Out Of The Jurisdiction

My title is often used by Jack, who photographs from Naples, Florida, and Hartford Connecticut, and when he's not there, will tend to use it for posts of travels. And so I'm using it, as my next few posts are definitely out of the jurisdiction.

I spent a few days in the latter part of July in Southern Ontario to attend a family reunion. I headed down to Toronto on a Saturday to attend that the following day, and my commute out of Toronto stopped briefly in Mississauga at the Square One mall. The two towers off beyond the property caught my eye- one of those curvaceous buildings is nicknamed the Marilyn, after Marilyn Monroe.

The reunion was out in the countryside near Cambridge, in the Flamborough area. This township is actually part of the larger city of Hamilton, as a result of a previous provincial government amalgamation forced on the area, something that the local residents still dislike, as a number of my cousins noted that their mailing addresses are in Cambridge, they do their shopping and business in Cambridge, and so on. The countryside here is lovely in the summer.

I took these two shots at the place. The daughter of one of my many cousins lives here.

Heading out, I took more views of the countryside.

On the day I left to return home, I took a GO commuter train down to Toronto. One of the stops was in the town of Acton, in Halton Region. For years an aunt and uncle and their children called this town home.

The brick building you see in these two shots is a leather shop called the Olde Hide House. I bought my first leather jacket here. 

A few minutes later the train was on its way again. This shot out the window shows a field in the countryside between Acton and Georgetown, the other primary town in Halton Hills, one of the four components of Halton Region. This is familiar ground for me, as I grew up in the countryside south of Georgetown.

Auld Lang Syne: Forgetting Past Acquaintances

"What does this song mean? My whole life, I don't know what this song means. I mean, should old acquaintance be forgot? Does that mean we should forget old acquaintances, or does it mean if we happened to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible, because we already forgot?" ~ Harry Burns, When Harry Met Sally

I thought I would mark the passing of the year with two of the first shots I took in 2014. These were taken in Mississauga on New Year's Day. The Credit River passes through the Streetsville area on its way to Lake Ontario. The footbridge below passes over it. This parkland is very close to my aunt and uncle's home.

This being an Ottawa photo blog, though, I must also close out with a shot from Ottawa. I decided a shot of my occasional series subject, the Bank Street Bridge, would do. This shot is from early January. The pond is near the bridge, and linked to the Rideau Canal. When water levels in the Canal drop, it does the same here in the pond. About a year ago, a resident in the area erected an inukshuk on this mound facing the bridge there in the background. The inukshuk has stayed in place since, and when the water levels came back up in the spring, the head and shoulders remained above the waterline. I don't think the ice on the pond is quite set for walking yet, so I haven't been up this close in awhile.

Happy New Year! Don't have so much to drink that you end up kissing someone you actually dislike at midnight!

Let Us Cross Over The River

And now I'm quoting Stonewall Jackson for post titles. Go figure.

The Credit River descends from headwaters on the Niagara Escarpment, flowing down to Lake Ontario. It's a river I've known quite well, as I grew up not far from where it flowed through Halton Region. Here in Peel Region, the Credit passes through Streetsville. This footbridge crosses the water, which is largely open in this stretch of the river.

My aunt and uncle live a short stroll away from this bridge, up at the top of the valley. They walk in this area most days. 

Below the bridge, morning sun lights up the open water and the ice lingering here. Ducks and geese make good use of the water.

I have mentioned before that Canada Geese seem to be cowards for bolting as far as they can south when the first frost shows itself. These ones, at least, stick around north of the border.

I will have to come back to this place again to show you the river in other seasons.

Tomorrow we get started on Winterlude...

Ice Storm Damage In The Valley

In the morning on New Year's Day, I took a stroll through Streetsville. Signs of the ice storm that hit southern Ontario before Christmas were all over the area. This included a large tree that had smashed through this fence.

Nearby, I took a trail down into the Credit River valley. The paths are snow covered this time of year, and with bent and broken trees around, it took some care moving about.

These grasses and thistles caught my eye amid the snow.

I've walked through this valley before. The ice storm did more than its share of damage. Some trees here have been damaged beyond help. Others may pull through in the spring.

More from the Credit River tomorrow...

A Small Town Within A Big City

I will be posting pics for Winterlude in a bit, but briefly stopping back in Southern Ontario for three days while I get photos organized. Mississauga is just west of Toronto. It was amalgamated decades ago from several small towns, and today has become a large city. 

One of the towns that made up the whole is Streetsville, which today still retains some of that small town sensibility, at least along the main road through. I was down in the area with family for New Year's Eve at an aunt and uncle's home, and thought I'd take some shots in the late afternoon while I still had the light in my favour. These are my final shots from 2013. The first church is St. Andrew's Presbyterian.

Across the street stands Streetsville United Church.

The war memorial in the heart of Streetsville dates back to the First World War.

This plaque is one of several on the memorial.

Finally, here we have Trinity Anglican Church. It's a relatively new building, but the congregation goes back in Streetsville for a long while. This is actually the second recent rebuild- several years ago when the church had been nearly finished in a reconstruction, the new building was burned down in a case of arson. This second rebuilt church is what rose from the ashes.