Bill Smith's Photography

 Yes Virgina, Beaverton exists and it lies on the eastern shores of Lake Simcoe, in a transition zone between farming counry in Brock Township and cottage country of the Kawarthas to the east. My personal  connection to Beaverton is two fold, two cousins are the custodians of the Smith-Stewart-Grant Cottage in Cedarhurst just south of town and two, my great uncle Masson up until the late 1940s was the town doctor.  Jo-Anne was up in North Bay for a family visit and I had the weekend to myself. Would have gone Saturday but the weather wasn't condusive for day trips. Even on Sunday when I went up the light, was, well, weird. Smoke from the wild fires in Northern Ontario and Quebec was lingering in the atmosphere and it felt humid as in thunderstorms could pop up in the afternoon humid.  That didn't stop me from shooting two rolls of Kodak Ektar 100 through my Nikon F100 on this day trip. Roll one you see here, it was a fun day and I got a chance to try out a new lens, ...

 My day trip around Brock Township included a visit with my cousins at their cottage which has been in the Smith/Stewart clan for almost a century. I found out a few things about my great granddad William G.  Smith and my granddad Arthur Smith. I know great granddad William G. moved to Toronto prior to the First World War but I got the Toronto address wrong. They didn't live on the edge of what's Corso Italia but instead in Hillcrest just east of Oakville Collegiate a block south of St. Clair West. I think Great Granddad Smith rented as he spent the final year of his life in the early 1930s in Moore Park a couple blocks south of St. Clair Avenue East and east of Yellow Ravine.  The other thing I found out was Granddad Arthur signed up for the Canadian Expeditionary Forces in his mid 20s in 1915 as a Private. He came home three years later as a Sargent on a medical discharge with an injured left hand. Granddad Arthur, I think moved to Montreal in the later 1920s to work in...

 My family's roots trace to Brock Township in the north end of Durham Region ans I planned a solo day trip with the intention of visiting my cousins on the way back. Jo-Anne was up in North Bay visiting her parents, the weekend was mine.  Beaverton, the small town within Brock Township is at the north end of Durham Region on the shores of Lake Simcoe is both a summer destination being a gateway to cottage country and a winter destination for the ice fishing scene on the lake. Beaverton's downtown has a lot going on with full occupancy on the main street. The town movie theatre changed hands and building is being repainted, the portraits of the town fathers including my great uncle Masson are in storage somewhere. I wonder if my Aunt Mary- Elinor made an under the table payment to have them taken down, she never liked Great Uncle Masson's likeness in the portrait.  The real photogenic hotspot is the harbour on the Beaver River with the boathouses/cottages along the edges. ...