A special Road trip through Northern Ontario

'In the Middle of the World' is hanging in the Muse Gallery in Kenora. Judy Martin, Miranda Bouchard and I had an appointment to spend time at the gallery on Mothers' Day weekend.

Judy and Miranda are Northern Ontario girls and they wanted to show me their part of the world.  Plus we wanted to spend as much time as we could together. So I flew into Sault Saint Marie and from there we drove two days to get to Kenora.

We had a lot of catching up to do. Covid wrecked any plans of getting together but we managed to continu meeting virtually.  It was always good to see them on screen but there is nothing like actually being together. The eleven hour drive to Thunder Bay and then another six hour day to Kenora were perfect for all the catching up and discussing our work and art and creativity. 

Throughout the years of this project Miranda has asked thought provoking questions and this trip was no exception.  They often reveal our differences but mostly our deep connections. 

So much fun.

Such a special trip.

I have always been drawn to the edges of things....particularly treelines.

The trees here are birch, sumac and black spruce. I was fascinated by the black spruce that seemed to have topknots with a smattering of branches beneath and perhaps thicker branches towards their base.

 I didn't get very good images of those topknots so as we drove a did a tiny little sketch to remind me.

Islands beyond the treeline ......a different kind of edge.

We stopped at Wawa. I needed a photo with their goose to send one of my boys. Many years ago he had a summer job somewhere even further north but Wawa was where he got off the train before the long drive north. Just to give you an idea of how big Ontario is the train took 36 hours from southern Ontario Wawa. Oh, yes, and I learnt that Wawa means snow goose in Ojibwe.

Of course we had to stop for stones….so the girls found Deadman’s cove and we had a wander!

It was special….all the stones so different to my Nova Scotian ones. That day it was stones covered in dots that caught my eye. Oh joy! And of course a few came home with me.

As we neared Thunder Bay we stopped at the Terry Fox memorial which I found deeply moving. I remember him running up Davis drive near our home in Newmarket, Ontario.

An inspiring, courageous and memorable young man.

A special time with Judy

And of course with Miranda too. 

And me too!

I don’t often include images of people but this time I really want to record and remember these two beloved women who are so important to me.

Hugs to you both.