Cold Creek's pace of change is steady

Photos by Barry Wallace

The old driving shed at the rear of the historic Cairns Family barn has a new roof which makes the entire, combined structure rain-proof.   It is one of the most recent efforts by the Township of King to give new life to the Cold Creek Conservation Area, which it now operates on behalf of the Toronto Region Conservation Authority.   One of the most welcome changes for many people is the fact that Cold Creek is now open each day from Monday to Friday, from 8.30 to 4.30, whereas in the recent past the main gate was always closed and many visitors were deterred by the long trek to enjoy features such as the wonderful bog and boardwalk.   Visitors on Saturdays and Sundays must still park outside the main gate and walk in.

The area behind the Cairns barn has been a busy spot recently as the Township of King Parks and Recreation folks have producing great amounts of firewood.   The intention was to a have a good supply on hand for the spring Maple Syrup festival.   As it turned out there was much more than enough as the maple syrup season was early, as well as short and sweet.   Next year's supply is already cut and stacked (see photo below).

The barn pond at Cold Creek already has a resident pair of Canada Geese in place.   The male, pictured above, gave this photographer quite an earful for his trouble, but everyone's feathers were unruffled in the end.   Each visit to Cold Creek these days is a treat as one sees the changes that the Township of King is making.   Old diehards, like yours truly, may wistfully recall a more pristine time at Cold Creek, but there is no denying the importance of welcoming new visitors, particularly a new generation of children: tomorrow's guardians of the natural environment.

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace

Mucking about in the Marsh

Photos by Barry Wallace

Relocating of the canal system in the Holland Marsh has entered a new season and the pace of activity has picked up in several locations in King Township and Bradford West Gwillimbury.   The machine above does an utterly awesome job of slashing and ripping everything in its path, with wood chips flying far and wide.   Below, other specialized equipment operates in a unique fashion to ensure the newly positioned canal is free and clear of left-over debris. 

    

Once the canal has been relocated further away from the 'Marsh' roads, and the old empty canal has been back-filled, road safety will be greatly enhanced.   Motorists should no longer accidently end up in the canal waters.   It will take a deliberate and determined effort to reach the water now, in your vehicle.

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace 

Weston Road (Concession 6) landmarks

Photos by Barry Wallace

Thanks to Daniel McConnachie for drawing to my attention the existence of the old Schomberg & Aurora Railway (S&AR) transformer building on the west side of Weston Road, a few hundred metres north of the Aurora Sideroad and adjacent to the southern boundary of Carrying Place Golf Club.   I published a blog on February 17th of this year about the old S&AR and included some photos of its former route.   What I did not know was that one of the old S&AR's most prominent and attractive remnants was the structure you see pictured above.   Daniel McConnachie has invited me to learn more about the old steam/electric railway and I plan to follow-up with him to do just that.   Meanwhile, there are some other Weston Road landmarks pictured below.

I think it's fair to say that there is not another gateway in all of King Township to compare with the one pictured above on the west side of Weston Road, a couple of hundred metres south of the 18th Sideroad.   It impresses on many counts: design, style, size, artistry and size.   This grand effort became a King landmark the day it was erected.

Further south on the west side of Weston Road, between the 16th and 17th Sideroads are two log cabins, one on the north side of the King Ridge, pictured above, and the other on the south side of the King Ridge, pictured below.   Both are small and unpretentious but exude their own charm.   The one below (with the cute dormer roof) becomes harder to see as leaf cover emerges and it is set back from the road by several metres.

Last, but not least, in this brief selection of Weston Road landmarks, in King Township, is the old St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, just north of the hamlet of Strange, between the King Sideroad and 15th Sideroad, and also on the west side of the road.   The old church has been in private ownership since 1958 and readily shows the care and respect it has received from its owners.   The original log St. Andrew's Church was built in 1837 and was replaced with this stone structure in 1860.
Please comment if you wish.
Barry Wallace

BarrytheBirder returns...yes, again!

Photo by Judy Craig

I just can't seem to walk away from blogging about birds and putting lots of bird photos, by me and others, online.   I love doing it, but this time around my approach is to not tie myself down to a daily routine.   I may show up daily, or every other day or so, or maybe once a week, on occasion. Look for me, if you wish, at www.barrythebirder.blogspot.com.

Muskrat salad days

Photo by Barry Wallace

Warm temperatures and sunshine bring out the resident muskrat to feed on cattail tubers in this small pond on the north side of King's 15th Sidroad, a little east of Dufferin Street and the cricket grounds at Eversley.

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace 

Cemetery at Linton ~ stories to be guessed at

Photos by Barry Wallace

One of the few King Township cemeteries I had never visited until just recently was St. Paul's Presbyterian Church cemetery at Linton, on Hwy. 27 halfway between Nobleton and Schomberg.   The church is long gone but the cemetery lingers on, not surprisingly.   This a pioneer cemetery but has its share of latter-day burials and monuments from the mid-20th century.   There seems to be an equal number of old monuments proclaiming the Scottish and Irish origins of the long-departed.   There are a dozen gravestones that indicate their owners were born in the late 1700s and there is every reason to believe that many of these early King settlers were escapees from the potato famines in Ireland and the highland clearances in Scotland.   According to the Ontario Genealogical Society's Directory of Cemeteries for the Region of York, the person with the oldest birthdate who was buried at Linton, was John White.   He was born in 1770 and died in 1865, at the age of 95.   His wife, Sarah, was born in 1779 and died in 1879 at the age of 100 years.   One can't help but wonder at what age did these hardy souls arrive in Upper Canada.

  
Linton, like all the small, old cemeteries, with its carved monuments, only hints at the stories of those laid to rest here.   There are those who were laid to rest here at average ages for the times.   There were others who inexplicably lived to ripe old ages, like John and Sarah White,    above; he being born in 1770 and she in 1779.   He lived to be 95 and she 100.   Then there are the all-too-many children that never made it to adulthood, such as the children of the Reverend James Adams and his wife, Margaret.   They lost a daughter, named Margaret, just 15 days old, another daughter named Margaret, who lasted two years and three months, followed by the loss of an infant son.   Some parents had to see their adult children die in their prime, such as Hugh  and Ellen Riddell.   Over the course of 10 years, between 1881 and 1891,  they buried four of their children: Robert, aged 32; Isaac, aged 22; Ellen, aged 23; and David, aged 34.   One can't help but wonder what maladies or misfortunes overcame this family's adult children.

     
In all old cemeteries, one will come across headstones with names and dates obliterated by time and conditions, and others that are perfectly and beautifully legible.   Although now lying flat on the ground, the headstone of Letitia Bradford (one of those born in the late 1700s), is a fine example of the stonemason's carving skills.   While excellent craftsmen, stonemasons were not always good spellers in the 19th century.   Following is a transcription from a Linton headstone (1868) for a three-and-a-half week old baby boy named Marshall Montieth Lynn: 

This loving bud so young so fair 

Called home by early doom

Just came to show sweet flour (sic)

in paradice (sic) could bloom

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace

A chill in the spring air was to be expected...

Photos by Barry Wallace

Minus degree temperatures the last couple of nights have snapped us back to the reality that it is still  March and the wearing of shorts and tank tops is a fool's game.   Early Great Blue Herons and Painted Turtles had to deal with a skim of new ice on local ponds yesterday morning but today was another day and the fishing and basking in the sun had resumed at locales such as Hackett Lake, pictured here.

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace

Eversley Presbyterian Church for sale

Photo by Barry Wallace

It is not a surprise to know that the old Eversley Presbyterian Church, on Dufferin Street, is for sale, but it is nevertheless a bit of a jolt to actually see the realtor's sign advertising the fact.   It will be the fond hope and wish of many a King Township resident that this fieldstone sanctuary never meets an inglorious end.

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace

First Kingfisher of the season at Seneca

Photos by Barry Wallace

I spotted my first Kingfisher of the spring season at Seneca College's  Lake Jonda today while photographing the old boathouse.   I couldn't get close enough for a picture of the bird and it was too skittish to stay in one spot for any length of time.   Elsewhere near Seneca, below, on the south side of the 15th sideroad, between Dufferin and Keele, a male Wild Turkey was strutting his stuff for two lady friends, in the setting sun. 

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace

Photo by Barry Wallace

Turtle Hollow Farm ~ 18th Sideroad

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace

Great Sandhill Crane photo

Photo by Dave Kemp

I may have ended my BarrytheBIrder blogspot, but you'll have to forgive me for including the occasional spectacular bird photo, even if it is from the other side of the country.   This wonderful photo was taken by a new acquaintance of mine from the west coast: Dave Kemp.   He photographed this Sandhill Crane at the The Riefel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in the Fraser River estuary, about an hour from the city of Vancouver, B.C.   Sandhills migrate over King Township and once-in-a-blue-moon land in local farm fields.   Otherwise, they are scarce hereabouts.   Just to put this photo into sharper perspective, a mature Sandhill Crane can stand 100-120 cm or 40-48" tall and its wingspread can be 6 to 7 ft.   Great shot, Dave...never seen one quite like it. 
Please comment if you wish.
Barry Wallace  

King Ridge vs. Ishpatina Ridge

Ephemeral pond on top of the King Ridge

Above and below ~ King Ridge tree fungi

Environment Canada Doppler Radar weather station atop the King Ridge

Photos by Barry Wallace

Early Canadian explorers, in the late 1600s and early 1700s, such as Etienne Brule and Rene Robert Cavelier, sieur de LaSalle, went so far as to call the height of  land across the middle of King Township, which they had to portage canoes over, as mountains.   In the 1800s, the mountains were known as the 'Mountains of King' and then more simply as the 'King Ridge' in the 1900s.   Today, in 2012, everyone calls the verdant, almost-1200 ft.-hills the King section of the Oak Ridges Moraine.   For a long time I wondered where the true highest point in Ontario was.   Folks out in Dufferin County bragged for years that they were on the highest point in Ontario.   Almost twenty-two years ago, on Sept. 19, 1992, I climbed aboard a float-plane and flew into Temagami country in northern Ontario.   We landed on a lake at the foot of Ishpatina Ridge, the real highest point in Ontario, at 2,274 ft.   It was an all-day hike up to Ishpatina Ridge and back.   The Ellis fire-tower adds another 60 or 70'.   Ishpatina Ridge is in the Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park and is accessible by canoe, float-plane or a very long, 30 km. walk from the nearest highway.   Pictured below left is yours truly prior to the fly-in and on the right is Ishpatina Ridge and the Ellis Fire-tower (Andy Stevens photo).

Baby Buffalo

Photo by Barry Wallace

Near Kettleby

Please comment if you wish.

Early start on Summerski Lake?

Photos by Barry Wallace

The folks at Summerski Lake, on Keele Street just south of the Holland Marsh, state on their website that water-skiing can occur any time from April to October.   It certainly looks like 2012 will be one of those early-start years for the private, members-only club.   The 30-acre lake, which was once a gravel pit, looks like anything but a noisy, high-speed, boating and water-skiing venue in mid-March.   But even the pussy willows, along the shoreline, are already in gentle bloom.   Given a suitable wet-suit, skiers may be on the water in late March!

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace

Village doubling its size...overnight!

Photos by Barry Wallace

King City is well on its way from the current population of just under 5,000 to the 10,000 that will call the village home by 2016, maybe by 2014.   Four building companies are now building either houses or condos adjacent to existing parts of the village.   A fifth development, west of the village,  adjacent to the hamlet of Kinghorn and abutting the township museum property is near to breaking ground.   A special arrangement for this site will see the developer refurbish and add on some additional square footage to the existing museum for a new-home presentation centre.   Once the developer has ended its use of the presentation centre, the museum regains full use of its upgraded building and the new additional space, at no cost to the township of King.   The King City story is being duplicated in Nobleton where similar development numbers are under way.

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace

Bluebirds at Fiddlehead Farm

                                                                                                                                                            Bluebird photo by Don Norman

I made my usual trip out to Cold Creek Conservation Area yesterday, looking for the first returning Eastern Bluebird of the season but was unsuccessful, as I have been been for the last 10 days or so.   But on the trip home I took a swing through the hamlet of King Creek, south-east of Nobleton, and to my delight spotted three bluebirds ( two males and a female) in some bushes along a fenceline on Fiddlehead Farm, belonging to the Goodsoes.   The Goodsoe farm occupies the south-west corner of the King Sideroad and the Mill Road.   If bluebirds are successful at nesting this early in the season, then there is every likelihood, that they will be able to have three broods this year.   Normally, bluebirds have two broods per year.   The hazard in starting to nest in March, is that a nasty turn in the weather can kill off not only vulnerable nestlings, but could even cause adult birds to starve.   Three successful broods, on the other hand, improve the overall success rate of Bluebirds as they continue to make a long and welcome comeback in Eastern Canada.   I also spotted my first Turkey Vulture of the season yesterday, west of Nobleton, and a Coyote at King Creek.   The photo above was taken by Don Norman at Cold Creek a couple of years ago.
Please comment if you wish.
Barry Wallace

Along King's sideroads

 Heavy horses or featherweight ducks ~ every creature welcomes any early spring

Photos by Barry Wallace

Winterscape?

Barry Wallace Photo

Near Lloydtown

                                                                                                                                                                                             

All about onions and carrots...

Photo by Barry Wallace

Site-specific house sign in the Holland Marsh ~ Woodchoppers Lane

Please comment if you wish

Barry Wallace