonally.

Photoshop Elements Class

2009-03-25T21:40:00.002-04:00

2009 $10 Quilt

2009-03-25T20:31:00.002-04:00

I actually got it done before Saturday. Given that I hadn't cut anything out until Friday, its a good few days work.

A walk to ROM and in ROM

2009-03-21T20:06:00.009-04:00

I went into Toronto today to go to the museum to see the Diamond exhibit. The exhibit closes this weekend. I took the GO train into Toronto then walked from Union Station to the museum and had fun taking pictures.

Windmill from Go Train	GO Train View
Sunflowers in front of Royal York	Part of fence near Osgoode Hall?
Statue of Mary Pickford outside Sick Kids	Near the Ontario Legislature
The Ontario Legislature	Carvings at the legislature
Carvings at the legislature	Carvings at the legislature
Carvings at the legislature	Top of the Music Conservatory gate
Top of the Music Conservatory gate	Carving on Museum Wall
Lamp next to the musuem	In the textile section. Drapes 1830-5
Applique Quilt 1872 Canada	Applique Quilt Detail
Applique Quilt Detail	Applique Quilt Detail
Applique Quilt Detail	Patchwork Quilt 1840-50 Canada
Patchwork Quilt Detail	From the Wedgewood Display
Josting Helmet	Trying a quill pen

Spring is coming

2009-03-15T20:07:00.010-04:00

Spring must be on the way. The lilac bush has little buds, I found these under the living room window where I have bulbs planted and in the park, this tree looks like the pussy willows are coming out

I went for another walk in Applewood Park. This time I took the bigger camera and tried taking pictures mostly of wild life -- robins, squirrels and ducks. The robins weren't sure about me at first but I sat on the far edge of the path opposite them. Some posed, some moved away.

The squirrels mostly moved away. This guy on the right was running through the trees then decided to snuggled into the branch. I guess position really is everything.

There isn't really suppose to be a pond here. Its part of the green space but I noticed it flooded last spring too. The ducks like the make-shift pond. A small boy and his dog ran around the pond several times and most of the ducks left to go to the creek.

Despite all the wind we've had this winter, this is one of the trees in the park area that has clung to last years leaves. They give new definition to rustling in the wind they are so dry.

This little guy wasn't as shy as his friends on my walk home again And finally, because Mom was asking about the orchid. Here it is now

PSE 7 - Layers

2009-03-14T20:56:00.003-04:00

Today I went for a walk with my little camera in my pocket. Saw something in the top of the tree across the street. This evening I played with enlarging the area with the bird. Went back to the snapshot lesson and cut out the area with the bird and enlarged it. Then cut selected just the bird and enlarged him.

Playing more with lesson 7, I started my drawing my fist with the tablet pen. Then added a selection of a drawing I'd done with paper and pencil.

Finally I tried adding a fill layer to my hand but it doesn't fill in for some reason.

Rainbows in the Kitchen

2009-03-06T07:41:00.003-05:00

Last weekend I came upstairs to find a rainbow on the wall but there's nothing in the kitchen that could make that. By the time I got the camera, most of it was gone. On Wednesday, it was there again. Turns out that its coming from the half moon window in the front door When the sun is setting the window makes a nice reflection on the small wall next to the kitchen If the closet doors are closed, the mirror makes a reflection on the wall And it bounces over to the kitchen wall

A trip to ROM last month

2009-03-05T22:09:00.002-05:00

DSC01806_edited-1 Originally uploaded by imhalca

Last month I went to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) to see the Trypilian special exhibit. I liked the designs on the vases and the figurines. No photos were allowed but I had fun sketching some of the things that caught my eye.

Finished the applique borders (finally)

2009-02-21T14:36:00.004-05:00

This was a $10 quilt at Hobby Horse in 2002 or 2003 (I've put the pattern away in a safe place) The original design had a piano key border that I didn't care for but Australian P&Q had a pattern called Sweet Memories by Barb Cleaver with an applique border that I really liked so I used it for this quilt Now to find the pattern so I can get the name of the designer and pattern for the centre of the quilt Update: The quilt is A Pieceful Year designed by Sue Ramage

2009 $10 Quilt Blocks

2009-02-19T22:06:00.003-05:00

I finished the hearts yesterday and worked on the caterwall block today. It needs some flowers and the cat needs some paws but I'm thinking about what I want to do for them.

PSE7 Lesson 6

2009-02-15T20:57:00.003-05:00

I went to an orchid show today. For the lesson I took one of the orchid pictures, selected the flower and saved it. Then started playing with colours and backgrounds

For this one I just played with selecting shapes on the black background then coloured them in. Double Dutch Anyone?