Lilac Fields Forever

On Sunday morning, my watch shook me awake at 4AM rudely waking me from a rather pleasant dream.

I had set the alarm deliberately, for Nick would pick me up at 4:50 and drive me to the lilac fields in nearby Franktown. He gets up early when the light is good. I have also risen early in the past to take photos but not recently.

Before I continue with the narrative, let me explain why I chose the watch to wake me, rather than Alexa, or my phone, or a conventional alarm. Well, who uses conventional alarms anymore? I am sure we could dig one up from somewhere, but we really don't use those kinds of clocks or radios anymore. That being said, both Alexa and Siri (phone) would make a lot of noise. They might wake Sue, but in my deafness, I might not hear them at all. My watch vibrates in addition to ringing. It is the buzzing vibrations that awaken me first. For a backup, I had set the phone as a backup for 4:05, but I was able to tell Siri to turn off all alarms before it went off.

Franktown is a little hamlet about ten minutes down the highway. It calls itself The Lilac Capital on Ontario. I'll post a blurb, below, but it is not an unwarranted claim for this little place as they have a few acres dominated by lilacs that are blooming in profusion right now. Next weekend, they will host their annual Lilac Festival, but this past weekend was glorious, indeed.

There are two main lanes. This is a photo of one of them about twenty minutes after sunrise. The sun rises fast and strongly at this time of year: especially noticeable when the sky is cloudless.

While that photo sets part of the scene, I like the next two photos better. I love the softness of the first scene while using the farm gate to anchor the image. While I would have preferred a nice lilac bush instead of brush at the bottom right, it still provided a frame for the gate. I also like the line of lilacs in the background, just above the gate. I think I made the best of the photo opportunity.

A little later, the sun had risen higher, but look at all of the lilac bushes in this field, off the main path.  Splendiferous! Nick was somewhere out of sight back there, lying on the ground and taking macros of low-lying lilacs. He has his muse, and I have mine.

For awhile I switched to my telephoto lens and tried to pick out individual lilacs along the lane. I came up with three very different photos. I love the second one and think it is print-worthy, if I were to so choose. It's the soft background that makes it special in my opinion. I was at the right distance from the flower, and the flower was the right distance from the background flowers to achieve this effect.

Here is the blurb about Franktown's from a website.

How did Franktown become Ontario’s lilac capital?

Franktown was settled as a supply stop between Richmond and Perth in 1818 by Scottish and Irish settlers who planted lilacs around their farmsteads. Over the centuries, Franktown has remained a small community. No large-scale developments have razed the land. In fact, the opposite has happened—undeveloped land has allowed the seeds and suckers to flourish unchecked. When scientists from Ottawa’s Central Experimental Farm examined the area in 2007, they found the suckering so dense that other plant species were mainly excluded.

Franktown’s lilacs aren’t just dense. Many of them are unique. Over time, naturalized hybrid species with double florets developed and became species known only to the Franktown area. A pink variety has been named Dixie (after Dixina Pierce McLellan, who once owned property along Lilac Lane). A white combination has been aptly named Franktown, while a blue variety is called Beckwith after the Township. These varieties just aren’t a local point of interest. In 2009, Franktown was honoured with the International Lilac Society’s President’s Award for protecting its unique varieties.