UP NORTH PART ONE

Collette, Miss Hayley and I have just returned from a few days off in north-central Ontario and pretty jammed packed those days were. First, we got to spend some time at Collette's family lodge at Nares Inlet, something we have not been able to do for more than a year. Then there was our quest for a "lost" graveyard deep in the bush. And, of course, there was a family wedding to attend. Being us, we have pics and videos of everything so I am going to split the adventures into three separate posts.



We will start with Springhaven Lodge. I have written about the lodge before and how important it is to us. This is Collette's home and the home away from home for Miss Hayley and myself. Now that Collette's father has moved into Parry Sound we haven't made the extra hour or so trip up to Nares Inlet but we made a point this past weekend, to visit her family that live there, to reconnect with this special place and, of course, to allow Collette to play with her new boyfriend (that being the Nikon D-80)















One of the things that has changed at the lodge since our last visit is the giant boulder that lives on the beach. When I first came to the lodge over twenty years ago this huge boulder was partially submerged but as the waters of the Georgian Bay have receded, the entire boulder has become exposed. Collette's brother Garry had a local artist do some carving on the boulder, transforming it from something prosaic, to a work of art.

Besides the beauty of the manufactured art, this part of north central Ontario offers a lot of natural beauty as well. The clarity of the water, the sharp barb images of the trees, the moss dappled rock that form the mass of this muscular land ... all of it gives a welcome reprieve to someone who lives in the middle of pervasive urban sprawl.

The weather was on and off the day and night we were there but the sun came out just enough for us to create some images.

This next one Collette took right around dusk, which as you can see is beautiful, but also prime mosquito/fly feeding time. This is called taking the good with the bad, or paying for your bliss. In this case, we paid with blood.

So here is my little video of our lodge visit. For the geeks, this video combines footage from my Samsung palmcorder and the Sony 3 chip camera I brought up for the wedding. The differences should be obvious. The last few shots of the video were taken in Parry Sound itself. Music is Collin James covering Van Morrison.

Springhaven Lodge, June 2008 from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.