20 Sep 2012 – Drives in the Surrounding Areas

Wed: lovely drive by pumpkin patch along Lakeshore Rd to Port Hope/PH located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario. PH’s history dates back to the late 1700s. Lunched at a Thai Restaurant, Baulai**

Cobourg, pop 18,000 with a lovely town hall, Victoria Hall.

Bowmanville Creek, where the salmon are given a helping held up-stream to their place of birth where they will also end their lives there. Was quite disturbed to see how our so-called civilized world is such a destruction to nature. If only I had known earlier, would have volunteered to help out the group.

Newcastle has an interesting history. It was here in the 1800s that started what would become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of farm machinery, Massey-Ferguson. The historical Community Hall was donated to the community and is a tribute to the Massey family’s role in the development of this area. There is even an Irish Pub, The Snug!

http://villageofnewcastle.ca/history/

The name Town of Newcastle was used from 1973-94 for the municipality now called the Municipality of Clarington. The name was changed in 1994 to alleviate long-standing confusion between the municipality as a whole and the community of the same name. The community was commonly known as Newcastle Village to distinguish the two.

Port of Newcastle,  latitude, 43° 53″ 34’/longitude, -78° 34″ 33′ with its marine, restaurant and playground makes it an excellent place to have a dream home by Lake Ontario. Lock & May’s lovely holiday home is located here, 80kms east of Toronto on Lake Ontario.

The garden seems to also be the home of a green frog while the owners lives 7+hrs drive away. Thank you cousins for a lovely stay. Great to catch up for now and safe drives to us all. For Lock & May who will be heading east to Sault St Marie (7+hrs) and to Yun and I to Toronto (1hr) for a performance to Cirque du Soleil.

井底之蛙/a frog in a well: This quote goes back to the Taoist classic Zhuangzi that has a frog living in a well who talks about things big and small with the turtle of the Eastern Sea. A known Chinese proverb relating to how one can be narrow sighted and even complacent. Today it is used more widely to describe someone who is ignorant of the things around them.