Elora Photo Walk

The Elora Mill always invites a photograph

Fifty photographers wandered through the picturesque village of Elora this morning, including yours-truly. It was a perfect day for a photo walk and part of the World Wide Photo Walk organized by Scott Kelby with proceeds going to the Springs of Hope orphanage in Kenya.

As you'll see I started shooting the scenic landscape and fall colours but soon was transfixed by the misty light over a waterfall on the Grand River.

An unusual feature on the river is a flowerpot island called "the Tooth of Time".

Even when I stopped to rest, I'd look up and the last of the autumn leaves shimmered still in the morning light.

Huronia

We drove north to Midland Ontario last weekend to enjoy the fall colours.

Midland sits on the shores of Georgian Bay, an area sometimes called Huronia. It was the ancestral home of the Huron people who called themselves Wendot. Huron was a french word meaning ruffian.

When Jesuit missionaries arrived in 1639 their lives changed forever, and not in a good way. The french missionaries brought deadly diseases and tribal division through religious conversion. The Jesuit settlement only lasted 10 years but that was enough to weaken the Wendot and to leave them vulnerable to their enemy the Iroquois.

Today the settlement has been recreated as Saint-Marie among the Hurons, and is worth a visit.

Nearby is the Wye Marsh, a large and significant wetland where trumpeter swans have been reintroduced. 

Take a walk along the boardwalk and you might just see an otter looking back at you!