Winter Holiday time in Elora

There is nothing ordinary about Elora.  This is the view when you take the dog out for a walk.  Even on a gray day, you have to stop and admire the natural beauty of the place... just right for contemplating the year's end and new beginnings.

And shopping for that extra special gift or thank you note?  Elora's Mill and Metcalfe streets with their pretty amazing selection of eclectic shops certainly do an impressive job of filling everyone's wish list.  

(Not to forget gems just outside of the Village, like Wellington Fibres just a little ways out on Middlebrook Road.)

This is Pariscope, with stunning ice arrangements decorating their doorway...  

but who can beat a woolly sheep with boots on?  This sweetie stood outside Yarn Bird, a must-see if you knit!

(All these photos were taken by my sister Doris on our December 24th walk before Santa's arrival.  Thank you, Doris!)

Halloween 2016

As that other Holiday approaches far too quickly, I want to rewind just a wee bit and share some Hallowe'en fun with you.  Elora does Halloween in style with its Monster March parade but this time I want to share with you some of the decorations we got to see our neighbours scare up.

From the elegant to the subtle...

to the just for fun, Elora let its spirits shine.

I had to laugh when I saw this display:  is the abandoned bike and shovel supposed to be there?  I love the gruesome stories you could make up with these elements!!

However, our haunted friends in Aboyne took the cake with their skeleton horses and carriage display!

The skelly horses each even had their own water buckets!

And here was our offering:

 44 children dared to come up to our door on what was one of the most pleasant and mild Hallowe'ens I can remember.  We were expecting more ghosts and goblins to drop in... so there's lots of leftover goodies for our guests to enjoy!

As the light started to fade, the lanterns were lit and and the 2 skeleton dogs were added to the cemetery. 

 

 Howler was close enough to the walkway that he'd start howling when excited children went by, perfect!

And now all the creepy critters have been packed away (well, never all... there's always a bit of Hallowe'en at our house)...  

Until next year!

By the light of the Hallowe'en moon

Since it's over, I won't be spoiling anyone's fun by sharing these awesome photos of Tim Murton's "Twilight Zoo: Back from the Dead"!  It took place here in Elora at our Elora Centre for the Arts from October 12-31 and was eeriely beautiful and spooky.  

There photos were all taken by my sister Doris, and I'd say she did a pretty awesome job at capturing the beasts and the atmosphere!  

Not only were the beasts awesome but the hand-painted backdrops were gorgeous, really adding to the whole experience.  Not to forget the sound effects:  the original sound effects were perfect, especially the multiple whispering voices in the Tunnel!  The lighting was also just perfect, with just enough to cast eerie shadows everywhere.  In the Tunnel, the lights even went fully OUT! for a few seconds at intervals, leaving you utterly alone in the Tunnel with its many creepy flora (I'm sure man-eating) and fauna!

Sorry you missed it?  Tim has been doing this for 17 years, always making it a bit different, so plan to visit in October 2017!

Mother Nature's palette!

We spent a week as tourists!  Well, it's the best way to learn so we can talk with our guests about all the great things to see and do in our area!  And the fall colours were absolutely at their peak, stunning with massive rolling clouds sometimes threatening rain.  Alton Mills was nice to see (good chili!) but the Town of Erin surprised us with its main street of shops and many trails.  We will definitely be going back with the dogs!  We also hiked two trails on Sandy Hills Drive that were very nice. (More to follow in the next post!)

But what I most wanted to share in this post was the brilliant wash of colours in all that we did.  As if the brilliant trees weren't enough, on our drive to Alton Mills along Hwy #18 we passed a canola field, glowing yellow!  This is not our picture but is very similar to what we enjoyed:

 WOW!

And here's a rainbow in a box!  Wellington Fibres on Middlebrook Road just outside of Elora has a great shop right on the farm where you can see the goats in the field.  My sister is needle-felting and shared some of the rovings she bought for her projects.  Wow, what a dazzling selection, thank you again Doris!  If you're into knitting, spinning, weaving or needle-felting, you'll love visiting Wellington Fibres!

Boo season is here!

My favorite time of year!  Finally cooler temperatures and, like magic, everything goes from green to yellows and oranges and coppers and reds overnight!  

Magnificent!  WOW!  Mother Nature is awesome!  

Before we get into the fun of October, though, we have some seasonal house maintenance to take care of, like fixing up our balcony.  The outside door frame and balcony rail needed scrapping, sanding, priming and painting before the weather turned too cold.

I did manage to start the Hallowe'en baking, though.  Here are the dogs' treats... yes, I have my priorities in order and the dogs are first!  Peanut butter bones and ghosts, and the ghosts still will get a white Merkins coating to be extra yummy.  (Also, dog cookies store really well so they're good to make in advance.)   

And I'm thrilled to say I've been invited to take part in the Twilight Zoo!  My bat conservation display will be part of the October 22nd after-Monster-March fun on the Elora Centre for the Arts grounds.  This photo is from the Twilight Zoo website, where you can read all the details about this month of spooky activities!

Dog Days of Hallowe'en

So here's a funny story and I imagine this was a unique experience, resulting from having a dog, a bed and breakfast and two animatronic Hallowe'en skelly dogs in your kitchen.  Earlier this month we went to Guelph's Home Depot and adopted two skeleton dogs, one that howls and one that barks and makes some pretty nasty noises.  Unloading the car, I set the two dogs on the kitchen table and Mom went off to do more errands while I waited for guests to arrive and check-in.  I of course played with my new pups (which Willow didn't exactly like) and was testing their sound activation... when the doorbell rang.  Oops!  This, of course, set off Willow who dutifully announced an arrival which, of course, set off the two mechanical dogs!  They work just fine, thank you.  So I had three barking, snarling and howling dogs to deal with, and needed to get to the door pronto!  Where to turn first?!  The on/off switch for the dogs of course is in their mouths, on the palate behind their snapping jaws.  So I scooted Willow into the bedroom before gingerly inserting my fingers into one dog's mouth turning it off and hurried out to get the door.  
  I was grinning ear-to-ear and was probably quite red when I greeted our guests, and they asked about the commotion in the house.  I had to laugh as I told them, no, we only have one dog and no she's not making all that horrible noise all by herself.  
          

Farmers' Market harvest

There's nothing like fresh, local fruit and we were recently at the St Jacobs Farmers' Market to find Niagara peaches... oh, they're SO good!  

Of course we brought home a lot, so our guests have been enjoying them with breakfast and also baked in this yummy peach cake... 






St. Jacobs is a short 20 minute drive from our B&B and right now you'll find all the best the season has to offer, like these gorgeous blue berries.  (Well, they're actually from BC; there are no Ontario blueberries this year we're told, due to the drought.)   



Lots of these pretties got frozen, so I'll have summer berries in my winter baking!

While it's still Summer

July is almost over and time is passing faster than a melting ice cream cone in this heat!  

We are short of rain and it's been a hot week, but before we go any farther I wanted to share some garden photos from June.  August is going to be crazy-busy here at the Flying Leap so before we dive in enjoy these images. 

And here are Willow and Merlin with the iconic painted doors of Elora.  These doors are featured in many photos and paintings... but only this one features two exceptional canines.

Hope you're enjoying a Summer relaxing with ice cream in the cool shade!

105 Days to Hallowe'en!

There's always a wee bit of Hallowe'en lurking here at the Flying Leap, and come October we can't wait to let the bats, skellies and monsters out of the basement.  I'm always excited when I see something new that we could incorporate into our spooky decor so when I saw this I was in giggles:

It's from The Art of Darkness blog which has basic construction instructions/ideas. 

If Hallowe'en is your thing too and you can't wait to see the ghouls and ghosts arise, Elora is absolutely the place to visit in October.  The Twilight Zoo creatures appear on store fronts, private homes and parks and it's Monster Month!  Here's a list of October events, you'll want to stay overnight and the Leap will be deliciously creepy! 

Elora's Monster Month -- October 1st - 31st, 2016  http://elora.info/events/monster-month-elora/ and http://www.monstermonth.ca/ and http://timmurton.com/twilight-zoo/

Elora Fergus Studio Tour -- September 24 - 25th, October 1 - 2nd, 2016 http://www.elorafergusstudiotour.com

Elora's Horse and Hound Parade -- October 2nd, 2016  http://elora.info/events/2nd-annual-horse-hound-parade/

Elora's Sensational Soup Off -- October 10th, 2016  http://www.wellington.ca/Museum/

Guelph Studio Tour -- October 14 - 16th, 2016   http://www.guelphstudiotour.ca

Family Hallowe'en Activities at the Museum -- October 16th, 2016   http://www.wellington.ca/Museum/

Monster March Parade, 6:30pm -- Saturday, October 22nd, 2016  http://elora.info/events/monster-month-elora/

Kissing Bridge Trail Studio Tour -- October 22 -23rd, 2016 http://www.kbtstudiotour.ca/

Spirit Walks at the Poor House -- October 20 - 30th, 2016  http://www.wellington.ca/Museum/ 

(This list will be updated on our website: http://www.theflyingleap.com/elora.htm.)

Global News: Exploring the Village of Elora

We're in the news!  Please take two minutes to watch this nifty little news spot:
  and then come and experience it all for yourself!

The Poor House... and three rats

Our Wellington County Museum and Archives is a "hidden" gem:  many visitors don't know of its existence and even fewer know its history.  Here's a very brief description:

"Built in 1877 as the Wellington County House of Industry and Refuge, this institution was the fourth of nine rural 'Poorhouses' built in Southern Ontario and maintained by individual counties.  Constructed as an Industrial Farm, the site included a 60-bed house, 30 acres of crops and a barn for livestock.  The facility was built on 58 acres of land purchased by the County in order to provide relief to the 'deserving poor' and maintained and operated as a working farm." -- from the Doors Open 2016 Site Interpretation Flyer

The award winning permanent exhibit "If These Walls Could Talk" tells the story of the 'inmates' who lived here with moving period photos and first-hand accounts.  

"Of the 1500 inmates who lived here from 1877 to 1947, 600 died.  Of those, 271 were buried in the House of Industry cemetery"

which is now a beautifully treed area with informative and touching placards telling the story of those who died here.  


These two photos are of the large model of the Poor House located in the Museum.  The model is situated before a mural-like photo of inmates, overshadowing the model.  Spooky and moving!

This small scene on the far right of the model shows a body being carted away to the cemetery.  












There are also changing exhibits, and smaller exhibits focused on local history:  Natives who lived in this area, Victorian funeral customs and a World War I exhibit called "Far from Home:  A Soldier's Life at the Front 1914 - 1918".  

It was this exhibit that really caught my attention and deepened my respect and understanding for the hell humans put each other through during this insanity.  Imagine living in a mud trench, surrounded by corpses and shelling, gun fire, sniper shots.  Imagine further that your feet are constantly wet and in danger of "trench foot", lice in everything and rats snatching every crumb they can get.  Disease, no sanitation, just misery and mud and the fear of dying there.  Then realize that this situation was created by humans, on purpose.  

It was the rats (you may know I love rats) that made me return to photograph them and do some further research on what was endured.  

This is the entrance to the trench...

and then you're inside this brilliantly constructed 3-D illusion of trench warfare, including sound effects.  (These boys are lucky, this trench has a wooden floor.)

And what do you see up on the ledge?  A rat!   Yes, rats took full advantage of warfare: 

"Trenches often flooded with rain in which frogs swam. Red slugs would ooze from the mud. At night opportunist rats crept out. Discarded food cans would rattle as the rats crept inside to lick the remains. More horrifically the rodents were sometimes referred to as corpse rats. They bred rapidly in their millions and swarmed through No-Mans Land gnawing the corpses of fallen soldiers.

  The rats would taut sleeping soldiers, creeping over them at night. There were long bouts of boredom and rat hunting became a sport. To preserve ammunition, shooting at rats was banned but piercing them with a bayonne became a pastime for some soldiers." 

-- from http://www.rentokil.co.uk/blog/rats-in-the-trenches-wwi/

One such splattered rat is even included in the exhibit.  

"If you left your food the rats would soon grab it. Those rats were fearless. Sometimes we would shoot the filthy swines. But you would be put on a charge for wasting ammo, if the sergeant caught you." -- Richard Beasley, interviewed in 1993

"The outstanding feature of the trenches was the extraordinary number of rats. The area was infested with them. It was impossible to keep them out of the dugouts. They grew fat on the food that they pilfered from us, and anything they could pick up in or around the trenches; they were bloated and loathsome to look at. Some were nearly as big as cats. We were filled with an instinctive hatred of them, because however one tried to put the thought of one's mind, one could not help feeling that they fed on the dead." - Stuart Dolden

"Rats. There are millions!! Some are huge fellows, nearly as big as cats. Several of our men were awakened to find a rat snuggling down under the blanket alongside them!" - Major Walter Vignoles, Lancashire Fusiliers

"In one of the dug-outs the other night, two men were smoking by the light of the candle, very quiet. All at once the candle moved and flickered. Looking up they saw a rat was dragging it away. Another day I saw a rat washing itself like a cat behind the candle. Some as big as rabbits. I was in the trench the other night and one jumped over the parapet." - Private Frank Bass in a letter dated 1916

"Rats came up from the canal, fed on the plentiful corpses, and multiplied exceedingly. While I stayed here with the Welch. a new officer joined the company and, in token of welcome, was given a dug-out containing a spring-bed. When he turned in that night he heard a scuffling, shone his torch on the bed, and found two rats on his blanket tussling for the possession of a severed hand." - Robert Graves

These quotes are from a great list of primary accounts found here:   http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWrats.htm

SO when you visit Elora, put some time aside to visit our Museum!  We have pamphlets and maps here at the Flying Leap!