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A short visit to Prince Edward County

We spent W-F in Prince Edward County (an almost-island at the east end of Lake Ontario) for a mini-vacation. This was our first vacation trip there so we werent sure what to expect. We usually go to Niagara where there are lots of gardens and garden related things to do/see. PEC has an ideal climate for gardening so I was hoping for some nice gardens. The weather was perfect  not too hot; not too cool; mostly sunny. ItÂs a very rural county that has recently got into wine growing and making. While they are starting to advertise themselves as Âthe new NiagaraÂ, they have a long way to go yet! Artists, craftsmen  and chefs! - have also Âdiscovered PEC and a major part of tourists activities revolve around crafts and art galleries, and restaurants serving locally grown food products.

In a little town on the west end of PEC on our way to our B&B, we stopped for a little walk and saw this this clematis group on a street corner (gb  guesses as to what they are�)

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Clematis look so nice with cedar rails  as gb demonstrates regularly. There were lots of cedar rail fences in PEC that were in need of clematis! I particularly like this common style:

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The presence of the clematis on a street corner got my hopes up for interesting gardens. Alas, it wasnÂt to beÂ. The website for the B&B looked like there was going to be interesting gardens there but they turned out to be pretty ordinary and not as big as the pictures seemed to indicate. There was supposed to be a seasonal natural waterfall but it was not accessible and Randy didnÂt go looking for it.

Not too far from the clematis on the street corner was a house that had a sign that said ÂOpen garden, please walk inÂ, so we did. It was a model of garden maintenance  not a weed in sight; perfectly edged beds; currants and raspberries grown in hooped tunnels covered in netting. Most of the garden was roses and annuals with a few perennials. The most interesting feature of the garden was a gazebo made with trumpet vines:

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The owner/gardener was in his mid-70s IÂd guess and he said he started it about 20 years ago. The most interesting thing was what the pillars had become:

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There was a lattice roof to direct the growth upward:

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He did say that the vines do sucker badly into nearby flowerbeds but it would be an interesting thing to create a gazebo like that one in a large lawn area where any suckers would get mowed down regularly.

Some of the craft places where there are normally artists demonstrating their crafts were missing their artists  they usually arrive for this weekend and July and August, which are the peak tourist months. We bought a few small things but some of the nicer ones were more than we were willing to pay. There were some very nice quilts including a portrait quilt that we didnÂt realize on first glance that it was a quilt! Here are two craft pieces that appealed to us but didnÂt make the trip home with us:

(This one reminded us of Gandalf  the picture cuts off the pipe in his mouth thoughÂ)

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The big tourist destination for families is the Sandbanks Provincial Park. It was mostly not accessible for me but I did get to see some of it. IÂm not a swimmer and the water would have been too cold anyway but it was a pretty scene and, because of the cool temperatures and not yet peak season, it was very peaceful. Perhaps scenes like this may be more common for any of you on the coasts, but it is unusual here~

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It was a pleasant,peaceful vacation but I wouldn't have wanted to stay longer. We were happy to get home - and Misty was very happy to see us. (Barb and a neighbour provided pet-sitting, with Barb staying afternoons and overnight and the neighbour dropping in regularly through the day to give her bathroom breaks and attention. But she was still unhappy to be left behind.) Jasper and Blue arrived a couple of hours ago for a 10 day stay so she's happy with all the attention she's getting now.

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