A Trip To Sudbury

We are just back from an 8-day visit north to visit family.  We drove a total of 1001 miles!  My mom has had some back problems but seems to be doing much better now.  Last Sunday we drove north as far as Collingwood, staying over before continuing on next day to Sudbury.  We came home express yesterday.  There is road construction on Hwy 69 north of Parry Sound, so we opted for an alternate route north on Monday.  Our return was on a Sunday and there was no construction delay.

We visited a lot of breweries and cafes, some of them new to us.  Our trunk carried a fresh supply of good ales back home, now chilling in the dark basement.  Munro Meadery is closed on Sundays (!??!), much to our surprise.  So we moved on and made our first visit to St. Mary's, a small city north of London.  Known for its rock quarries, the small downtown is thus known for its historic stone buildings.  We stopped at Snapping Turtle Coffee for lunch and a pound of beans.  We strolled the downtown on a quiet Sunday, with only restaurants open.  A small railroad station building just outside of town serves as home base for Broken Rail Brewery.  We made a quick stop before moving on towards Collingwood.

 

One of several impressive historic buildings in downtown St. Mary's, made from local stone.

 

The Thames River passes beneath a bridge in downtown St. Mary's.
 

 

Broken Rail Brewery, St Mary's. 

 

Collingwood is home to several breweries.  We are familiar with two of them, and added a third on this trip.  Side Launch Brewing is an enormous place, and their live music event this Sunday afternoon was very well patronized.  They were selling plenty of beer on a magnificent day of weather.  We picked up some ales before checking into the Comfort Inn, perfectly situated for our next two breweries.  Endswell Beer might be our favourite Ontario pub, with real English style ales on hand pull and excellent vegan pizzas.  We settled in for a late afternoon session, greatly enjoying the atmosphere (it's very small and cozy) and summer breeze from the open doors.  100 meters away is Northwinds Brewhouse.  We had a flight here and left with a few cans.

 

Two home brews were on hand pull. 

 

Next day we headed off to North Bay, with Trestle Brewery our first stop.  Here we had to decide whether to take a roundabout route to Sudbury or try our luck with road construction delays.  We chose the roundabout route and scored big.  Hwy 124 between Parry Sound and Sundridge is a beautiful rural drive, passing many lakes and a most impressive dam and waterfall. We joined Hwy 11 and followed it to North Bay, discovering Gateway Brewing, an-all vegan brewery.  We picked up some cans of ale and pushed on towards Sudbury, following Hwy 17 (Trans-Canada Highway) west.  We stopped for coffee and some sight seeing at Sturgeon Falls before arriving at the Maple Street family home.  My brother Steve lives there with his wife Lynne and daughter Emma-Lee in a downstairs apartment, while Mom lives upstairs.  She is very well looked after by the family.  She was still in hospital rehab when we arrived, so we went next day to visit her with Emma-Lee.  Mom was ready to come home and had been promised to be released on Wednesday.

 

For the first time ever we saw a train crossing the Parry Sound Trestle, from Trestle Brewing.  A truck on rails (not shown) was pulling a work train, with caboose!

 

Highway bridge on 124 crosses the dangerous rapids of the Knoefli Falls.

 

Looking upstream from the bridge towards the dam.

 

Deb spotted trilliums growing near the waterfall.

Sturgeon Falls coffee stop was at Twiggs.

 

View of the Sturgeon River from the dock at the cafe, which sits below the local waterfalls.

 

Sturgeon Falls and dam, along Hwy 17 between North Bay and Sudbury. 

 

Mom did come home Wednesday morning and we got to visit with her there for four days.  We watched some TV with her, including two movies and a 7-part series on Netflix.  We also managed to get her to play a round of Carcassonne with us, and she easily beat both me and Deb.  Deb and I enjoyed daily walks, largely uphill and downhill in Sudbury, as well as coffee at Beard's Bakery (all vegan) and then downtown at Kuppajo Espresso Bar.  We paid a quick visit to 46 North Brewery for some take home cans.  We also had some interesting talks with Emma-Lee, who will be a high school senior next year and is trying to decide what to do with her life.

 

Our only Sudbury photo shows the underside of the famous west end train trestle near the family home.  It is still well used by mining trains. 

 

All in all it was good to get back home to Amherstburg.  Of the past 6 weeks we have been away for 3 of them.  Deb is in the middle of a new film and I am trying to memorize a piano program.  We both need to focus for the next month at least.

 

We got some news from Amanda, who is moving into her own apartment for the first time.  She lives in Toronto and has finally had enough of house sharing, at least for now.  Wishing her the very best with all that extra room she will soon have all to herself!  I would expect some book collecting might commence, among other things.

 

Turning finally to recently watched movies, we saw A Haunting in Venice from 2023, one of three Poirot films directed by Kenneth Branagh.  He also plays the role of Poirot.  Though it's a typical Agatha Christie mystery plot (choose the least likely suspects and they will turn out to be the criminals), it is very stylish with beautiful photography in Venice.  Though we are promised a haunting, what we get is a pretty much down to earth murder mystery story.  It's still fun, if not too memorable.

 

Now showing on Prime. 

 

Next came the 4th Ghostbusters movie, Frozen Empire from 2024.  It's not a great entry in the series, being mostly standard by now.  New York is threatened by an ancient evil spirit that talks very much like most ancient evil spirits, and even acts like them, too.  The city is also threatened by a mayor who wants to be rid of the Ghostbusters.  I wish they had left and gone to Cleveland for awhile, leaving New York on its own to fight the great evil.  Fun effects, a few snappy lines, with appearances by three of the original cast members to liven thing up even more.  Not a favourite with this writer.

 

Showing on Prime. 

 

Because they get Netflix and we don't, I searched and searched and searched for something to watch that wasn't 9 seasons long.  I discovered Queen's Gambit from 2020, an award-winning 7 part series produced by Netflix about a female chess player.  Based on a 1983 novel by Walter Tevis, the series was directed by Scott Frank.  Anya Taylor-Joy stars as the female chess player out to conquer the world.  We follow her progress from ground zero (9 years old and taught how to play by the janitor at the orphanage to which she is sent when her mother dies) to when she wins the world championship in Moscow.  It is quite a journey.  Though the actual story is somewhat realistic, her win at the end once again proving the superiority of Americans over the rest of us poor shmucks is a bit hard to swallow.  Still, we both loved the series and especially the actress.  Watch for her outfit near the end, as she dresses like the white chess queen.  Highly recommended, even for non chess players.

 

Showing on Netflix. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Back From Sudbury

We left for the north last Wednesday, poking along for a day in southern Ontario and staying overnight in Collingwood.  We made stops in Alvinston (Munroe Meadery) and Thedford (Twin Pines Orchard).  The latter was a first time visit, as they make hard cider from their own apples.  I came home with a jug of their original cider, as they were out of apple/pear cider.  We arrived in Collingwood just before 5 pm, checked into our hotel, and then undertook the short walk to Endswell Beer.  We had fine ales here and pizza, then took a sunset stroll on the adjacent trails.  Collingwood is a major ski resort in winter, but it sits right on Georgian Bay, so it is also a boater's paradise in summer.  There is hiking in the nearby mountains (we could see the ski runs from our hotel window), but my foot is still not up to the challenge.  However, on this 6 day journey I did manage 4 walks, two of them for forty minutes.  I had intended to take a lot of photos on this journey, but alas I forgot my camera at home.  So these few photos were taken with the android phone.

Three photos from our walk in Collingwood.  that's me in the 2nd photo, and that is part of Georgian Bay in the last one. 

 

Next day we drove to Coldwater, a small and pretty village that is a favourite stop of ours when northbound.  They have a nut roastery there that always gets our business, and a small street of very interesting shops.  Deb was able to buy an old suitcase that she needs for an upcoming film shoot.  We stayed for about half an hour before pushing on north.

 

A decorated shop in Coldwater.

 

The old mill has been kept up and is now a bar and restaurant that also sells deli items.

 

The Coldwater River flows beside the 1833 mill in the downtown area of Coldwater. 

 

Shortly after leaving Coldwater and heading north drivers cross a large bridge over an inland bay (Matchedash Bay).   Almost immediately afterwards comes another bridge with very fine views of Georgian Bay.  Immediately after this bridge one suddenly finds oneself in Northern Ontario, amidst the Canadian Shield.  It is a sudden and shocking change of scenery, and from here on north as far as one wishes to go are the thousands of lakes, rocks, and mountains of the Shield.

    We stopped again in Parry Sound for ales from Trestle Brewing, and this time finally made our first stop at Norse Brewery, several miles north of the the Sound.  Then it was a straight run into Sudbury, which is about 440 miles from our house in Amherstburg when the quickest route is chosen.  Usually heading home we take the fast route, which takes about 8 hours if traffic isn't too bad.  For European readers, this 8 hour and some 440 mile drive only covers a small portion of Ontario.  To drive to Kenora, near the border with Manitoba, from Sudbury would be another 900 miles.  Ontario is absolutely enormous, and would fit many countries into its borders.  It is also filled with parks, so that many of the best natural areas are accessible to the public.

    We got to visit with my mother (96!), my younger brother Steve, his wife Lynne, and my two nieces.  Alicia is the oldest, a soldier in the Canadian Armed Forces.  Emma Lee is the youngest, currently in Grade 11 at a high school for girls.

    We also visited Lake Penage, Deb's first visit in many decades.  We were actually given a tour of the inside by Tony, the current owner.  He has done a beautiful job with the camp, which is now accessible for most of the year.  My cousin still owns the adjacent lot with two camps, but he wasn't there today.

    It was unseasonably warm on our visit north.  Though the leaves were changing to fall colours and the smell of autumn was in the air, it was in the 80s so it didn't feel quite right.

 

Found near Norse Brewery, Nobel ON.

 

A walking trail in Sudbury that we take to reach Beard's Cafe and Bakery, and all-vegan establishment.

 

View from the deck at camp, Lake Penage.  Now owned by Tony and his wife, this is where I grew up during summers since the age of ten.  The lake is still clear and clean and very very inviting. 

 

We got to watch some TV while visiting family.  We don't subscribe to either Netflix or Disney, but they do.  We managed to finish up season 15 of Dr. Who, and are now all caught up with the series.  We also watched an 8 part series on Netflix called House of Guinness, detailing the history of the great Irish brewery from the death of Benjamin (1868) onward.  The series has good actors, some very fine writing (though it includes more F bombs than any other show I've ever watched), and some of the best night photography I've ever seen.  While I can highly recommend the series, beware that the final episode ends in a really stupid cliff-hanger.  While there will probably be a season two, it's still a terrible way to end a series that people have watched for nearly 8 hours.

 

Now showing on Netflix.  It's an 8 part series. 

 

Turning to Doctor Who, we managed to finish up the 2nd series with Ncuti Gatwa, watching episodes 3-8.  They were all pretty good, with Disney's budget allowing the show to at least equal the effects of Star Trek and its ilk.  These stories were usually much better than Star Trek, too.  The final two episodes were linked, and made a fine conclusion to Gatwa's era.  He is among my favourite doctors now, with an energy and outlook that really boosts the show.  And Varada Sethu as Belinda, his companion for several episodes, is now one of my favourite companions.  The 5th episode, "The Story and the Engine" is set in a barbershop in Lagos and features an all-coloured cast.  It uses mythology heavily in its storyline and to great advantage.  "The Interstellar Song Contest" could have used more alien songs, though it was a fun episode.

It was exciting to see Susan helping the Doctor to control his temper.  We have heard nothing of his granddaughter since she left the show back in the days of the first doctor.  She is way overdue for a reappearance.  I can't say I got too excited when I saw Billy Piper at the end of the series. A third season with Disney is likely, though I would guess that the show is far too "woke" for the present state of American entertainment.  I suppose the return of a blonde white female might be just what Disney needs to convince it to undertake another season.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

A Trip To Sudbury

May 11th was Mothers' Day.  It was also mom's 96th birthday!  We left home on Wednesday May 7th.  We drove back roads about 60% of the way, spending the night in Midland after visiting some breweries in Collingwood.  It was our first visit to this area, on the south shore of Lake Huron.  On Thursday we continued our drive north to Sudbury, and stayed until Tuesday morning, the 13th.  We managed the drive home in one go, taking about 7 1/2 hours.  Traffic and road construction did not hamper our journey.  

We ended up purchasing a new AC unit in Sudbury for the upstairs room, and we installed it this afternoon.  It's much smaller than the older one, which was 10,000 BTUs.  This one is only 6,000 BTUs.  It will get a trial run tomorrow and Friday, which are supposed to be pretty warm days.  We also came home with some fine ales from breweries along the way, as well as a restocking of Mead.

 

Trilliums were in bloom, and we stopped near Ridgetown to view some.

 

A quiet forest and some lovely trilliums.

 

Located in Alvinston ON, this has become a regular stop on the way north.  Our vehicle sits in the parking area.

 

The tap list at Northwinds Brewery in Collingwood.  We brought home some Nosey Parker and some Milk Run.

 

Just around the corner was Endswell Brewery, with some terrific English style ales on handpull!  There was also a separate pizza business inside with vegan pizzas, so we stayed a while and had our dinner.

The two beer engine handles are on Deb's right.  Both cask ales were superb!

 

Two ales were on cask at Endwell Brewery.  We will be back!

  

This is the final lock on the Port Severn/Trent canal.  After this lock boaters find themselves with access to Georgian Bay and the upper Great Lakes.

 

We hiked at Port Severn on the way up to Sudbury next day.  There were two dams, two waterfalls, and the canal lock.

 

The lake at Port Severn, which sits just above Georgian Bay.

 

One of the waterfalls scurries beneath a bridge at Port Severn.

 

Meanwhile in Sudbury a mining train crosses the Regent Street Trestle.  The trestle crosses two roads, three train tracks (two of which are mainline) and Junction Creek.  Trains pass about 100 meters from where my family lives, and where I grew up.

 

A quiet path leads from the hill near the family home to a vegan paradise corner in Sudbury.  There is a vegan Mexican restaurant, a vegan cafe and bakery, and, in season, a vegan ice cream shop.  The trail emerges at the railroad trestle, seen above.

 

Family dinner.  Deb's right hand on left edge.  Lynne, my sister-in-law; Emma Lee, my youngest niece; my brother Steve; Joe, partner to my oldest niece Alicia; mom.

 

Emma Lee created this masterpiece vegan black forest cake for our dessert.

 

Emma Lee puts the finishing touches on her creation. 

 

Since the family in Sudbury subscribes to Netflix and Disney+ (which we do not), we were able to continue watching the newest Dr. Who series.  We managed to finish Season One (much better writing, and some really fun stories), watched the most recent Christmas Special, and then caught the first episode of Season Two.  We also watched most of the rest of Season One of the newest version of Lost In Space.  We have one episode remaining in the first season.  Much like the old series, the adventures are mostly ruined by Dr. Smith.  This time it's a she, and she is evil through and through.  There could easily have been enough story opportunity without the miserable character of the doctor.  After a while one wishes to just stop watching, which is what we did.  The other characters are great, including the three kids.  Ruined by overuse of Dr. Smith; sound familiar?

 

In film news, there are two to report on that we watched before our journey north.   The Assassin is a film from 2015, split between Hong Kong and Taiwan.  Director Hou Hsiao-Hsien has created a masterpiece of cinema, a far cry from the acrobatic and violence filled Wuzia film type many have become accustomed to.  This film, by contrast, is mostly quiet and reflective, with occasional bursts of lightning fast fights that sometimes end with both combatants simply walking away.  The photography is stunning, the acting is restrained, and the sets are lush and a bit other worldly, with frequent use of filmy curtains.  The film won Best Director at Cannes!  It's easy to see why.  Worth more than a single viewing, this film is highly recommended.

 

The film is leaving Criterion May 31st.   

 

Antonioni's 1957 Il Grido follows a man who has been spurned by his wife.  She leaves him suddenly, though obviously things have been building for a while.  He keeps charge of his young daughter, and together they leave home and travel while he searches for work and a place to live.  The film is ruined by a totally stupid ending, but otherwise is quite good.  When he ends up at a lonely gas station with a beautiful woman who runs it, he has a grand opportunity to settle down and start a new life.  However, his problem is that he loves no other woman except his wife.  He thus throws away an opportunity that might have saved him.

The film rambles a bit, and the settings and locations are as bleak as the man's life.  One feels sorry for the little girl, whom he doesn't seem to really love or cherish.  She seems more like a stray dog to him that he picked up on his travels, and he treats her as such.  We meet many interesting characters along the way, including a former girlfriend who would also have liked him to stay with her.  He doesn't stay, choosing instead to move on like the proverbial wandering cowboy.

Though not a particularly great film, it has moments that are memorable and unique.  The frustration for viewers when he finally returns to his home village and sees his wife but fails to go and see and talk to her, are off the scale.  Then comes the stupidest ending of almost any film I have seen.  An early film by the master that his fans should seek out.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

A Week In Sudbury Ontario

It has been many years since I have stayed 7 nights in Sudbury.  I was born there, living at home until age 22, when I married Deb and we moved to Windsor to attend university.  We used to come home for about six weeks in the summer, staying mostly at the family camp on Lake Penage.  But since the camp was sold many years go, we have only been back for shorter visits, to Sudbury itself at the family home.

 

The occasion this time was to spend time with Mom, helping her to go through Dad's belongings.  Most went to charity, though I came home with a few nice shirts, a cozy new bathrobe, a few books and records, and a sport jacket.  Mom is doing pretty well, though I doubt she has had much time to process Dad's passing.  Cards and flowers and visitors have kept her occupied.  Her sister will come and visit her at the end of April.  Mom will be 95 in one month, and still climbs three flights of stairs at home and does laundry, some cooking, and many other things.  We took her grocery shopping one day (she still insists on buying her own food), and to church for a mass that was said in my father's name.

 

Mom lives in the upstairs of a large 3-unit apartment building which she owns.  My brother Steve and his wife and daughter live below her.  The basement apartment has been a bar and TV room for a long time now.  Steve and his wife went for a week long cruise from Miami, so we came up north to stay with mom.  The weather was quite beastly a few days, so it was mostly an inside visit.  I read, we watched a lot of TV, went through Dad's things, looked at old family photos, and just talked.  Mom and Deb are both early risers, so they had conversations in the morning while I slept on.  A few days were quite nice, and Deb and I managed some hilly walks, mostly to a vegan cafe and bakery.

 

The household has a few channels that we don't buy, so we were able to catch up on some Star Trek series, and watch all 4 new Doctor Who specials, starring David Tenant and Catherine Tate.  there are in the first 3 specials; the 4th one stars the newest Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa.  While all four episodes were fun, they were pretty much even in quality, with nothing too exceptional.  It was nice to see Mel Bush back in action.  She was a companion to two much earlier doctors, and could scream mightily on command.

 

We watched the first episode of Picard, a series about the retired Star Fleet admiral.  it seems like he will soon be back in action.  We will likely subscribe to Paramount for a few months in order to watch the rest.  And we have now seen six episodes of Star Trek Discovery, finding it worth a look, too.  I watched the first two episodes on our flight to and from New Orleans last month, rewatching them on Mom's giant screen so Deb could see them, too.  We also watched the first episode of the most recent Lost In Space series, from 2018.  It looks promising, but as it is on Disney, we will not be seeing more until another visit to Sudbury. 

 

And finally we were able to watch Dune, the first half of the epic film directed by Denis Villeneuve, from 2021.  The director and writer were obviously heavily influenced by the exploits of T. E. Lawrence, and the film by David Lean.  The movie ends just as Jessica and Paul are being tried by the Fremen, to see whether they will live or die.  It is a good film, but not a great one.  Of course there is a lot of exposition, and comes pretty close to echoing Herbert's great SF novel.  But everything is so compressed that it is difficult to get a sense of epic.  Perhaps watching both halves together would be better, but even with this film we had to break it up over two evenings.  Fans of Herbert shouldn't have too much to complain about, and there is some hope that the second book might be filmed, too.  Now we just have to try and see Dune Part Two.

 

We watched this in Sudbury on CTV SF Channel. 

 

We have done so much travelling lately, especially driving.  Our New Orleans road trip in late March was followed by a long day trip to Ohio for the eclipse.  Then came Sudbury, which is 470 miles each way.  So for now we are done with major trips.  It's been interesting trying to maintain a full piano program during this time.  Today's practice has been a bit mechanical.

I'll finish up with another picture of Dad....

Dad in Greece. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

A Visit Home

It's a long drive to Sudbury from the Windsor area.  About 460 miles, or about 740 kms.  Most of that is on multi-lane freeways, but they are extremely busy freeways.  We drove up last Thursday, making our usual stop in Coldwater for a long stretch, and again at a scenic waterfall near Wanup.  We arrived about 6:30 pm.

Mom and Dad both looked great and seemed in good health.  Stephen, Lynne, and Emma-Lee were also there, and we visited with everyone until Sunday morning.  The grounds and house are in their usual tip top shape, though the pool was still closed.  However, the gardens were blooming, and Dad was out every morning for several hours planting things.

On Friday Deb and I went to Old Rock Coffee Roasters for our mid-day caffeine fix, also bringing home a pound of freshly roasted Honduran Marcalas beans.  Next came a stop at 46 North Brewing Company.  There are too few micro breweries in Sudbury, but at least this was a pretty good one.

 

In other travel news, Caroline is currently in Switzerland, riding trains for fun and adventure on the first segment of her 3 month Eurail pass.  Today she is riding as far as Italy, then back again.  Lucky person!

 

Old Rock Coffee Roastery and Cafe, Sudbury. 

 

Beer board and flight at 46 North (Sudbury's latitude).  They ran out of #6, and had no cans of it.  I liked them all, but they only had cans for #11 and #1.  I bought three of each. The flight is reversed in the photo, so #9 is really #6, and vice versa.  The foamy one is the Coco-nuts, which ran out on my turn.

 

Saturday we went to Beard's Cafe for our mid-day caffeine fix.  Beard's is a vegan bakery and cafe, next door to a vegan ice cream place, and across the street from a vegan Mexican food restaurant.  All are owned by the same person.  A very smart person, as this is one of the busier streets in Sudbury, and all of his businesses are doing really well.  Deb and I got takeaway Mexican food from his Tuco's Tacos Friday night, having enough left over for Saturday's dinner, too.  A little area of happiness for vegans.

Sunday was our long drive home, with only four brief stops.  We were home by 5 pm.  I may attempt to fly home again in late autumn, depending on air fares and Covid.  But for now, our travelling days are over.

A word about the weather--we have had no clouds now for six days, and humidity has hovered around 30% and even lower.  I am finding it rather scary.  I love New Mexico weather, but not a long amount of it in Windsor and Ontario.  Things have dried up here quickly.  With no rain in the forecast, things will turn grim very, very soon, especially for farmers.  While our main air conditioner has not yet come on (we set it for 77 F), the upstairs window one is needed and is running.  With temps due to hit 90F this week, the sun is burning its way into the ground.

In movie news, there are two to report.  Deb's choice comes from 2015, called Cemetery of Splendour, a Thai film that moves slowly but deeply.  Mostly set in a hospital that was once a school, a volunteer helps look after a group of soldiers who are afflicted with a sleeping disease.  While virtually plotless, the film explores connections between dreams and waking, and between reality as we think we know it and other, less tangible realities.  Many moments of the film are so quiet as to be almost lifeless.  Some of the film relates to stream of consciousness.  The real and the unreal and the surreal all meet up at times.  Not for everyone's tastes, but certainly a unique path to walk along for cineastes.

Now showing on Mubi. 

 

 My leaving choice comes from Mubi, an Swedish/Egyptian/German film from 2017 called The Nile Hilton Incident, directed by Tarik Saleh.  It's a classic noir crime film, but by adding in the incredible amount of corruption in Cairo, where the film is set, the movie seems to leap into the absurd every five minutes.  While the story itself--a female singer is murdered in a hotel room, and the crime implicates people high up in the government--is pretty much the usual crime thriller, the Cairo setting and the ways of the world there really add zest, humour, and considerable head shaking on the part of viewers.  Quite watchable.

 

Leaving Mubi today. 

 

More news as it happens.

 

Mapman Mike