North American Fall - the leaves they are a changin'

Yes, autumn in Canada is truly a beautiful time. Here in Thunder Bay and the surrounds it is fairly brief though. Trees that are covered in leaves changing in colour one week, are completely bare the next.

Lake Superior shoreline in the Fall

Changing colours of The Fall in North America

Everywhere we travel in the countryside during fall is a panorama of changing colours - red, yellow, orange and combinations of those colours and shades in between. This is the kind of situation where a pictures is worth a thousand words - and so I shall let the pictures speak for themselves. Admittedly these pictures were actually taken in Minnesota just over the Canada/US border and bot technically Canada; but if the yanks hadn't played sneaky buggers when the original borders were being drawn up all those hundred plus years ago - this WOULD be Canada.

Autumn leaves

                                              Here's the story
 (Canadian influenced of course):
Way back when America fought for it's independence from England, Canada was still considered (in part) to be English territory. Naturally borders needed to be established so that territories could be staked. The problem for the English was that they had no surveyors and very little idea of where things lay - especially when it came to Lake Superior. The newly minted Americans were able to convince the English that certain geographical places were closer to the southern (or US side) of the lake than they actually were. For example - Isle Royale. This largish island was shown to be just off the shore of the US side of the lake and therefore rightfully attributable to the USA. Later surveying proved that the island was actually closer to the Canadian side of the lake - but the deed had been done and the yanks grabbed a bigger slice of the lake and nearby land than they could have expected! If you take a look at the border in this area you can see that it looks like the border agreement was drawn by an epileptic drunk and agreed to by a blind man.

Pigeon River - Canada/US border

Regardless of the historical trickery, the whole area is beautiful in the fall. Take a look for yourself.

Riverside colours - Pigeon River

Path to High Falls, Minnesota

Pigeon River

High Falls, Pigeon River US/Canadian border

The colourful backdrops provided good opportunities for photographing the cherubs too.

Megan the wood pixie

Ash and Paige

A new Canadian mystery

Another Canadian mystery 

On a recent hunting trip in North Western Ontario, I noticed these two large drum like objects by the side of the road. Naturally enough, Australians would tend to think of them as water tanks - but no, this is Canada and they don't need water tanks. So what are they? And what purpose do they serve? 

Here are a couple of clues to help you along: 

1. Both 'barrels'can turn easily on their base.

2. The bases are cantilevered to allow the structures to move apart and return.

The last piece of information is less a clue than it is a recognition of the maker - some bloke in Thunder Bay invented these.

So, what's your best guess? 

Halloween

Paige shows off her Unicorn costume.

Halloween in Canada was definitely an eye opener for the uninitiated. We had an idea that it would be a fun event from the build-up to the day at the end of October, but I certainly didn't expect the extent of celebrations that it brought.



Paige and Megan in Unicorn costumes.

 

Ash in his Grim Reaper costume.



The kids had been getting excited for weeks leading up to the day (or more accurately the evening) and I saw it as a kids event - but I was wrong. We spent the day touring the Sleeping Giant with my parents before heading to a friends place in a more 'up-market' area of Thunder Bay. The reasoning was two-fold; 1. the people in the area are ore affluent and likely to spoil the trick or treaters and 2. many in the area are older with grown children and so like to spoil kids even more! This reasoning proved true on both counts, with Ash Megan and Paige gathering more lollies and chips than they have seen in their entire lives. The whole family has been living off a poor supplemented diet of lollies and chips for nearly a month now and it shows no signs of stopping soon.

The real surprise for me was the way in which Halloween created a sense of community spirit. Adults walking in costume with their costumed children around the streets, kids calling trick or treat and people in their decorated homes enjoying giving out treats by the handful to strangers. This part of the evening had that whole "community loving" and good spirit that I would associate with Christmas, it had a feelgood atmosphere.

To top the night, Jill drove everybody to a 'Haunted House' that had been created in the suburbs of Thunder Bay - another traditional part of Halloween. Here we saw the usual spooky displays, but there were also people dressed in character and moving among the "guests". Our favourite part of the house: a siren sounds and from the rear of the house a costumed mad man rushes out, chasing anyone who screams, with a chainsaw! Apparently this house has been setup in this way for the past 20 years and it is only one of many such houses created in the area.
The whole occasion has made ME rethink my attitude about Halloween. In the past i have pooh-poohed the idea as a North American money spinner - now I see it as a genuine opportunity for kids and adults alike to enjoy community spirit and a party atmosphere - almost a practise Christmas. And so with the demise of Guy Faulks and the traditions of cracker night, I intend to have Halloween parties in our Haunted House in the future. The prerequisites? Everyone MUST dress up.

 

October fun

Getting ready for the corn maze at Belluz farm

October in Thunder Bay is a busy time with Thanksgiving and Halloween happening in the same month. One activity that we went to in October was the Belluz Farm pumpkin fest. Naturally there were plenty of pumpkins involved, but there was corn too. A favourite of the kids and adults alike was the cornfield maze. We entered thinking that it would be easy and over in moments - not so. There were mini stations to visit along the way and the field was definitely NOT  small. We didn't exactly get lost - but we din't exactly know where we were either. the solution to getting out was all about trial and error with kids running in different directions trying different paths and getting Jill concerned. 

Apart from the maze we also took a trailer ride around the farm, guessed the weight of pumpkins and searched for hidden pumpkins in another corn field. The kids got to keep the pumpkins that they found in the field and we bought a large pumpkin to carve as a Jack-o-Lantern for Halloween. Because Ian guessed the correct weight of the bought pumpkin to within 1/2 a pound - we got to choose yet another pumpkin! So by the end of our visit we were taking home 2 large pumpkins and 3 small ones. 

All up it was a really nice family afternoon.

One of the maze mini-stations.

It WAS a pumpkin fest after all.

Dad and Megan not lost...but not found either.