Memories

Both of my intelligent, creative, beautiful, sensitive, caring daughters wandered with their mother and me when they were young but it was my youngest daughter that had the most urge to wander. She came with me, when she was nine, to visit the native ruins in Mesa Verda, to backpack to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, to travel to the west coast and up into British Columbia, to camp on Vancouver Island, and to climb mountains in central British Columbia.



In later years, after her mother and I had gone our separate ways, my youngest daughter, in her late teens, stayed with me and then wandered into Africa for a photographic safari, climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, and visited new friends in England, Belgium and Germany.



On her own, my youngest daughter worked on a project in the Dominican Republic, was one of the youngest teens to ever tour Europe with the Hamilton Youth Orchestra, travelled and worked in Germany for a year and then went to Australia as an exchange student working on an environmental science degree.



She claimed to be the only "true Canadian" in our family as she was the only one born here while the rest of us were born in the U.S. That being said, it was cruel irony that brought me the message, nine years ago today, on the Canadian Thanksgiving, that my daughter had been killed in a traffic accident somewhere in the wilds of the Simson Desert in Western Australia. My memories, tears, and this blog are my tribute to my daughter Dawn today. I have many, many good memories of her life but on Thanksgiving Day it is her death that yearly almost overwhelms me.

Cloud Watching

Our dog Calla and I went out to watch the sun drop below the horizon.



It was quite beautiful again tonight.



We saw two deer, just after the sun went down, but without a tripod the photo was very fuzzy. I will spare you the poor shot and try to remember the tripod tomorrow just in case.

Weekend Walk

Églantine is away so our dog Calla and I went to wander. We saw a train by "Dundas Peak."



We watched some water flow through some rocks.



We were glad we were not here when these rocks fell off the peak.



We stopped to look closely at some False Solomon Seal berries.

Autumn Will Come

In spite of record breaking high temperatures here in southern Ontario, the leaves are turning colour as usual and some are dropping off already. Our Black Walnut (aka American Walnut, Noyer noir, Juglans nigra) trees are shedding leaflets and leaves quickly and the White Walnuts (aka Butternut, Noyer cendré, Juglans cinerea) is all but bare.

The Gray Dogwood (aka Red-panicle Dogwood, Cornouiller à grappes, Cornus racemosa) leaves have turned a deep, red-violet while the panicles are bright red setting off the white berries.



I tried taking a photo of some of our Morning Glories this morning. I thought the Maple trees in the background would set them off. My initial try demonstrated my need for a tripod for a clear photo. Then I looked at the photo again and decided it had artistic merit. Here it is:



Here is a second try with a tripod. I think it too has some merit. I look forward to getting more autumn colour shots in the next few weeks.

Wandering in the English Lake District - Day 6

Having been up before the sun every day, I was glad to finally be in a position to get a fairly good sunrise photo.



As I was watching the sky through my camera lens, I had the feeling that someone was watching me.



I was correct.

On this last day, the "harder walk" group was offered "an exhilarating ridge walk...the superb high level ridge...the geographical centre of the Coniston fells...one of the finest high level walks!" I am pleased to report that the walk lived up to its reputation. The bus dropped of our group just a few miles the other side of the village of Coniston and we started walking uphill. In the photo below you can see another of the many arched, stone bridges that we crossed during the week as well as the beginnings of our walk. We crossed the bridge to an area left of the photo and then re-entered the photo area on the ridge at the top and walked the length of the ridge before climbing the first of several peaks of the day.



The body of water in the foreground of the next photo was called a "blind tarn" as it was impossible to see until we were on the ridge well above it. The water in the background is Conistonwater with the village and HF house off the photo to the left.



Below is part of the group scrambling up the last few rocks to reach the first peak of the day.



From the peak we could see the next ridge leading up to our second peak, Coniston Old Man. Those antlike bumps on the ridge are some of the many people heading up the ridge to the peak.



Coniston Old Man (2633 feet) was the most crowded mountaintop that I have ever been on in my life. We did not stay long.



Below will be the last photo of the Wandering in the Lake District of England series. In this photo you can see the Irish Sea in the distance.



I think I promised earlier to talk about our dinners. You already know that we ate well for breakfast and lunch. Dinner was equally fine. Each evening, we had choices for the next evening meal. There were various options for the first course that always included a homemade soup, a salad dish, and usually several other options that I don't remember as I almost always had the soup. Second course was centred on a vegetarian dish, or fish, or meat of some kind. Items that I remember from during the week were options of beef, pork, lamb, trout, shark, codfish, and swordfish all with, of course, more exotic names. There were always three large dishes of vegetables to choose from on the table, one of which was potatoes in a variety of forms. Drinks, from the bar, were offered for sale while coffee and tea were always served with desserts. One also chose the dessert the evening before. Several kinds of ice cream were always available as well the fruit basket with a choice of cheeses or one could choose from a variety of pies and puddings. No one ever went away hungry unless they chose to do so.

This was my third walking holiday with HF and, I hope, not my last. I know a good number of other local Ontario hikers that have gone to hike with HF and have never heard a complaint from any of them. This group runs a top-notch holiday walking service that I highly recommend. Go if you like to walk and have the opportunity.

Contact addresses are as follows:

The organization that we booked our holiday with is called "HF Holidays."

Teachers' Travel Service Ltd. of Toronto Canada is the HF North American Representative if you are interested (email: info@teacherstravel.com).

I hope you have enjoyed this travel series. Tomorrow it's back to exciting days of autumn in Ontario. (Sure it will cool down soon. It always has.)