Victory at Sea - Parry Sound

Oh, hi there, welcome to Parry Sound and Killbear Provincial Park.  Parry Sound and the town of Parry Sound were named after the Arctic explorer Sir William Edward Parry just in case you couldn't figure that out.  It is north of Toronto and part of Georgian Bay which in turn is part of Lake Huron which all adds up to beyond very pretty.  Not that our Rosie could enjoy any of the beauty of Killbear - she wouldn't get off the bus until it got to the paved parking area at the interpretive center.  Why you ask? 

Yup, she couldn't step a foot off the bus knowing there were so many of these spawns of the devil lurking around just waiting to nibble on her ankles.  She visited with two of the other ladies who also chose to stay on the bus while everyone else enjoyed a stroll along the banks of the sound and listened to the guide talk about the endangered Massassauga Rattlesn*ke (rumors she did the happy dance when she heard about the endangerment are entirely true).  Apparently, this little charmer is being protected to the extent of having tunnels built under the roads so you won't have to brake for them...and to get them to use the tunnels, little tiny fences have been built to guide their little slithering bodies to them.  (the sound you hear is Rosie rolling her eyes.)  True story.

The sign you see is a magnet that represents street signs along the roads - not little signs on fence posts, full blown huge signs like any other traffic warning.

So here is the one picture she got of the beauty of my part of the world.

So come on and meet some of my friends at the interpretive center.  Any of you that know Rosie knows she loves to pull her son's chain, who falls for it all the time, or so she thinks.  She  took these pictures to try to convince him she saw all of them in the wild....(now it is my time to roll my eyes that she thinks he is that dumb).

Cute ermine tail topper

OK, time to get back to work.  Hope you come see my home some day, it is full of history, culture, beauty and yes, even those Massassauga Rattlers.

See ya!

Thanks to my beaver friend I didn't have to mention the sn*ke word too much.  After our trip to Killbear we returned to the town of Parry Sound and did a bit of shopping.  I bought "Summer Storm" a copy of a painting by A.J. VanDrie's done in the Woodland style.  The Woodland style was founded/developed by an Ojibwe artist, Morris Morrisseau.  He took the teachings of his grandfather of the history and culture of his people and turned them into art usually on birch bark.  ""all my painting and drawing is really a continuation of the shaman's scrolls."

The Woodland style is characterized by bold outlines and X-ray views of people, animals and plant life painted in garish colors and bold strokes. 

The back of the card reads:  Each colour used in A.J. VanDrie's paintings is symbolic to the First Nations people and the style of art he incorporates, broadly known as the Woodland School.  "The black lines are the body of the plant or animal and inside the body there is a spirit. The red represents the flesh and the blood, the green symbolizes the growth, and the blue is the spirit."  The recognizable flower signed in the bottom right corner of A.J.'s paintings symbolizes his Ojibwe name Wahbegona, meaning Wild Flower.

After force feeding us more delicious food we went for a sail around Parry Sound on the Chippewa (Chippewa is an alternative spelling to the First Nation name of Ojibwe).  The Chippewa was a small little guy and thankfully had cover for us to get under since it was rainy.  Most of the scenery, while beautiful, was not distinct enough to fill this post up with photos from our tour.  I chose a few that drew my interest among the hundred or so I took - beautiful banks with small summer cottages and of course, being in Canada, pristine.

First cousin to the SS Minnow :)

The circle is for navigation purposes

The granite looking inlays, especially the skinny ones, are explained by the Ojibwe as "pink sn*kes drinking water" or close to that.  Even I can handle that because it is exactly what it looks like. 

If you like geology, Google Parry Sound, lots of geological stuff going on that is way above my level of understanding.

Cylindrical building has an entrance door - makes me wonder.

Can you tell which way the prevailing winds blow?

Luckily I still had enough vacation funds to bail her out...

Returned to the Victory to have more wine and food forced on us. 

The bridge in the background is the longest trestle bridge east of the Rockies at 1,695 feet.  It was built in 1907 by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the first train passed over it in 1908.  Today it provides westbound traffic for both the National Canadian Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway.  Eastbound traffic uses the National Canadian lines.

Off to the Ojibwe First Nation tomorrow but it is pretty intense so will take me a couple of days to get it up and running.  In the meantime, look at this cute little weasel I saw in the wild...really I did....really.

Not sure I want to hear him whisper....