Sanctuary Lost, Blogger Found

Thanksgiving weekend is here, but for various reasons we have decided to stay close to home, perhaps venturing on a number of little day trips. Yesterday, in particular, we needed to stay fairly close to home, so I checked out Google Maps, looking for some place that we had previously overlooked. Lo and behold, didn't I see the Wildlife Conservation and Bird Sanctuary on the shores of Mississippi Lake. Why hadn't I noticed this before?



So, off we headed, turning down the correct road as instructed by Google Maps. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. It's not there, or if it is, it's nothing but woodland with no public access. If there is in fact anything there, it would only be accessible by ATV or more likely helicopter.

So, off we went driving around this lake and that. There are a lot of lakes nearby, but they are all pretty well inaccessible: that is to say, all of the surrounding land is privately owned. One can drive along a road close to and paralleling the lake and not even know that it's there unless one is looking on a map. It's a little disappointing to say the least.

We did take one side road in hopes of finding a scenic spot and were able to catch a glimpse of the lake, but the man whose property we stopped adjacent to was soon out there protecting his feudal rights. Oh, he was pleasant enough, but he was surely keeping an eye on interlopers. Here is what we were able to glimpse before he trained his rifle on us (kidding).




That was it for the lake, so we turned Harriet the Chariot around with bullets whizzing past our ears (still kidding) and drove off. We were searching for autumn colour, but it's not the great year for colourful foliage in these parts. At one point we crossed a short, wooden railway bridge and hopped out to take a few pictures. Sadly, we were not as fortunate as Lorna last weekend, so a train didn't choose that moment to thunder by.




We stopped again at the edge of another lake — rather a glorified beaver pond — for a few more pictures. Once again, there's some colour, but the landscape isn't exactly resplendent.




Finally, we ended up at the cheese shop in Balderson where there's more than just cheese let me tell ya: much more, including a large adjacent Amish furniture store.



At one point, as I meandered about, I saw a woman staring at me. Actually, she was staring as if in in horror, crossing herself and mumbling prayers about dreadful apparitions. (Once again, I jest although the staring part is correct.)

I moved on, but Cuppa and I headed back in that direction a few moments later and didn't the lady approach and call my name. I puzzled for a moment because she did look somewhat similar to Sheila who lives hundreds of miles away. But she didn't look that much like Sheila. As this lady called my name again, her identity began to dawn on me at the same time as she introduced herself. Yes, it was fellow blogger, Mary G of Them's My Sentiments. Mary and we live in the same county, but we had never met. Fortunately, I post so many pictures that she had no difficulty at all recognizing me. We chatted for a few moments and posed for pictures before moving on. We had both stopped at the same cheese shop at the same time from our divergent parts of this large county.




So, it was an odd day that went from not finding a place that was on the map to a serendipitous meeting with a fellow blogger. I do regret, however, that as far as I can tell there is no suitable antonym for that great word: serendipity. It would make it much easier to coin a clever title for this post.

Meeting A Fellow Blogger

In a gesture that was extremely considerate, Turtleguy from Calgary dropped into see us yesterday. He was on the third day of a very long trip from Calgary to Quebec City, and despite being only six more hours from his destination, he made a side trip to see us. While it wasn't too much of a detour in terms of distance, it did cost the boy three precious hours of travelling time, so hats off TG.

He was in time for a quick supper that didn't turn out so well and he was soon off again. But first there was time for a quick photo op.



I've met bloggers before, Paul and Julie, and Methatiam and Chelsea, when we were in Arizona two years ago. All meetings have turned out well. Maybe there will be more encounters with more bloggers in the future. Who knows?

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Update to previous post about Fiddling

Why I didn't think to mention it yesterday, I must put down to yet one more of those increasingly frequent brain cramp. One difference between fiddling and violining is often the length to the bow stroke. Most fiddlers use a short bow stroke most of the time. On the other hand, we tend to picture a concert violinist using a a long, smooth stroke. I have seen some fiddlers who may have been classically trained who practise long bowing, but it's not typical. I'll repost a clip of Natalie McMaster below to illustrate. Just look at her bowing technique for 20 seconds or so to see what I mean.

Oogley Googley Natalie ...

... where both oogley and googley must be pronounced with three syllables as in Natalie and as in Google with an ee added at the end.

Hold on; I'm not completely mad; let me splain.

Let's begin with Natalie ... as in Natalie McMaster ... the Natalie McMaster ... the most renown Canadian fiddler, Natalie McMaster. yeah, that one. Last night, she performed at a free outdoor concert with the NAC orchestra (our local symphony). As the photo below will show, the crowd was large and we were a long way back. Being a free concert, however, I was fine with that.

I took the photo just before the performance commenced, and in it I have outline a gentleman who was standing (almost in the middle of the photo). Would you believe that he remained standing throughout the whole concert? Fortunately for him, it wasn't a terribly long concert, but my old bones certainly wouldn't have preferred to stand for that long. Maybe this was his uninformed version of a mosh pit. If so, he needs help rather desperately.

To the point then: Natalie was fantastic. I've heard a lot of wonderful fiddlers in the last few years, and I think she has moved to the top of the list. Not only is she a great fiddler, but she has stage presence. She remains standing and constantly dances around the stage. And she's also durn purddy. In addition, some fiddle music is better to my ears than other, and she packs a pretty nice, primarily Cape Breton repertoire. Cape Breton music is Scottish in origin and has maintained it's old roots well, so it's pretty authentic, centuries old stuff.



Even with our little 3x optical zoom (which I admit isn't much), this was as close a shot as I could manage. I've outlined Natalie at the bottom of the stage.



So what about the Googley bit, AC? Cause you're losin me man.

Well, a few weeks ago, an ad for the concert appeared on my sidebar in Google Mail, aka GMail. I seldom notice these ads, but I saw this one. For whatever reason, the concert wasn't publicized too much until just a few days ago, so I may not have known about it otherwise.

But wait ... there's more.

I knew that a fellow local blogger, Lorna from Lorna in Wonderland actually lived across from the venue, so I wrote to ask her about parking in that area. She invited us to use her building's visitors parking and to stop in for a pre-concert visit and snack.

So, you see, Google not only provided me with the information about the event but also with company since we both as do all Blogger bloggers blog on a Google hosted service. While Lorna and I have been blog visiting back and forth for several years, we have never met despite living in the same city and each of us knowing approximately where the other is located.

Now we have been able to personalize our relationship a little, and IMO, the visiting went pretty darn well before, during and after the concert over coffee at her place. I think that's where the warm and fuzzy oogley part comes in, but I confess that I am reaching. Here are Lorna and me just before the concert began.



And here is Cuppa, Lorna, and her husband, Dave, during the concert. Both Dave and Lorna were wonderful hosts. I was fairly confident that this meeting would work well as we have done this type of thing a few times previously. I was right; they're a great and hospitable couple.



Finally, here is Natalie in a YouTube clip. It's long, so you won't want to watch it all, but if you don't know her, it will introduce you to a fine, Canadian treasure.