Black Creek Pioneer Village - Gives Old Salem a run for its money!

Oh meeeee . . .   I've gotten rather behind since I last posted to this blog. We have been doing tons of stuff every weekend and we also took off to spend a couple of weeks in Dorset with the family.  And as a result of all this travel, I have gotten rather behind on my little "reports" on what we're doing here in Canda . . .

Just so you know, these photos are from May 22nd, when we visited a great place about an hour away from where we live in Mississauga, called Black Creek Pioneer Village.

Black Creek

Emily was most interested in carding wool and gathering dandelions to dye it.

A very pretty working mill.

Soon this girl will have a bonnet and dress all her own.

Anyway, Emily and I have signed up to participate in a week-long program at Pioneer Village.  We will both have to be in costume the whole week and will be learning how do all kinds of things.  I guess more photos and details will follow.

A Little Friend Came To Visit Today

This afternoon, Emily dashed into the house from the backyard patio, breathless with excitement.  She was sitting quietly at that the patio table, writing something, when she noticed a furry little somebody was sitting right by her feet!

Having recently had read to her Dick King-Smith's book, The Cat Lady (the plot of which introduced to her the concept of reincarnation).  So anyway, Emily has announced to me that she believes this baby rabbit is Sandy reborn, just coming by to let her know she's OK now.

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A Day Out: Little Dollhouse Company & Ontario Science Centre

Well, we had lovely weather yesterday, apart from a little morning fog, and so Emily joined our new friends, Kerri, Jocelyn & her little brother Sebastian, to check out a Dollhouse Shop that we had heard about on Mount Pleasant Rd. in downtown Toronto.

Emily had been saving her allowances and tooth fairy money for awhile, and so she was itching to find something really neat for her own doll house - as well as admire the extensive collections they have there.  She spent two or three days going through their website too, showing me this photo or that of some wonderful tiny thing she would loooove to have.  :-)

Kerri took Sebastian to the Model Car shop next door.

Emily and Jocelyn spent quite awhile looking at everything.

They do think of everything!
Dress dummies for a period seamstress's shop, I guess.

Handsome looking luggage!

After the girls (and admittedly me too) had their fill of Oooohs!  and Ahhhhs!  and Look-at-that!'s, we walked back to fetch the car and head over to the Ontario Science Centre for the rest of the afternoon.  That year-long membership we purchased right after we moved here sure was a great deal.  We have already been more than a few times, and still have not seen everything in there!

We let the kids lead, and Kerri and I jabbered on to our hearts' content.  Didn't really try to do anything very structured with the kids this time around, as all 5 of us were dealing with a shortage of sleep to varying degrees.  But they seemed to have a great time together and were happy to each work on their own collections of little self-directed mini-discoveries.

During our lunch break, we had the pleasure of a visit
from a resident of the Museum's wooded area.

St. Jacobs Country - Rather Soggy This Time Around

Despite the weather, we took an hour's drive Westward to explore St. Jacobs (marked as "A" on the map here). St. Jacobs is a pretty little town that seems to provide a nice country village for the urbanites to visit, shop for hand-crafted things and fresh produce, maple syrups, honey, etc., produced by Mennonite farmers (We saw several of those black box-like horse-drawn buggies on the streets of the town while we were there.)

The rain held itself back a bit so we could enjoy a short walk on the Woolwich Trails along the Conestogo River, where we saw and heard a lot of singing frogs and admired an old iron bridge.

We poked around the main street of the village, enjoying the museum displays on Maple Syrup, quilts, and a fantastic model train display of St. Jacobs and the surrounding countryside back when steam trains were the primary means of long-distance travel.  Great fun.  Great shops (including a splendid Toy Shop located in a large church building).  Lovely maple sugar candy.  :-)

After that, we nipped over to the nearby Farmer's Market to get a bite to eat.  Genuine German sausages are made in that area, so we each had one on a bun.  Very delicious.  No mystery meat.  I didn't take any more photos, because it was tipping down with rain by then.  All the sheltered stalls were heaving with shoppers by then, so we decided to take our soggy selves back home.

We'll be back again when the weather improves.

Oakville - Just a Glimpse For You

 We wandered further along the Lake Ontario Coast to Oakville and found that the beaches there were very stoney, with not much sand.  Pretty cool, as the stones were very smooth and seemed to be made of a wide variety of rock - sandstone-like pieces and slate-y pieces.  The sound as we picked over it all was fun . . . sort of like what you'd get gently pushing arm-loads of terra-cotta pots into a shallow pit.  It reminded me of that scene from Harry Potter where he's being pursued over a slate roof by a dragon, whose talons crush the tiles as she grips the roof.

But of course, the atmosphere during this particular manifestation of that sound was a great deal less exciting.  :-)

Seemed odd to watch Swans doing something other than  gliding along with necks arched gracefully, looking gorgeous.  Everybody's gotta' eat!

Our handy zoom lens allowed us to catch these goslings on film,
without death threats from the parents.

Kitty is still with us, as you can see.

Jack Darling Park (And Rattray Marsh) on Lake Ontario

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Just some photos from Mom and Evelyn's last full day with us.  We drove to nearby Jack Darling Park (between Port Credit and Oakville) and drank in some more Spring weather.

Trilliums were growing all over the Marsh!  Brilliant!

Emily and Alex making up a game?

Nothing like a Crepe filled with Nutella and Bananas, after a long walk along the Rattray Marsh Trail.