soul food

Photo by: catznbirdz

Often on a Sunday my mother and I would do a 'circle-tour' around Essex County. It would take hours and while away an afternoon. Starting in Windsor we would head inland passing farmers' fields in whatever stage of dress the season bore, head to Leamington for the long version of the tour, or cut down to the lake at Kingsville, for the shorter version.

Then we would travel the Lake Erie shore through the small towns, pass the greenhouses, by the cottages, breathing in the fresh lake air.

Eventually we would hit old, historic Amherstburg where Lake Erie began, widening out from the currents of the Detroit River further upstream. It was our ice cream stop. Further along, heading back to Windsor, if the season allowed, we would stop at the old farmers' stands in LaSalle.

Then, back in Windsor, following the shores of the Detroit River until time to turn inland.

I miss those rides and the way it connected us to the land -- and to each other.

So, yesterday I went out in search of somewhere -- anywhere -- away from the city of Toronto, where I could feel 'away', yet connect to the earth.

My intention was to find a spot by a lake or a stream and hike and read.

Instead, I wandered by a Highlands Games in Uxbridge, paid my entry and listened to the drums and pipes fill the summer air. I watched the highland dancers, saw Scottish cattle and dogs, and the big men throwing weights. I could have stayed for the Rankin Sisters, but drove on and up the road saw the manse where Lucy Maud Montgomery lived with her minister husband after leaving P.E.I.

Drove on to Scugog Lake and Port Perry. Had an ice cream cone and took deep breathes of the cool, wide, dark lake. Got back in the car and came across a Powwow on Scugog Island. It was just finishing, but I was able to walk around the booths and grounds, and the drums played off a recording.

I went as far as Lindsay and came back along another route, through golden fields of wheat, shoulder-high corn, small towns where Toronto was not in the equation.

I found my circle-tour. Only a half hour on the Don Valley Expressway, and then hinterlands varying with horse farms, baseball and soccer and sunflower fields, lakes and streams, and many places to explore in the future.