A Preliminary Autumn Foray into the Highlands

Well, that was dumb; I mean yesterday when I put up two posts. I certainly didn't mean to do that, but once they were up, I decided to leave them both. Therefore, at 6AM this morning, I am cobbling a new post -- of our first local autumn excursion of 2020.

It was mostly a preliminary little runabout, checking out some sites which had been recommended. Unfortunately, there was an atmospheric haze, which wasn't conducive to scenic photos, but I did get a few more limited photos. I wondered if the haze was from the western fires even though things seems to be settling down out there. Whatever the case, the atmospheric conditions didn't seem normal. Also, we were driving about in mid afternoon, which is about the worst time of day.

Middleville is located where the so-called Lanark Highlands begin. As you drive there, all of a sudden you are going up and down hills. It is part of a swatch of highlands that extends through much of the very near north of Ontario and every place, often county, has their own name for the feature: Frontenac Highlands, Hasting Highlands, Haliburton Highlands, and so on.

Excuse me for a minute. I think I should get the coffee pot ready for Sue's rising, whenever that might be, I made my single cup close to an hour ago.

Alright then. The pot is set, and I just have to push the button when she gets up. Her getting up is getting later these mornings with the later rising of the sun. I wish I could do that. I awoke before 5 this morning, which was earlier than I would have liked, but there is nothing new about that.

Meanwhile, the cat is on the floor beside me, looking for handouts (kibble) that she is getting. But she is really itching to go downstairs for tuna. 

 Hmmm .... back to the topic at hand.

There is a pioneer cemetery at Middleville or at least the markers of one. Uniquely, old headstones have been built into a wall. This was part of it. The wall is longer than what I show here, but I wanted to focus on the part where I could see the church windows behind.

Sue saw how precise the pioneers were about lifespan. This poor dear< Margaret, lived for 26 years, 7 months, and 10 days.

This is Sue exiting her wall readings (right). The building in the background is a little community centre. One of our early little outings after we moved to the Ottawa Valley in 2005 was to attend a Celtic (fiddling) jam session there in June 2006. I blogged about it here.

Around the corner where we parked, I was taken with this fence, which is or was really just a gate. There was another on the other side of the steps.

Later on our little excursion, we ended up at the village of Lanark. Our county is also Lanark. The name derives from Scotland from where many early settlers originated.

I had been directed to a bridge where you can shoot a bit of the Clyde River in either direction. The first photo looks east and the second west. Note the beaver hut or house or whatever you call it.

Hopefully, there will be more autumn rambles in the next few weeks.