Guest blog 2

Westfield Heritage Village
Today we 3 lumps went to a fabulous place called Westfield Heritage village. A collection of more than 30 Canadian historical buildings set up by 2 local school teachers who thought that there was not enough local history being taught, so they purchased the land and set up a site to present 19th centruary rural life.

The result is fantastic, each building was staffed by volunteers complete with costume, who knew about the history of the building and were able to tell us about where the building had come from and who had lived or worked there.

Much to my delight a number of the buildings had been used in the filming of Anne of Green Gables (AoGG) and while I won't make it to Prince Edward Island (the home of LM Montgomery) I can say that I have seen a number of the buildings used in its filming and sat at the famous Bright River Train station waiting for Matthew!

We enjoyed some home made biscuits with butter and jam (or scones if you are Australian) and iced tea and Lemonade (no not 7up but real freshly made lemonade).

There were some fabulous characters around the village and it was a day thoroughly enjoyed by all 3 of us (even if the 2 local lumps got sick of my ravings and excitements about AoGG!!)

See the Westfield website.

The village blacksmith making a long-handle kitchen fork - the old-fashioned way.

A covered bridge. Horses won't cross a noisy river because it sounds too dangerous.

The trading post building - c. 1830, moved from Leeds County to the Westfield site. (All of the buildings have been relocated from somewhere in the area.)

The general store is along the main street, and was built in 1848 in Elgin County.

One of our guides demonstrates a camera obscura. We're posing for Lumpkin (not the other way around) - a lens/mirror arrangement projects our image onto paper for Lumpkin to trace, producing an accurate sketch.

Laura playing Anne of Green Gables at the train station.

A fancy soda machine at the general store, which carbonates water on the spot. Flavours of the day were lemon, orange, vanilla, pineapple, strawberry and sarsparilla.