I drove through Niagara yesterday taking pictures of the first orchard blossoms. My favourite orchards have over-arching branches of old trees that almost touch in the middle. And orchards of apricots and early peach trees are starting their bloom right now.
I drove through Niagara-on-the-Lake. It is under its own special emergency orders due to the return of residents from their winter residences. It tells you how many of them there are and how popular Niagara-on-the-Lake is as a destination residence of the rich. (Its preferred real estate vendor is Sothebys).
Niagara-on-the-Lake without tourists - that was the sight. What does it look like? Divine - it is like travelling back in time 60 years to when I was a child rather than the busy tourist destination full of cars and people everywhere. It makes one wonder if they shouldn't close the main street and turn it into a tourist plaza. That would take some planning given the streets in and out. Yet it was beautiful and could be done with parking at the Fort George end of the town along with the big tourist buses are not allowed in town.
Niagara-on-the-Lake is serious about the no congregating order - the benches overlooking Lake Ontario had been partially dismantled - the planks had been removed so there's nowhere to sit.
The drive down the River Road is legendary - it makes the top ten list for drives in Canada. Spring has flowering fruit trees and daffodils along the drive. What did Niagara Falls have? It was missing thousands of people, and with their absence one could appreciate the thousands of daffodils in the misty, foggy Spring day. Niagara Falls has a long horticultural heritage that shines in the Spring. I stopped in front of the Niagara Parks Police Station and quickly took some pictures of the gardens towards the misty Falls. I was stunned by the emptiness but did not go exploring - I was concerned there would be police charges and fines for being there.
No comments:
Post a Comment