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:: Friday, February 10, 2006 ::
Around Lucan
Photos: This former school house is located at the NE corner of Neil Rd and Maple Lodge Drive, South West of Lucan Ontario. It is on a section of Neil Rd running parallel to Hwy 20 ( Denfield Rd.) North of HWY 7 (Elgenfield Rd.)
I was very cold outside and I was driving around for stuff to see (and keeping out of ditches this time) and headed fairly arbitrarily North on Hwy 4 up towards Lucan. My first turn off was a right on Coursey Line where about a click down the ice covered road I found the log cabin pictured below. It wasn't an original one, but I think it said a lot about a Canadian Winter. The drifts right up the front porch illustrate a little about how much snow we get even this far South in Canada in a mid winter. I backtracked a bit - since I have no idea where my map of this part of the province is and had no GPS gear - and crossed over Hwy 4 to the other side of Coursey Line heading South towards Hwy 7. Coursey is pretty much the continuation of Hyde Park Rd at the top end if you are trying to picture roughly where I am.
A third picture of a barn in brilliant sun was taken a bit further down at the corner of Coursey and William St. I had hopes for brilliant colours and such but it was washed out from shooting directly into the sun and I think I had the shutter too slow. I flipped it to BW, and messed with the levels and I ended up with a pic that reminded me slightly of a grainy IR image. Not the original outcome but OK never the less. No ND filter or polarizer is a bitch in winter I am finding!
I went down Hwy7 West and then went back up North on Neil Rd to where I found what I first thought was a small old abandoned church. I pulled over - OK, I stopped a little off centre - on the completely ice covered sideroad and put the hazards on. I was hoping for a break in the cloud so I could get some sun to illuminate the yellow brick. No luck after about ten mins. So I drove closer, parked on Maple Lodge Rd - once again fairly in the middle (afraid of false soft shoulders) - and got out into the biting wind that was turning me more than rosy. After about ten minutes or so, a car came down the road parked beside mine in the opposite direction and an older guy got out. I went up to him at first I thought I was going to be told I was parking in the middle of the road etc... He introduced himself as Dough Ovens and said that he lived just down the road and had seen me poking about. He wondered what I was doing as the building had recently been broken into and the OPP have been there (the door was now barricaded). Once I explained what I was doing - and gave him a card, which comes in handy I find - he told me a bit about the building said that he was one of the last students to go to this school before it closed in 1959.
I beleive Doug said he was part of the Lucan Historical society and we chatted a bit about the history of the area. He said the the building dated back to about 1900, and had been used more recently as a woodworking shop. And at one point there had been a small Presbyterian church on the other corner which he had moved some time ago, used as a shop and since torn down. He promised to give me a call later in the year as he had some old steam powered wood working equipment he shows off in the summer and we thought it would be good material to shoot pics of. It dawned on me at that point that the Cookstown steam show in the summer would be cool too. My family used to go for several summers in a row in the early to mid 1970s and this was as far as a family vacation or road trip got for us. I think it would be interesting to see this now - a few years on - and take some pics there. Anyone up for a trip when it is warmer?
I always find it interesting doing this photography thing meeting the people I meet, hearing stories and seeing things that are essentially in a backyard that very few venture and poke about in these days.
I also got to try out Mandy's new little Sony Vaio laptop later in the evening - and have some chocolate cake. I think you could get high off that cake! :0 That would be a great little machine to use as a backup or road machine instead of this wee beastie.
Carpe Diem
:: Mike Wood 10:43 [+] ::
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