Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Background: Hiking the Bruce Trail

The Niagara Escarpment:
The Bruce Trail
from
Tobermory to Cape Chin


Checking camera and equipment
Ready to go...
  My upcoming trip to England, where I will walk through the villages, towns and cities of my ancestors will be a different kind of hiking than my usual adventures and will require a new mind set for choosing footwear, clothing and what to carry. My most recent hiking trip was with a friend on The Bruce Trail, a challenging experience, climbing over tree roots and hoisting ourselves up over rocks, through bush and forest, scrambling over the Niagara Escarpment, while marvelling at the magnificent Ontario scenery every step of the way. 

The first day evolved into a gruelling ten hour experience as we were directed onto the wrong trail which led into a lush bush area where we walked through long, wet grass and saw recently broken branches on raspberries bushes loaded with fruit. We soon woke up to the realization that we were in bear territory. OH NO! Signs of bears everywhere, but no actual sightings. We carried stones which we knocked together to make sounds and hopefully warn the bears that humans were about!  I also had a bear bell which I'm sure the bears would have ignored. Time lost and exhausted, but we were safe!

Overlooking the Bay
A beautiful part of Ontario

                                             
      After the rain
 

 


Rock chairs for our comfort and rest. A black snake came out
 from under the stones and scared me half to death!
 Later I almost stepped on a sleeping rattlesnake who
slithered silently away to the sound of my screams.
 

 
Amazing cloud formation spotted
through the car window, while driving home 
 
 
I love the outdoors, hiking or walking, experiencing new places and
challenging myself. One summer I tackled the Swiss, Italian and French Alps,
hiking with a group organized by the Adventure Centre in Toronto.
We had two guides and two porters, slept in tents in the mountains and
cooked our own food. It was the most challenging hiking trip in my
lifetime...so far. An amazing adventure.
 
 
Allow me one photo...perhaps two...
 
 

Mont Blanc in the background

 
                                   On a Glacier in the French Alps....a few years ago....
                                                         
 
 
                                                      Have a great day....
 

 

 
 Next: Preparing for a different type of hiking experience
  
 

















Saturday, August 31, 2013

CELEBRATE August 31, 2013



The date, August 31st marks the happiest day of my life, the day my daughter, Christine Elizabeth was born. I shall never forget the joy on that day, and it continues. Balloons floated by my condo this morning to mark the occasion. It is a day to celebrate, dinner with friends, stories, laughter, refection, time together.

Enjoy the day my friends.






Friday, August 30, 2013

August 30, 2013


St Mary church Barrington.jpg
                                                                   St Mary's Church
                                                                 Somerset, Barrington

You may think an ancient church is a strange way to begin a "blog"... unattractive word.....so this is not a "blog" but a journal of my trip to Barrington, Somerset, England to find out if the conditions of Johan Bicknell's will written in 1621, were honoured. It amazes me that a woman wrote a will in 1621, and even more amazing that she had something of her own to bequeath to her family. 

 Johan wrote; "...I Johan Bicknell of Barington, in ye Countie of Somst ...Do make this my Testament.. I give and bequeth my soule into the hands of Almighty God, my body to be buried in the church yard at Barrington as neer my husband's grave as conveniently may be...."
 
And so, I'll soon be off to visit family and friends and I hope to learn more about Johan Bicknell, an ancestor whose life fascinates me. I know little about her but as I walk in her footsteps I'll listen for her voice whispering family secrets to me, and leading me to interesting places.