Welcome to the GVAG Blog

I deliberately made the questions difficult to read in order to slow people down.

Words on the Land

A picture is worth a thousand words, or so the old saying goes. But sometimes a word says all that needs to be said. Or perhaps, more than a thousand pictures can convey. Words label each section of Timelines, the 2.9 km trail that we are opening to the public for the first time on…

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This photo dates from 2009. The house is now grey with trim that matches the red barn next to it.

Introducing Mr. Albert Stumpson

For many years a pine tree towered over an old house where a tenant farmer once lived.     In search of the sun, it gradually leaned farther and farther away from the house. Until one day, it fell.     When the branches were removed, my son-in-law noticed that the tree trunk looked like…

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The many petals of this peony capture raindrops.

Favourite Things

Sometimes, pictures of pretty flowers are enough. I took these photos in a garden in Knowlton, Quebec that I visited last week. It was a grey, rainy day but the gardens were glorious! The flowers in one garden were the stars of the day.     Bright copper kettles are no competition for the WOW!…

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Talk about getting all your ducks in a row....

Canada Geese Go Home!

Canada geese are gorgeous birds to look at. But why, oh why, do I have to see them here at Glen Villa? Towards the end of May I saw two adults swimming with their little ones. How many babies were there?     The goslings swam in and out of sight, and each time I counted…

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This drawing from Wikipedia shows the layout of a typical seigneurie. The St. Lawrence River is shown in blue at the bottom.

La Seigneurie

In the 1600s, when Quebec was known as La Nouvelle France, land was divided into seigneuries, properties under the control of a seigneur, or lord of the manor. Fields farmed by habitants were arranged in long narrow strips fronting onto the St. Lawrence River, making it easy to transport goods by water at a time when roads…

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