Water and Mud

On Friday, I drove up to the Fern Resort on Lake Couchiching for this year's Yarnover Sleepover. It was a longish drive, there being no direct road between there and Kingston, so it turned into a tour of small town Ontario. The suprise? I had thought that the area between Peterborough and Lake Simcoe, the "Kawartha Lakes" region, would resemble the countryside north of Kingston--pink granite, lakes, pine trees. But no, it was all large tracts of rolling cultivated land, probably dairy farms, from the look of things. Interestingly, the 19th-century farmhouses were also quite different from the ones around here. Instead of pink brick with white gingerbread trimmed gables, they were very tall, large and squarish. They did, however, have the same pale brick trim at the corners and around the windows. No photos, because you can't easily stop at the side of the highway and start clicking.
The weekend was a great learning and networking experience. On Saturday, a few of us went for a short hike. The lake was still frozen and there was quite of bit of snow remaining in the wooded areas. But the main obstacle to a longer hike was water--everwhere.

The soft haze of buds in the woods is something I adore at this time of the year,

especially the veil of red dogwood you can see below in the foreground. Makes me think of mohair lace...

It's a subtle landscape, one of subdued colours, but nevertheless exciting because of the anticipation of the return of warmer weather.
I left a little early on Sunday, because of the threat of flooding on my route home. I chose a different route and came back via Route 7, to avoid the Moira River floods north of Belleville. Back in Kingston, the Hollywood crews had been busy dumping loads of soil over our Market Square and on the surrounding streets,

piling up market wares on wagons and in barrels,

 

posting turn-of-the-20th-century ads, and generally making a big mess. On my walk to the grocery store this morning, I ran into some extras waiting around (I gather that they do this a lot).

Don't you just love this cape thing? and yes, they're wearing period underthings, i.e. corsets. I asked.

Apparently they're trying to speed up the filming in anticipation of a major rain storm. And we all know what that will do to the mix of soil and horse dung spread all over our streets.

                                          I just hope they have a good laundry crew!