Do you find that although you've lived

in a place for a very long time, if not 

your entire life, you've rarely taken the

time to visit the beautiful places that may

exist within an hours drive from your 

front door step??   

DH and I have lived in our house for

22 years now but in all that time we

have never visited any of the 

beautiful conservation areas that

are within an hour's drive of us.

Until this summer.

In August we visited no fewer then

three conservation areas because I

wanted to explore the greenbelt of

the Niagara Escarpment which 

surrounds our region of Halton

Hills.   Walking the trails and

making a visual record with my

camera of the natural beauty that

we're so lucky to have on offer.

These two photos were taken at the Hilton

Falls conservation area which is a half

hours car drive from us.   My DH, our

friend Darlene and I packed up the car 

with picnic supplies and water and headed

out for a day of hiking and site seeing.

Hilton Falls conservation area has not only

the falls .... seen in the very first picture ....

but also a reservoir which can be glimpsed

in the second picture.   We're standing on 

top of the escarpment and that stream is

heading to a precipice from which it 

drops to the reservoir below.   

We walked for hours through the forest,

following trails and taking pictures.  Some

of the trails were easy to walk being level

and well maintained but we also followed

a portion of the Bruce Trail which required

some climbing skills and some care in how

you moved.  

This picture illustrates my point.

Another view of the reservoir from the Bruce

Trail.   

The only thing that marred this day was when

Darlene and I were walking through a picnic

area looking all around us and chatting and

not watching where we were putting our feet.

I managed to put one foot into a slight indentation

in the ground and got it caught there while the

rest of me kept going.

I ended up on hands and knees and wondering

how I got there.   I got up carefully and there

didn't seem to be any obvious damage except

to my dignity .... (waves at the picnickers who

watched my pratfall with interest) so we kept

on walking .... for another three hours.

Well, all was fine until we loaded up the car

to head for home and I sat down for the first

time since my "trip".  Within ten minutes my

left leg was stiffening up and swelling and,

well, it wasn't pleasant.   A trip to the 

emergency room for a check over was 

deemed prudent that evening but thankfully

there was not any serious harm.  Probably

shouldn't have kept hiking for three more

hours and the leg needed to rest for a few

days etc etc.   A few Ibuprofen for the

soreness and the swelling and things 

improved drastically.

No lasting damage.

Another project on the go at the moment in my

renewed enthusiasm for stitching.  LHN Snow

White stitched in red.    Not really much left

to do on this one but I'm sort of concentrating

my time and efforts on the Lizzie Kate project

this week.    

Received the Just Cross Stitch Halloween and

Christmas ornaments issues from Stitching

Bits and Bobs this week and have been 

happily going through them and picking

out favourites.   The Halloween issue is 

especially rich in fun stuff.

Another of my mandalas to show off.

And this design which uses patterns that are ment

for Henna drawn designs for hands, arms and

feet.  

And since one can't have too many hobbies ....

can one?? .... Here are the K&Co. Smash books that

I've been making this year.

These books can be used for so many things but

I'm using them as a combination of journal,

scrapbook and an introduction to scrapbooking.

Some of the pages.   

I've had so much fun working on these books and it's 

encouraged me to always take my camera with me 

and to take lots of pictures of any event or

occasion or happy day that we have had.

I've stuffed these books so much with all kinds

of stuff they don't lay flat any more.   These 

books come filled with fancy or quirky papers

but when those pages don't suit my taste I 

just stick my own choices over top and keep

going.

Collecting wise my scrapbooking supplies are 

giving my stitching supplies a run for their money

.... God help me. 

Ah well, you know what they say ...

The one who dies with the most stash wins!!!

We won't talk about the book stash.

Thank you.

Cheers!