Photo(s) of the Week 2012-02-27

This past week I was east of Toronto with my mother for a few days. Daily I traveled from Brooklin to Oshawa taking Simcoe St. past the now abandoned Windfields Farms of the late E.P. Taylor. Formerly a 6 square kilometer Canadian horse breeding facility, Windfields has always caught my eye and I finally decided to stop and make some images.

Windfields Gates


The legacy of Windfields Farm will live on in Canadian and horse racing history. These are the main gates to E.P. Taylor's once thriving Windfields Farm. Beyond these gates, the final resting place of Northern Dancer.

The property will soon be consumed by urban development. Reportedly, the grave of Northern Dancer and 15 other horses will be preserved in a memorial garden.

... more from my brief stop at Windfields Farm.
Windfields Lane


Windfields Debris


Windfields Fences


Windfields Fences II


I must plan a return visit before it is gone ...

DJE

Photo of the Week 2012-02-20

I regularly look for somewhere different each weekend to hike with Lynn and Murphy. Although there is also much to be said for returning to some familiar trails. I am fortunate to have such an abundance of trails and trail networks to choose from within a short distance from home.

On a late afternoon outing this weekend, we visited Scotsdale Farm, an Ontario Heritage Trust property reported to have superb hiking trails. This 531 acre property near Georgetown is crossed by a section of The Bruce Trail, related side trails and a number of other informal trails. We chose to explore the main trail-drive across the property and a section of the Maureen Smith side trail that looped back towards the main buildings and parking lot. We were gone for about an hour which is typical for our hikes in late afternoon on unfamiliar trails. Cloud cover had set in and the sun was setting as we came out of the forest, climbed over a rise and found our way back to the car.

Scotsdale Farm


DJE

Photo of the Week 2012-02-13

Wellington Winter II


Well, it looked like winter may have finally arrived this weekend but with the forecast for temperatures heading back to +5*C this week, it may be short lived.

A trip north of Guelph in search of snowy landscapes was the plan for Saturday morning. We headed out watching for daylight to reveal some wind and snow swept scenery. North of Elmira, heading toward Floradale the road cut through an expanse of open field where the wind was howling. Winter had arrived in Wellington County .... or so I thought.

DJE

Canis Lupus

I recently came across some images of wolves from another photographer, Dan Newcomb. Dan has some outstanding shots of captive wolves from a wildlife centre near Golden BC.

This sent me back into my image library to review my own wolf images taken on three separate visits to the Muskoka Wildlife Centre. At Muskoka, we were allowed in the wolf enclosure to photograph a pair of adult wolves, Akaya and Montana. Although this particular pair are captive and accustomed to human presence, I still felt a rush from being close to these magnificent creatures with no barrier between us.

Here are some of the "up close and personal" shots that I have managed during my all too few visits to the centre.

wolf mates


Akayla


Montana


stalking


the stare


It's time to think about a return visit.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2012-02-06

morning light on trailside cedars


Each of the past three weekends now, I have taken my cameras along on successive sections of the the Cambridge Mill Run Trail. The weather forecast for Saturday suggested it would be less than inspiring for photography however a good friend was just getting over a bout of pneumonia and needed an outing that wasn't too strenuous. This relatively flat trail system had been providing some new scenery for my lens and as uninspiring as the weather may have been, new scenery is always good.

DJE

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trails, tails and flakes

It's been a wacky winter so far ... in Southern Ontario we have not had much snow to speak of and I keep waiting for the inevitable. Or is it inevitable .... ?

I've been reconfiguring my PC to install an SSD for the OS and frequently used programs. An inconvenient corrupting of the system files on my old system HD scuttled plans to have that drive as an alternate boot drive while I got everything set up with the SSD. Going through this I am reminded of all the different programs, configurations and setting that I had become to rely on with the old system. I could rhyme of a list but ... suffice to say, I am 75% back up and running with most of the basics installed and beginning to replace some of those comfortable old setting and tweaks.

In celebration of the accomplishment so far, here's another image from last weekend.

tails and flakes


DJE