FARE THEE WELL

Fare thee well
My own true love
Farewell for a while
I’m going away
But I’ll be back
Though I go 10,000 miles

10,000 miles
My own true love
10,000 miles or more
The rocks may melt
And the seas may burn
If I should not return

Oh don’t you see
That lonesome dove
Sitting on an ivy tree
She’s weeping for
Her own true love
As I shall weep for mine

Oh come ye back
My own true love
And stay a while with me
If I had a friend
All on this earth
You’ve been a friend to me
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After what seems like months of deliberation I have finally come to the decision to end my blog. I had decided to do this a few months back but was persuaded not to by loving family members who didn't want me to quit.
At the time after thinking about it I decided to keep going, despite my reasons for wanting to shut it down.
But I have come back to the same reasons again and therefore am going to go ahead with my decision.
It is wonderful to be creative... I have found through my blog and other outlets that I enjoy this part of myself but it also has caused me quite a bit of stress trying to come up with unique ways of expressing myself without becoming boring and mundane.
I have found my photo taking and sharing to be repetitive and my stories uninspiring at times. The well does become dry and in searching for new things to write about I feel I am having to dig deeper and deeper.
The whole idea of blogging can be therapeutic but in my case some of the time it hasn't been.

I had hoped my readership would increase eventually but it hasn't beyond a few really loyal readers who come often. And it is those people that I wish to thank for taking the time to visit.....

Thank you Bob, Mom, Mike and Debbie, David, Bruce and Catharine. Thank you also to any others who have visited that I don't know personally but I do appreciate all of you for your interest, comments and support over the course of this blog.
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

Ecclesiastes 3 1-8

AMEN

Karen
xoxo

MISTY GRAY SKY MORNING

To Beet, or Not to Beet

Beet Salad

So simple to prepare... so few ingredients....

Cooked sliced beets
Pear slices
Pecans or Walnuts sprinkled over the top
Onion pieces

Feta or Goat cheese could be used also

Arranged artfully on a plate with any kind of vinaigrette dressing poured over top.

Bye Bye Leaves

Dinner is Served

Sweet and Sour Meatballs.... so colorful. so tasty!!

SUNSHINE ON MY CHAIR MAKES ME HAPPY

OH NO... SAY IT AIN'T SO

I don't know if you can really tell by the picture or not but it is snowing! First it began as a light flurry, then it came down harder in pellets, then changed to beautiful soft Christmas snow... then it stopped abruptly and got sunny. Way too early but it is to be expected living in the north. Happily it was just a small taste of what is to come.

Sunrise... SUNSET

Sunset at the back of the house

ANOTHER GORGEOUS SUNRISE

The sunrise was incredible again this morning. The clouds were building in anticipation of a morning sprinkle and the combination of the two was stunning. So hard to capture the actual beauty of it.

Bruce took this with our old camera in the spring using the macro setting....

A solitary sunflower in our front garden

TIMBER .... Part 4 or BET YOU'RE GLAD THIS IS FINALLY OVER

Bruce sawing off the bottom half of the tree stump. His next job will be hacking away at the remaining stump to get it out of the ground, otherwise the tree will start sprouting leaves and growing up into a tree again. Also kind of dangerous to have stumps sticking up all over the yard.

TOTE THAT BARGE, LIFT THAT BALE aka TIMBER... Part 3

Bruce taking away the top half of the tree to a dumping station

TIMBER Part 2

Here are neighbor John and Bruce amongst the carnage.......

TIMBER!!

Today's photo is one of several I will post in the next two or three days. They are the latest in the antics of an over zealous Bruce. We have several large maple trees in our back yard all in the same area of the yard. A bit of overkill, they do provide good shade in the summer, but I suppose we really don't need that many trees all in the same space. So Bruce has been taking them down, one by one. After removing two of them in summers past he decided he needed to take out another one and began scheming about how to go about it.

This morning after he went out right after breakfast to do some raking I noticed a flurry of activity around the tree in question. He had built himself a makeshift ladder out of some rotting boards that were once a border around a vegetable garden. And he was up on the ladder sawing branches off the tree. After getting a few branches down the larger ones were starting to prove to be more of a challenge. Enter our neighbour with his large ladder and rope which they secured around the tree. Bruce sawed and John held the rope and between them they got the very tall top half of the tree down.

More tomorrow.....

Sunrise Over Elliot

Back to Laurentian Lodge Again

Fungus Growing out of Tree

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner out. We went to Dunlop Lodge just north of town for the third year in a row. Bruce was really looking forward to it and had been since we were there last year. They put on a really nice buffet dinner and the food is excellent, this year being no exception. Besides the obvious turkey they had ham, stuffing balls which are always my favorite part of the meal, mashed potatoes, a sweet potato dish, several autumn vegetables, two salads... their signature caesar salad which I always look forward to and a tossed salad with strawberries, buns, gravies and sauces, and several different desserts including the thanksgiving traditional pumpkin pie.
I was pretty careful selecting what I would be eating and besides the stuffing balls I stuck mostly to foods that wouldn't do too much damage to my blood sugar.
And I skipped dessert even which was a huge feat for me!

The day was lovely... sunny and breezy and we were seated by the door onto the deck overlooking the lake. The sun was shining brightly through the windows and the breeze was so nice, it was really relaxing and an enjoyable time.

We are both anticipating next year already!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy 10/10/10

Happy Birthday to my Brother, Mike!!

I'm The King of the Castle....

This is an experiment using a new program I found to make mosaic collages out of photograph collections. When I get a bit more time I plan on doing some interesting collections!

Willisville Rock Formation

WILLISVILLE

Yesterday when we went to Manitoulin Island we stopped on our way home in a lovely little village named Willisville. The scenery there is a photographers dream. It would be difficult for me to describe the village and the road into the village so I have included a history of the village below.........................................

The picturesque Village of Willisville is located on Frood Lake in the heart of the La Cloche Mountains , one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world. Less than two billion years ago and before glacial erosion these beautiful quartzite and granite mountain ranges were as high as the Himalayas. Frood Lake, Charlton Lake and Cranberry Bay are all part of the lake system accessible from Willisville.

The village derives its name from the first family, Ernest and Ada Willis, who settled on the northwest shore of Frood Lake in 1910. Mr. Willis became the first area postmaster on April 14, 1919 and continued until his death on December 24, 1928. He was also inspector of railway construction for the rail line connecting McKerrow and Little Current. On May 21, 1912 the line was opened.

Ada Willis was postmaster from February 25, 1929 until April 27, 1932 and was reappointed on May 13, 1932 after her marriage to Henry Bennett. She remained as postmaster until her death on November 13, 1943 at which time Henry Bennett assumed the position of acting postmaster until January 14, 1944.

The area prospered with the development of the Bousquet Gold Mine and Howry Creek Mining Camp until their close in the early 20's.

The highway to Manitoulin was completed in 1926 as a relief project and up to that time the rail line was used extensively.

The quartzite mountains, crystal clear lakes, windswept pines and abundant wildlife draw many visitors to the area to canoe, hike, camp, fish, snowmobile, hunt, photograph and paint the landscape. Many of Canada’s famous Group of Seven; including A.J. Casson, Franklin Carmichael, A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris and Arthur Lismer painted and camped in this area for numerous years. Franklin Carmichael’s summer cabin was built in 1934 and Willisville residents help construct the log building.

In the 1930’s three lodges were located where the present day village is situated. Golden’s Camp, Kinsman’s Camp and Willis’s Camp were moved when Inco opened nearby Lawson Quarry and built homes for the workers in 1941. In 1942 the school was opened for the children of the Inco workers living in the village.

It was a great place to live , work and raise a family for the quarry workers and today’s residents enjoy the same village life only 15 minutes away from Espanola, 20 minutes from Manitoulin Island and an hour from Sudbury.

In the mid 70’s Inco sold the village to Edward Bourque who made numerous improvements to the 26 residences and in 1984 turned it into one of Ontario’s most unique condominiums.

The 55 residents own their land and everything on it but share in the common areas and expenses...............................................................................

On a final note: Nestled in amongst rock, trees and water I think it would be difficult to find any prettier place to live or visit and to take pictures. I took many photographs and still couldn't capture the exquisite beauty and peacefulness of this place.

Link to Willisville site: http://www.willisville.ca/

Deer Readers

Yesterday we spent the day on Manitoulin Island. The deer in the photo surprised me and came out of nowhere and ran across the road in front of our car. I rushed to get my camera set up and had to take the pictures of them from the car which is awkward at best. This was the best shot of the three that I took. These whitetailed deer are plentiful on the island. We hardly ever see deer around Elliot Lake so I was excited to get a few photos. I love the deer... they are a beautiful and graceful creature.

Hello Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Thanks for visiting!!

Gazebo Overlooking the Lake

VIEW FROM MY BACKYARD

------- Laurentian Lodge ------

A beautiful sunny but windy cool day. Lunch was wonderful; scenery even better.
Sad to see the lodge close up for the winter.

Photo a Day

I have decided to try a new idea with my blogging.

A photo a day.

This will keep me posting on a daily basis plus encourage me to try using my camera more often.

The other day Bruce and I went out for a drive up north of the city along the Deer Trail. The leaves I think are pretty much at their peak right now and I didn't want to miss out. Unfortunately it was a gray day and the photos didn't have the brilliance I was hoping for but were still nice none the less. I took 112 photos in total and will feature some of them in the next couple of weeks.

Here is the first...