Lake Erie is the second smallest of the Great Lakes, and unfortunately has a bad reputation due to pollution and industry. In the lake's industrial heyday a few of its tributaries caught fire, most notably the Cuyahoga in the 50's and 60's. Since then great efforts have been made to clean the lake up. There is still natural beauty to be found around the lake, and surprisingly there are waterfalls.
The waterfalls are almost exclusively found along the southern shore of Lake Erie. On the north side of the lake all the waterfalls, with one exception, fall over the Niagara Escarpment away from Lake Erie. A waterfall tour around Lake Erie would start in Elyria, 30 miles west of Cleveland, where you can find West Falls and East Falls. A little farther east is Berea Falls.
The Welland Canal connects Lake Ontario and Lake Erie through a series of eight locks, allowing ships to bypass the 51 m (167 ft) high Niagara Falls.
The Battle of Lundy's Lane, also known as the Battle of Niagara Falls, was a battle fought on 25 July 1814, during the War of 1812, between an invading American army and a British and Canadian army near present-day Niagara Falls, Ontario. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the war, and one of the deadliest battles ever fought in Canada, with over 1,731 casualties including 258 killed.
The two armies fought each other to a stalemate; neither side held firm control of the field following the engagement. However, the casualties suffered by the Americans precipitated their withdrawal, and the British held the strategic initiative.
Lundy's Lane was a spur from the main Portage Road alongside the Niagara River. It ran along the summit of some rising ground (about 25 feet higher than the surrounding area) and therefore commanded good views of the area. The British artillery (two 24-pounder and two 6-pounder guns, one 5.5-inch howitzer and a Congreve rocket detachment) were massed in a cemetery at the highest point of the battlefield.
COVID numbers continue to break records for 7 days in a row. Over 16,000 cases on December 31!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We now know family and friends who have had covid this last week. The building also has a few more cases.
We are keeping safe and avoiding catching any variants so we spent Christmas Day at home. There were lots of wishes via email, texts and video calls.
We are keeping low until I get my scheduled booster on January 4.
Sunday I started our online grocery order for delivery on Thursday. This way I have my delivery slot secured and can continue to add to the order as we think of things.
The week was pretty much all the same.
Some photos John took on a walk.
Warm enough for stand up paddle boarding?
So finally after two weeks of only one toilet, one company visit saying we needed to replace the entire toilet ($2K to meet condo requirements), multiple calls to second company unreturned, we finally had him show up today and simply replace a piece. Cost outstanding awaiting invoice. WOW HOO! Our highlight!
Thursday's cocktail was rum and eggnog, the first we've had in a few years.
New Year's Eve was more of the same. We spent the afternoon watching reruns of Prime Suspect as we loved that series and it is airing for free at the moment.
WATCHING
This movie had terrible reviews and ratings, a plot full of holes, but we enjoyed it as mindless entertainment.
Members of a Special Air Services team must battle a group of terrorists to save the kidnapped daughter of the prime minister.
He Who Dares
We really enjoyed Being the Ricardos is a 2021 American biographical drama film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, about the relationship between I Love Lucy stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem star as Ball and Arnaz, while J. K. Simmons, Nina Arianda, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy, and Clark Gregg also star.
Thursday BBQ chicken legs and sauteed bok choy, bean sprouts and broccoli
Friday NYE crab legs and baked potatoes.
READING
I finished Jenny O'Brien's Silent Cry, a new to me author and series, Welsh female police procedural. A decent read and story although you can see the ending coming. It needed more twists.
Home Truths by Susan Lewis is not my type of book generally, too much romance but I have read her before. However it is very well written and covers off much of what is wrong these days, people struggling and working so hard to make ends meet. There are viscous neighbourhood gangs, ruthless landlords, internet predators, missing kids to drugs, all around a good read.
A good book to end the year on.
And speaking of ends, I broke my reading record this year!!
Shoreline Commemorative is a public artwork commissioned by Concert Properties for their urban boutique residential development The Berczy.
The artwork’s location, south of Front Street on the west side of Church Street, was the site of Lake Ontario’s shoreline for thousands of years. The artwork has a sculpted limestone base evoking the original topography of the city’s edge. Its focus is a glowing glass orb set on a bronze tripod, which acts as a dense glass rendition of the line separating sky and water. The tripod reminds passerby of the surveyors’ instrumentation of the line of sight, an important tool in creating the city. The brick wall to the south is inscribed with the text: “For 10,000 years this was the location of Lake Ontario’s shoreline. This brick wall stands where water and land met, with a vista horizon.” These elements, as an ensemble, present a summary of the experience of being on the shoreline with the horizon view open to open water, an experience formerly available at this exact location.
Artist-architect Paul Raff describes Shoreline Commemorative as “a special addition to the city, a landmark and unique situation for pedestrians to discover in the urban landscape.”
