Time travel

Stepping into Merrickville was a bit like stepping back in time. As I said yesterday, the buildings are built to last - and you can just feel the history exuding from the very streets. It's gentle, it's paced, and it embraces the old plus the new of things. Not just doing things because that's the way they've always been done, Merrickville also seems to embrace the newer generations, never mind the tourists.

If you're in the Ottawa area and want a wee getaway, it's a must-do. Plus, as the Chamber says, the parking's free! http://www.realmerrickville.ca/ (and you've got to love it when Holy Trinity church is in the Chamber!)

One of my favourite stores there was Mrs. McGarrigle's Fine Food Shop. They make their own fabulous brand of mustard, as I didn't find out till I was back on Bank Street in Ottawa (and found The Mustard Shop, full of...you guessed it) and saw it there. But they also had this great collection of clocks on the wall (available for purchase, too), and loved the place-times, including Amelia. I joked they should have a "Kathleen" clock, since my motto ought to be "on-time is when I get there".

They also had a great art-wall full of blocks down a staircase. I love it when for-purchase display is art in and of itself. The whole store was like this, a treat for all the senses. Including my tongue with an amazing dark chocolate sauce that snuck its way home in my suitcase...

Many reasons to return...

Too many choices

I can go for weeks without making a single image, sad as it sounds. And then I have times where I fill and re-fill my SD cards and then rarely have the time to spend editing or culling the images, to do exactly what with, I don't know. Now that I don't take my film in to get printed, I don't have a tangible to deal with, to put away, to put in a photo album, to put in a frame, on one of those clippy things that fall over anyway, to show off to everyone.

Anyway, this last few weeks have been full with a trip to the Ottawa area, and a fasting spiritual journey in the mountains on May long weekend. And so my SD cards are full of images. What to share today? Maybe I'd better catch up and do a mini-gallery.


Today: Merrickville. It's what people would call a quaint town, in the Ontario countryside near Ottawa. Full of antiques and folk art and beautiful brick-and-stone buildings made in a time when people built things to last. We had my birthday lunch there (it was all fresh and brilliant and the crème brulee was amazing and I hate to think of the bill but I didn't see it so that was perfect, too) and a wonderful walk-around. But it was too short, and my lovely local friend Cori and I went back on Mother's Day for more of a leisurely poke.

We found this gorgeous old house (top of post), on the way into town. I love its grandeur, and its slight shabbiness which makes it more beautiful.

And then there were the great phone booths on the street, just a smidge of old-world.

Miller's Antiques was a pure haven of folksy vintage plus antique, and the nicest people. I was served by Zach, home from Golden for the weekend, helping his mom in the very busy store. It was strange but very Canadian to be from Western Canada, being served by someone from farther West than me, in a location farther East than I'd originally come to travel.


I've got a couple more but I'll save them for tomorrow.