Monday, August 3, 2009

Places I Have Loved: My Aunt Irene's & Minden Ontario {and Area}

I just got back last night from a short road trip to around Minden Ontario where we visited some my Aunt's place. My Cousin had come in from Whistler BC, who I haven't seen in a while, so it was nice to catch up.

Us setting off!

A place where we took a moment to stretch our legs, close to Dorset Ontario

A gaggle of folks & family ended showing up not too long after we got there, and we had a corn roast, just in time for Lughnasadh. ;) {As an aside, the local organic corn of Minden might perhaps be the best I have ever had!} Anyhoo, here are quite a few photos of my adventures and my Aunts luverly home!

First, meet Riley & Niko:


My Cousin's dog, Riley. I only got the one photo of him 'cause I had 'misplaced' my camera {how convenient for my Mom...lol, long story!}, and he was gone by the time I found it, so I only got the one shot of him.

This is my Aunt's dog, Niko




Here are a few random shots of inside her house:


Flowers from her garden


A cracked out froggie living in the ivy

Spike, the giant aloe and his kids



The bed in one of the guest rooms

Detail of the bed

A chair for large fannies

Detail of the chair


This photo has sacred and natural objects that were collected by my Grandmother...notice the anomaly?

Another anomaly


Here are a few photos her beautiful property:








This is where two of my Aunt's cats are buried


A rather crappy photo of one of the many Ruby-throated humming birds that hang out at my Aunt's



















Resting our tootsies in the moss!


And lastly, here are some places that we went to. First, the Shoe Tree of Minden:











A local First Nations healing arts and new age centre:












We had stopped for a few minutes to check out a little store, and all of a sudden a young White Tailed buck (or stag), tried to run in the middle of the road and came inches from being hit. Thankfully he did a right turn and moved away from danger. He sailed right past us and stopped to take a breather for a moment.



Our young deer friend going into the woods

Well, that is all.

Heading back home.



Sláinte!

Laurel

8 comments:

Hertha said...

What beautiful pictures! Your auntie's garden is so pretty...and her dogs wow! What is the story behind the shoe tree?

pyke said...

WOWZA, eye candy :D Rily and Neko are so gorgeus!!! Does green thumbs run in your fam? Cuz you all seem to have wonderful gardens. :D

Anonymous said...

pretty pictures! i love the garden, dogs and shoe tree! those pictures with the wierd white lights are pretty creepy! :o

perma_culture said...

Beautiful!!! I love the pups and aunts home and garden =^)

We have shoe trees too over here, what a odd tradition X^D

nefaeria said...

Thanks all for the comments! :)

Hertha: I am currently working on a post about the folklore of shoes, so I don't want to give to much away yet, but there is a link about the tradition of shoe-tossing, and a bit of a blurb about shoe trees:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_tossing


Pyke: I suppose it is fair to say that most of my family on my Mother's side (the women at least!) have an affinity for plants. However, the gardens were made by a lovely old woman who live in the house before my Aunt moved there, and it is pretty much left to do its thing without any intervention. :)

Anon: Yes, creepy indeed. I found one on one of the other photos of the new age centre as well. I guess there's lots of 'activity' in the region. ;)

Permie: I really can't wait to see some photos of your garden! :)

Medusae said...

Those photos are brilliant!!! Love them ^.^ What a crazy tree!

Very peaceful and natural places, all.

One of my favourites is the two moss circles. What's up with that? heheh

Hertha said...

I look forward to it!

nefaeria said...

Thanks Medusae! :) Lol, perhaps the Nanu Nanus have moved onto 'moss circles'?

Speaking of Nanu Nanus...I found the most adorable summer squashes that look like mini UFOs! I will take some pics for ya.