Saturday, November 09, 2013


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!

3 comments:

Andrea said...

Hope your leg is getting better. It is often the case, we never look right under our noses. It is a beautiful area. Lovely stitching too. Love your Smash books. "Project Life" is just starting to break into the crafting world over here. If you added up all of your stash in monetary value, I'm sure the insurance would never cover it!

Rowyn said...

Hi Judy

My DH and I had the opposite problem, we visited so many nearby places over the years that we struggled to find new ones to visit.

Your photos are beautiful! I'm glad you didn't do yourself any lasting damage with your fall.

Your zentangles are works of art. Stunning! And I love your smash books as a way of recording what you get up to.

Have a great weekend.

Brigitte said...

We often used to explore the surroundings near and far but at a certain point preferred staying at home and enjoying our home and garden. But now that we are retired we'll try and see what has changed around us. A little bit of moving around will do us good, lol.
I hope your leg has improved and you don't feel any more pain.