Archives: fall

One beautiful balmy Sunday morning we headed on out for a gorgeous fall walk at Dundas Valley Conservation Area.  It was just at that perfect moment in time when you can see the full range of fall foliage from green to yellow, rusty oranges and red all at once.

We were all set to go; baby in the carrier, fall apples for a snack and a Detour coffee in hand to give us a kick start to the trek.

We’ve cycled to the conservation area before and biked the main loop trail but this was my first time doing the loop on foot -a little ambitious as it was only week two after having a baby, but it felt amazing to be out of the house enjoying the fall air and all the smells of the forest.

I love when the trail comes upon the old Hermitage ruins.  The Hermitage is an old estate that is over 170 years old.  It served as a summer house for a wealthy Irish-born Scottish immigrant named George Gordon Browne Leith.

According to the historic plaque outside the Hermitage the limestone summer home was destroyed in a fire in 1934. Leith’s daughter built a smaller home within its ruins in which she lived until her death in 1942.  The ruins are all that’s left of what is said to have been a lavish estate. The Gatehouse, previously home to the Leith’s gatehouse keeper and his family, is now an operating museum that houses artifacts from the Hermitage as well as the details and history of the Hermitage and the Leith family.

My other favourite spot on the trail is when it opens up onto an old apple orchard.  The trees are all gnarly and twisted, and the apples have long gone wild.

I love seeing remnant glimpses into history like this old orchard.  I wonder about how the land and life would’ve been like when the orchard was well tended. Perhaps this was part of the Leith’s estate?

 

*Dundas Valley  Conservation Area, 540 Governors Rd., Dundas. $9/vehicle, free to enter on foot or by bicycle

On September 21st I headed to my very first Sew Hungry.

Up until recently I’d never had a lunch hour long enough to check out the previous Sew Hungrys.  But being on mat leave, pregnant, super hungry and no longer having to worry about lunch hours it was pretty much mandatory that I headed down to check out the new and returning food trucks on Ottawa Street.

I loved the synergy of the food trucks, local shops, farmer’s market and restaurants all collaborating together and benefiting from the crowds of people that headed down to Ottawa Street.  Seemed like an all round success for ALL those involved in the event.  I’d hear that this particular Sew Hungry drew record number crowds in the thousands! Well done Hamilton!

My main mission for this particular truck rally was to go to The Dirty South food truck, which I had recently heard makes tater tot poutine -yeah I know -unreal!!

To be honest I was a little disappointed.  I was kinda expecting some hearty gravy and big fat squeaky cheese curds instead of plain shredded cheddar cheese. Despite the short fall the tots were served in large portion and they did taste really good (in that bad kind of way).  I had some regrets that I didn’t get their fried chicken and waffles, which looked super duper delicious.  I figured since the truck is local to Hamilton I’d have plenty of opportunity to sample their menu some other time.

I’d also previously heard about Poco Loco‘s taco chili salad in a mini corn chip Frito bag.  So as the lunch hour drew near and the line ups at the food trucks started to get too long, I opted to support this local Ottawa Street restaurant and got my first taco salad in a bag.  By no means was it gourmet.  In fact it was more of a novelty item that I can now I can say I’ve tried.  There is something a little strange about eating chili, beans, sour cream, hot sauce, and onions mashed into a brown hot mess from a chip bag.

What I really should’ve tried was the lobster roll sandwich from Buster’s Sea Cove (Toronto’s only seafood truck haling from St. Lawrence Market).  I’d later heard that this was the favourite of the day for many.

This next truck -Frittersons interested me.  I was gunning it over to the truck expecting sweet donut-like deep fried fritters topped with snow speckled icing sugar, ice-cream and berry sauce but alas the truck was a savory fritter truck not a dessert truck! I was intrigued by their “Thanksgiving in a bowl” -turkey with all the fixings plus potato cheese fritters. I love stuffing and I can’t resist anything deep fried in fritter form. My sweet fritter cravings will have to be serviced elsewhere, however I’d be willing to give these savory fritters a try for the next Sew Hungry.

One of my favourite trucks at Sew Hungry was the super adorable Manual Labour mobile trailer (aka “Frankie” -the 1969 Bailey Travel Trailer) coffee shop. I’d seen and heard of the mobile café serving up their Aussie inspired coffee specialities at events like the Junction Flea Market and The Greenbelt Harvest Picnic.

Co-owner Matthew Taylor and his partner in business and life are part of a growing community of people that have shifted from Toronto to the Hamilton area to set up shop.  Matthew -formerly a barista in Toronto’s burgeoning café and coffee scene saw the possibility and opportunity to venture for a quieter life outside of Toronto and to create a business that supports other local and surrounding businesses like Detour coffee (for their roasted beans), Hewitt’s Dairy (for their milk) and locally grown herbs for their teas from Country Herbs.

It was a pleasure to run into Shannon Stone of Best of Hamilton, who was a guest barista for the day helping fellow Aussie and co-owner of Manual Labour -Katie Browne.

Manual Labour does have merch for sale.  T-shirts for $20!

Thanks Shannon for making my delicious and beautiful first time ever “flat white“!

If you want to book Manual Labour for an event you can find their contact here, or follow them on twitter @MLcoffee.

 

Sometimes you gotta do what you need to do to say warm.  November is finally behaving like November.

Although Hamilton is known for being a city of waterfalls (among notably other things) I had only ever been to  Webster’s Falls, and Albion Falls.  I wanted to check out Devil’s Punch Bowl, especially with the backdrop of the changing fall foliage.  So one weekend about a month back we took a little drive to Devil’s Punch Bowl.  It was during one of those unseasonably hot October days, when there hadn’t been any rain for a few weeks, so the waterfall was just a little tiny trickle.  The bowl part was pretty neat (especially if you’re into geology and rock formations).  According to the Hamilton Conservation Authority it is the “only area where one can view such a large vertical display of Ordovician and Silurian stratified rock”.  Wow!  Who knew?

Just across the way from the fall is a cute little place called the Punch Bowl Country Market. It had a nice spread of baked goods, honey, maple syrup, gourmet mustards, local and seasonal fruit, and prepared homemade food items.  There was also a fine selection of novelty “nostalgic” children’s toys, perfect for a cute little gift. AND they sell my favourite kind of pop; Boylan‘s Black Cherry and Boylan’s birch root soda pop!  It was a perfect little repose from punch bowl viewing before heading back downtown.

*Punch Bowl Country Market, 136 Ridge Road, Stoney Creek, 905.662.1665

A couple of months ago I had my second major camera tragedy of the year.  I broke my second and only other lens for my digital SLR.  Cringe. Gawd I know! Who does that? I took this as a sign (ahem or cough-excuse) to get a new camera that was more compact, easy to carry and one of those cool old skool looking, hybrid type blends that has SLR features but isn’t bulky and doesn’t weigh 10 lbs.  I ended up purchasing a Canon Power Shot G12 after my friend Vern’s tried and true recommendation. It has some cool features.  For example the miniature effect, which makes images like the fall Hamilton cityscape below look like a little miniature model of downtown Hamilton.  So cute. A little tiny Hamilton. Who wouldn’t want their own little miniature model Hamilton cityscape for the attic (kinda just like in Beetlejuice)?