Last Saturday, January 26th I went on a photo shoot trip to Rockwood, Ontario. There is a really neat park with a rather large lake in it where people usually go canoing in summer. Well now, being winter, the lake was entirely (well mostly entirely) frozen to the point where one could walk on it in most parts (as I have noticed footsteps all over it, though I did not adventure toward its middle). The trip overall was great. I asked my friend Ashley whether she would like to tag along (she usually doesn’t mind coming along on my nature shooting trips) and I first stopped in the city of Guelph. Now let me tell you the city of Guelph is a real beauty. It is slightly less simple to navigate its streets since they are not exactly parallel and perpendicular like the ones in Kitchener, but it has to offer some unique architecture that Kitchener does not get even by far close to. One of my favourites is the Our Lady Immaculate Church. It is a rather large building placed on the top of the highest hill you can find in Guelph, also conveniently in the heart of Guelph’s downtown area. There we parked and walked around looking for a caffee because I was craving an espresso drink (when do I not?). We eventually found two more churches and the mall. Now the Guelph Mall I had heard that it is known for looking like a prettyful little town on the inside, so after photographing the other two churches we went inside. And it really did look splendidly. The stores had small entrances tightly squished one next to the other and one felt like walking somewhere in a downtown area in some European town, except here we had a roof above our heads (oh well, can’t have it all). Inside we found a nice little caffee place called, i forget what it is called, but you can’t miss it if you keep walking and look on your right at the first intersection. They even have free WiFi in there but I forgot to take my laptop with me (left it in the car) so I couldn’t browse the Net at that time. I had a Caramel Latte I believe. Great choice every time haha. They were also preparing for something in the mall. There were tables set up and people were working on electrical connections, so I asked what was going on. I was informed that that night there would be a Masquerade going on. Hmmm, interesting, I thought. And off we went on to Rockwood park.

The part about getting on the right track (well road) to Rockwood, then, was interesting because all I knew was that I had to take highway 7 East. And let me tell you the signalling on the streets was terrible. I eventually stopped and bothered a very nice young man from shovelling his driveway, from whom we eventually got the right directions. The park itself was frozen stiff. It was a bit tedious until we walked all the way down to the lake, but once there I went into Photographer Mode and I was feeling great. I walked out onto the frozen lake for a bit and shot a few pictures, then realized how I can consider myself fairly lucky that I am still on solid ground and not drowning, so I returned swiftly, yet lightly back to the actually really solid ground. We then walked on, on the path, toward the next point of attraction, the Ruins. On our way there, however we found something I did not remember from the last time I was there (last summer), the caves. Don’t get your hopes up though, they are not huge, at least not the ones that you will find on the trail. They are dents in the rock wall caused by … who knows, perhaps the water a long time ago, under which you can seek shelter and perhaps light a camp fire, or like I did, photograph the ice drops.

At the caves, an elderly couple with two lovely dogs came by. The gentleman was wearing a lovely Nikon D70s around his neck and thus we socialized and talked a little photo-talk. I asked him whether I am on the correct trail to get to the ruins of the old Mill and he said I was. So off we went again. The mill ruins were lovely, just the way I remembered them, just snowy =P. Now what I really found interesting was the little waterfall next to the mill. A lovely little snow and ice covered fall where one large lake was flowing into another. Very very lovely. It’s been a greatly productive trip as far as photographs go and me getting to see for myself things I usually only thought I’d get to admire in photography books or in National Geographic magazines. I just wish my dear friend Alyssa (canuckgurl22.deviantart.com) had been there. Someday she will =D. Heard that Alyssa, when you come and visit you won’t away without me taking you to see this place .

_{All photographs can be found in my photography gallery: http://chirilas.deviantart.com/gallery/}