Moving on to Oakville

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It's 19.52 on the 25th May. Today I'll write the first 3 days that I have missed, then I'll do the next 3 tomorrow or the next day - I've got a lot to tell.
So Wednesday. We got up and begun the day doing some picking of the salad greens that were ready for harvesting. Matt cut Arugula, Rosie and Kate cut Cutting Celery, and I filled 4 crates full of a variety of red and green lettuce. Once we'd harvested enough, one of the larger greenhouses was practically empty as we'd pulled up near all the lettuce growing in it. Therefore, the next job was the hoe the ground in the greenhouse ready for the next crop to be planted.
This took us up to lunch, and once we returned we were ready to clear the weeds and roots we'd hoed up, then create 6 or 7 lines of compost to plant the tomatoes. We took turns taking the gator to the compost pile and filling up the back, then shovelling it out into the greenhouse and raking it into place. Finally, once this was done we planted rows of different heritage tomatoes and trained them with strings hanging from the ceiling. It was really quite satisfying to have completely transformed the layout of an entire greenhouse in a day.
By this time it was 4.30, and we headed over to the hop yard where Sandy gave us a crate of beer and asked us to spend a little while pulling out the hop vines that hadn't started growing up the ropes, so to clear the bed a little for the larger hop vines. It was easy work, especially with a beer in hand - and the day hadn't been quite as warm as it had been previously, only about 20•C at the warmest.
We headed back to the house, and spent the next hour or so just relaxing, until Mike (the farm manager) came with his girlfriend, Jamie, to pick us up and take us and Dakota and Laura out for a drink. We went to Fionn MacCool's, a local Irish pub, where we chatted and drunk from pitchers of beer. We bought a few sharing platters too, and had 3 rounds of jaegerbombs to finish off, courtesy of Mike (Sandy had given us $180 to go out with).
Thursday we got up at usual time, but it was time to pack and clear up rather than work. Slowly we packed up and showers etc, then spent most of the rest of the morning sitting by the barbecue with a couple beers while cooking up the rest of our food. Ron, Kate's Dad, came to pick us up at around 2 (we were to spend the weekend with him), and at the same time a new guy, Andreas, arrived - but we didn't really get a chance to talk to him properly.
We drove the hour or so to the other side of Toronto, to a town called Oakville where Nicole lived. We dumped our stuff in the living room of the house and headed out to the patio to sit and chat for a little while. Before long both of Nicole's daughters - Rebecca, 23, and Emily, 21 - came home, and so we all chatted and relaxed in the warmth of the afternoon and into the evening.
After burgers and sausages cooked on the barbecue, alongside a whole array of pickles, sauces, salads and toppings, we all headed out for a stroll out in downtown Oakville and to get some ice cream. It was quickly apparent by the houses we passed on the way that it was an affluent area, and the Main Street was beautiful. The street was line with trees lit by fairy lights, illuminating sidewalk bar patios and ice cream parlours, while a small river intersected the road and widened out into a harbour leading into Lake Ontario.
We got the largest and most extravagant ice cream I've ever had, then walked down a leafy side road down the harbour arm which stretched out into the blank waters of the lake. It was a beautiful setting, the water almost as still and quiet as the lights on the opposite shore. By the time we headed back we were pretty exhausted - as if often the case on travel days - and so were quickly to bed.
We got up at 9 Friday morning and, after a quick coffee, headed out to go to Niagara Falls with Ron. We piled into the car, and stopped fairly early on to grab breakfast at Timmy's (Tim Hortons). We moved on, driving for probably over an hour through the wide concrete highways that ran around, and sometimes over, the lake.
Eventually we arrived, and got our first glimpse of the falls. Niagara Falls consists of two parts - the smaller American falls on the U.S. side of the gorge, and the larger horseshoe falls that stretches in an arc from the Canadian bank to the U.S. bank.
From the car we only got tantalising glimpses of plumes of water vapour and the top of the falls, so we quickly parked up and eagerly headed down to the sidewalk that runs down the cliff edge. The view was, of course, spectacular. I don't think a verbal description will do it any justice so I will just upload all the pictures I have to give a better idea - but even these pale in comparison to the real thing.
We slowly made our way down the walkway, turning frequently to soak in the sights. Eventually we made our way down the the entrance to the Hornblower, the boat that takes you down the river, right next to the falls. We were all given waterproof jackets (more like sacks), and were loaded into the boat. We started off passing the American falls, which were still spectacular despite their smaller size, before heading down the horseshoe falls. As the boat pulled up, we were all hit by waves of torrential 'rain' coming off the falls which towered above us. It was like standing in a huge storm, the wind and water whipping the hoods off our heads despite the clear blue sky above.
The boat stays still for a little while, before circling back round to dock.
By the time we left the boat it was getting on for lunch time, so we decided to drive up to Niagara-On-The-Lake, a small town half an hour or so away, to grab some lunch.
To get there we drove through the town of Niagara Falls - which is almost like a mini Las Vegas, full of casinos and fantastically coloured attractions and buildings. Once out of the town the scenery was beautiful, with heavy woodland obscuring the Niagara river - which was huge and meandering by this point.
Niagara-on-the-lake is a tourist town stretched down a wide tree lined avenue that was so pretty it bordered on artificial. We parked up, and walked down the road, popping into fudge & chocolate shops, preserve shops, and a whole variety of tourist boutiques. By this point the day was pleasantly warm.
Next stop was a vineyard (the Niagara peninsula is full of them), for a wine tour. The tour took us through the vineyard itself, then through the vast metal fermenters and tanks, then into the subterranean barrel cellar. The tour only cost us $5 each, with 4 samples along the way - one of which being an ice wine which is made from frozen grapes in the depths of winter. Not only that, but we also got $5 of wine of any bottle of wine - so we all left with a bottle and feeling considerable more knowledgeable.
It was getting on by the time we getting home - maybe 6 o clock, and after a quick shower and freshen up we headed out with Ron, Nicole, Emily and Rebecca to eat. We had a lovely meal in a restaurant a short drive from the house - and that served a cocktail called a Bronx Sour, made with red wine, Bourbon and lemon juice which everyone else thought was horrible, but I loved.
Once we we'd eaten, the plan was for the four of us and Rebecca to head to a bar - but by this point it was 10 on a Friday night and most places had bouncers on the door. Unfortunately, the legal drinking age in Ontario is 19, and Matt turned 19 the very next day. However, we eventually found a bar, Jack Astors, without doormen - and headed in for a drink while Emily, Ron, Nicole and Rosie (who was still feeling really tired & wanted to conserve energy for matts birthday the following day) headed home.
The bar was lively, with cheap drinks and snacks, so the four of us sat and talked and drunk into the small hours. Rebecca got Matt a birthday shot at midnight, which was a shot glass of baileys and Kahlua in a martini glass filled with whipped cream. The idea was you had to get the shot glass out using only your mouth - which was of course practically impossible but nonetheless very messy and very funny.
We finally called a cab at last call at 2am and headed home. Once back, we were asleep almost instantly.

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Comments

[Dr John HW]

Latest 3 blogs
All these blogs were, as ever, with entertaining and give a great sense of a fantastic trip. However, the presence of a very great deal of drink assumes an uncomfortably high profile in some of them! That day with beer, cocktails and goodness-knows-what-else sounds a real Bacchanalian orgy and I'm glad you didn't suffer alcohol poisoning! Niagara sounds incredible and it is always difficult to put an experience like that into words. A lot of philosophers and linguists have noted this before because words simply convey an experience and are not the experience themselves. Phenomenologists have therefore concentrated on capturing the essence of a given experience by stripping language back to repeated and frequently occurring descriptive words. It's more complicated than that of course, but you don't do too badly yourself! All good here - Mum and I did a 5 mile kayak trip up the Adur from Shoreham Beach up towards the cement works - great fun. Crystal Palace have finished 10th - in the top half of the Premiership, so a great season, all in all. Looking forward to your next despatches as you move west.