Along the Twelve

Just as the mighty Niagara River flows into Lake Ontario so do a number of creeks that are found along the south-western shores of the lake.  The early settlers named them according to the number of miles they were from the river.

The community that eventually grew into present day St. Catharines, Ontario was on Twelve Mile Creek and was sometimes simply referred to as "The Twelve".

You can see Twelve Mile Creek in the centre of the picture.  Parts of it were incorporated into the first three Welland Canals.  Lake Ontario is in the upper right. Along the bottom are the colours of the abundant harvest that comes from our rich farmland.  The urban areas along The Twelve are represented by the houses at the top.

The 406 Highway that runs through the peninsula and joins up with the Queen Elizabeth Highway - Niagara's link with Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal and  New York runs parallel to the waterway in the picture.

This is where I live. It's home.  

The New 'Hood

It's easy to forget that St. Catharines has a port, a cool lighthouse  and even cooler beaches.

Or I should say, it used to be easy to forget.

Now that I'm in the north end, it's hard not to notice the massive body of water a few streets north of my kennel.

When I was a kid in the 1950s, Lake Ontario was the Lake whose name we dared not speak. It was considered a repository for all kinds of disgusting diseases

and only the lucky kids whose parents wanted them to die of polio got to go swimming there.

Yesterday, while Flynn the dog and I were exploring our new 'hood, we found the mummified remains of this girl whose mom let her swim in the Lake.

"Jeesh," I said to Flynn, "I think she sat behind me in grade three!"

Flynn was suitably shocked.

But she was only pretending.

Dogs don't respect dead smelly things.

They LOVE them.

Flynn is crazy about our new 'hood!

And I like it, too.