Inside Caledon, Ontario

This photo is of a typical Caledon, Ontario hay field which was cut down and baled up earlier this month. The hay fields are usually cut down late June to early July depending on the weather and if the farmers are lucky sometimes they can get a second cut in the fall. The hay is mainly used for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Once hay is cut, dried and raked into windrows, it is usually gathered into bales or bundles, then hauled to a central location for storage. Hay must be fully dried when baled and kept dry in storage. This photo was taken with my Olympus DSLR and zoom lens and processed with the Photomatix software and adjusted ever so slightly with Photoshop. To see a larger version of this image click on the photo above.

Here are another two horses showing some love to each other, part of my continuing photo series of horses in the Caledon, Ontario area. Click on the above image for a larger picture.

Ever since my fiance bought her first horse I have photographed a large number of horse photos, this will be the first of a series of pictures of horses taken in the Caledon, Ontario area.

The Cheltenham Brick Works located on Mississauga Rd. just a little bit north of King St. is an old abandoned but preserved fromer brickyard complex, it is not well known and I actually came across it by accident while driving around in Caledon but quite glad I found it. Even though it is fenced off it is easily accessible as people have made holes in the fense to access it.

The Cheltenham Brick Works is very interesting as it is a good example of our industrial era history. Established in 1912 and in full operation by 1914, the brickyard was the first in Canada to mass produce bricks, shipping to national and international markets by truck and rail. The area was rich in “medina shale” which was a hard clay that made excellent bricks when fired in kilns.

In 1914, the Interprovincial Brick Company took over the brick making operations on Mississauga Road to expand their own brick making operations. Six downdraft kilns and one continuously firing kiln allowed the company to produce 90,000 bricks at once. Its workforce living largely on-site or in nearby villages, the brickyard was an important economic stimulant to the local rural community for many years.

The brick making at the Cheltenham Brick Works continued until 1958 when the Interprovincial Brick Company ceased operatons and it was left vacant. Domtar took over the site and demolished the workers homes. In 1993 Brampton Brick reopened the brick yards for shale extraction and they have preserved the remaining original brick works.

I have enhanced the photos slightly with the program Photomatix to bring out the color a little more, click on the images to open larger versions. I also have a number of inside shots of the Cheltenham Brick Works that I will be posting soon.

With the 2011 federal elections less than a week away, Monday May 2nd, 2011, below is a list of candidates for federal riding of Dufferin-Caledon. I have included a link to each candidates official website where you can find out more information about them and what they stand for in this riding. For more info on the election including voting locations, click here for the Elections Canada website.

There are 77,607 people eligible to vote in the Dufferin-Caledon riding this year, the 2008 election turnout was 57.71% which is slightly lower than the 2006 election which was 64.94%, so on Monday May 2nd be sure to get out there and vote.

2011 Candidates:

• David Tilson – Conservative (Incumbent)
  Website: http://www.davidtilson.ca
• Bill Prout – Liberal
  Website: http://billprout.liberal.ca
• Ard Van Leeuwen – Green
  Website: http://www.ardv.ca/home/home.cfm
• Leslie Parsons – New Democrat
  Website: http://leslieparsons.ndp.ca

If you have ever watched shows on TV like Auction Kings on Discovery or Storage Wars on A&E and are curious what a real auction looks like then you might want to check out the new Auction House in Caledon which has just opened up. Located in Bolton at 21 Parr Blvd. the Caledon Auction Depot holds weekly auctions on Friday nights and Saturday late mornings. There is everything from art, brand new furniture, electronics, tons of jewellery, rare coins & money, sports collectibles and more. I must admit I do find it quite interesting to watch and there are deals to be had if you know your pricing.

An abandoned house at the corner of Hwy 10 and King Road in Caledon. There was actually a second abandoned house across the street from it as well but this one looked more decrepit so I decided to snap a shot. Photo was enhanced with Photomatix to make it an HDR image based from a single raw image, click on the above photo for a larger image.

I will be taking pictures of more abandoned houses, farm houses and structures soon, if anyone knows of any good ones in the Caledon area please let me know.

A young baby horse with his watchful mother, he was born this weekend at the Hockley Hills School of Horsemanship which is just north of Orangeville. According to Melanie Chin Head Coach and General Manager the Mare’s name is Daylight Dreamer and it was her first baby, she’s a thoroughbred from Kentucky with a dark bay and her colt is a very tall dark bay with 3 white socks and a strip and snip.

Kera Freeland a 20 year old girl who moved to Toronto from Alberta to work at an escort agency (Cachet Ladies) and went missing mid-January has been identified as the woman whose remains were found in a ditch in Caledon last Thursday. Kera was last seen on Sunday, Jan. 16 in the Lake Shore Blvd. W. and Queens Ave. area. In February, Toronto police issued a missing-person alert for her.

Her remains were found on Marvh 17 around 6 p.m. in a ditch on Heart Lake Rd., between Boston Mills Rd. and Olde Base Line Rd by a man out for a walk. Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Constable Peter Leon said a cause of death has yet to be determined. So far, it’s not known whether the death is a homicide, suicide or an accident. “We’re hoping someone might be able to tell us how she got from Toronto to Caledon,” Constable Leon said Monday.

Kera Freeland’s body was found a short distance from where a murdered Orangeville nurse’s body was left last summer, but police are not drawing any links between the two. Sonia Varaschin, 42, was killed in her townhouse in the nearby town of Orangeville last August and found in a woodlout outside town. “At the time, there is no indication linking [Kera Freeland’s] case to any other current OPP investigation,” Constable Leon said.

Kera’s friends suspect she may have been a victim of a “bad date”. Tim Lambrinos, of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada says, “She called her roommate earlier that night and told her she was having a bad date… she said ‘she was going to leave the date’ and was returning home.”

That was the last time her roomie heard from Freeland until finding out of her death the next day.

Police are asking that anyone with information regarding the case, or who was in contact with Kera Freeland prior to her death, contact the OPP at 905-857-3304.

Some additional News articles about Kera Freeland:

• Globe and Mail
• The Star
• Toronto Sun

Even though this winter hasn`t been too bad I still long for the summer…

Only a couple more months to go.