ANOTHER VISIT TO LION’S HEAD

The Village of Lion’s Head

This is one of my all-time favorite places to visit. My grandfather built a cottage near the end of the road on Whippoorwill Bay in 1944. I believe my first visit ever would have been in 1945, the year I was born. Until I was thirteen, my parents and I spent a couple of weeks every summer at that cottage. I loved the area then as I love it now.

I have never been to the Caribbean, but I have been told that the water

View from Isthmus Bay Road

there is just like the water surrounding Lion’s Head. It is so clear you can see to the bottom. The color changes from beautiful turquoise to deep blue as you look across the water. The photo at the side is about a mile before the cottage.

I didn’t get down to the cottage this year. It is no longer in the family, but I do like to walk down there when I can. This year it just wasn’t possible.

Our home away from home.

We arrived on Monday August 6 around 3:00 p.m. We were too early to get into our room, so we spent some time at the annual art show. Usually held in the high school, this year it was in the community center as the school is being renovated. That meant there was not enough room for the beautiful quilts they usually show along with the art. Above is the entrance to the Lionheart B&B where we stayed for five nights. I mentioned about the water being like that in the Caribbean. Well, our room was aptly named the West Indies room. It was a beautiful room, quite spacious and beautifully decorated. Behind the room was a common area with a fridge, microwave, dishes, etc. This was where we picked up our breakfast to eat either in the dining room or the breakfast nook off of that room.

The West Indies room where we stayed.

 

Peace and quiet

The patio outside our room was a great place to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet around us. The weather was great and we spent a lot of time outdoors.

 

 

The B&B was just a couple of blocks from the beach, so we often walked down and sat to enjoy the scenery. We did get in the water on Friday, our last full day. The water is very cold there, but once you get in, it is very refreshing. I cannot swim, but love to get into the water. I managed not to get a sunburn this year.

Most of the shoreline in this area consists of nothing but rocks, but there is a little sand beach in the village. As a child, at the cottage, we used to put on sneakers to help us navigate on the mossy rocks without damaging our toes.

Small sand beach in between the rocky shoreline

We did go in to the village sometimes to get in the water, but most of the time it was in front of the cottage. We were about 3 miles from the village, so it was easier to just stay put.

The five days flew by, and I would have liked to stay longer, but that wasn’t possible this time.

Beautiful blue water and sky.

 

This photo was taken from a relative’s front deck. Last year we stayed in a different B&B not far from here. What a gorgeous view to be right outside your door. The only problem is that it is a little treacherous getting down to the water. It’s definitely not for older people like me. But I can still enjoy the scenery. And I love the birch trees in that area.

 

 

In the photo below, if you look closely, to the left of center, you can see the large rocks on the shore where I love to sit to watch and listen to the water.

My favorite spot from a distance.

There are caves somewhere up there as well, but I have never seen them.

This year I was not able to walk any of the Bruce Trail. But we did do a lot while we were there.

Normally Lion’s Head has a population around 500, but it swells into a few thousand in the summer months. It is a busy little place, but still not crowded. On Friday evenings there is live music at the harbor. On Friday and Saturday evenings there is star gazing where there are telescopes set up to view specific planets or the moon and the public can do this free of charge. We didn’t do it this year as we had quite a long day and had to get ready to leave on Saturday morning.

Our last morning

Above is the last photo I took before we left. We had watched this little duck family over the few days we were there, and it was so cute to see them together once again before heading home.

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All Wounds Matter: Writing Better Stories

Check out Kristen Lamb’s blog for writers.

In this article she shares the need to write your characters as wounded human beings to make them real. I found this to be excellent advice for writers. Click on the link below. Please leave me a comment if you enjoyed it, and leave a comment on Kristen’s blog as well. I know she will appreciate it.

http://authorkristenlamb.com/2017/12/wounds-matter-writing-better-stories/#comment-86413

Have a great day and thank you for dropping by.

ARE YOU BOTCHING YOUR DIALOGUE?

This is for fiction writers and is reblogged from Kristen Lamb’s blog.

https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2016/06/24/are-you-botching-your-dialogue/#comments

Dialogue can be a tricky thing to handle in a novel, but if done well, with accurate punctuation, can make a scene come alive for the reader. Kristen shares some great advice on how to write dialogue to the best advantage. Check it out and please leave a comment below to let me know what you think. And leave a comment on Kristen’s blog, too. I know she will appreciate it as much as I will.

FIREWORKS IN LION’S HEAD

Check out my latest post on my Musings and Meditations blog.

Click here to see some of the great fireworks we saw.

Have an awesome week.

This past April, my roommate, Robyn, suggested we do something I have been wanting to do for a number of years: take a trip to Lion’s Head.

I did some research about motels, and found Lion’s Head Beach Motel.

Entering Lion’s Head

The price was right, it was on the beach, and, after consulting my cousin who lives there, we decided this would be our choice. And it proved to be an excellent one. The housekeeping rooms are spacious, clean, bright, and have everything we needed and more: two double beds, a pull-out couch, fridge, stove, picnic table just outside our door as well as chairs and a BBQ.

Although the area around the bay is mostly rocky, there is a small sand beach in the village. I thought I had a picture of it, but cannot find it right now.

We definitely chose the right weekend to make our mini holiday. The Civic Holiday weekend (in Canada–the first Monday in August) is their weekend of celebrations. On Friday night (we arrived early Saturday afternoon), there was live music by the marina. Saturday afternoon we walked around the village and dropped in to the art show and quilt show as well as one of the stores I remember from my childhood. The store, part of a chain,  is now owned by others now, but the upper floor is much as I remember it–gifts, souvenirs, etc. They still have the old sales counter though now you pay downstairs. Saturday night they held a street dance until the wee hours of the morning, but we did not join them. I took some of that time to visit my cousins. Then, after dark, we went down to the marina for stargazing. Several telescopes pointed either at the moon to magnify its craters, or at Saturn where the rings and a couple of the moons were visible.

Sunday morning we had a pancake breakfast on the beach: two large pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, home fries, fruit cocktail, orange juice and coffee. Mmm…it sure was tasty. And it started us off well on our trip to Tobermory at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula (about a half-hour drive from Lion’s Head). While we were gone, they had a horseshoe contest on the beach and a sand sculpture contest. I believe they held a BBQ as well. The Rotary Club put on these events.

Tobermory is a true tourist center, small but very busy. We wandered through the little stores until we caught the shuttle for the Blue Heron glass-bottom boat tour to Flowerpot Island.

Tobermory

You may be wondering whatever is Flowerpot Island. It is a rocky outcrop that looks a little like a flowerpot. Actually, there are two: Big Flowerpot, and Little Flowerpot. We went over old shipwrecks which, because the water is so clear, showed up well even in my photos.

I love to ride on a boat, so I enjoyed every moment of that beautiful sunny day. I did not bother to go downstairs to check out the glass bottom. I was content to sit on top and snap photos and soak up the sunshine. The two-hour trip took us past many islands, some uninhabitable, one, Devil’s Island, the breeding ground for cormorants and mergansers.

Many people take the ferry, the Chi-Cheemaun, to Manitoulin Island, where they can either tour the island, camp, return to Tobermory or take a shortcut to the mainland further north on the other side of the Georgian Bay. We did not have time for that. I remember as a child watching the ferry come and go and always wanted to ride on it. Maybe some day.

The Chi-Cheemaun

Shipwreck

Devil’s Island and Cormorants

Little Flowerpot Island

Hole in the Rock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clear Water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robyn had never been in this part of Ontario before, but she loved it as I do. We are already booked for a whole week next summer. I can’t wait!

Watch for the next installment of photos. Thank you for visiting. I hope you enjoy these photos. Please leave a comment before you leave.

LIONS HEAD, AUGUST 2014–PART 1

Can you find the lion’s head?

A holiday, at last!

I had been waiting for years for this weekend. And it was all I hoped for.

Memories of my childhood flooded into my mind as we drove into the little village.

As a child, we would spend two weeks each summer at the cottage my grandfather built when I was a baby. It was about three miles out of the village. Though there was little to do there, and the “beach” was nothing but rocks with icy water in the bay, I always loved it there.  As children, we would venture into the water for short periods. We always wore shoes as the rocks are very slippery with moss and crayfish lived there, too. We often collected them for the neighbor who fished with them.

The above photo is a view from the marina in the village. About the middle of the cliff is where the lion’s head is supposed to be seen. I must admit, I cannot find it in this photo any more than I could just looking at the cliff. The binoculars on the observation deck did not help, either. If you can find it, please leave a comment and let me know. This view we could see from across the bay at the cottage.

Rocks, rocks and more rocks.

I always had to take care not to get into the poison ivy which seemed to thrive there. Fortunately I learned at an early age to recognize the shiny triple-leaf structure and stayed clear of it.

The sound of the seagulls, though harsh to many, has always been welcome to my ears as a reminder of the times spent along that shore. To me, it is a comforting sound. I remember, after breakfast, lunch and dinner, we would put all the scraps on a plate, take it down by the water and scrape it off onto the rocks. First one gull would come, then another and another. Eventually, a whole flock noisily hovered until we moved away. The food disappeared quickly.

My favorite place to sit

My favorite place to sit was down the shore from the cottage, at the point. You can see, just right of the center of the above photo, some very large rocks. The cottage was just beyond the left side of the picture.  I would walk down the rocks until I reached the point, then would sit and listen to the water sloshing over the rocks and watch the sunlight dance on the surface of the bay. Whippoorwill Bay, it is called–part of Isthmus Bay. Though I never saw one, you could sometimes hear the whippoorwills at night. At dusk, we would sometimes see a loon skimming the surface of the water. All memories I cherish.

My curiosity tempted me to climb over those huge boulders, pieces fallen off the cliff many years before, just to see what was on the other side. But I knew it would be dangerous and never got far. Because I could not swim, I never attempted to go around, through the water. So that curiosity was never satisfied.

The view that excited me

Every time we arrived at the top of this hill and I could see the bay, I knew we were getting close to the cottage. That sight always thrilled me, and still did this time. But today, buildings, huge homes, occupy space that back then was empty except for a few cottages and homes that were nothing like the size of some of the new ones. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and had a hard time recognizing where I was. Even the narrow dirt lane–I could not call it a road–that led to the cottage, is now paved.

I will add more photos in my next post and tell you more about my holiday. Until then, I hope you enjoy this one and will come back again for the next installment. Have a wonderful week. And please, do leave a comment.

Yoga: More than Meets the Eyes??

Edhird's Blog

 

By the Rev. Dr. Ed Hird

You may find this a stretching article in body, mind and spirit.  I have intentionally avoided writing this article for years, because I knew that it might be unavoidably controversial.  To be honest, I have been waiting for someone else to write this article instead of me.  Like most pastors, I want people to like me.   With genuine reluctance, I eventually faced my conflict avoidance, obeyed the Lord and read hundreds of yoga books in our local public libraries.  In preparing this article, I have not read one book which warns against yoga.  All book citations in this article are from yoga advocates and practitioners.

               To many people, yoga is just the hottest new exercise fad for younger women.  Twenty million North Americans are now doing yoga, including around four million men.  These twenty…

View original post 6,140 more words

The Cone of Shame–Not Just for Pets Anymore

Kristen Lamb's Blog

The past week and a half has been…interesting. I was completely off last week, so messed up that I woke up Saturday morning, believing it was Friday. The super funny lady Leanne Shirtliffe, who was supposed to be my FRIDAY guest post, was probably all WTH? when I wrote about wanting a DeLorean so I could go back in time and kick my own @$$ for being stupid instead of posting her seriously funny guest piece and talking about her on-line humor-writing class (still open, btw).

Hmmm, a bit prophetic. And, Leanne’s post? Humor is Everywhere? Doubly prophetic?

So Friday Saturday, I stagger out of bed, exhausted (we’d been passing around a toddler stomach bug for the previous week) and I drink three cups of coffee just to be able to SEE straight.

Being the AWESOME, sweet, loving, and humble wife I am, I let my husband sleep in…

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ANOTHER WEE PEEK

Since a few of my readers liked to ‘peek’ when they were children (and maybe they still do), I thought I would post a short peek once again into my childhood.

I follow a page on FaceBook and the question was asked about what we remember most about Kindergarten.

My answer was “playing in the rhythm band”. Terry replied that she would have liked to see my play. Well, as that is entirely out of the question, I thought I could at least post a picture of that little band of five-year-old boys and girls with our sticks, tambourines and triangles and drum.

The quality isn’t so good, but I had to take a picture from a photo and that doesn’t always come out well. I’m sorry I can’t provide you with sound to go along with it. Perhaps, if you have a vivid imagination, you might just catch a little tune. I’m afraid I don’t even remember what music we played to.

I hope you have enjoyed this little reminiscence. Please leave a comment below, and if you do not already follow my blog, feel free to sign up to have notifications come via e-mail.

PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGIES FOR BEING ABSENT FOR SO LONG

Please don’t be sad. I know it’s been a long time since I posted anything here.

I hope you haven’t given up on me.

But I do hope you have missed me–just a little.

Don’t worry, I’m won’t give you a long list of excuses, but I have been busy with some editing, mostly on my own book but also a little for other authors as well.

Hopefully I will be back on track soon, but while you wait for something new here, please check my main blog. I have recently posted a three-part series about the parable of the sower and the seed (Luke 8:4-15).

You will find Part 1 here. Then I hope you will read Part 2 and Part 3.

I do hope you will enjoy reading them and that you will leave a comment either here or below each post. Or, if you have the time, leave a comment in both places. There are lots of other posts you can browse through as well. I hope you enjoy your visit.

Thank you so much for stopping by. If you are not already following me, please take a moment to do so. For those of you who have subscribed to this blog, I want to say a special “Thank you” and tell you how much I appreciate you. And to everyone, have a wonderful day.