Charming farmhouses and zillions of lakes

We left Windsor early on a beautiful day (16th August) and decided to stay off the crazy 401 highway and take the road (somewhat) less travelled to Uxbridge which is northeast of Toronto. It ended up taking us about 7 hours instead of 4 but it was really interesting seeing again miles and miles of cornfields (as high as an elephant's eye of course) and the very charming Ontario farmhouses. Most are two storey brick - I didn't manage any good photos of them unfortunately but what impresses is that most of the farms are so well groomed and maintained. We stopped halfway at a very cute village called Erin and did a quick wander of the main street. The market gardens then gave way to dairies, then horse stud farms. Because we had the top down on the little yellow car, I sported a Kathryn Hepburn style with big sunglasses and scarf on head - missing a bit of her glamour unfortunately but it did help. 

Town of Erin, Ontario

We arrived at niece Kelly's house and Kelly, husband Ivan and Kelly's sister Erin, all worked hard to feed us an incredibly delicious pasta & corn dinner. After a fun evening of catch up, we headed out with Erin to spend the night at a B&B she is staying in for a while. It was a two bedroom unit over the garage of a large home on an acreage outside Uxbridge. It was so peaceful and pretty we could easily have settled in for a while but there were places to go and things to do! We were up and about fairly early next morning to visit friends of Erin who run an amazing bakery nearby, and then back to Kelly & Ivan's for another huge breakfast/brunch. Finally got back in the car for the final two hours to the "cottage". 

The gang at dinner in Uxbridge (Ivan, James, Maddie, Erin, Kelly & Brian)

Ontario countryside from B&B window.

As we headed north, the countryside changed dramatically to the very distinctive look of the Canadian Shield which is a large geographic area in eastern and central Canada composed of bare rock dating to the Precambrian era (between 4.5 billion and 540 million years ago). In total it covers approximately 8 million square kilometres and is made up of some of the planet's oldest rock, largely granite and gneiss. The shield is mostly thin soil lying on top of bedrock, with many bare outcrops and thousands of lakes. This was caused during the last ice age, when glaciers covered the area and scraped the rock clean as they moved. A few million years of advancing and retreating glaciers have actually carried pieces of the shield into southern Ontario and the northern United States. And this folks explains why there are so many incredibly beautiful lakes in this part of Canada, one of which we were to visit for a week. Was interesting along the way to see a sign for "guided bear hunts"! 

Lots of exposed Canadian Shield rock along road.

Ontario roadside lake - one of zillions.

As we travelled, we stopped a few times to load up on more fresh vegetables and wine. Because of the small confines of the BMW, it meant all of this was piled on top of and around me in the passenger seat. I couldn't get out of the car until all of our purchases were unloaded on arrival at Paint Lake.


It was lovely to pull into the driveway of the cottage and see all of the work which Gary (Brian's brother) and Diane have done over the past year or so. They have doubled the size of the cottage and are making it a year round dwelling so they can spend more time up there. Gary has also built a couple of "bunkies" which are basically very small cabins to accommodate overflow of visitors. 

Back of cottage undergoing extension and new garage on right.

Freshly painted trim on bunkie.

Gary & Di's cottage from lake - new extension on left.

Side of cottage towards lake.

View of dock and Paint Lake from cottage.

The perfect chair.

We spent a wonderful week at the lake - the first night was a bit scary as a severe thunderstorm hit right around the cottage - the thunder was the loudest I have ever heard and I got dressed ready to evacuate should one of the nearby trees fall!! Brian thought that was pretty funny. We were concerned because Kelly & Ivan and nephew Tyler were off on a canoeing and camping weekend in famous Algonquin Park. They were paddling to the end of a 20km long lake and setting up camp - not much fun with so much rain that came with the storm. 


During the week, Brian and I helped out with renovations jobs wherever we could - Brian helping Gary with siding the house and me painting and doing some clearing of the forest around the cottage plus cleanup duties. Diane and I spent a great afternoon shopping in Huntsville but because of our luggage restrictions, my purchases were severely curtailed. 

Huntsville flowers.

Brian and Gary took an afternoon off to golf at Bigwin Island - a very exclusive private golf club in nearby Lake of Bays. Di and I (and niece Kathryn) met them afterwards for dinner - the island has a private boat which comes back and forth to pick up guests to take them over. It was a memorable evening with more great food in a spectacular setting.

Guest pickup dock for Bigwin Island.

Some poor person's boathouse on Lake of Bays.

Enjoying the good life!

Dock at Bigwin Island golf course.

We were allowed a bit of time off occasionally for R&R and it was lovely to enjoy sitting on the dock or on the verandah with a book and glass of wine. On our last evening, Gary took us all for a slow boat tour on the lake to enjoy the scenery and look at all of the other cottages - it was a beautiful night and so peaceful.

Covered pedestrian bridge on Paint Lake.

Another cottage on Paint Lake.

And another...

Misty morning on the lake.

The time at the cottage went by far too quickly and next day (23rd August) Gary & Di drove us into Toronto airport to catch the plane back to Edmonton. We had a bumpy flight and Brian and I agree we are totally over airports and plane trips! We learned on arrival in Edmonton that while we were in the air, Toronto had felt tremors from an earthquake down in the States somewhere!


We were happy to get back to Edmonton - Brendan & Telly picked us up - dropped me back at Heidi's and then headed to golf! The next couple of days passed really quickly - it was nice to have more time getting to know Antoine and we enjoyed a dinner out with he and Heidi. Heidi also introduced me to a breakfast/lunch restaurant chain called "Cora" - they have over a hundred locations in eastern Canada and have only very recently come to Alberta and British Columbia. Tyler was off on a holiday to California so we didn't see him this time around. Brendan & Telly hosted a BBQ for us at their place one evening (again, an amazing array of food to choose from...thanks guys) and yet more faces from the past showed up - along with some new family additions for Cory & Crystal - the very charming Dillon and brother Lucas. I had a fun time playing with them and Casey, Brendan & Telly's multi-coloured dog!

Edmonton sunset.

Heidi & Antoine.

Telly's amazing potato salad.

Telly & Brendan's dog Casey - her body is coloured pale green and paws are bright yellow!

Shopping is a must in Alberta and many hours were dedicated to that activity! The range of consumer goods is overwhelming - I knew I'd be happy back shopping in Canada but I'd forgotten just how much fun it is and how huge those stores are. Of course, this time with a car to fill, I wasn't so constrained with purchases so more than a few bags were added to our stuff.


After a fabulous few weeks catching up with family, friends and scenery and covering many many miles by car and plane, Friday, 26th August, saw us back in our lovely new car and heading west for Jasper - the car was packed to the rafters with our newly acquired possessions and also borrowed things to help us through our first month in the house with no furniture. We are now island bound and on final countdown for house possession on 1st September!