Morningstar Mill, St. Catharines, ON

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Out on a rainy day, pointing at a part of a historic mill race.

Christmas Day 2011, Port Colborne, ON

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Woodbridge Memorial Tower, Vaughan, ON

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Woodbridge Memorial Tower, Cold Winter Day.

Cober Dunkard Meeting House, Baker-Cober Cemetery, Vaughan, ON

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Niagara Parkway, Niagara Falls-Queenston-NOTL, ON

(A lovely fall Sunday afternoon made even better by a long drive along the Niagara Parkway + added side adventures with my family.)

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Heritage!

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Trails!

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Food!

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Water!

This ends what is essentially the briefest possible synopsis of Leaf Beaten.

Wainfleet House, Side Road 44, Wainfleet, ON

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Today the plan was to help out friends with the renovation/restoration of their new old carpenter gothic farmhouse.

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And by help I mean ride the tractor!

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(I may have also climbed the silo.)

 

Nelles Manor & Ontario Fruit - Grimsby, ON

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Nelles Manor, built between 1788-1798. One of the few houses of this vintage to survive the War of 1812.

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Sweet plumbs, Bartlett pears, McIntosh apples, grapes, nectarines from the Grimsby Farmers Market: Will not survive the week. (I'm making crumble! And maybe apple jelly.)

Canal Days 2011, Port Colborne, ON

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Canal Days is technically the annual Marine Heritage festival that takes place every year in Port Colborne, my hometown, over the August long weekend.

And while there is a lot of excellent marine, and a lot of hearty heritage, the act of Canal Days itself, for someone who was born and raised in Port, ends up being much more like a yearly celebration of life and friends and family than anything else.

This year was no exception.

Day Trip: Toronto Islands, Toronto, ON

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It took me three attempts to finally get on a ferry & to the Toronto Islands. And then a 5k walk from one end to another, many many detours, Lake Ontario swimming, beaches, glorious green, ice cream, amusements, animals, bicycles, boats, boats & more boats.
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And the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse. This is important. The oldest existing lighthouse on the Great Lakes (1808!) & the second oldest in all of Canada.

Still shocked that I made it home at all.

Morningstar Mill, St. Catherines, ON

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Of all of the awesome things I did over the Canada Day long weekend, visiting the Morningstar Mill was definetly one of them.

Slowly filling in all of the many many gaps in my Ontario brain map.

Day Trip: Ruthven Park - Cayuga, ON

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Ruthven Park was a surprise from friends. 

It's a National Historic Site located along the banks of the Grand River (A National Heritage River!) and it consists of within a 1,500 acres of farm fields, meadows, Carolinian forests and wetlands, a 9 acre island, two cemeteries, the archaeological remains of the former town of Indiana, and a massive, gorgeous neo-classical estate (which is also a museum).

I guess they know me pretty well.

(This is pretty much a perfect place. You should go there if you are ever near Cayuga.)

Trip: Charleston & Myrtle Beach, SC

Mini-holiday, a quick jaunt to where it is warm, sunny & fresh produce abounds.

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It's been a wet, cold spring, and while I appreciate any day I can get outside, there is no substitute for heat, swimming in the ocean, jogging along the beach. Sun, sun, books & sun.

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A day trip to Historic Charleston, gorgeous streetscapes, long walking tours, taking photographs as fast as I can think. (I tell my parents that this is the sort of place I'm trying to help build & I think for the first time they fully understand what it is I do for a living.) Click.

A Barn At Sea

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"There is nothing so appalling, so awesome as a burning barn,

unless it be a burning ship at sea."

Hike: Brick Beach, Longbranch, Etobicoke, ON

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Took a walk along the coast of Lake Ontario (A common occurrence, with frequently suprising results.), and found a beach made almost entirely of red and yellow buff brick, the last remains of demo'd historic homes, dumped, washed, worn and spit out again.

Hike: Ball's Falls Conservation Area - Lincoln, ON

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Natural Heritage:

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Built Heritage:

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Cultural Heritage:

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Chocolate:

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The four pillars. Enroute to my hometown, I decided to take a pit stop at one of my favourite places to hike as a kid.

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I also ran into this group of kayakers, the sort who when they see this:

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Think "Let's run the falls."

More on Ball's Falls at Ontario Trails

And at the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority

Up the Etobicoke River

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Today I went for a three hour walk up the Etobicoke River, starting where it empties into Lake Ontario, but without a specific destination. I had never walked that far up the river, always preferring to stay close to the lake, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

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Almost two hours in I found my destination: A designated concrete bowstring bridge, a treat for someone like me. (The heritage register I am responsible for has three such bridges.)

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I've realized I can only be truly comfortable near a large body of water. I guess it comes from growing up on the Great Lakes.

Niagara Wine Tour: Beautiful Ontario

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Took the long way home from Niagara to Toronto, stopped in at a few wineries along the way.

Ask me some time just how much I love Ontario.

Move It + Dom Pérignon + Field + Boat Shoes

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The Move

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The Celebration

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Field Trip

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Papa's Boat Shoes

 

R. Crumb's "A Short History of America" via @billykirkinc

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A fairly accurate account of the built heritage history of North America, via Billykirk.

The Stepford Wives: Coveralls & Georgian Manors

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I have a bad habit of watching movies from the perspective of the architecture. (For example: Up is actually about the integrity and durability of Victorian houses.)


I love the Georgian manors of The Stepford Wives (1975). Traditionally, the strict symmetry of Georgian buildings, be they simple log structures or ornate mansions, represented a modicum of order and control over what was perceived by early European settlers as a wild, harsh continent. 

 

(In reality, the New World had been inhabited for over 12,000 years prior to European contact, and although not obvious to the newcomers, the natural landscape had embraced the habits and impacts of humanity long before. But I digress.)

 

That symbolism of taming the 'unknown' was definitely lost in the 2004 remake.

 

Indecently, the last image in the series is the home of a female psychoanalyst who sympathizes with the creative, intelligent heroine’s fear of losing herself, is also a fantastic example of National Park Service Rustic. This "Parkitecture" was designed to harmonize with the natural environment.

 

I also like the women's coveralls that pepper the film.

 

And the robots, the terrifying Misogyny-born robots.

 

 

Adventure: We Have Pies, Honey.

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Heritage farm tour.

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Homemade quinoa vegetable soup. (A beautiful day can still be chilly.)

The Spadina Expressway

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Stop the Spadina Expressway (1971).

When civic engagement & community pride overcame malinformed political pressure.

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Heritage plaque for what never was, and hopefully never will be.

 

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Asbestos + Vines

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I am infatuated with asbestos as a building material. Dangerous. 

Farming Dawn

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Bruce County, ON