Walking Thru History with Dogs

20/06/2024

Making my own history by acknowledging my connection to dogs past and present.
Hoping to have more posts to this page soon.

29/02/2024

30/01/2021

Today’s instalment takes us to the Lakefield, Ontario area homestead of famed Canadian writer, Susanna Moodie.
Mrs. Moodie emigrated to Upper Canada from Suffolk, England in 1832, one year after marrying, John Wedderburn Dunbar Moodie.
Originally, they homesteaded in a settlement known as “the Front”, but after years of bad harvests, they relocated to Douro on the northern side of Lakefield, Ontario.
The Lakefield area homestead is adjacent to the river running into the town of Lakefield, where Susanna’s famous sister, Catherine Parr Traill, resided.
The Moodie’s spent six years at the Douro area homestead, and endured hardship and sometimes near starvation, before Susanna obtained a job for her husband As a paymaster, that eventually had them relocate to Belleville, Ontario. It was in Belleville,in 1852, that Susanna write for a Montreal magazine, and penned her book, Roughing it in the Bush, inspired by her life at the two homesteads. This book excited new pioneers and people back in England, giving insight to the thrills and challenges of homesteading in the wilderness of a largely unknown land.
Susanna moves to Toronto after the passing of her husband in 1869, and lived there until her passing in 1885. She and her husband are buried in Belleville, Ontario.
The pictures below capture the area of the Moodie homestead in Douro, along with a view of Katchewanooka Lake that they would have used for water, and transport.
Also included are pictures of Susanna Moodie and her sister Catherine Parr Traill, and the only certified rendering of what is thought to be the Moodie house at Douro.

26/01/2021

Please feel free to post a story. Not sure if I picked the best way to have people do that. If not, just message the pictures and I will upload them with the dialogue you provide.

I thank you in advance, and I can’t wait to see what great things are to come.

Picture is of a dog I lost almost two years ago, my sweet Sophie.
She went on an epic journey in the last few months of her life. An abandoned dog from Texas, she made it to Canada, and then back to Texas about 10 months later. From there, we journeyed to Melbourne Beach, Florida where she dipped her feet in the treasure rich beaches of the coastal islands. An epic dog. An epic trip.

26/01/2021

BEER ANYONE?

While Didja’ and I went out to Campbellford area yesterday for groceries, we also went in search of Church Key Brewery just outside of Campbellford, Ontario. A beautiful drive even at this time of year.
Church Key Brewery was established in 1999 in a small Methodist Church originally built in 1878. There’s not much information available on the church itself except that it finally decommissioned in 1990. The cemetery beside the church holds exclusively many generations of the family Petherick, for whom the little Town the church resides in is named.
Church Key Brewery is a small but award winning craft beer company noted for its chocolate beer among others (apparently sourcing its chocolate from the local World’s Finest Chocolates company located in the town of Campbellford).
Also of note, is the Church Key name. A Church Key is the name given to early beer bottle openers sometime around when the church was erected. There’s no connection to this particular church, but I found the history of the name interesting.
Oh! And I’ve now tasted the Church Key Red, and it is delicious!

26/01/2021

Posted to the page by Joanne Oakes in comments on another post, so I moved it here for others to read.
Thank you Joanne! This is wonderful.

First Picture
This time last year as a little puppy by Durham River, with the Cathedral in the background.
We live in the city of Durham, in the North East of England.

Second Picture
This is Connie in front of Durham Cathedral.

When Vikings first attacked England in 793, the monks fled with St Cuthbert’s remains to protect them, eventually settling in Durham in 995 where they built an Anglo-Saxon cathedral.

In 1083 a community of Benedictine monks was established in Durham following the Norman Conquest.

Construction of the Cathedral as we know it today was started in 1093 by Bishop William of St Calais.

I’ll post another picture which is Connie with a replica of the Sanctuary Door Knocker (the real one can be seen in the treasury inside the Cathedral). In Medieval times, those who ‘had committed a great offence,’ such as murder in self-defence or breaking out of prison, could rap the knocker, and would be given 37 days of sanctuary within which they could try to reconcile with their enemies or plan their escape.

We adore this place. There’s something very special about it. Hope you like the pictures! It’s also well known as one of the places where Harry Potter was filmed.

25/01/2021

Made our way to Campbellford, Ontario to buy dog food from a local supplier. Campbellford is rich in history, and there are many, many interesting places to explore.
This is Christ Church located at 154 Kent Street. It’s easy to find, though it’s a little tucked away in downtown Campbellford on the north side of the river.
The church was founded in 1835, but the church itself opened its doors in 1854.
What’s interesting about this church is that is linked to something called The Cult of Domesticity, a movement that began sometime about 1840 and seemed to fall by the wayside by about 1867.
The Cult of Domesticity also known as the Cult of Womanhood, was an ideology women in upper and middle classes actually embraced that touted four concepts: 1) women should be more religious than men (pious); 2) Women should be pure of heart, mind, and body (purity); 3) Women should be submissive to husbands (submissive); 4) Women should stay at home (domesticity). The ideology discouraged women from seeking education, but it was thought to elevate the moral status of a wife, and women, making them more important to society. The notion of Domesticity apparently became an obsession with some women, and there were even books produced as aids to moral conduct.
While the “Cult” was very popular in parts of Europe and the United States, it did captivate some in Canada, including those in Montreal, and Ontario. The Christ Church was likely influenced by the first minister appointed to this church by the members from Montreal.

As always, Didja’ is part of the discovery processes. A school down the road let out, and she was excited to see the students, and to play in the snow.

25/01/2021

By 1835, William and Jane Lang, immigrants from Scotland, had moved to and built a dam just outside of what is now Lang Village, at Keene, Ontario. The dam was used to power a carding and fulling mill operation, which is the cleaning and straightening of sheep’s wool in preparation for spinning, and use for knitting, etc.
This mill is upstream of the Lang Grist Mill.

23/01/2021

Today we started out looking for the hostoric plaque for John Fife, the father of Red Fife Wheat. The plaque used to be up on Hwy 7 east of Peterborough but it was moved to Lang Pioneer Village some years ago.
John Fife (1805-1877) was Scottish born, and at some point moved to the Keene, Ontario area south east of Peterborough, Ontario. He is credited with the propagation of Red Fife Wheat that by 1860, was the #1 grown Wheat in Canada. He originally got some seeds sent from a friend in Glasgow (seeds off a ship from Prussia), and planted them. Some didn’t survive, but of the seeds that did, they became a rust resistant strain (a problem with strains already in use), that was early maturing, and high yielding. The Wheat was also noted for it good milling and baking properties.
While Red Fife Wheat was replaced over time with other wheats, it had in the last few years, become a sought after grain heralded as a heritage grain with a somewhat nutty and desirable flavour.
The picture below are of the Lang Grist Mill (originally the Allandale Mill), in Lang, Ontario (in Keene, Ontario) where much of the original Red Fife was milled. The couple pictures is John Fife and his wife, Jane.
Also included are pictures of John Fife’s first home in the area (now preserved at Lang Pioneer Village), and a picture of Red Fife Wheat.