Springfield Farm and Rock Point Provincial Park.

 

The day after the Santa Claus Parade, Rick and I went, with Daniele and Fiona to a craft show at Springfield Farm Golf course near Waterford. I had passed signs to this place but never actually gone.

The crafts were all hand made and one-of-a-kind. There was metal work, pottery, woodwork, rug hooking, jewelry, sewing and baking. A lovely selection in an old barn and the golf course was a nice surprise too.

The course has been beautifully converted from land that was previously a tobacco farm.

Skillfully landscaped with interesting plants and shrubs

and metal sculptures scattered throughout.

During 2020, "the covid year", Rick and I searched for places to walk as we got tired of doing the "same old" walks around Port Dover, Long Point and Hamilton. Rock Point was a lucky discovery but we had not been there since. So, searching for a place to walk again, we went back and it did not disappoint.

We found the parking lot closest to the lake (The first time we went, we walked for miles from the entrance). Then to this lookout.

Looking west, its a mostly stony beach with lots of zebra mussel shells. Not a real "day at the beach" location.

Down from the lookout and East along the shore we could see Mohawk Island Lighthouse

Abandoned now and partially destroyed by fire, it sits out on an island that is sometimes totally submerged by high water levels and high winds.

According to Wikipedia it is home to the only Caspian Tern colony on Lake Erie.

We didn't see any Terns, just a couple of Grebes.

The lighthouse is one lure , the other is the fossils. They are very abundant on the stone shoreline, with a beach at each end.

From Wikipedia: Limestone shelves along the lake shore contain the fossils of marine animals from the Devonian period.

Some look like bones,

 

some like plants,

or coral.

Some like ancient sea creatures....

and some that are not easy to identify.

Amazing, walking on this ancient sea bed.

In the coarse sand, evidence of present day fauna.

From Rock Point we drove a short distance to check out the beaches and little cottage communities of Port Maitland.

November catch up and Santa Claus Parade.

 

November 9th, J.J. Ruggers taught a beginners Rug Hooking Class at Waterford Agricultural Museum. Pam, Heather, Linda, Pat and I taught 12 students to make a 5" by 5" mat.

Each student was provided with a hoop, hook and pattern along with some handouts. Heather spoke about the history of rug hooking and we all shared information about some of the hooked pieces we had bought along to show them.

They picked out the colours they wanted to use to make a log cabin pattern. My monochromatic sample is in this photo. The wool was donated by J.J. Ruggers members.

We worked in an area surrounded by displays depicting the history of the area with a focus on agriculture, in a building that had once been a pickle factory.

Looking for a different place to walk, Rick and I went to the little park near Selkirk that we had walked back in the days of Covid. Iffy looking weather

but it didn't actually rain.

We watched a Bald Eagle fly into a tree and then realized that there were 2 there.

Back at home, all that splashing

is another feeding frenzy on the lake.

Rick and I watched, literally, thousands of birds fly in. Streaming "Vs" of ducks and swooping gulls. All feeding before heading south.

Janis had the idea to use the tetrahedrons (that we use for the start/finish line when racing) in the Santa Claus parade. So this week we worked out how to change them in to Tetra Claus.

We worked in Janis and Brian's garage which is also where the Sailing School float was decorated. Then they were transported to the start of the parade route.

All the floats waited near the harbourside condos for Santa to arrive by fishing tug, escorted by the Coast Guard.

The L.P.Bay Y. C. are in the marina where Spellbound is docked.

They won Best Christmas Themed Float. That's a Tetra Claus coming to congratulate them.

The PDYC Race Division has had the walking boats in the parade for over 10 years now but this year only one walked.

We are all getting older, so this year

most of them became sitting boats,

on a trailer with waves along the sides.

Won Best Non-Commercial Float.

I didn't get to see Santa arrive but suddenly we were moving out.

Someone suggested that the Tetras should be one at the front and one at the back of the race division float representing the start and the finish lines.

So that's what we did. I pulled mine up to the front (photo by Rick)

and Janice had hers at the back. The Sailing School followed us. (Photo by Rick)

 We went up the hill, through downtown, left on Nelson, back down George St and deposited Santa at the Lighthouse Theatre for kids to go and visit. The streets were lined with people, waving, calling "Merry Christmas" at times. Candy was given out. The bag that Rick was using broke and he said there was a childrens "feeding frenzy" when the candy spilled out. The younger kids seemed to love the Tetra Santas but older ones didn't know what to make of them and as we were rolling away, after the end, a woman asked what they were. She had thought they were some kind of blow up pizza.

Back in the truck, he doesn't look too happy that his time in the spotlight is over. He will be deflated, returned to storage and next summer its back to the weekly grind (get blown up, transported out into the lake, anchored in a spot, see the boats go by, one, two, sometimes 3 times, get pulled back in a boat, deflated, put back in the shed until next race)

We stopped to pet the Belgiums that had pulled Santa in the parade and then dove up to Simcoe and watched the documentary about the Port Dover Commercial Fishery, "Netting the Waters". It was excellent. Followed by dinner at The Barrel. Altogether a wonderful day.

Didn't intend to go birding at Turkey Point

 The day after seeing the owls Rick and I went for a walk at Turkey Point Provincial Park.

Not a long walk,

Lookout Bluff Trail is just over 2km,

mostly sandy footing but I regularly managed to trip over tree roots

hidden below the thick covering of crunchy leaves.

You can usually count on Turkey Point being calm but the wind was from the East and the waves were rolling in.

After our walk we drove down the hill to the community of Turkey Point.

Risk's family had a cottage there so it is his old "stomping grounds" and we like to see the continuing process of knocking down the old, small cottages and building monsters. Constantly amazed that they will risk the fact that they are only inches above lake level. 

I was driving and Rick suddenly announced that a Bald Eagle was flying directly above us.

He landed in a nearby tree and I pulled over to take pictures.

He flew off and we followed him, driving, so occasionally losing sight of him. He lit in first one tree then another and we parked down by the beach hopeful that we could catch sight of him again.

We thought we had lost him

and then noticed him out over the lake.

He was definitely hunting and

a couple of opportunistic gulls were staying close.

In this shot you can see his talons extended

and in this, the head of the fish he caught.

But the fish was heavy, he had a hard time lifting it

and the gulls, harassing him, were persistent, so he ended up dropping it

and flyng back to the beach

where he could sit in a tree and contemplate his bad luck and the rudeness of gulls.

He flew off, inland, and we lost sight of him soaring along the bluffs towards Port Dover. It had been an invigorating period of time, buffeted by the wind on the beach and entranced by the antics of the birds.