Farm Sanctuary

September 16, 2013November 11, 2014Leave a comment

The highlight of my summer was being able to visit and take a tour of Farm Sanctuary. It wasn’t even really a planned event. Matt had booked our second camping trip in Watkins Glen, NY, and was browsing stuff to do there, and Farm Sanctuary came up. He mentioned it to me as something I’d maybe like to do since I love the fur/feather babies (not knowing I already knew much about this place). I was immediately bright eyed, and said “I KNOW FARM SANCTUARY!”

Farm Sanctuary was founded in 1986 to combat the abuses of factory farming, and to raise awareness and understanding about farm animals. They have three farms in the USA – Watkins Glen NY, Orland CA and Los Angeles CA. I’m telling you guys, this place is magical and beautiful in every way. I am a vegetarian solely for ethical reasons (the positive health benefits are just an added bonus really), so these issues are close to my heart. But I think even if you’re a meat-eater, you couldn’t help but feel the importance this place brings to the fight against animal abuse.

During our tour of the farm our guide told us stories about some of the animals that live on the farm now. I’ll avoid describing the horrifying, disgusting treatment and living conditions these animals were subject to. The stories were of no surprise to me. I know these stories. But to be able to see these animals thriving today, living without being used (and abused), is so heartwarming. I’m all smiles knowing there are places in the world that make a true difference.

newbies to the farm…mama cow who saved herself and her wee calf from a factory farm.

just doing some back scratches

he likes when you feed him apples from the apple tree

thinks he owns the farm

can now comfortably eat even though she was debeaked.

that little guy in the back had the craziest little white afro.

turkeys want the most attention

Hilda, a sheep, was the first animal saved by Farm Sanctuary

Blouse: borrowed from Meg
Shorts: vintage via Public Butter
Belt: thrifted
Socks: UO
Shoes: thrifted
Tote: Larkspur
Sunglasses: Philistine

*Side note – my outfit is nothing to write home about…but I figured if I was going to be tromping through potential poo filled fields of grass, I’d rather not wear Sunday’s best. I would also like to apologize for my lack outfit-based posts recently. I’ve been adventuring so much this summer, I’ve wanted to share more of my travels than the outfits I wear on a usual day (camping outfits are really just not exciting). I’m also trying to find my footing in the personal-style blogging world, and figuring out how I like to present the clothing I wear and love dearly. When Meg and I started out, we were doing just straight up shots, and it was all about the clothes. As my interest in photography grows, I would like to find a harmonious marriage between the clothing I wear, and the photographs I (or Matt) take.

Watkins Glen, NY

September 2, 2013November 11, 20144 Comments

I’m going to be totally honest and say Matt and I didn’t do as much hiking and exploring the great outdoors while camping this time around. We spent our first two nights in Watkins Glen State Park, and the following two nights in Taughannock Falls State Park. We were both pretty disappointed in Watkins Glen State Park. I think the Bruce kind of ruined everything for us. We just kept comparing the two, and well, State/Provincial Parks just can’t compare to the natural beauty of a National Park. We were not close to any body of water in Watkins Glen, and you could literally hike about 20 mins to the village. Which ended up being fine, as we spent a lot of time exploring the small villages around the Finger Lakes. These towns/villages have the most insanely beautiful and historical homes. I would kill a man just to live in one of them.

We were however very close to the Gorge Trail in Watkins Glen. So we hiked over, and did quite a bit of the walk. It was very touristy, and was a huge disappointment to find there were so many rules. You had to stay on the path, and that was it. Boring! Totally different from hiking in the Bruce. Wow, I sound totally disenchanted here! It WAS beautiful! Waterfalls everywhere you looked, standing hundreds of feet above, looking down at the gorge. It really was quite stunning. We spent the remainder of the day on a beach and explored a little of Watkins Glen, and it’s neighbouring village, Montour Falls. Such charming places! NY State is full of these gems!

I have a butt load more photos to share – some from the town, some from the beach, some from Farm Sanctuary(!!!), and a little photo shoot Matt and I did in the Blair Witch forest behind our camp site. I also thrifted so many great things during our trip, so keep an eye on the shop for magical small town thrift shop goodness!

would just like to formally welcome chin zit to the majority of photos taken this past week 🙂

and this is me dying after walking up i don’t even know how many flights of stairs to the top of the gorge. goodbye life.

Shirt, shorts and belt: thrifted
Bowtie: handmade
Socks: H&M
Boots: Timberland
Knapsack: from my best pal Kristen

Grotto and Greig’s

August 12, 2013November 11, 2014Leave a comment

If you know Bruce Peninsula, then you likely know of The Grotto. It is one of the more popular attractions, and with very good reason. It was quite breath taking (minus, oh my god, black fleas eating my whole body!). It was about a 30 minute hike from our camp site, and a very nerve racking scaling down some rocky walls to get to the heart of it. It is not very reassuring when you enter the area and see a big sign that reads “People have died here.” But clearly, that did not stop us, and we lived to tell the tale! The wonderful thing about many of the sites we explored in the Bruce was that they were in their natural state, but that also mean’t you were putting yourself at risk in some way. The same went for the Greig’s Caves we hiked in. Signs everywhere reminding us “Explore at own risk”, and signing a waiver before beginning our hike, saying they are not responsible for injury, death etc. – okay cool, hopefully see you in an hour? The caves were amazing though!!! And worth the danger. It was one of the more intense hikes I’ve ever been on, but incredibly scenic. The view from on top of the caves was insanely beautiful!

Matt was brave enough to jump into the freezing cold water of the Grotto (he has a thing about swimming in every body of water). I however, just watched and told him he was crazy, and then I flailed about to stop the black fleas from swarming me, so I guess I looked crazy.

This is the last little bit of my digital photos from Bruce Peninsula. I have a bunch of film to be developed, so I’m sure the Bruce will make some sort of appearance again.

flash does no favours for the pale skinned folk.

Flowerpot Island

August 5, 2013November 11, 2014Leave a comment

Flowerpot Island is about 6.5 kilometres off the coast of Tobermory, and was given its name due to the 1 million year old shoreline rock pillars that resemble giant flowerpots. Matt and I took a ferry ride to get there, checking out some shipwrecks along the way that are in such shallow water, you can practically see every detail of these ships. That was cool, obviously. But not as cool as the island. This, by far, was my favourite part of the trip to Bruce Peninsula. The water surrounding Flowerpot Island is so clear and so blue, you’d think you were in the Caribbean – which I never have, but my mind took me there regardless. I could have hiked around this island all day. The forest was beautiful, the water was beautiful, the rock formations were beautiful. EVERYTHING was beautiful!

It is a holiday today, so I do not want to spend too much time talking about my trip last weekend, because well, I’ve got some work to catch up on, and when I started to think of ways to describe this part of my trip, I almost wanted to keep it to myself (and Matt, of course). I am just not eloquent enough to describe such amazing things. So I’ll let the photos do the talking. oh hello, mr shipwreck! weird little happy dance

Shirt, shorts and boots: thrifted
Bow tie: handmade
Knapsack: my dearest friend Kristen gave to me
Sunglasses: Philistine
Belt: vintage

Grey County – Morland Place

July 29, 2013November 11, 2014Leave a comment

I am back from what I think could be my favourite trip to-date. I really had zero expectation for this trip – just a desire to leave the city and enjoy nature to it’s fullest. Bruce Peninsula and what little of the Fathom Five Marine Parks I saw on Lake Huron/Georgian Bay are truly amazing. I have so many pictures, so this will probably end up in a two parter (or more, because I have film to develop as well). I do not think I even have the words to describe the perfection that I saw.

On our way to Bruce Peninsula National Park, Matt had to take a bathroom break, so we stopped at this Heritage Village, not really expecting to stay long. Neither of us had much interest in it. It reminded me of Upper Canada Village, and I didn’t really feel like taking any sort of tour. But in the field across from the village I saw some really old buildings, and what I thought were abandoned. This peaked our interest and we wandered on over. Boy were we surprised when we found way more than just old buildings. At first we weren’t even sure we were allowed to enter, but we kept going out of curiosity. Once we got onto the grounds, we ran into two women, who asked us if we even knew anything about what this place was (the answer was no). The only information they gave us was that a man about 80 yrs old now, owns 15 acres of the land, and built all the stone work, European and Perennial style gardens, most of the buildings and hedge maze(!!!) himself. We kept joking about an old man peering through windows at us as we wandered the grounds, making the whole thing that much weirder. This man, literally, has a Secret Garden! It felt, to me, like a replica of the garden in said movie. Matt and I kept turning to each other throughout our walk saying “Do you believe this?! Oh, I think today, I will build a hedge maze. And then after that, the Garden of Versailles.” It was truly incredible, and I sort of feel like I made this place up. The pictures do no justice, as his ground were so vast, you’d almost need an aerial view to get a true understanding.

I’ll probably share my photos from Bruce Peninsula next week, but maybe this week, who really knows! And more than likely, there will be no shop update this week, as my schedule is all flippity-do from this trip.