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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ish who wrote (53341)	7/13/2000 7:44:51 AM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 71178

Been doing quite a bit of cruising around through the countryside while Mr. Croc has been on holidays... I am always amazed at what I see just "sitting there" out in the middle of a field, or on somebody's lawn, or in their backyard.... well, like yesterday, I saw a great old Bluebird Bus just sitting in someone's side yard while driving around on the backstreets of an historic old town up this way. It was great... sitting there under a Manitoba Maple... kind of half moldering into the ground... sort of hunkered down... probably been resting under that tree for at least... hmmm... a quarter of a century I would guess... Cool front end on it... almost like a face... just sitting there watching 2 or 3 decades of townlife, white the lamb's quarters and goldenrod grew up all around it, and even inside of it where the windows were open... Great stuff... Saw a big old threshing mill yesterday... silver and rust... steam-powered... just sitting out in a field... Looked like it was waiting for a threshing gang to show up with a team of horses to haul it off to the next farm to be put to work for a few days. Might be waiting for a long time... but then maybe it will make it to a local fair for a steamshow. Saw the most turquoise of turquoise blue late 40's cars imaginable... sorry... didn't catch the make... think it was an old Chevrolet... might take a tour back down that road and take some better pics some time soon... Also always blown away by the interesting architecture that abounds in this region... Now, I'm not talking about large, grandiose works, but "vernacular stuff" that just jumps out at you from the most unexpected places. Queen Anne shingle-style houses, elegant little stone 1 1/2 story Georgians with a spiderweb fanlight over the front door and built all of the quarrystone used to build the Rideau Canal or the old sections of the St. Lawrence Seaway Canal... And speaking of the canal... there's a section of the old canal that passes right along next to the road, and it is really something... Big sections of stone the side of refrigerators laying on their sides... and these are stacked row upon row up the steep embankments, forming a "canyon" of stone masonry that is perhaps 80-100 feet deep and a half-mile or more in length... built back in the 1800s... mainly by Irish stonemasons... the Canadian version of building a pyramid... must have been some sight to see that going up... It boggles the mind to look at... gives you mental vertigo to contemplate the labour and workmanship that went into it... And then there is the set of boat locks along the Rideau canal at Merrickville and again down in Ottawa... Well, there are locks all along the river, but those two sets always blow me away the most... huge drops accomplished through several consecutive sets of old stone locks built back a century and a half ago...and they're all still in use... locking hundreds of tourist boats through each year... Fun to just go and sit on the grass in Merrickville... maybe bring along a picnic lunch, and watch the boats dropping down... step by step as they pass from one set of locks into the next... Gotta see it in person to enjoy it though... This description leaves much to be desired.... Of course, the trick is that you have to be willing to actually "see" all of this stuff. I don't think I always saw the world this way though. Or maybe I did, but it wasn't until I began studying architectural history at university... and had the incredible good fortune of studying with someone who taught me how to find joy in studying the common architecture around me... and to marvel at the incredible architectural heritage of eastern Ontario... and to not be dismayed by the chaff that has been hastily tossed around over it... but to always be looking for it... like the proverbial needle in the haystack... because it's true... there is always at least one needle in every haystack... sometimes even a few... maybe just one house... maybe a whole cluster of them... or a classic Bluebird bus... Sure makes the world into a wonderful place to move about in...