SPECULATING ABOUT OUR PROPOSED PARK SALE

AN ICY GODERICH HARBOR

With early morning temps slightly below freezing it almost felt warm out compared to the last spate of days.  Well I guess using the word warm is obviously over doing it but it was the first thought I had when stepping out of doors this morning.  That combined with the knowlege of this being the shortest day of the year was uplifting to say the least.

Pheebs and I started out under cloudy skies but by the time we reached Goderich we were under a blaze of pure sunlight.  Mother Natures nice way of popping color into a few photos.  A nice change from the gray days and what a welcome boost to ones Spirits.

MORNING JEEP RIDE

I RECALL SOMEONE WONDERING WHERE THESE LARGE BOULDERS CAME FROM AND I AM 'GUESSING' FROM A LARGE STONE QUARRY WEST OF TORONTO IN THE HALTON HILLS

WITH TODAY'S WARMER TEMPS AND SUNSHINE HARBOR ICE IS MELTING

CANADA GEESE COMING IN FOR A LANDING

SPLASH DOWN

MORE GEESE COMING IN

HERE'S THOSE SAME CANADA GEESE FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE

GODERICH'S SIFTO SALT MINE

THIS SCENIC BLUFF TOP VIEW ON 'ST. GEORGES CRESCENT' IS EASILY ACCESSIBLE BY ROAD OR SIDEWALK

Rumors still abound about our Park's sale of course and we think now a company by the name of Parkbridge has bought it.  All speculation of course but if it is Parkbridge I think our quiet little Park here may be in for a radical change.  Whether good or bad remains to be seen but it is obviously an aggressive/progressive company with locations across Canada.  North of Goderich there is an older mobile home Park by the name of Huron Haven and a huge housing development is going in behind it.  Parkbridge now owns Huron Haven and is the company doing the big housing development.  Drove up through the development this morning and couldn't help but think this is what could very well happen to our Park in the next few years.  I'm 'speculating' we could easily lose our treasured pine forest where we walk the Pine Tree Trail.  Where that forest now stands I can see the same kind of housing developement going in as the one now under construction behind Huron Haven.   All speculation on my part of course but I'll not be surprised if and when it happens.  Progress I guess it's called.  At least we've been fortunate enough to have had over 17 years of peace and quiet here.

THIS RETIREMENT COMPLEX IS BIG ENOUGH TO HAVE TWO MINI ROUND-ABOUTS

AND A DIVIDED IN AND OUT ROAD AS WELL

IF PARKBRIDGE IS THE NEW OWNER OF OUR PARK THIS MIGHT BE WHAT OUR NOW PINE FOREST WILL LOOK LIKE IN A FEW YEARS

AS FAR AS THE INDIVIDUAL HOUSES GO I DON'T MIND THEM BUT I COULD NEVER LIVE ALL CROWDED IN TOGETHER LIKE THIS

SOME PEOPLE GET CLAUSTROPHOBIA FROM SMALL PLACES....I WOULD GET YIKESAPHOBIA IF I HAD TO LIVE ON A STREET LIKE THIS SO JAMMED IN

THEY DO HAVE A NICE REC CENTER AND CLUB HOUSE

With the new year 2020 only a week and a half away I couldn't help but have a feeling again this morning that it could very well be a year of significant changes.  There are a number of things in the offing that are and have steadily marched forward to the very brink of change it

self. 

OKAY SO THIS IS OUR PARK NOW

COULD THIS BE WHAT OUR PARK MIGHT LOOK LIKE IN THE FUTURE WHERE OUR PINE FORREST NOW STANDS

FROM THIS ABOVE TO THAT BELOW

OR THIS TO THAT BELOW

OH DEAR WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR US HERE

SURE HOPE WE DON'T LOSE OUR PINE FOREST

AFTERNOON WALK

ANIMAL TRACKS

::Memory Lane:: In July of 2011 I wrote this about my memories as a young Boy.  Heating water on an old cast iron coal stove for washing, once a week baths, bringing in water from a pump outside, coal oil lamps for when the electricity went off as it frequently did, no television, no flush toilet, wind up clocks, buckled galoshes on cold winter feet, a big coal bin in the basement, a hand crank phone on the wall, pee pots under the bed, a drafty two holer wood outhouse beside an old cherry tree, wooden sided refrigerator where you put a big block of ice in the top part.  No such thing as a Supermarket in those days & fish was pedaled on Fridays by a man pushing a wagon around my little home town of Tavistock Ontario, Canada.  Knives could sometimes be sharpened by another man with a cart & milk was delivered by a horse drawn wagon.  I can still see our smiley faced chicken farmer with his white shirt, spectacles, and black fedora hat standing just inside our door with his wooden basket of freshly killed chickens. (de-feathered & headless of course) A folded white cloth covered 2 or 3 at a time & that is how my Mother selected & bought our meat in those days.  A big old wooden floor model Crosely radio was the main source of entertainment in our house & my Mother, my Grandfather, my Uncle Fred & I would gather around it Sunday night's for 'Our Miss Brooks, Fibber McGee & Molly, the Great Gildersleeve & many other great old time radio shows. Arthur Godfrey in the mornings, Gunsmoke & Gangbusters on Saturday nights. Friday night boxing matches sponsored by Gillette.  We had an old crank up Victrola which could play big round and very breakable 78 RPM records.  I listened to those scratchy records over & over. My Mother could play piano by ear & it was always a great treat for me to sit on the piano bench beside her as she played my favorite tune, Greensleeves. Our house always had music in it & I'm very grateful for that to-day. Whether it was the radio, the Victrola, my Mother on a piano which I am told my Grandfather bought one day on impulse. My Grandfather, a 'fix or make anything' machinest by trade also crafted several violins which he played.  Of course my Mother said he 'screeched' on it.  Like I said, there was always music in the house. To this very day I still surround myself with music from dawn to dusk. Sometimes I would like nothing better than to just climb aboard a time machine and go back to simply turn on that big old wooden floor model Crosley radio again.  I'd like to tune in Amos & Andy & gather round in the living room with my Mother, my Grandfather, & my Uncle Fred to listen & laugh once more to a simple humor that is all but lost now.  I'd like to sit on the piano bench beside my Mother again and hear my Grandfather 'screech' his fiddle.  It was my way of life those many years ago and I along with my Aunt Jean are the only ones left who still share some of those long ago treasured memories at our house.  

PHEEBER TRACKS

::Al's Musical Favs:: Leftorium by Dale Anderson and Anil Chawla.  A quiet reflection.  And I say again, the better your sound system the better these pieces of music`:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( 

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