Sonya's Blog - Day 40 - The Farmer's Market and The Emancipation Festival

Sonya’s Blog - Day 40 - August 1st - The Farmer’s Market and The Emancipation Festival

They have a great little Farmer’s Market in town on Saturdays and we wanted to go and check it out because we love Farmer’s Markets. We also love fresh vegetables picked out of peoples gardens over the ones in the grocery stores, so off we went. There was lots to choose from and it was a very busy little market. We managed to get lots of veggies and there were also some local cheese and meat vendors, so we picked up some stuff there as well.

Next we are off to The Emancipation Festival in Harrison Park. Owen Sound was the end of the line for The Underground Railroad for black slaves looking to escape the US. They had a special dedication area in Harrison Park and today they were celebrating Emancipation and Canada’s role in helping slaves to escape to freedom. The town crier opened the festival with his announcements:

The Town Crier:

He was a really good speaker. Then they had the Deputy Mayor and others come up to say a few words. They then had a local guy who runs Gospel Workshops come up and talk about what he does. He then went into a Gospel song that the Blacks sang to foster hope of freedom one day. A lot of the songs would have code words in them, so that if you were thinking of trying to escape you would know where to go. He then did a call and repeat song with the crowd and he is doing a workshop later in the afternoon.

They were going to get set up for the afternoon activities after that and we decided to go for a little hike to Inglis Falls while this was happening. The falls were 3 KM away, so off we went. I was only wearing my flip flops and it quickly became apparent that this was a hiking trail. I soldiered on because I wanted to see the falls. We came across an Arboretum first and read all about the trees. They had some great info on trees, which is perfect for Isaac’ tree project for science this year. He was not as excited, but learning while we hike is so much better than learning in a classroom. He hates his “tree project”. So far all he has had to do is take pictures of trees, you would think I had asked him to climb them and look up the full histories of said trees the way he goes on. Seriously! He did get a lovely picture of a Sugar Maple, which is native to this area so will be his tree for Ontario.

Isaac’s tree:

It was a beautiful hike along the Bruce trail through lovely woods and crossed the Sydenham River to Inglis Falls. We found this spot after we had crossed the bridge and had a good time splashing around in the river:

We arrived at the falls and they were nice. Some crazy kids had climbed down onto the cliffs around the falls, but they managed to make it down to the river without killing themselves. We had a little break there and explored around for an hour or so. Such a great area. The Bruce Trail travels all along the edge of Niagara Escarpment from Tobermory to the Niagara Peninsula. It is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve and because the land is so lush they have quite an array of unique vegetation that grows here.

Some pics along the trail and at the Falls:

We loved it! After we had explored, we headed back to Harrison Park to check out what was happening at the Festival. We arrived in time for the Gospel Workshop. We bought some Caribbean food and headed over to listen. The leader of the workshop gave a brief history of each song and any meanings the song may have had. He was really good and the workshop was interesting.

I headed over to the main stage after a bit to listen to the local Owen Sound band that was playing. They were foflksy country sounding, but enjoyable and with lots of energy. After a bit we were ready to head back and play a game of Dominion and get some supper going. We had a good game of Dominion and for the first time ever I won. Isaac was a little upset, he still has a hard time accepting that he cannot always win.

It was my turn to cook and I made Salmon. Blake was helping Isaac get his blogs off his phone and onto the computer so that he could finally post something, It has been quite awhile, but our internet has been so spotty and we have had some pretty long days. He blogs on his phone when we are in the car, but then never has a chance to post online. Blake was having troubles getting everything set up and a system in place, so Isaac took Kizmet for a walk. About a 1/2 hour later I had finished supper and Blake had figured out the internet and Isaac’s phone, but Isaac still was not back from his walk. Blake took off on his bike to go find him and came back 5 mins later sans Isaac. We were a little worried because usually he takes her out for about 10 minutes and feels like he has taken her on a super long walk. So we all headed out on our bikes to find him. The Bruce Trail comes right by our campground and Blake headed down the trail and Natasha and I circled the campground looking for him. After 15 minutes we still hadn’t found him, but one couple said they had seen him about 10 minutes before in the far end of the campground. I hightailed it over there, but still did not find him. I headed down the Bruce trail after about 1/2 hour of looking and finally found him, he was coming back and was so happy about the super long walk he took Kizmet on! He didn’t think he had been gone an hour and was so upset that we were worried about him, but really we were just happy that they were safe. He told us all about his adventures and all the neat things he saw in the forest. So in the end he and Kizzy had two hikes in one day. Kizmet came back and promptly fell asleep for the night. We all had supper and listened to his tales.

Blake and I did clean-up while we watched an episode of Corner Gas. Both the kids love that show and cannot believe how much Oscar is like their Grandpa. It’s pretty funny!

Hope everyone is well,

Sonya