On the tip of the Bruce Peninsula.

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A longer and very different post from what my regular readers are used to. I want to talk about my experiences at the Tobermory Hyperbaric Facility and The Meeting Place in Tobermory, Ontario.

As I may have hinted at in some earlier posts from 2019 I have had an ongoing health issue that started late in 2018. I had a sore on my right calf that I couldn’t get to heal and that became infected. As a result, between Christmas and the new year I found myself in the local emergency room being put on intravenous antibiotics.

Six weeks later a succession of doctors and a surgeon had managed to almost double the size of the sore and it was also deeper into the leg. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever heal and was getting very frustrated with the medical treatment I was receiving.

One of the nurses dressing what was by now a wound realised how frustrated I was and arranged for me to see Dr. George Harpur who runs the hyperbaric chamber in Tobermory on the northern tip of the Bruce Peninsula. Dr. Harpur took over my treatment and after a few visits I was ready to go into the hyperbaric chamber.

After 22 sessions (11 days) in the hyperbaric chamber the wound had shrunk from over an inch in diameter to the size of a small pea. I’m still surprised at the speed the wound healed.

Having two sessions in the hyperbaric chamber each day I went over to The Meeting Place between sessions. There’s a lounge area, various rooms and a kitchen where you can use the microwave to warm something up for your lunch. It’s open to anyone and has Wi-Fi, some of my blog activity over the past couple of weeks has been from there.

A very useful facility with a nice atmosphere. With a wide variety of activities held there I would describe it as a hub for the local community. It’s a popular place and a great concept, other communities in the area could take note.

To the photo and its connection to this post. I first visited Tobermory in the summer of 1985. I took a glass bottomed boat tour out to Flowerpot Island and took this photo from the back of the boat as it was leaving Tobermory.

Canadian flag on a tour boat.

Fence post and a splash of Gold.

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The new Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge is Fences and gates.

I had forgotten about this selective colour treatment until finding it with some shots of Swallows on barbed wire fences. I have also forgotten why I did a monochrome conversion with the selective colour.

The old license plate holding the fence post together gives a big clue about where the photo was taken. A male American Goldfinch peeking around a fence post at the photographer. Taken one summer in Saskatchewan .

Fence and a splash of Gold.

Singing male Red-winged Blackbird.

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Throwback Thursday travels back to Saskatchewan in the 1990s. With no sign of spring arriving in Ontario I thought a spring photo of a species that arrives in Canada for the summer would be nicer than another photo of snow and ice.

This male Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) has recently arrived in Saskatchewan to spend the summer and is singing to establish a breeding territory. I’ve always liked the backlighting on the bird that’s illuminating the red epaulettes that give the male birds their name.

Backlit male Red-winged Blackbird proclaiming its territory.

Layers of cloud at Sunrise.

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The new Tuesday Photo Challenge is Sunrise.

As a someone who has been photographed a lot of sunries it was a bit of a challenge picking one.

In the end I went with a sunrise from around a decade ago. I find the multi coloured layers of cloud interesting. The photo is of Colpoy’s Bay with the Niagara Escarpment and White Cloud Island on the horizon.

Layers of cloud at sunrise.

Shiny Grackle.

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The new Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge is Shiny.

My initial ideas involved ice as winter seems to be dragging on in this part of Ontario.

I then started thinking about some of the bird species with iridescent plumage and thought of the male Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) that should be arriving in Ontario soon. They’re quite a colourful species in the right light although not very popular with some people who feed the birds when they descend in large flocks.

A portrait of a male Common Grackle on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario in the spring.

A shiny male Common Grackle.