Blogger seems determined to be a wee bit of a pain today. I surmise that I was able to upload the above photo because it is parked somewhere else on the web, but I cannot seem to upload directly for the moment. Ah well, the price is still right. It's an old shed or small barn located at the destination that we eventually reached yesterday. (The photo has some artistic filters applied.)
Yesterday was another cold and windy day, but it was sunny and, after retrieving my hat which I had left at another restaurant last week, we headed off to The Leather Works for lunch. It's on the other side of the river from The Dam Cookery which I posted about in January. (It's the building to the right of the photograph to right which I grabbed from that post.)
After lunch we went for a drive without too much of a destination in mind. Eventually, after navigating bumpy and rutty rural roads which suffered greatly this winter, we arrived at Wheeler's, a maple syrup operation near McDonalds Corners, which is pretty well a relic name where nothing is any longer located.
Yes, it was very isolated and rural, and the last road that we had to navigate to get there was not even paved. But what a treat when we finally pulled into the complex. They had a fine little museum and a large restaurant. Both were new and impressive log structures. It was mid-afternoon, and lunch was over, so we had the place to ourselves and enjoyed a long, informative chat with the proprietor's daughter who also gave us a bit of a tour and sold us some extra light maple syrup.
She told us that the sap hadn't really begun to run much yet this year because the temperatures have been too cold. Sap runs best when days go slightly above freezing and the nights go below. The days have simply been too cold so far this season. Nevertheless, it was a most delightful find.
I guess that's pretty well how life works though. Good things don't just show up and arrive on your lap. You have to take some initiative. When you do get out there, you may be delightfully surprised by what you find. I guess that it's called Being Proactive.
Photos still aren't posting, so I'll have to try again on another day, but there are some on Wheeler's site.
I have not been to upload pictures for four days. I think I saw a message on the Blogger problem board saying the picture ftp uploads no longer work.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame when we cannot upload our photos. I'm primarily visual, words are an afterthought. I couldn't upload anything yesterday, either. Fortunately, most of my stuff is in 'draft', for when I cannot access the tools. That way, it is ready to go, days ahead of time.
ReplyDeleteI ended up finishing my picture marathon with Picasa2 instead of Blogger. Fine except I still can't get it to do more than one at a time even though they say it will.
ReplyDeleteNice post.
Still very winterish here also. But the sun is warmer and slowly the snow is melting. Your day sounds very nice. I love the photo you were able to post.
ReplyDeleteThe photos that did post were very good, the first one made me wonder what kind of firewood they had stored. :) I find myself concerned about having a late frost because most of the leaves are starting to sprout. ec
ReplyDeleteA delightful post! And artistic filters on your photos?? Who says you're not a pro???!!
ReplyDeleteMREDDIE - Several years ago I was visiting a friend in Kamloops BC during a frightfully mild winter. They had experienced "winter kill" in a big way because the weather was SO mild, the plants thought it was time to wake up... wake up they did, and ZAP!
'nuff said.
Thought I had the wrong blog,LOL. Very springy, Anvil.
ReplyDeleteMy sis did her first batch of syrup and it's yum! Sounds like you had a really good day together.
Yay you!
I've been having problems getting photos up too. It's most aggrevating. Include problems with hello, which seems to have disowned me.
ReplyDeleteI love your nice new spring background.