Home again and collect the Animal Family

I was on the Gautrain by 8:30 and on my way back to the airport. My flight to Durban was at 10:00. Once again I booked a window seat and spent the entire 50 minutes watching the earth go by below. I was met at the airport by a friend who took me to work where I'd left my car for easy access.

Later in the afternoon I went to Ally's Cattery to collect the kittens and Old Aunty Cat who I noticed when I got her home was hobbling around again, her back legs hurting from the arthritis she has. I made her as comfortable as possible and constructed some makeshift steps inside and outside her room window so she could get in and out, as she likes to go out on her own.

Dylan and Nikita's Wedding

A340 reflected in the airport window

Balalaika Hotel

The plane landed in Johannes-burg on time at about 07:40. I was going to stay overnight in Johannesburg  as I was going to attend my god son's wedding later that afternoon. My plan of action was to take the Gautrain to Sandton station then a shuttle to the Balalaika Hotel where the reception was being held and where I was booked in for the night.

I had been stressing about a wedding gift because I hadn't been able to purchase something from the online gift registry while I was in Canada because of payment issue, but with Glynis's help I'd bought some nice table clothes and place mats with a Canadian Autumn theme just before I left. I'd brought some wedding wrapping paper and wrapped it in my room before departing for the church service at around midday.

The service was light-hearted and short and soon we were all back at the hotel where a candy store theme had been set up on the veranda. What worried me was there were small children running around, and with all that sugar heaven knows what they'd be like by the time the actual reception started later.

I managed to stay awake for supper, but slipped out and off to bed soon after the main course. I was exhausted and had an early start the following morning to get back to Durban.

The Journey Home : MUC - JNB

ZS-SNC at the departure gate in Munich

A friend of mine has a brother who flies for SAA and he tried to book on the same flights as I was on between Joburg and Munich. Unfortunately he wasn't able to get them, but he did find out that one of the pilots on the same flight as me I'd met through my friend at the Margate airshow some years ago. We mounted a video camera in his Extra to record this aerobatic display from inside the plane. My friend arranged that I could meet him and have a quick tour of the flight deck before we took off.

The Journey Home : YYZ - MUC

I always dislike the last few days on any holiday knowing the inevitable hour will arrive when you have to leave for home. However, with each visit to Canada, my departure is becoming less painful and this time in particular, as I will be returning to my two kittens rescued from work and old Aunty Cat who have all been staying at Ally's Cattery while I was away.

New Blue Spruce and Tannie Duifie

Glynis wanted to block off a view of the neighbour's tennis court fence from their deck out at the back of their house, so we went  in search of a suitable tree to plant there. We ended up getting 2 Blue Spruce trees to accompany the existing spruce in the corner.

Place mouse pointer over image above

(VIDEO) Lunchtime walk into Stratford

We arose late this Sunday morning then walked down to the Avon River in town. We timed it well (unintentionally) to hear the day's edition of Barge Music on the lake right next to the "Patio" restaurant.
While eating we were discussing a gift for someone and I suggested a
4 panel type photograph of a Stratford scene and each panel taken in a different season. We walked to a bridge over the Avon to take a picture. (below left)

The Stratford Court House and bridge

Barge Music and "Patio"

The challenge now is to return to that same spot and take 3 more photos in Fall, Winter and Spring.
Sheila told us that the stone bridge in the photo on the left is the last remaining stone arched bridge in North America which still carries traffic.

We returned home along the edge of the lake, then turned up towards town again and past some of Stratford's old homes before heading back down to the lake again past the Festival Theatre complex, home of Stratford's Summer Theatre Season.

Art in the Park

 more Art in the Park

Some of Stratford's original homes...

...some turned into offices

Ultralight Pilot's Association of Canada Convention

Last weekend when I went for a half hour flight in the Airborne trike in Elora I found out that the Ultralight Pilot's Association of Canada (UPAC) 

was holding its annual convention on a private strip on a farm outside a town called Plattsville in Ontario, about 35 minutes drive east of Stratford, so I dragged the family out there this morning to check it out...

(VIDEO) Flying over the Elora Gorge

When I visited Canada in 2013 I did a search for microlight airfields/schools in southern Ontario and in particular near Stratford with the hopes of visiting one. The closest I found was near Elora, about 75 km NE of Stratford which also has a natural attraction where the Grand River has carved a gorge through a short portion of its course. We visited the Elora Gorge in 2013 but didn't get to visit the flight school as they requested being contacted before hand to visit as the field is on a private farm.

Grand Trunk Rail Trail in St. Marys

Sunday morning dawned a lot brighter than Saturday with its rain, winds and thunderstorms which caused concern as I had booked a flight in a microlight aircraft in the late afternoon.

To while away the time, we drove out to a small village nearby called St Marys

Welcome Rain on Saturday

Abby Cat went browsing around the tables

It's been a very hot and humid week back in Stratford, and in fact over most of southern Ontario.
Some rain fell during Friday night which comes as a welcome relief after weeks of searing heat in Ontario. The province has suffering it's seventh heatwave this summer, and by heatwave I can say it's hot. The temperature has often gone up to and over 30ºC and that's only what I've observed since I arrived here in mid July.

With heavy black clouds blowing in from the Great Lakes area to the south west, the next door neighbours took a chance and held a yard sale on their driveway. They had quite a good turnout but had to scramble for cover around midday when the heavens opened. 

Bargain Shopping in Wellesley

Today Glynis, Brad and I went bargain hunting at K&K Liquidation and Auctions out in the country, about 25 kilometres north east of Stratford. When we walked in I took one look at the crowd of people rummaging through clothes racks, household appliances, groceries, TVs and other stuff and thought this place is not for me.  But I wandered through the place, just looking at what they had and avoiding as many people as I could.

Monday Morning Mill Pond

There's hardly a breath of wind this morning as ducks, geese and noisy gulls go about their morning food patrols. The ever-present gulls. I have even seen a whole harvested wheat field full of them just standing there doing nothing.
Today is our last day at Lion's Head and we'll be packing up the trailer then heading back to Stratford.

Windy Sunday

During the night a chilly northerly wind came up blowing straight into Lion's Head bay causing the lake water to lap quite loudly against the stony shore and making the ducks and geese bob up and down on the water. Although the sky is clear, the wind is cool.

Our plan today is to revisit the walk along the top of the escarpment to the lion's head and hopefully find it this time.

Sauble Beach Car Expo

Kitty is still at large in the roof in Waterfall.
Today they are going to get someone in to catch her. I wait anxiously for news.

There was a car expo today in Sauble Beach about 30 km south east of Lion's Head so we went to see them.
There was an assortment of vintage cars on display and for sale on the wide, flat beach on the edge of Georgian Bay. Brad, Bruce and I walked through the rows of vehicles while Glynis walked the dog in the street, as dogs weren't allowed on that part of the beach.

We were stopped by a municipal law enforcement officer and told to go back. I was told by someone we were lucky we weren't given a C$200 fine!
There was a huge selection of cars on display and one car in particular caught Bruce's attention.

We stopped at a coffee shop later and saw the same lady office strutting very purposefully up the street and then again down the opposite side, this time marking car's wheels in 2 hour limit parking spaces. Cops earn their wages here!

Star gazing at Lion's Head Marina

While looking at a map of the Bruce Peninsula, the area where we were at the time, I saw a little section detailing astronomy evenings on Fridays and Saturdays at the Lion's Head Marina which is part of where we were camping in the trailer. Being interested in astronomy we all took a walk across once it got dark to see what was going on. I think we should have gone earlier as the event was already under way with telescopes of varying sizes set up and short rows of people lined up eager to look into the Milky Way. At each telescope was a very knowledgable person to explain what was being viewed on his apparatus.

John explaining the wonders of the Universe at his telescope

The first one we looked at was a low power view of the planet Saturn. It was as clearly visible as we had seen it through Phil's telescope in Stratford - a very clear dot with a ring around it and some moons nearby. The owner, John, was also pointing out other stars and constellations with a laser pointer, most of which I as a Southern Hemisphere dweller have never seen, like The Swan, Cassiopeia and the North Star which points to the north celestial pole around which all the stars appear to rotate as the earth spins. John changed the magnification of his telescope to a higher power and we were able to see a somewhat closer view of Saturn and with a bit of intense staring through the viewfinder and possibly imagination, an area of separation between sections of the rings was visible. The bands of rings around Saturn he said was from 1 to 10 meters thick, and there we were looking at all this. Unfortunately I was not able to take any photograph through the viewfinders but was able with the group's permission to take one of the telescope.
We were shown a star cluster called M13 and the Swan nebula through a much bigger and more powerful telescope which was amazing to see.
The International Space Station came hurtling past at about 11:30. The ISS  circles the Earth every 90 minutes at an incredible 7 kilometres a second. That speed is unimaginable.
Something which I noticed, but didn't seem to be interesting enough for the astronomers to focus their telescopes on was a large, very distant glow on the waters of Georgian Bay. Both people I pointed it out to said it looked like the lights of a distant city but there were no cities for many kilometres in that direction or the northern lights but it was the wrong shape and colour. Both then went straight back to explaining some distant star system or galaxy, leaving me even more curious about the lights on the water. It seemed to me that astronomers prefer glows billions of light years away in the sky to odd glows a few hundred kilometres from them in one of the Great Lakes of North America. I may never know what it was... unless I go and search Google for an answer. I'll post any explanation I find here.
(Update: no further explanation found yet)

(VIDEO) Tobemory Revisited and Harbourside Music

I awoke before the sun rose again with messages about kitty Abby and that she was still in the ceiling with food and water and the hole she got in, blocked up so at least she would be trapped until it was possible to get her out. Being a feral cat she is terrified of strangers and would only run away. I am the only person they trust. In the mean time I had to wait until they could get someone to trap her.

So we drove up to Tobemory at the head of the Bruce Peninsula to await the arrival of the Chi-Cheemaun, a large passenger and vehicle ferry which travels from mainland Canada to Manitoulin Island about 45 kilometres north west. This island in Lake Huron is the largest freshwater lake island in the world.

Being a Friday evening in summer here at Lion's Head means there is music entertainment on the lake shore. Brad and I spent as long as we could stand listening to 2 of the 3 musical performances lasting half an hours hour each. A trio including a female vocalist were almost at the end of their act and followed by our neighbour here at the camp site who played a guitar and sang. He was quite good in comparison. The (mainly elderly) audience seemed to be enjoying the show.
We went back to the trailer for supper.

(Note: this isn't a fantastic music video because I didn't want to impose on the audience as I shot with my phone.)

From my Window the... Lake

Dawn at Lion's Head Beach

This morning I watched the sun rise over part of the Niagara Escarpment on Georgian Bay, a bay off Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes of North America.

We set up the trailer on the edge of the inlet at the Lion's Head Beach Park Camp ground yesterday after a 2 hour drive north from Stratford. Lion's Head is on what is known as the Bruce Peninsula a large spit of land dividing Georgian Bay from Lake Huron.

This morning, from my bed in the trailer, I watched a humming bird flit around in the shrubbery on the edge of the lake.

The lion's head 

The town is called Lion's Head after a rock formation in the end of the cliffs on the small bay which in certain light conditions resembles the head of a lion. Something I have noticed on my trips to Canada is that no matter where one goes, there are always gulls and one doesn't necessarily need to be anywhere near the sea. The gulls here are particularly raucous and are always patrolling the lake edge by the camp sites looking for food scraps. Mallard ducks also swim backwards and forwards doing the same thing. Even Canada geese do the same thing.

It's 8 am and already it's hot in the sun. The temperature is expected to reach 29°C later today.

We drove to the Grotto, a cave system on the lake, but we were turned away at the gate as the place was full. At 8 o'clock this morning 200 cars had already passed through the gates so we headed to Tobamorey a lake-side town at the end of the Bruce Peninsula for coffee, but the place we wanted to go to was closed. ???? So back to Lion's Head it was and a visit to the Lion's Head lookout through a walk in the forest on the headland. We found numerous lookout points, but unfortunately didn't venture further along enough to get to the actual lion's head rock formation. We took some photos then headed back to camp for lunch as we were expecting friends of the family to visit later in the afternoon.

After lunch the boys and I went to find another cave system nearby, but I wasn't allowed to go to the caves as I was not wearing closed shoes. The owner at the pay office asked me if I was seriously going to walk through the caves in slops, and I said yes, I had just walked to the lion's head in them and was told that I couldn't go to the caves in them, so I stayed in the car while the boys ventured off. At least they showed me some pics. We may visit again another day. (We didn't.)

When we returned to the camp I was greeted by the news via Whatsapp that one of my young kittens had escaped from the cattery where they are staying, and she had climbed into the ceiling of the house there. She is one of two 9 month old feral kittens I adopted and tamed from a litter of four from work. She is very adventurous and it's hardly surprising that she made an escape. I felt very helpless so far away but was assured by the owner of the cattery they would do their best to capture her and return her to her brother in the pen. I didn't sleep too well.

From my Window the... Street

SABC orchestra conductor Dr. Edgar Cree used to record a radio programme at the SABC studios in Durban in the eighties called "From My Window, the Sea". I worked on many of these recording sessions, hence the title of today's post.
It's another lovely day in Stratford this morning. A gentle breeze was blowing but later in the day it became very hot with the temperature in the shade reaching 30 degrees C.

Big cumulus clouds came up later in the day but no sign of a thunderstorm or rain in Stratford.

Stratford on Monday

Today is a civic public holiday - I'm not sure what or why but it is. 

With Brad and Glynis out at work, and Mark going out, Bruce and I went into town for coffee at Balsak's... sorry that should be Balzac's followed by a short walk down to the lake edge and lunch at The Boat House Patio where we sat and watched people boarding the small pleasure boat for a trip around the lake and others on small pedal-powered boats made for two.

Charm making machine

 Next to the Patio is a small hand-cranked machine for making little Stratford themed pendant charms. I made 2 as gifts.

After lunch we drove back home and Bruce cut the lawn while I wrote this.

Oh,  now it's raining so I'll have to go inside.

We've been having a few showers lately, with a few rolls of thunder as storm clouds pass by. It'll be over in a few minutes.

The Docks at Bayfield

The Village of Bayfield is situated on the eastern shore of Lake Huron with it's pleasure craft harbour on the mouth of the Bayfield River.

The 70 km drive north west from Stratford took us through quite a rain storm just outside Mitchel where we stopped at Tim Hortons for coffee.

On the other side of town the rain stopped and we continued past numerous wind turbines towards the coast.

RV Hunting... just for fun!

Class C Motorhome

Fifth wheel RVs

Saturday morning dawned overcast and much cooler (temperatire 15ºC) with some early, light drizzle which had stopped by the time Bruce, Mark and I left for a little outing to McPhail's of Harriston (click the link if you really want to see where it is on Google Maps).

The object of the exercise

(VIDEO) BargeMusic on the Avon River

Glynis and I went into town for coffee at Balzac's then strolled to the Avon River. We walked along the bank of the small Lake Victoria, then a short way down the river. We crossed the river and walked back to The Patio for a light lunch.

I'd picked up a free copy of the free publication "Stratford Summer Music 16" and saw that there was to be a free BargeMusic concert at 12:30.

Chilling at Home

Everyone is out at work today so I'm at home looking after the animals.

A new Steering Wheel

Mark was looking for parts for his Mazda so we piled into the car and headed for Pick-n-Save Auto Parts in Hamilton near the edge of Lake Ontario to see what they had.

Niagara-on-the-Lake and Niagara Falls

Vineyards near Niagara Falls

After a bit of deliberation about where we would go today in the heat, it was decided to stick with the original plan and drive to the coastal town of Niagara-on-the-Lake where the Niagara River flows into Lake Ontario. This is a very pretty, albeit "touristy" town which attracts many visitors from the United States of America which is just across the Niagara River.

Acclimatising in Stratford : the first few days

Shopping in Walmart

This is the third time I have visited Stratford, Ontario, the centre of Shakespearean theatre in North America, so being back felt very comfortable. The first time I visited was in winter 2007/8.

My previous visit was in July 2013, the same time of year as this time. At home in South Africa, temperatures have plummeted and it's raining while here in Ontario they're experiencing a heat wave with daily temperatures ranging between 25 and 38ºC.

While my nephews and I don't mind the heat, my sister and brother in law like it much cooler.

Munich to Toronto

When it grew light the next morning the Airbus A330 was flying over the Mediterranean Sea towards Italy. The Alps were covered in clouds with only the tops of high mountains sticking through.

The landing in Munich was on time and I had a 4 hour stop over there before an Air Canada flight to Toronto in Canada. The first hour was spent standing in a painfully long and slow queue to go through the security area at the airport. The delay was because they only had one metal detector for people to walk through and 2 hand luggage x-ray machines.

Canada 2016 - Goodbye Kitties

The Kitties

It was with a very heavy heart I dropped off old Aunty Cat and the 9 month old siblings Kitty-Boy and Abby, two ferals I tamed who were born in a shed at my work. I explained to them that as they love to be outside, they’d be living outside for just over a month at Ally’s Cats in Waterfall while I visited my sister and family in Stratford in Canada.