Mosaic Monday - A September Walk in the Park

We went for a walk in a nearby park today and there were plenty of fall leaves and trees and bridges and ponds to keep me busy taking photos.

I found this memorial stone dedicated to John Tuzo Wilson in the far corner of a field .  Now I happen to have majored in Geography at university so Tuzo Wilson is a name I am very familiar with.  He is a Canadian scholar who developed the theory of plate tectonics (the movement of the earth's crust) in the 1960s and 70s.  He taught at the University of Toronto, became the principal of Erindale College, University of Toronto, and later served as Director General of the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto.   Needless to say, he was a biggie so I was pretty excited to find this.

Here's a photo of my husband that I included just to show you that the stuff photographers say to models really does work.  I was lying on the grass and he was walking across the field.  I called out "come on baby, work it, work it!" and I got this great photo of him.  I'm either the next great model photographer or my husband finds my antics amusing.

Here's everyone doing what they do best - climbing trees, sniffing everything, watching the dog, and me taking a picture of it all.

A lovely walk!

Linked to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House
and Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Dreamer

Mosaic Monday - Busy as a Beaver

We had a surprise this weekend when we arrived at the cottage!

The birch tree, that has always leaned gracefully over the water along the shore from the dock, had been chewed down by a beaver some time during the previous night.  When we went down to the dock on Saturday we saw the tree lying in the water with all its branches still on it.    Then when we went back down to the shore the next morning, every last branch had been stripped from the tree and carted away during the night.  All that was left were some woodchips in the water under the now naked birch trunk.

I'd have to say we all were all sad the tree has gone, but a little impressed with the beaver's chewing skills.

Linked to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

Grafton Village Inn Mosaic

A couple of weekends ago, by pure chance, my husband and I found the Grafton Village Inn and what a treasure it is!

The Inn, which is just east of Cobourg, Ontario, originally opened in 1820 and was extensively renovated and restored in 1988.  The decor is beautiful with rich pumpkin walls, quilts, and lovely wooden tables and chairs.  The lunch was fantastic - see I was so thoughtful I even took a photo of it to get your mouth watering - yum - eggs benedict on smoked salmon, fruit and fried potatoes.

I made a mosaic with some of the other photos I took at the Inn.

After lunch we walked around the village of Grafton - I loved this little house with its ochre paint and its bright red back door.  We also stopped to admire the town administrative buildings that had a pretty cupola and the lovely community garden.

What an amazing place to stumble upon and a grand start to our weekend getaway.

Linked to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House.

St. Jacobs Mosaic

Yesterday we went to St. Jacobs a quaint small town here in Ontario that is the home community for many Mennonites living in the area, including many old order Mennonites.  The market and the nearby village are a lovely place to visit that take you back to a slower gentler time.  We bought fresh fruit and vegetables, walked among the stalls as they were beginning to collapse the market since we got there later in the day, and went to the village to stroll through antiques stores, and admire the Mennonite quilts.

Linked to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

A Field of Prickly Beauty

I've been trying to master the art of giving a vintage look to photos using Picnik, an on-line photo-editing tool.  As I've mentioned before I really like using Picnik to clean-up my photos before they go on the blog - just to auto-adjust the colour and sharpen the image a little (you can read about it here).  This time however, I was aiming to create the retro kind of photo that I have seen around blogland.

I started off with only a little bit of a retro look.

And slowly got more and more faded looking.

Don't you just love weeds.  Wait did I just say that - okay - let me qualify.  I love a field full of wildflowers (or in other words weeds).
 

I'm loving the sun-washed, vintage look.  Do the photos look old and faded enough?

But then again I also love the original rich purples and greens - although the contrast with the vintage ones is a bit hard on the eyes.  

Which do you prefer - the vintage washed-out look or the unmanipulated photos???

*****

Just a reminder that there is still time to enter my Summer Giveaway (ends July 13th).  You can find the details here.

Linked to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

Emerald Quilt

Yesterday it rained off and on all day and then it cleared up and the sun came out.  I loved the way the raindrops looked on the luscious hosta.

Linked to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

Chinatown in Toronto Mosaic

I'm having fun playing around with the photos I took in Chinatown and thought I would make a couple of mosaics so I could link up with the Mosaic Monday at Little Red House.  Of course, I had to frame them with Chinese red.