Loughbreeze Bay B&B

Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category

You may recall it was only last week I reminded you about the pending Warkworth Maple Syrup Festival.   We have been going to this awesome event for nearly 5 years usually taking one or more of our grandchildren and often with friends and neighbours.   To us it is a glorious occasion where modern life styles can glimpse back a few years and enjoy the simpler more traditional farm life.  First you take the short trip to Warkworth a small farming community that glitters with interesting shops, restaurants and talent.    You may recall our POST on “The Perfect Pie” or maybe our article on “TheWarkworth Donnybrook” and then there was “The Long Lunch” plus there were other interesting events all sponsored by the Warkworth  Community.   Well, Sunday, March 10, the first day of Springing Ahead for Daylight Savings Time was our day to catch The Warkworth Maple Syrup Festival A MERE 20 MINUTES FROM LOUGHBREEZE.  From the town centre a flock of 6 busses transport visitors from various spots out to “The Sugar Bush”.  Naturally we purchased tickets to have breakfast:  Fresh Pancakes, sausages with a generous ladle of just made maple syrup ladled on by our very own Member of Parliament, Mr. Rick Norlock.    By the way Rick is there every year loading this incredible golden brown sweetness on each stack of cakes.  Of course there are beverages for all ages.   And speaking of ages you would be amazed to see the young people hustling about serving and cleaning, even driving the horse teams pulling the sleighs as everyone wants to ride through the trails to see the gathering of the maple syrup direct from the trees.  Well, there are dancers, fiddlers, musical groups,  plus maple cotton candy, and ice chilled maple syrup you pick up with your very own popsicle stick plus the piece d’ resistance a chance to use an old tyme cross cut saw and take home the slice you cut!   And you will surely want to see the huge stainless steel kettle as it makes the pure delicious maple syrup.   Naturally in this wondrous environment there are souvenirs and plenty of freshly made MAPLE SYRUP.    I hope you will enjoy our photographs as we travelled around including the petting zoo.   It was and always is a perfect occasion.

www.loughbreeze.com,   www.Warkworth.ca,   www.warkworthmaplesyrupfestival.ca

 

What a week!   Rockin Robin with a host of Friends appeared this week at our feeders, in our trees plus all around the yard.   No matter how many Springs come and go spotting our first ROBIN is a wonderful experience.  Well,  the weather has been incredible and likely those blowing winter storms in Dallas, Chicago, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania encouraged these feathered friends to hustle to our Lakefront Paradise.   Not that I can blame them cause aside from being a breath taking lovely spot our weather is quite temperate allowing us to be a 4 (four) season resort.    Oh sure, we get a bit of snow occasionally , frosty shrubs and trees with a light coating on the lawn, but nothing like those storms we have all been reading about.   On those snow days we treck our nature paths, cruise the lake front and walk through the woods observing small animal tracks.   And you may recall I mentioned before we have lots of auctions.  In fact they occur year round.   Check out these sites for additional information: www.brightonestateauctions.com/,   www.waddingtons.ca,    www.theauctionadvertiser.com/MGummer/,     www.warnersauction.com

This year Mr. will be building more of his creative Bird Houses, plus his new Woodpecker Feeders in addition to his very special walking sticks.   But don’t go away cause I am sure he will come up with more items to show.  At www.loughbreezebay.com  we welcome you to share our MAGICAL environment;  we are, secluded privacy in the middle of everything!    See you soon.

 

 

Well, I do not want to ignore the multitude of fantastic shops, stores, artists, crafts persons, historical locations plus genealogy experts and incredible special events, but you need to know of the diversity available in Northumberland County from the Hills to Lake Ontario.   Already, if you are a charter viewer of our post (B&B News), you are familiar with many of the wonderful facets surrounding us.   Here are a few more for you to enjoy.

Brewster’s Family Restaurant:  Prominently located in the centre of town you will want to visit Brewster’s for great food and to meet the innovative entrepreneurs.    Tel.289-251-3010

www.welcomecyclists.ca, is your dedicated site for Cycling Ontario and you can get  Regional Cycling Information, accommodations, maps, restaurants, healthy local food options including the bike train;  www.biketrain.ca,  www.parkbus.ca and www.northumberlandtourism.com

Barnum House A National Historic Site minutes from Loughbreeze operated by  www.heritagetrust.on.ca

And don’t forget that Happening Village of Warkworth, Ontario, 20 minutes north of Loughbreeze B&B.  www.warkworth.ca  delivers a listing of some of the movers and shakers residing here as well as listing of their incredible annual events.   “Warkworth – an experience you don’t want to miss.”

At Loughbreeze B&B we have added a Certified Masseuse to our amenities for your satisfaction, relaxation and pleasure; 24 hour advance booking required.
Next time I’ll tell you about fishing, boating, theatre, golf, fossile rock collecting, plus the awesome art community.   Watch for news on our up-coming search for the world’s best Butter Tart.

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Life can be and usually, for me, is very serendipitous.  On this occasion I want to let you in on one of my favorite secrets.   It was nearly a year ago Leslie Humphrys-Eliasziw and her delightful family came to Loughbreeze B&B.   They are an amazing family that I hope to tell you more about later on.  However today let me acquaint you with Leslie and her fascinating company “The Healing Baths”.   Lucky for us Leslie was in our area demonstrating her products, meeting clients while signing up new users and speciality retailers to carry her products.

Certainly this is not an unabashed commercial but rather an opportunity to share with you a remarkable woman with her equally remarkable “Dead Sea” products.   You may well have seen these products in speciality stores in your own area.   Suffice it to be we were so impressed with Leslie and her family and after learning about and using the various therapeutic benefits of “The Dead Sea Minerals” we felt compelled to share our experiences.   Visit www.thehealingbath.ca to review her brochure and “Change the way you Feel”.   We think you will be glad you did!

www.thehealingbath.ca
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It’s a great place to be along with another 6,000 + vibrants souls:  March 9 &  10 2013 get thee to Warkworth for the Maple Syrup Festival a mere 20 minutes from Loughbreeze B&B.   This maple syrup celebration-is an incredible occasion for kids and their adult relations.  Spectacular in town events, mostly free, combined with FREE BUSSES to the Sandy Flat Sugar Bush, admission $4.00,  12 and under free.   For sure you will want to enjoy the Pancakes, Sausages & Maple Syrup.    Be sure to visit all those great shops in Warkworth, its a very special town,  where you will find an incredible collection of unique items and local crafts.  It’s a sweet heart festival!   Get all the details:   www.warkworthmaplesyrupfestival.ca
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P.S. while you are in Warkworth be sure to pick up your copy of the PREMIER ISSUE  Feb, 2013 of their dynamic new magazine “NU WORK”
Contact Gary Mulcahey 
nuwork@ymail.com

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We woke up this morning to an incredible winter wonderland.  You can probably imagine the bright white collar of snow/ice huddling along our shore line. As I write this temperatures are just above freezing and a magnificent white coat of snow has blanketed everything in sight. Here in Paradiseour lovely tall Black Locust have a snow covering on each branch with the trunks carrying a snowy shadow on the east side.   I have just come inside after photographing today’s awesome beauty for our Loughbreeze Photography and Crafts Site and right now here is a sneak preview of what I saw this morning.  Come & Enjoy!  We look forward to seeing you soon.

 

 

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Visit The Friends’ website www.friendsofpresquile.on.ca.

Congratulations to the winner of our 2012 RAFFLE Prizes,  Mountain Bike and  Camping Package,  L. Van Dusen of Brighton, Ontario

We are having a picnic and you are invited!

HAMBURGERS, SAUSAGES, HOT DOGS, and PEAMEAL BACON… and also chips and cookies with a selection of HOT & COLD drinks.

All proceeds from our BBQs will go towards The Friends’ projects in Presqu’ile Park. 37th Annual Waterfowl Weekend – March 16 and 17Mark your calendar — Saturday and Sunday, March 16 

and 17, the 37th Annual Waterfowl Weekend will beheld, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm each day. This is a great chance for nature enthusiasts to come out and appreciate one of the great nature spectacles on earth – the return of migrating waterfowl to their staging areas along the lower Great Lakes. Presqu’ile is well situated to experience this phenomenon with close viewing and a good variety ofspecies.  Seeing 20 different species of waterfowl in a day is not unusual and 25+ species are usually tallied during the season.  During viewing weekends, volunteers with scopes are situated at key locations to help visitors find and identify the different species. Both the Lighthouse Interpretive Centre and Nature Centre will be open. The Nature Centre will have ducky displays and children’s activities, as well as duck decoy carving displays (confirmation pending), and a representative of Henry’s Camera Store.  The Lighthouse Centre showcases photographic and art displays. In addition, Bushnell representative, Dave Richards, will be on hand to answer your questions and show you the latest in optical equipment.  Bushnell has again generously donated some optical equipment for a Friends’ fund-raising raffle. The draw will take place at the end of the Warblers  and Whimbrels Weekend on May 19th.

The Friends will be there with a barbeque, starting at 11:00 am.  Nothing like hot food on a winter’s day to keep the spirits up, and the birders looking.  Proceeds from theBarbeque will go towards our projects in the Park.  Also, The Friends’ Lighthouse Gift Shop will be open both days from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. While it is impossible to determine how the rest of the winter will go, we have already had some early spring migrants in the form of Canvasbacks and Redheads. The rare Barrow’s Goldeneye seems to be back over- wintering off the lighthouse for a fourth straight year. There is no telling if he will still be there come March but i is a sure thing that there will be ducks galore on Presqu’ile Bay.

Hope you can come out and join us when we find out what natural wonders will be on display at the 2013 Waterfowl Weekend.

For more information, call me at 613 475 4324, ext  225, or e-mail david.bree@ontario.ca.

David Bree, Natural Heritage Education Leader

Saturday, March 16 and Sunday, March 17. Come and join us for lunch, from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm You will find us outside the Lighthouse Interpretive Centre.

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a wondrous snow shoe walk.

Mind you since the temperatures were hovering around freezing and the snow was crunchy and not too deep, it seemed the ideal time to pull on the snowshoes.   We have collected a supply that attach to all sizes of boots.   Today, I decided to take our nature trail circling out around our field and leading into the marvelous woods blanketed with cedars and deciduous trees.  I  treasure these walks in every season.   I know that soon enough the greenery will return and the weeds and early spring wildflowers will begin to rise along the paths.  Summer produces hundreds of Monarch Butterflies flirting with the milkweeds to find just the right place to lay their eggs while other butterflies concentrate on the Asters,  Queen Anne’s Lace  and our red dogwood bushes, always a favorite attraction.  Nature is a truly  beautiful production of changing colours and dancing sunlight as the seasons carefully schedule themselves into place.   We see signs of local wild life.   Deer tracks, fox and small animal paths veer off our walkways denoting well travelled routes where the grasses have opened to show their path.

 

Mr., who also makes unique walking sticks, fastidiously manicures each path with his John Deere helping us to secure safe footing as we admire another facet of our paradise.   So when you call and I am not available, just imagine me walking the shoreline, traipsing our fields or maybe in the woods visiting some of our favourite spots.  Have a wonderful day.  Looking forward to seeing you soon.  Til’ then, all best wishes.

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What does a woman who loves her bicycle do on February 14th? She gives it a Valenshine!Happy Valentine’s Day! Laurel-Lea Shannon, Publisher Women’s Cycling.ca www.womenscycling.ca

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