Lake Erie Coast ~ Stewardship of Our Natural Heritage

Today, by chance, we met the most wonderful group of naturalists.  Albert Garafalo, Lake Erie Coast Project Coordinator, and a handful of resourceful individuals showed up without fanfare on a shoreline near us ~ dressed as one would expect, in gear that would allow exploration of the roughest terrain.  In the few minutes spent with this knowledgeable, dedicated group, we learned more than we have in formal meetings over the years with Toronto consultants contracted to come up with great beautification schemes on how to improve the lake shore.

"The Great Lakes coast supports some of the rarest and most threatened ecosystems in Canada.  Lake Erie, the Southern most Great Lake, is a hot spot for species diversity and supports a number of species at risk including:  Hoptree, Red-headed Woodpecker, and Fowler's Toad." * Just to mention a few.

We came away with a list of preferable "native wild plants" and the names of undesirable non-native plants.   We have a better understanding of the importance of encouraging native trees and plants rather than expropriating lake-shore owners in order to build terraces and pavilions with boulevard trees and planters.  (All recommendations that have been presented to Haldimand County Council and local residents.)

*Contacts: Albert Garofal 905.732.5084  or albert.garofalo@gmail.com

We ask our municipality to consult with naturalists like the Bert Miller Nature Club, P.O. Box 1088, Ridgeway, ON.  L0S 1N0.  Meanwhile, encouraging information can be found at www.bertmillernatureclub.org  *

/Lake Erie Coast Project/Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

The Human Seasons ~

"...when fancy clear takes in all beauty with an easy span"

\
by John Keats

Four seasons fill the measure of the year;

There are four seasons in the mind of man:

He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear

Takes in all beauty with an easy span:

He has his Summer, when luxuriously

Spring's honey'd cud of youthful thought he loves

To ruminate, and by such dreaming nigh

His nearest unto heaven:  quiet coves

His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings

He furleth close; contented so to look
On mists in idleness ~ to let fair things

Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook:

He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,

Or else he would forgo his mortal nature.

~ John Keats (1795 - 1821)  English poet.

Keats lived to be only 25 years old. 
 www.poetryfoundation.org



Laura Secord's House Queenston, ON (Click on photo for larger image.)

"The evidence is clear that Laura Secord was the first to bring warning to FitzGibbon of the impending attack, and that he did take the necessary precautions.  The victory at Beaver Dams was the result." ~ Ruth McKenzie, Laura Secord, the legend and the lady, McClelland and Steward Limited, 1971.

Photos:  lbwalker

Monument to Alfred, General Brock's "magnificent gray horse."

Wm. Lyon Mackenzie Printery

"The thirteenth of October, 1812, was a day the people of Queenston would never forget.  On that day the war came to their village.  Long before dawn on that chill, dull morning, hundreds of American soldiers slipped quietly into boats at Lewiston across the Niagara River and headed for Queenston.  About 200 landed at the Queenston wharf and sought shelter under the steep cliffs lining the shore.  The waterfront became a nightmare of booming guns, flashing gunfire, wounded men tumbling into the river...Before daybreak, over 300 Americans had joined their leader under the cliffs.

The village seemed to nestle under the protection of the "mountain" which rises to the south and extends inland some distance towards the west.  This high ridge is actually part of the Niagara escarpment."

~ Laura Secord the legend and the lady, Ruth McKenzie,  McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1971.

Stone Marker Where Brock Fell



"When the warning of the invasion came to Major-General Isaac Brock at Fort George, six miles north of Queenston, he hastily mounted his magnificent gray horse, Alfred, and set off at a gallop along the river road.  The stalwart, forty-three-year-old British officer was in charge of the defence of Upper Canada (Ontario). "

~ Laura Secord the Legend And the Lady,  Ruth McKenzie, McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1971

Photos:  lbwalker







Commemorating the Bicentennial of the War of 1812.

The Niagara Parks Commission designed the floral clock at Queenston this year to represent those that fought in the war.  Green santolina is used to represents the muskets used by the British and Americans.  Gray santolina is used to depict feathers honouring the First Nations. 

Battles raged for over two years after president James Madison and the United States Congress declared war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812.  Two hundred years of peace has followed.

Photo:  lbwalker  

"I don't like books that open with the weather; with the wind blowing and the leaves falling, mood stuff like that."

~ Elmore Leonard (b. 1925 - ) American novelist.

"I think you open with the action, introduce the two main characters."

~ Maeve Binchy (1940 - 2012) Irish novelist.

"A genuine writer forgets a work as soon as he has completed it and starts to think of the next one;  if he thinks about his past work at all, he is more likely to remember its faults rather than its virtues. . . He needs approval of his work by others in order to be reassured that the vision of life he believes he has had is a true vision and not a self-delusion, but he can only be reassured by those whose judgment he respects."

~ W. H. Auden (1907 - 1972) Anglo-American poet.  The Dyer's Hand, 1963.