Exercising democracy

We became citizens of Canada just a week or two after the last Ontario elections and there hasn't been an election at any level of government since then. Today's Ontario election was the first time I have had the opportunity to vote in this country. It's something that's easy to take for granted, but after living here for seven years without a vote, I have come to realise how important it is to have that small role in a democracy. When I didn't have it, I felt excluded from a significant part of local, provincial and national life.

Our polling station is 10km (6 miles) away - so it's not like being in a city where you can just stroll down the road to cast your vote. I decided to make an event of it and rode my bicycle to the town hall in Hillier. It's a nice route, as much of it is along the old railway line and consequently it's fairly flat (important as this was also my first bike ride this year. Shameful, I know!).

In one short stretch of my journey I encountered three separate snapping turtles, all scraping out hollows along the edge of trail and laying eggs in the depressions.

Definitely not something I've ever seen while going to cast a vote in England!

Set in stone

It's cycling season again and I've been out twice so far this month, starting fairly gently with 16km and 20km rides. When I started cycling last summer I struggled to do 6km, so I've somehow maintained a degree of fitness over a fairly inactive winter.

Today I visited the Loyalist cemetery on Burr Road. I drive past this all the time but haven't ever gone through the gates before.

The stones are small and skew-whiff and in most cases there isn't much left to read on them.

I like the home-made feel they have about them and the way they've weathered over the years. The last burial here was in 1927, according to the sign on the gate, but for some reason the local people decided to put up another monument to commemorate the early pioneers in 1928. This huge, stone-studded edifice dominates the tiny cemetery and, in my view anyway, spoils its homely nature.

Next to this monstrosity is a poignant marble slab recording the deaths of the children of Samuel and Harriet Wakeford. There's something not right about the date of five-year-old Harriet's death, though...

Pig-ugly

I'm conscious that I usually share the tourist-brochure view of Prince Edward County in these posts. Just for a little balance, here I'm treating you to a glimpse of a candidate for 'Most Ugly Building of the County'. I stopped to take its likeness yesterday on one of my bike-excursions:

A true monstrosity: unattractive grey bricks, awful windows (if that's the right word for them) and a general appearance of a high-security prison for the most dangerous pigs in the world.

Side-road scenes

I usually think of the tree-webs of the fall web worm as rather disfiguring. But with the early-morning sun shining through them, they're transformed into something more magical:

I've been meaning to take a picture of this building for a while now. It's a transplanted church which is now part of the Closson Chase vineyard. Its unusual roof design is a tribute to the fifteenth-century Hospices de Beaune in Burgundy, famous for its vineyards. Closson Road is the core of Prince Edward County's wine region - there is just one vineyard after another as you travel down it.

On my ride this morning I turned off Closson Road and took the Millennium Trail back to Lake Consecon. I paused a few times to take photos. The subject of this next one literally stopped me in my tracks.

I think it's a Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago). Aren't those berries beautiful?

 Back when I visited the Art Gallery of Ontario in February, I decided that my favourite Canadian painting of those on display was this one by Franklin Carmichael of Cranberry Lake:

I was rather taken aback then, this morning, to be confronted with a very similar view on my bike ride: a hidden cluster of flooded trees.

I also found this single red maple leaf on the path. I'm going to take it as a good omen for the Canadian citizenship test that Mike and I will be taking next week...

Misty morning

Today was the second time I've cycled around Lake Consecon, a ride which turns out to be a rather irritating length of 19.9 kilometers. There was a lot of moisture in the air, which made for some attractive light-effects through the trees on the first leg of the journey:

The eastern end of the lake had tendrils of mist rising off the water, which ended up just looking like a vague fuzziness in this next photo, but were quite eerily beautiful.

Let's see, perhaps this one is better:

Hm, not really. You'll just have to take my word for it!

New views

On my ride on Wednesday morning I passed the end of the old railway line on Salem Road. It's now called the Millennium Trail and I think is mainly used by ATVs and occasional hikers. It cuts back in a long curve to Lakeside Drive, avoiding the (relatively) busy Loyalist Parkway in Consecon, but I wasn't sure how suitable it is for bikes, so I didn't take it. Internet research didn't answer my question, so I decided the only way to find out was to try it: I went down it this morning. Most of it looks like this:

There were a few overhanging branches to avoid, but the trail was easy enough to ride along. I saw a doe leaping through the trees to the right of me just after I stopped to take this picture. At the junction with Lakeside Drive I continued on to the part where the old railway line meets Lake Consecon. The trail crosses the lake on a little causeway and bridge. Just before the bridge a short stretch of the trail is formed of largish chunks of rock which aren't terribly easy to cycle on, but are traversable with care. There are a few missing planks on the bridge itself, but generally it's in good shape.

It was lovely down there: just me and a couple of swans:

This is only a ten minute ride from home, yet I'd never been here before. Will definitely be going back!

Back in the saddle

It's been a while since I've done much cycling. We used to do a fair bit when we first got married and there was a brief period when I was close enough to my workplace to cycle to it. After having a couple of babies it got more difficult to do - and even harder when we moved to Manchester and were surrounded by busy city streets. Even once the children could ride their bikes, you don't want to be out on those roads with them. Going for a ride meant loading up the car and driving somewhere in the country: a lot of hassle.

Where we are now is a little bit of cycling heaven (hardly any traffic, picturesque country roads), but it's taken four years of living here before I've got around to getting back on a bike again. I'd forgotten how much fun it was. I'm taking it fairly slowly, as I know I'm not at all fit (and it's going to be a while before my body gets used to a saddle again!). Last week I did short rides in the early morning in each of the three different directions it's possible to go from our house. This morning I managed my first self-imposed target: a circular route of 14km/8.7 miles. I notice that Google Maps now has cycling directions. They reckon it should take 41 minutes to do this route. I think I did it in 50, so I'm certainly not as fit as the Google average...

My next target will be to do a ride around the perimeter of Lake Consecon, which will be about 20km/12 miles.

One of the great things about cycling is that you notice things that you miss in a car. It's also easier to stop and take a photo (you feel a lot less noticeable stopping a bike than you do stopping a car). That's why I'm slower than Google thinks I should be...

Harvest lines

Curious cows

Flooded corn