Sunday, August 6, 2017

Taking a Break

We decided that it was time for a break from the boxes, the garden and plans for the move.   And our camper van needed the exercise; it's been neglected.  So we headed out for the day, aiming eventually at Keppel Croft Gardens up near Wiarton.  Even then we couldn't get away from the down-sizing; we dropped off four boxes of books on the way.  I'm getting really ruthless!

Mrs. F.G. had made one of her great picnic lunches, and we stopped at the Kemble Women's Institute Lookout to enjoy it.  And the view is spectacular.

This is just a simple rural township park, but someone is taking care of it really well.  The gardens are well designed, and weedless; the grass and gravel were kept clean.  You get the impression that a local group is very proud of this spot.  The van was pleased to be out for a run!

I've shared this before, but I've always thought it's such an appropriate monument - a table set for tea, so typical of the Women's Institute.  It's made out of a huge thick slab of Amabel dolostone, cut clean on this side and the top.

But the other side is the natural face of a rock that was obviously exposed to lots of weather over a few million years.  It's a great chunk of rock for a geologist!

But that's not what this is about.  The Women's Institute is an organization that promotes, in their words, 'strong families and strong communities'.  It was started here in Ontario, as a parallel to the already existing Farmer's Insititutes.  The Kemble WI was the third in the world, and is the oldest of these still active, making it the oldest active Women's Institute in the world.  There are thousands of branches and millions of members today; the Queen is a member of the Sandringham WI.

I thought the sculptor, Marnie Cheyne, who worked with the local WI women to design the monument, did a great job.  I'm sure many women could relate to a tea service, complete with biscuits, as a reminder of the WI meetings and discussions.  This organization makes a huge difference to the lives of rural women, who otherwise can be living somewhat isolated lives.

The open book is printed with the "Mary Stewart Collect", a beautiful and appropriate prayer that is the Women's Institute's creed.  It was written by Mary Stewart, a teacher in Colorado, in 1904.  Take a moment to read it, or look it up here.  The monument sits on a small parcel of land that was the site of a former church.

The view, looking almost straight east, looks out over Owen Sound (the body of water, not the city which is some distance to the right).  This is the southwest corner of Georgian Bay.

I find the shelving bedrock of the Niagara Escarpment fascinating.  Each represents a different geological formation.  In this view I think the far right bluff is Coffin Hill, part of the Amabel dolostone formation, which the bluff at the far left is another outcropping of the claybanks, formed by the Georgian Bay shale formation.  Someday I will go and find both of those bluffs!





15 comments:

  1. That is wonderful that you took some time out and enjoyed your camper van. Such beautiful countryside there to explore, And the weather just about perfect.

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  2. Our Grandson would so enjoy that rock, and all the other places you can visit there. He came for the weekend, to do some jobs for us, and his gear included the safety glasses and a rock pick/rock hammer. It looked lethal, and was very solid and so heavy. ( he is in his 2nd year of a science degree, Geology and Earth Science ) Glad to see you are having a wee break from packing, sorting and disposing!!

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  3. That's a great monument. It's good you took some time off, FG. You'll feel energized for the work again.

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  4. I missed a few of your posts where you talked about downsizing and moving. My sympathies about clearing the "stuff." We've lived in the same house for nearly 50 years, and although I routinely discard stuff that no longer means much to me, my husband likes to surround himself with every book he has ever read (and that's a LOT!) and even holds on to worn-out socks and underwear unless I sneak them out to the trash when he's not looking. But even after you decide to chuck stuff, what to do with it all, that is the hardest thing.

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  5. The tea table sculpture reminds me of one I saw at Basle cathedral (or one of them) of vegetables. It a bit of a surprise to find in the courtyard of a church; bronze boxes of bronze beans and other veg. A little strange but I really liked it. Love the way that lump of rock has been carved and polished on the one side only.

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  6. What a beautiful moument! Good luck with the move!

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  7. Hello, love the monument and the pretty gardens. I would love to have a camper van like yours, it would be great for getaways. Happy Monday, enjoy your day and new week!

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  8. Glad you are giving yourselves a break from all that downsizing. It does start to take on a life of its own, doesn't it? And I love the pretty tea set and the story of the Women's Institute. :-)

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  9. Oh my! I love this display of a table set for tea and the story. My Mom was a long time member of the Women's Institute in the Mt. Brydges and then Lucan areas but I never knew much about it as a young girl.
    I'm glad you gave yourselves a rest from purging, otherwise it seems too much like a chore.
    thank you, I have suggested now that Bill and I go one day.

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  10. Nice place for a picnic and a little bit of history.

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  11. What a perfect spot for a picnic.
    Beautiful flowers, scenery, with a beautiful monument and a lovely prayer. How nice a world it would be if we all lived like that.

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  12. That final long view is so wonderful. I don't know much about the geological but am learning as I scan your posts. We have all the rocks from the glacial drag that left lots of different rocks in our area. Our farmland comes free from the glaciers.

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  13. What a great setting for such a park!

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  14. The very notion of “taking a break” from the one you love is often times misinterpreted as a somewhat cowardly way of ending the relationship ...
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