Markham/Minden/Huntsville/Bracebridge

Cheltenham Badlands

The exposed bedrock at the Cheltenham Badlands is Queenston Shale; this iron-rich shale was deposited over 445 million years ago. The formation is mostly red in colour due to iron oxide deposits with some faint green streaks due to ground water percolation changing the red iron oxide into green iron oxide. The Badlands site was closed to visitors for several years due to the excessive number of visitors who were walking on the formations causing damage that accelerated the erosion.

 Scarborough Bluffs

The Bluffs stretch for about 15 km along and rise 90 metres above the Lake Ontario shore. The Scarborough Bluffs are a geological feature resulting from the accumulation of sedimentary deposits over 12,000 years ago. They were formed by the natural processes of wind and water erosion from Lake Ontario.

 New Homes 

We saw these homes being built in a new expensive suburb. The homes have a concrete base and a wooden structure. It looks like the wood is a good quality chipboard, it is then wrapped in plastic before the outer layer of stone and brick goes on. All the homes have a basement.

Ice Racing

This is the same as the speedway only on ice and the drivers drive a lot slower. Most of them were doing 30ks per hour or less. Not much skill is used just the accelerator and the brake – no handbrakes, or they use the snow banks to stop.

Frozen Trees and Rocks

These trees have what looks like a water tube around them that has frozen. They look amazing in the morning when the sun catches the ice. The rocks have also frozen water running down them.

 

Towns
 Australia??????

Driving
Newton was game enough to drive on the snow covered roads. We try to avoid the highways on our weekends away so have to drive where the GPS takes us.

Huntsville
This was our overnight stay, the roads and footpaths were iced so was really slippery. We walked up to the lookout, made our own snowman, watched the snow plow and enjoyed the scenery of vehicles covered in snow.

 Screaming Heads
The Screaming Heads is the project of Peter Camani, an art teacher. Mr Camani has spent approximately twenty five years working on this project. His property is quite vast, 84 sculptures scattered along 310 acres. Scattered throughout his property you will find assorted screaming heads, each one standing twenty feet tall. For a sum of $10,000 you may have your cremated remains molded into a 20 tonne screaming head of your own. There is also the Midlothian Castle. The castle, a former derelict farmhouse but is now Mr Camani’s home, is guarded by a fire-breathing dragon which sits on the chimney and emits smoke whenever the fireplace is used. We will revisit the Screaming Heads in the summer so that we are able to walk through them all.

Bracebridge

This town was built around the waterfalls in the Muskoka River which is in the centre of town. The black bear stands on the edge of the river and is the only bear we have seen so far.

Northern Cardinal

This gorgeous red bird is a regular visitor to the neighbours garden.

Trenton

National Flag Day
The Maple Leaf flag replaced the Canadian Red Ensign. The flag, designed by George Stanley, was proclaimed by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, on January 28, 1965, and took effect "upon, from and after" February 15.  

Friday 12^th February a Flag Day ceremony was held at St Patrick’s School. This ceremony used to be held in the shopping mall until the mall underwent a major makeover a couple of years ago.

Service men and women, Politicians, Clergy, the Town Crier, the Fire Chief, a Mountie and flag bearers all attended the ceremony.

Road Trip

Freezing weather so we decided to spend it travelling.

We went on a road trip of 500 K’s. We set the GPS to Trenton, our overnight destination but told it not to use freeways or highways. We drove through lots of little towns. The best one was Newtonville. Yes, we had to stop and take photos with the sign. The town was really delightful, clean and organised.

We stopped in Cobourg for a picnic lunch at the harbour. As the temperature was -27° (wind chill of -38°) we ate lunch in the car whilst watching hundreds of geese sitting on the frozen lake. Even the seawall was frozen.

We made a quick stop at Cobourg beach which was also partly frozen. It was too cold to go near the water’s edge. We also found a very lonely snowman.

Driving through the back roads we came across a safari park which was closed for the winter. There was a lonely tiger pacing in its cage.

Arriving at our destination of Trenton 3 hours after leaving home we checked into the motel and walked down to the water’s edge to stretch our legs. This water mass is the Bay of Quinte which flows into Lake Ontario.  The Bay was frozen with the ice about 1 metre thick.  Newton helped out the birds by filling the birdbath up with snow.

                                                                                                                         
  He then made a snow angel.                                                                         

 

When we returned to our room it was so warm inside my glasses went white. Looked really freaky. It really is a pain wearing glasses when it is so cold, they fog up all the time. 

We had a dinner date with 3 other couples at The Garden of Eatin restaurant in Warkworth.  We were there to see Al Lerman, a blues artist who was exceptional. If you ever get the chance to see him you won’t be disappointed. He is trying to get to Perth for the Blues ‘n Roots festival.

Canadian Royal Air Force Museum

Sunday morning we had breakfast at Dapp’s Restaurant. We had the choice of this restaurant or MacDonald’s, we new our choice right as Dapp’s was really busy with people waiting for tables.

It was then onto the Royal Canadian Air Force Museum where we wandered for a couple of hours.

We had a Veteran volunteer provide us with a lot of information regarding the aircraft. Newton sat in a couple of planes – boys and their toys. The large bullet (20mm canon) shot down a Halifax bomber. The poor guys in the Halifax had no chance as they were shooting back with tiny .303’s.

Olympic Medal

Orval “Red” Gravelle joined the RCAF in 1947 as a machinist never realizing what a momentous choice this would be for his hockey career. A year later the young defenseman was recruited to the RCAF Flyers, an ice hockey team that was to represent Canada at the 1948 Winter Olympics. At age 20, he was the youngest member of the team. During the tournament he played in eight games, scored three goals and helped ensure Canada would take home the gold medal. The National Air Force Museum of Canada is proud to be the home of Gravelle’s Olympic collection including his gold medal and hockey sweater. These items have been donated by Mrs Phyllis Gravelle of Trenton, widow of Orval Gravelle.                                                                                                       http://airforcemuseum.ca

Big Apple

Our next stop was the Big Apple restaurant. They grow the apples then make them into all sort of yummy products. We tried the Mumble Crumble Apple Pie – it was scrumptious. We also purchased an apple pie and Apple and Raisin bread.  The bread is delicious. We were very good and stayed away from the chocolates and cider.

                                           

 Snow

We have had 9cm of snow this week which is really nice. It is so pretty but makes a mess of the roads.  The snow plows come around in the middle of the night to clear the roads then spread salt to keep the roads snow free but it makes such a mess. We also have to shovel the snow from our deck, it is just thrown over the railing down onto the driveway. It eventually melts away.  Snowflakes are gorgeous.

Unusual Food

Blueberry, Maple and Turkey sausages- weird combination even weirder taste. The blueberries are plentiful and the maple syrup makes them quite sweet.

Kitchener, Waterloo, Ice Hockey

The towns of Kitchener and Waterloo are a 2 hour drive west of Toronto. We were told it was an Amish Community with heritage buildings although we didn't see this we still had a look around.We later found out the Community is in a different town so we will return in the spring when the markets are open.

This ice skating rink is in the centre of town . The people skating were of all ages and abilities.

The  Waterloo Region Museum

The 16 colours of the glass wall are translated into a hexadecimal computer code used in mathematics and computer programming.  The words on the building are a speech made by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier in 1905:

"We do not want, that any individuals should forget the land of their origin or their ancestors. Let them look to the past, but let them also look to the future; let them look to the land of their ancestors, but let them look also to the land of their children."

The museum's exhibits were about the settlement of the area.  I loved the old radio's and gramophones that were on display. The grain separator was pretty cool too. There was also an After Dark interactive exhibit for the children. We had go at putting the blocks into the correct holes in the dark, easier said than done.

Radio and Oil Lamps

Grain separator

In the dark

Lunch was the Canadian staple - Poutine.  This consists of  fries (chips), gravy and cheese curds. Poutine can also come with extra toppings, ours had crispy fried chicken, ranch dressing and buffalo spicy sauce. It actually tastes better than it looks.

We then toured a Glass works factory and shop. Wow! the work is beautiful but expensive. The artists are all
Canadians.

Wall art $10,000 and Sun Catcher  $1,000

Sun catcher and hanging ball

Family Portrait (twisted metal) $4250

On the way home we drove over the West Montrose Covered Bridge, also known as the "Kissing Bridge", this bridge is 60m long and was built in 1881. How cool is the horse and buggy with 2 children sitting on the back?

Ice Hockey

Saturday night we went to our first ice hockey game. It was a Junior Hockey League game between the Stouffville Spirit (Red/White) and Coburg Cougars (Green), 17 -21 year old males. They play 3 x 20 minute sessions. The Spirit won in overtime 3 - 2.
Ice Hockey is fast, physical and exciting. I am hoping this will not be the only game we see whilst we are here. Ice Hockey should be one of your bucket list items.

The National Anthem