Good-bye to Ontario

We have been at my friend Nancy's house for the last couple of nights.  Nancy is an old friend and an amazing woman! We have known each other since we were 18 and 19 years old. Years can go by and we many not see each other, but when we do, it is like time has stood still. We may look older but it really is like we saw each other last week. Nancy is an amazing woman! She has raised two boys on her own, had a successful teaching career and most recently is a cancer survivor!  She is cancer free and planning on retiring in December. I am hoping that she will come out west for an extended visit.  

I posted this photo on Facebook the other day and had some interesting comments.  The best one was that the house looked like it is from the movie "Twister". Well the sky looks very ominous so I can see what Jenn meant by that.  The house is on 97 acres and Nancy is hopeful that it has sold.

Nancy's place has a mailing address in Manilla, but it is situated just outside of Little Britain.  In Manilla there is little else other than a general store and a service station, where we bought gas for a mere $1.24.9 per liter!  That is the cheapest gas we had seen yet! 

Little Britain is barely larger than Manilla, with a small scattering of shops.  Apparently the shop to go to is the bakery which is called "Buttertarts n' More" which is home to the largest selection of butter tarts that we have ever seen.  You can choose from pecan raisin, walnut raisin, chocolate chip with pecan (yup chocolate chips in a buttertart,,,,,go figure), raisins and then just plain old butter tarts with absolutely nothing in it at all but the sauce!  They also had berry tarts,,, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, cherry, raspberry with blueberry, lemon, raspberry and coconut, apple raspberry,,,,omg,,, I know that I am missing some but you get the picture.  The pies of the day were wild blueberry, raspberry, apple and apple crumble!  We bought a wild blueberry pie for dinner which was "to die for"!  So you may be wondering if we are gaining weight on this trip??  That is a well "hidden" secret!!!

Manilla and Little Britain are small farming towns and are on the outskirts of Lindsay, which is obviously where people must go to shop.  They have everything from Canadian Tire, Reitmans and a beautiful downtown area with lots of Mom and Pop shops.  They also have a hospital that appears to be the size of ARH in Abbotsford.

It is beautiful here and so peaceful, I can certainly see what brought Nancy to this part of Ontario even with her 50 minute drive to work.  Nancy has a small flock of "Bugeye" chickens.  They are brown and very chubby!  Five hens and one beautiful fat rooster.  The funniest thing I have been witness to on this trip, is one of the hens has taken quite a shine to Ray.  This not so small hen, follows him all over the place clucking away at him.  She even tried to follow him into the trailer.  The big fat rooster is not a fan of Ray and at every opportunity he runs in between Ray and Hiss Hen.  Now I am not too sure what this rooster thinks is going on,, but he is very assertive and noisy,,, cockadoodleing whenever he sees Ray.  He runs after him crowing like only a rooster can!  So Ray goes walking towards the barn and Miss Hen ran behind him to catch up with him.  She is clucking and waddling away (yea ducks waddle,,,but so does this fat little hen!).  All of a sudden I hear this loud crowing and then Ray yelling (I am sure there were a few explicit words as well).  If that darn old rooster didn't attack Ray right on his leg!!  He actually drew blood!!  Perhaps the rooster that he was in a cock fight or something!!!  Here he is in all his glory!

 



Between the chickens clucking and crowing, there are two other sounds that stand out on this lovely farm.  The wind blowing and the crickets are never quiet.  If you shut your eyes you can feel the warm wind blow over your face and hear the crickets singing their beautiful songs.  But with that darn rooster chasing and crowing after Ray and then Ray yelling,,,,, it kind of breaks the peacefulness of the day!

We said our good-byes to Nancy this morning and left to continue our journey east ward.  We have seen some beautiful countryside and some of the most quaint little towns.  For those of you who have never travelled to Ontario, I highly recommend that at some point in your life you venture east.  The towns are so beautiful and it is clear that the residents take so much pride in the town they live in.  A few of the places we drove through today were:

Norwood with a population of 1100 people.  Huge planters lined the streets.  Majestic brick homes sat so close to the roads, you would think our truck mirrors might hit their doors.

Maberly is the Maple Syrup capital of Ontario.  You can almost smell the maple in the air!

Perth is a somewhat larger town with a beautiful old downtown and the usual flower baskets and Canadian flags proudly flying.  The 3M factory just happens to be a large employer of the townfolk.

Merrickville is my personal favourite the planters full of pink and white flowers appeared to have errupted on the sidewalks.  So pretty!  And again the most beautiful old brick building!

Maple Ridge Ontario which is just outside of Winchester, has somewhat of an odditity.  They have a public school on one side of the road and the high school directly across the street.  What makes this so odd is that both schools are surrounded on two sides (possibly three because I could not see the rear of the buildings) with a cemetary.  How odd is that?  Education and dead people side by side.  Wierd!

Tonight we are in Lancaster Ontario and will be in Quebec tomorrow.  Ray would like to drive staight through Quebec and be in New Brunswich by tomorrow night, but that is yet to be done.  Mind you he does like to drive. Here is the cool dude himself, last night enjoying a brewski!

 

 

 

 

Until the next update of our Bogus Adventure,,,,,

 

Lori and Ray