Enjoying spring

We have all been waiting for this weather.  Finally spring is here.  Ralph and I thought it would be nice to go out and look at a few waterfalls since the spring runoff will be ending soon.  We got up early on Saturday morning (4:15) and packed up a lunch, made a thermos of tea and headed west.  Our goal was to find a nice spot along the lake somewhere and take pictures of the sun rising.  From there we had a few waterfalls selected that we wanted to see.

It was a race against the clock.  You can`t stop the sun from rising and we were having difficulty finding a place to stop.  Our first location looked like it might be good, but once we got near the lake the view was obstructed.  So, I took a few pictures and then we jumped back into the truck and drove on until we found another place. It`s funny how anxious you can get worrying that you might miss the perfect shot!!  Happily we found a spot and were not disappointed with the results.

They say that the light is best during the first hour after the sun comes up and the last hour as the sun is setting.  It casts a really warm glow on everything. Even the weeds look beautiful.

Satisfied with our pictures, we headed to Starbucks for a cup of coffee and then planned our route.  The first stop was at an old Mills and waterfall called Decew Falls.

Sadly the falls weren`t running.  We met a nice gentlemen there who explained to us that the falls were controlled by the Hydro company and they wouldn`t be turned back on until late July.  They had been turned off because of some issues with the hydraulics at the Mill which was currently under repair.  He gave us an interesting tour of the Mill and explained the workings.  As well, he also let me take a picture through the window at the back of the Mill of another waterfall however it was hidden by the tree`s.

It is a beautiful area and part of the Bruce trail so we took the opportunity to take a hike and do some exploring.  Ralph wanted to see if he could find a way down the escarpment (it was pretty steep) to try to get a picture of the falls.  He wasn`t successful.  While he was making an attempt to find a place to go down, I spotted this beautiful Jack in the Pulpit.  I was so excited to see this. 

On our way back to the truck we found this tree that we thought might make a nice photo.

Our next stop was Ball`s Falls.  We weren`t too sure what to expect as Teresa and Lawrence had visited this before in the summer and told us it was just a trickle.  We were hoping that the spring thaw would add to the trickle. We were nicely surprised.  There were two different waterfalls.  The first we went to was ``Lower`` Balls Falls.

Ralph climbed over the fence and went down to the bottom to get this second shot while I stayed at the top.  I`m pretty pleased with some of the pictures that we were able to get.  From here we walked to the ``Upper`` Balls Falls. Upper Balls Falls is a group of small waterfalls together.

Along the path we came upon some remnants of an old Wool Mill.  There wasn`t too much left but the window certainly was interesting.

This is a nice area to explore and I look forward to coming back here again.

Once we had finished looking at these falls, the sun was too high in the sky for us to accomplish the types of pictures that we wanted to do.  It was a very sunny day and our filters couldn`t filter out all the  light.  We had packed our golf clubs (just in case) and decided to book a round of golf.  We were able to get a tee time at The Legends in Niagara and golfed on the Battlefield Course.  We were paired up with another couple - Evan and Nicole.  Lately I am really bad with remembering names so I resorted to some training that I had received years ago and associated their names with people I already knew.  I chose Evan Versteeg and Nicole Holtvluewer.  It worked.  They were a really fun couple to play a round of golf with.  They lived in Detroit and were visiting for a short weekend vacation.

We sure did a lot today and certainly enjoyed ourselves.  I was pretty tired when I got home, but I`m so happy that we spent the day together.