vaneramos | Day 9: wandering

Kenora reminds me of many Ontario cottage towns like Bracebridge and Gravenhurst, even though it's half a time zone away and I expect winters carry on much longer. The ancient Canadian Shield bedrock is the same, so are the trees, and the way life focuses on the lakeshore.

Tuesday evening we wandered downtown, still dominated by late 19th-Century shop fronts, and ended up eating at The Plaza Restaurant. It was more expensive than we had hoped, but the best Greek food I have had anywhere.

The owner told us about a trail, so we followed it after breakfast next morning. It wound around the edge of a small lake. The sun was warm. I photographed mosses, lichens, ferns, rock textures and Aquilegia canadensis in bloom. Warblers squabbled musically through the treetops. Apparently they haven't sorted out their territories yet. A Blackburnian warbler posed gloriously on a power line so I was able to show Danny. There were also mourning, yellow and black-and-white warblers. These are the same species I count in numbers along my Breeding Bird Survey route hundreds of kilometres away. Northern Ontario must be home to millions upon millions of them.

We have been taking our time, but still it doesn't seem enough to see all I wanted to see. We must pick and choose destinations, driving endlessly. We listened to the first three operas of Wagner's Ring Cycle on the way out, and finished Götterdämmerung yesterday.

We stopped at a place called Egli's Sheep Farm along the Trans-Canada Highway. Danny says it's funny how we manage to stumble upon wool stores unintentionally.

I've been growing my hair longer for the first time in many years. It almost reaches the nape of my neck. I've entirely stopped using shampoo, which makes the hair more manageable. The natural oils serve as conditioner and prevent it from flying everywhere, but still it is unruly. It is much more wavy.

At Egli's I ended up purchasing an Australian Outback hat. I've admired them before, but now with my hair this way it suits me perfectly and I want to live in it. It is waterproof and reflects the sun's heat. I'll get Danny to take a picture later.

It was 8:30 p.m. when we reached the outskirts of Thunder Bay. We wanted dinner and almost decided to skip Kakabeka Falls, but there it was, right next to the highway. I took this picture.