End Of Summer

     I know, summer doesn't officially end til Sept. 21, but, it's the Labour Day Weekend and for all intents and purposes, the summer season is soon to be over. It's been a tradition of mine to write something  on the Labour Day Weekend, either a blog post or just an entry in my personal journal. This year, I decided to go with the blog post. Sorry about your luck!

     For me, this past summer has been somewhat lacklustre. At work,my department has been short staffed and that, combined with the usual summer vacations has caused me to give up some of my days off to work overtime. I haven't been getting out as much as I would have liked.   The weather has been mostly rainy which often put a damper (literally) on outdoor activities. In scrolling through my recent photographs, I was struck by how many of them feature stormy skies. Even the sunset pictures look a bit threatening!

     At one point , earlier in the season, Heavy rains to the north of us caused the river near my home to swell to levels I had never seen before.

The river on May 6, 2017

This is how the previous scene usually looks!

    Miraculously, despite the fact that we live a stone's throw from the river, we experienced no flooding!

     Earlier in the season, I had the opportunity to fulfill a bucket list aspiration by going soaring in a glider. Despite a delay in waiting for the pilot/instructor to arrive, It was an awesome experience!                                                                                                                         

One of the tow planes in the hangar. Note the rear view mirror which looks like it was salvaged from a '65 Chevy!    

My ride for the event. With tow pilot and pilot/instructor.

Pre-flight check.

The instrument panel.

The tow plane.

    

Selfie at 5000 ft.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

     On Father's Day this summer we did what Dad (me) likes to do best. We road on a train. This involved a return visit to one of my favourite little railways, The South Simcoe. You get to ride in a vintage heavyweight coach or combination coach/baggage car pulled by a very old coal fired steam engine. Once again Greg and I obtained the conductor's permission to ride in the combine (baggage) car where we had the whole seating section almost to ourselves. We revelled in the sound of 136's steam whistle and waved to folks at the crossings. As always,it's a great experience to ride  on a vintage train with the smell of coal smoke and live steam occasionally wafting through the open windows.                                                                                                                                                                                               

Vintage style silver rangefinder camera, old school canvas camera bag, vintage railway car.
"These are a few of my favourite things."                
 

Greg aboard the S.S.R.

Same kid, same train, six years earlier.

       Our last summer adventure was cut a bit short by inclement weather. The plan was to go to Manitoulin Island and camp for a day or two then drive around Georgian Bay to spend some time camping at Killbear Provincial Park. The weather was great up til our second day out. We spent a rainy night on Manitoulin before packing up and continuing our travels. On the plus side, I learned that the new tent I bought last summer can withstand a Manitoulin thunderstorm. We drove through some pretty heavy thunderstorms and made our way to Parry Sound where we took a motel room for the night. 

   

     Before coming home we did get to ride on another vintage train however. (Did I mention I like trains?) This time it was the "Portage Flyer" on the Huntsville and Lake of Bays Railway. This railway, once billed as the shortest commercial railway in the world, is a little narrow gauge line that once connected steamship traffic on two of the lakes near Huntsville, Ont. It's now even shorter than it used to be. It operates a small steam powered tank engine and two open coaches. The rides is only about twenty minutes and the engine is so small that they turn it by hand on small turntables at each end of the line. But it's very quaint and a fun little ride,

The Portage Flyer

  

Stormy Skies Over Fairy Lake

     

  

The quintessential "Little Engine That Could"        

      For me, these are the highlights of the summer that was. At the beginning of this entry, I bemoaned the lack of decent weather and my slightly longer work hours. However, in putting together this post, I realize that overall, I had a pretty good spring/summer season. As usual, Labour Day is a little melancholic as we wind down the last of the summer days. But, I also look forward to the coming of Autumn, my favourite time of year. I love  the cooler days and brilliant colours of the coming season. I'm planning a little fall colour tour and will hopefully garner some good images to be shared here. Enjoy these last days of summer.

...more later