Horses on Parade

Lombardy Fair is celebrating it's 150th anniversary this year. One of the ways they have chosen to celebrate was to hold a parade of 150 horses, right though the center of Smiths Falls, Ontario.


The weatherman was warning of thunderstorms, which would have ruined the whole thing, but luckily the rain held off until just after the event ended, and any thunder happened well before it even started.

I've been asked if there were really 150 horses in the parade. Well, I didn't count them, but even though I know of two that were supposed to be there and were not, I'm sure the count was close.

 There were all kinds of horses, both big and small, some being lead, others ridden either English or Western style, some pulling wagons and some pulling other things. There was even a race horse in the mix with the driver in the sulky behind. While most of the riders were dressed in their regular clothes, but there was a couple in period costume, and of course, the cowboys. A few of the horses were also decked out for the occasion. I especially like the one painted up like a zebra. The parade was well worth watching and I'm glad I didn't let the idea of stormy weather keep me from attending.

 I'll just share a few photos with you.

 

All Souped Up

Soupfest is an annual event that I really enjoy.  Restaurants from all over the region gather to offer up samples of their soups for us to taste and we decide among ourselves which soup is the best.  There are official judges too, and they also make their own choices. It's interesting because they don't always pick the same soups as the people do.  The official judges may know about when some especially innovated combination has been put together, but we, the people, just know what we like. To me winning the people's choice awards are actually more valuable. It's the general public that the restaurants have to please, or they won't come back.  The chefs can get as fancy as they like, and that that may impress the official judges, but if the people don't like what is being offered, they aren't going to buy it.

There is a certain establishment in Smiths Falls where I often go for soup.  You never know, when you walk through the door, of the Good Life Bistro what their soup that day will be, but I can tell you that I've never had a bad one there.  I mentioned to them recently that they should get in on Soupfest. They had never heard of it, but looked it up on the internet while I had my lunch, and by the time we were ready to leave, I was told they had managed to sign up.  And this weekend they not only discovered how much fun the experience can be, they won first place for one of the categories with their Squash Pear Bisque with maple cinnamon cream.

Another restaurant, The New Rideau near Kemptville, had only just opened under new management three weeks ago. They placed in two categories with a Cream of Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cheddar soup, so now I'm interested in going there for lunch some day too.

Soupfest is good for getting new customers for businesses some didn't know existed.  We were first introduced to the Basket Case in Morrisburg though their participation in Soupfest.  We've been there several times since then, and highly recommend it.  They were not present at the event this year though, and I missed those fun filled ladies.

One of our local businesses did very well too. The Goose and Gridiron in Merrickville put forth a very colourful Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup.  If that soup is on their menu, I'll be dropping in there more often in the future.  I had a hard time deciding if I was going to choose it for my second or third place vote. In the end, it came in third, both for me and the rest of the public, but placed first with the official judges.

My personal favorite of the day was the Silken Scallop with Crisp Pancetta by the Black Dog Bistro in Manotick.  My nine year old grandson agreed with that choice, and even went back for more.

"Thrillusionist," Michael Bourada was on hand to entertain this year, and he worked the room, one table at a time. Of course, when he got to us, he zeroed in on the only child at the table.  It was such fun to watch them interact.

This was the first year we have taken one of the grandsons with us. I told him he was going to get to taste all the soups, and he didn't have to like them, just judge them. He gave them scores from one to ten, and was far more adventurous than I expected.  I think he only missed 3 or 4 of the 16 offerings, and that was likely because he was full by then.  Oh, but not too full for the great big chocolate covered rice crispy square he picked for dessert.  He already has told us he wants to come with us again next year.  I'm looking forward to that already.

 

 

Doors Open - Smiths Falls

Life has been very busy lately but I want to get caught up over the next couple of posts by sharing some of the places I've been to recently.

Open Doors Ontario is a cultural event that started in 2002. Doors of heritage buildings such as churches, factories, museums, town halls are opened for free tours. The different communities involved thankfully scatter their events over the calendar from April to October, so there is no conflict if you want to visit the buildings in more than one town. Try searching for a town near you by clicking Here.

On June 9th it was Open Doors in Smiths Falls.  We wanted to go and see what was being done to the Gallipeau Centre. That used to be Rideau Regional, a huge hospital complex for the mentally disabled. It housed over 2000 patients at one point, and employed a great many people from around the area. The government decided to close it down in 2009, and put the residents into various group homes. This was not a good thing, by my way of thinking, as many of these people had never known any other home. This facility had many people who were not capable of being integrated into society anyway, which is what group homes are for. 

I understand that there were classrooms for those who could be taught whatever they were capable of learning, and there was a theatre, a gym and a swimming pool, so it was really a community setting where these people could live a life as happy and productive as possible. After the government closed the place up, it sat empty for several years. The Ontario Provincial Police then used part of it while building their new headquarters nearby. Also when there was a big forest fire, or some other such disaster up north, a whole community of aboriginals was moved into the facility until they could go back home.  But mainly, it was completely deserted.

 Then along came Mr Joe Gallipeau, who purchased the entire site and began renovating it with plans to turn it into a seniors village. Construction has begun to turn these institutional buildings into beautiful living space.

He has added those grey extensions onto each apartment.  They are lovely three season rooms, with great cross ventilation.  I'm totally impressed with what he's done with these old buildings so far. 

On the ground floor of this one there will be a doctor's office, a physio therapist, and likely some other kind of medical office. Making such services so easily available to the residents of this new community was a brilliant idea.
. 

Another building, not attached to the apartment complex, is where the pool, gym and theatre are.  The pool has been empty since the place closed down. Last winter there was a grant available through the Aviva Community Foundation, that various communities were competing for.  I was on Facebook each and every day reminding people to get their vote in for the Smiths Falls pool.  And it won :)  $99,000 was awarded to get it back up and running again.  It's expected to be reopened in July, they told us on our tour.  Meanwhile the gym has now reopened, and I see there is another room where they have instructors in such things as Pilates and Yoga, and another room which will be a daycare so people can leave their kids there while they get some exercise.  All that building will be open to the public and anyone can use it.  

The apartments are going to be rented out to people aged 55 and up, and they are renting them as fast as they can reconstruct them....or probably there is now a waiting list to get into them. Each apartment is actually larger than my own house, so I find the rents to be quite reasonable, and everything is included.  The only other expense anyone living there would have to cover would be their phone, cable and internet. I also learned that those services would be free for the first three months if you were the first tenant in any unit, and signed on to Cogeco.   I'd happily live there.  They would just have to have a shuttle bus into town and I'd be all set.

While we were on the grounds of the old Rideau Regional Centre, we also visited the Hart Laundry Services. As I said  this used to be a hospital so they had their own laundry building.  I think they used to also take care of the laundry from the Smiths Falls and Perth hospital too, but when the fascility closed down, they had to take their business elsewhere. Kemptville hospital is now using it though, and so are some of the nursing homes, etc.  It was interesting to be guided through how the system works.  It's all automated, of course, and they seem to have a very efficient system for running through as much as 5 tonnes of laundry a day without using excess water or electricity to do so.

Another building I wanted to see was an old train station that now functions as a theatre.  I could not picture how they did that, so I had to go see for myself.

They used some old girders to help support the place, and built a neat little bridge from the mezzanine to the actual theatre.  I'm quite impressed.  

A guide took us all through the place, back stage, the green room, the workshop, the whole bit. All while a production was actually taking place on the stage.  

A new train station has been built on the edge of town. The theatre is totally manned and repaired  by volunteers. If you are looking for a volunteer job, they likely could find a way to use your talents, so give them a call.

The only other place I wanted to see that day was the local radio station.  I now understand why they moved from a building outside of town into a couple of offices downtown. They simply don't need all the ticker tape and other news gathering equipment they used to need. I tried to get a picture in there, but it was too crowded.

In conjunction with Doors Open, the Smiths Falls Russel Street merchants decided to extend the fun a bit by having buskers and an art show, both Saturday and Sunday.  Shirley Mancino is a renowned artist, who is very versatile. On this occasion she decided to demonstrate various abstract techniques.  While I had personally tried some of what she did before, I did learn a few new tricks.  She's quite entertaining when she's demonstrating....or any other time, I imagine.  I certainly enjoyed the demo, and would love to take one of her workshops. If anyone else in the area ever wanted to go, I hope they let me know.  I'd need a ride to Wesport, where her studio is located. 

In my next post, I'll tell you about the Brockville Wine and Food Show, and the Tall Ships I saw that day.

Early Spring Weather Gets Us Out

The weather has been great lately. Actually, even though this is the first day of spring, it's warmer than that. I was all over town without a coat today, and my crocus are blooming like crazy.

We were out for our first geocaching session for this year on Sunday. It's just been too nice to sit at the computer so I'm sure you will forgive me for telling you a little late.  We didn't go far.  We were in Smiths Falls for other reasons and I had downloaded a lot of caches that had popped since the last time we were out last year.  Someone has kindly decided it would be a good way to educate the public about Smiths Falls historical sites. 

Well, right off the bat we found out we were out of practice.  The first cache we tried to find eluded us completely, but we didn't give up.  We went on to find the next one at the old Central School. (GC2QR25) I actually took, then later taught, Tai Chi in this building, but I'm not sure I ever realized it once was a school. Though, thinking about how the rooms are arranged, that seems rather obvious now.

We went from there to the water's edge to hunt for one that we just could not get to at this time of year. Parks Canada has various gates locked, and no matter what angle we tried to get at it from, we could not get to the right area. We did get to see various parts of the park though, and some of it we have never seen before.  We'll go back and look for this one, and explore further, once the canal has opened up again.

There was another cache in the same park though, with totally different sights.  It was easy to find, but you had to be careful of muggles, as there were certainly lots of them out enjoying the lovely weather.




We then left the area and headed out the road towards Brockville.  We were looking for the Wood Family Mausoleum.  (GC2QR3R) I remembered where there was a cemetary, and expected to find this cache there. I was wrong but got a very pleasant surprise. This particular cache was the highlight of our day.  I'm not going to post a picture of that, as you really need to see it for yourself.

Our final cache of the day had a couple of guardians.  I was so busy taking their picture, I wasn't even looking for the cache at that time and had to go take another look a few moments later.

While we didn't go far, and didn't always succeed, we certainly did enjoy our afternoon on the prowl.