"Coffee-table books provide one type of view of Ontario.  Prize-winning photographs ~ of Queen's Park, Fort Henry, a fall fair, Tillsonburg's main street, Agawa Canyon, gingerbread trim, the steamboat Segwun, the Blue Jays, Mennonites haying, and so on ~ present Ontario as a recreational playground in a benign setting.  The heritage village at Lang ~ or Doon, or Black Creek, or Morrisburg ~ has its page, too.  It is the predictable reminder that history is found behind a ticket window, through a turnstile.    'Foodland Ontario' is another popular subject;: a roadside stall of sweet corn in Leeds County, a 'U-pick' strawberry or apple farm in Halton, the weekly vegetable market in the corner of a shopping mall in Waterdown, or an estate winery's tasting boutique in Grimsby."
. . .
"The old Ontario landscape is a remnant and has been attacked from both the city side and the cottage side for years.  Suburbanization is rural renewal with no opportunity of going back to an earlier, less crowded era.  Beyond, former city folks ('exurbanites') attempt to maintain a country look, but with no intention of being rural."
. . .
"A drive between Shelburne and Collingwood is a showcase of rural Ontario in the 1990s.  This is a countryside of marketing boards, crop insurance, RRSPs, and CD players.  Farm kitchens have filing cabinets, personal computers, and fax machines.  The number of low metal farm buildings is greater than seems proper.  The nineteenth-century houses are more and more noteworthy amid so many new dwellings, both at the roadside and back on the farm.  It may still be rural, but the feeling is changing.  The city has become the standard, and the old, comfortable countryside is rapidly becoming part of folklore."

Thomas F. McIlwraith, LOOKING FOR OLD ONTARIO, University of Toronto Press, 1997

"The barns of old Ontario speak for themselves as ageless artistic works of great power, built for the millennium.  Gaps between barn boards are not the result of carelessness but were deliberately included, to provide for air circulation.  They also admit filtered light, and an empty barn in June, just before the first hay is garnered, can inspire thoughts of medieval cathedrals.  The silver-grey boards and lustreless steel roofs signal a timeless commitment to the land."

~ Thomas F. McIlwraith, LOOKING FOR OLD ONTARIO, University of Toronto Incorporated, 1997.

The opening paragraphs of Looking For Old Ontario ~ by Thomas F. McIlwraith

"Many people have looked at Ontario's landscape without really seeing it, or have been bored by what they saw.  Charles Dickens, writing in 1842, found Ontario very flat and 'bare of scenic interest';  the Canadian Illustrated News a few years later described it as 'tame and domestic.'  An 1894 tourist guide bluntly stated that between Smiths Falls and Perth 'the country is unattractive.'  John Kenneth Galbraith called his childhood area, west of St. Thomas, in the 1920s 'an uninteresting country.'  A Manitoban used words such as 'sober,' 'stable,' and 'serene' to describe his adopted province in the 1960s.  A British colleague of mine once spoke of 'beautiful monotony' after spending a day driving up and down the straight roads near Lindsay...
"The rumpled countryside is a marvellous place that Ontarians have inhabited and continually reinvented.  It may be ambiguous and perplexing, but surely not dull.
"To appreciate a living landscape we must also draw on the written record from such sources as biography and legistlative studies, to understand long-gone events."

~ University of Toronto Press, 1997
[Tomorrow:  more of Ontario.]

Thinking of enrolling in summer riding?  Storey's Guide to TRAINING HORSES ~

"Horses communicate their feelings and intentions, and you can tell what a horse is thinking by watching his body language.  Ears forward  means alert interest;  ears flat back signals a threat that could be followed by a bite or a kick; ears to the side means boredom  or sleepiness.  Tenseness of relaxation of the body can also be a clue to the horse's mood.  Tail swishing means irritation and sometimes anger -- a prelude to a kick."

~ Heather Smith Thomas, horsewoman, Storey Publishing, 2003.

Check out The Neat L'l Bookshop Nature/ Animals section.

See you next Wednesday, MARCH 4th.

Denise Hart & Dan Romanoski

Love Trees?  Contact any of the dedicated stewards in your area.

Denise Hart of Haldimand Stewardship Council

www.hnstewardshipcouncils.org 

Greg Greer, Field Adviser with Trees Ontario ~ one of several guest speakers at PLANT TREES

Getting ready for PLANT TREES workshop are Stephan Prior, Chair of Land Care Niagara; Michelle Martin, LCN staff and Denise Hart, Resource Manager HNStewardship Council

Stephan Prior, Michelle Martin & Denise Hart

Smile for Today ~

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." ~ Ernest Hemingway

"I am not a great cook, I am not a great artist, but I love art, and I love food, so I am the perfect traveller."
~ Michael Palin (b. 1965) English actor, writer, known for Monty Python.  (b. 1965).

"When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable.  It is designed to make its own people comfortable."
~ Clifton Fadiman, (1904 - 1999) American writer, author, T.V. & radio personality. [Opinion:  Can we post this in every airport? lbw]