Wednesday 29 October 2014

Pre Halloween Activities

   Halloween is big in Canada and I think the adults have more fun than the
Lyndsay and the grim reaper
children! I took part in a few pre Halloween activities . The first one was a visit to Hugli's Blueberry Farm for some annual fun. The first thing we did was take a truck to the Haunted House. It was really scary and at one point we were literally walking in pitch black hanging on to the sides of the wall. The ground was uneven and even a bit squishy in places. I was with Lyndsay and I kept grabbing a hand and asking, "Is that you?" Fortunately it was. Lyndsay did not fare so well, she was in front of me and being rather short she kept grabbing at something and it turned out to be the backside of the fellow in front! All this time things were jumping out at you and screaming.



   After that we were off to the cornfield maze. We seemed to walk for ages to find the centre graveyard. In places the corn was at least eight feet high and nothing much could be seen except by the faint light coming from the perimeter. It had been raining and the ground was a bit muddy in places as well as having hills. here also people were jumping out at you. I was so involved with looking where I was going that I did not see someone standing very still right next to
Remember "It"
me. I screeched and jumped backwards. Oh, was I embarrassed when a voice said, "I am not part of this." I felt such an idiot and rushed on as fast as I could. We wended our way around but could not find the way out. At one point we found a gate saying "Emergency exit." You can imagine what we did! Taking tickets for the maze was a rather scary clown who did not speak. It was a lot of fun and after that we were starving and went into Pembroke for dinner at Kelsey's


  

 
   As I am part of the food bank crew I was asked to help take money at a children's Halloween party whose revenue was being given to the food bank. I got myself a sort of kiddy costume, which the adults recognized at once, and spent a couple of hours there with Gail, who runs the food bank. Characters dressed as Elsa from Frozen and Spiderman turned up for photo ops. It was so lovely to see the little children's faces when talking to these characters who they were so sure were real.




Tuesday 28 October 2014

You will never believe this


  

You will never believe this, I went to a pumpkin drop! The pumpkin was 1,576 pounds and was judged the second largest pumpkin in Ontario. People were gathering from one thirty to see the drop at two o'clock. This is an annual event in Eganville and takes place in the car park of a supermarket. I have never seen such an enormous pumpkin. Unfortunately they are not edible at that size, they are "bred" for competition only.

                                                                                                                                                                 
 
   The pumpkin arrived a couple of days before the event and was stored on a cart in the car park. It was hoisted up by a crane, sat perched in a sling like mechanism way up in the air, with a rope attached to the bottom to release it when ready. Some children were invited to come over and help pull the rope. During the activity there was a raffle taking place, with proceeds going to the Eganville food bank. Just before the drop all ticket stubs were put in a plastic bag and then into the pumpkin, through the hole that had been cut in it to remove the seeds. Champion pumpkin growers do not share their pumpkin seeds with anyone, which is to be understood.

 
 
      The MC, and the people standing around to see the drop all counted down from ten. Then the children and one hefty man tugged the rope hard. Splat!!! The pumpkin hit the ground with giant force and broke into dozens of different sized pieces. Everyone rushed over to see it and take a piece home if they would like to. I settled for picking a piece up, my goodness was my piece heavy. I had no idea that pumpkins could be so weighty. It  was fun to watch, even if it was a bit chilly and drizzling with rain.  All told it was a really interesting experience.

 

Sunday 26 October 2014

I love Autumn

What a beauty, the tree not me!
   I have never seen an Autumn like this one, my first in Canada. When I arrived and was travelling along the road to Eganville, one of the first things that struck me was the abundance of trees. Now I have seen how the trees change it is amazing.  My friend Bev took me in the car around Lake Clear and the views were stunning, the leaves on the trees were all colours of yellow, orange and red. Looking over the lake the view was nothing less than gorgeous.


The famous tree
   Driving along to Renfrew one day, for shopping, I saw a tree that was literally half green and half orange/red. "I must get a picture of that," I told Lyndsay, and on the way back we stopped. I took pictures from the road but with my limited zoom I was not satisfied. Lyndsay suggested that as there were no cows in the field we go across and get a close up. I scrambled forwards through the fence and into the field. We plodded through the long grass and cowpats till we were near enough to get a good view. I posed by the tree and Lyndsay took a couple of shots. Great , then we plodded back to the fence and I tried to get through again. I am not the most agile of creatures so I decided to back out as I thought it would be easier. I grabbed a piece of wire as I scrambled through, and Lyndsay yelled at me.What was all the fuss, I thought. Uh, Oh! I had only grabbed the electric wire, which usually has hopped up static electricity running through it to zap the cows! Fortunately for all concerned it was not on. Another of my little adventures.

On the road to Lake Clear
  
   The weather was beautiful and I enjoyed it all tremendously as I went about everywhere collecting different colour leaves to press, for the pictures I am making. Autumn is almost finished now, and the next thing to look forward to, with trepidation I may add, is Winter. I hope it does not snow before Halloween, keep your fingers crossed!