There is no question that routine, discipline and focus are awesome tools for moving things forward.  This is true for just about everything in life, whether it be business, personal or social.  Being organized and regimented is a tried, tested and true method for success.  Success, however, is not the be all and end all of life.  Just like Plan B, sometimes free form flowing through a day can net some spectacular results.  Yesterday was one such day for us and despite the perfect vitamin D opportunity outside the front window today, discipline requires that those results get shared.  Buckle up… this is going to be another long one!

2018 Green Legacy Town Tree Pickup

From left to right, Lisa Campion (Town of Erin Deputy Clerk), John Brennan (Town of Erin Councillor), Janet Blanchard (Tailwinds B&B)

Our one planned excursion yesterday was to help with the 2018 Green Legacy Municipal Tree Day.  We love this community and every chance we get to give a little back we do it.  The event has been organized by local Town Councillor John Brennan for several years and has helped thousands of trees get planted in the community.  The official start time for the public was 9:00am and by 8:30am when we rolled in there was already a lineup of vehicles waiting to pick up their free trees.  It was great to see so many residents engaged with helping Mother Nature!

Of course, there were partners with the event.  The Hillsburgh Fire Department was there to talk about fire safety and enlisted the help of AAA Events and one of their mascots to liven up the conversation.  The Environmental & Sustainability Advisory Committee was represented by Jay Mowat who was selling rain barrels and Turtle Crossing signs.  It almost felt like a mini festival in support of Mother Nature.  Good vibes the whole time!

Fire safety made fun

From left to right, Mascot (AAA Events), Wendy Swackhammer (Hillsburgh Fire Station)

After some brief chats with Jay Mowat we decided to head over to his farm to pick up a rain barrel and learn a little more about his Maple Syrup Co-op operation.  What a great decision!  Not only did we get to spend time with a local celebrity (more on his background in this article) but we also learned a ton about the painstaking process behind one of Canada’s claims to fame.  It is far more involved than simply collecting and boiling sap!

After choosing a rain barrel and loading it up, we headed to Jay’s house to grab ourselves a litre of the sweet sweet nectar that had been produced by his weeks of spring labour.  How could we not after such a detailed and informative tour of his operation?  The aromas alone had our mouths watering to give it a try!  If you are ever lucky enough to be invited for a visit at their homestead of Willow Creek, be sure to accept.  You will not be disappointed!

Maple Syrup Production Walk-through

Production beginning to final product walk-through by Jay Mowat.

Since we were already south of town, we decided to head over to Inglewood for a visit at Caledon Hills Cycling.  The drive was stellar even though the sun was not shining.  Buoyed by the fun morning and afternoon, it seemed fitting to drop into a bike shop.  Chatting with bike people is always fun no matter the occasion!  Since we arrived near closing time there was no time to get some pics of that visit, so you will have to take our word for it when we say it was awesome despite being the shortest of our meandering stops for the day.

Finding ourselves in fairly unfamiliar territory we decided to keep the exploratory vibe of the day going. We

Smiles for miles

Connie Tunney (Ciderhouse Bistro, Manager)

set the GPS coordinates to Spirit Tree Estate Cidery for dinner.  We have had several guests bring back rave reviews.  Certainly the name is well known locally and even internationally.  In fact, they were recently rated 7th by Expedia in their Top Ten Honeymoon Destinations in the World.  We were not disappointed!  The food was amazing, the cider sweet and delicious and the people warm and friendly!  It definitely planted some ideas for us and our future plans.  Yes, that is a little coy foreshadowing… 😉

 

After dinner, we finally started the journey home.  We chatted about how the day had gone and eventually realized there was one more errand to run.  We had recently done a customer appreciation BBQ for extended stay guests and partnered with the Hillsburgh Foodland to put it together since the crew frequents them regularly during the time they are with us.  We had displayed their event banner during the festivities and it needed to be returned.  It seemed like a fitting end to the meandering day as it brought the event collaboration full circle and capped off the day with a positive note since the BBQ was a big hit!

As we finally started out on our short drive home from downtown Hillsburgh, we reflected on the day.  While it had definitely gotten away from us in terms of moving forward the myriad of projects we have on the go, it was one of our best local outings to date.  Plans are great, however, going with the flow can sometimes lead to unexpectedly positive results too.  This was most definitely one of those days!