The People, Places and Events Of Muskoka

Winnie Schulz and Ginger (both photos by Fred Schulz)

The View from the stage at Music On The Barge, Gull Lake Park

WE MISS A LOT OF MUSKOKA ATTRIBUTES, BECAUSE WE'RE LIVING URBAN LIFESTYLES

HOW CAN WE PROTECT MUSKOKA, IF WE DON'T APPRECIATE THE STRESSES?

     THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF PEOPLE, PLACES AND EVENTS, ACCOMPANYING THIS BLOG, WERE TAKEN BY MUSKOKA PHOTOGRAPHER, FRED SCHULZ, AND WERE SELECTED FROM HIS ARCHIVES, OF IMAGES HE CONSIDERS SOME OF HIS FINEST. THE IMAGES ARE NOT CONFINED TO NATURAL SCENES, AND WON'T BE DOMINATED BY URBAN LANDSCAPES; BUT WILL INSTEAD BE MIXED TOGETHER WITH THE PORTRAITS OF MUSKOKANS THE PHOTOGRAPHER FOUND AS IDEA SUBJECTS FOR HIS STUDIES. THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE SETTLED AND PROGRESSED OUR REGION THROUGH THE CENTURIES, ARE TO BE RESPECTED AND CELEBRATED. SO INCLUDED AMONGST HIS FAVORITE LANDSCAPES, WILL BE INTERESTING PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN OF INDIVIDUALS, GROUPINGS AT EVENTS, AND AUDIENCES, SUCH AS THE ONES WHO SHOW UP REGULARLY FOR THE "MUSIC ON THE BARGE" CONCERT SERIES, ON SUNDAY NIGHTS DURING THE SUMMER MONTHS…….. AT GRAVENHURST'S GULL LAKE PARK. THERE ARE TWO OF HIS FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPHS RUNNING TODAY, IN THIS BLOG……ONE BEING OF HIS MOTHER, WINNIE SCHULZ AND CAT GINGER (WINNIE BEING FROM COOPER'S FALLS), AND THE OTHER, ONE OF MY FAVORITES, AN INSIDE-LOOKING OUT PHOTOGRAPH OF A "BARGE" SUMMER CONCERT.

  

     A GROWING NUMBER OF MUSKOKANS COULDN'T CARE LESS ABOUT THE CONSERVATION OF THE DISTRICT. WE HAVE A LARGE CHANGEOVER OF POPULATION EACH YEAR, TRANSFERRING IN AND OUT OF THE REGION FOR REASONS OF EMPLOYMENT. WHEN FOLKS DO ARRIVE HERE, IN ONE OF THE COMFORTABLE NEIGHBORHOODS, RURAL OR URBAN, IT WILL TAKE YEARS FOR THEM TO FIND OUT EVEN THE BASICS OF MUSKOKA HISTORY; AND TO FULLY APPRECIATE HOW PRECIOUS THE ENVIRONMENT IS, TO A DISTRICT THAT HAS DEPENDED ON TOURISM SINCE THE MID TO LATE 1870'S. THE PROBLEM FOR MUSKOKA, IS IN THE URBANIZING OF THE HINTERLAND. EACH YEAR THERE ARE PROFOUND CHANGES TO THE LANDSCAPE. A SIGNIFICANT PERCENTAGE OF OUR POPULATION, INCLUDING SEASONAL RESIDENCY, MISS THESE CHANGES, TO SOME DEGREE, OUT OF COMPLACENCY……AND IN MANY CASES, THE OUTRIGHT RESIGNATION THAT PROGRESS IS UNAVOIDABLE. FORESTS MUST COME DOWN, LOWLANDS MUST BE FILLED, HILLSIDES LEVELED. EVEN YOUNGSTERS HEADING TO SCHOOL EACH MORNING, SELDOM LOOK INTO THE ADJACENT WOODLANDS, OF OUR OWN NEIGHBORHOOD, TO OBSERVE THE NATURAL SCENE THAT IN MY DAY…….WAS SO POWERFULLY ALLURING, AND COMMANDING OF MY ATTENTION. EVEN WHEN THE SCHOOL BUS RETURNS THE YOUTH, BACK TO OUR "NECK OF THE WOODS," THE SAME AFTERNOON, THE MOST ACTION OUR WOODLANDS WILL EXPERIENCE, IS THE UNCEREMONIOUS TOSSING OF THE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES FROM THEIR LUNCH BAGS…….GETTING RID OF THE EVIDENCE BEFORE ARRIVING HOME. IS IT POSSIBLE THAT NATURE CAN BECOME IRRELEVANT IN AN ERA OF SUCH ACUTE AWARENESS ABOUT SUCH REALITIES OF GLOBAL WARMING AND POLLUTION? THE CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES?

     AS A KID, I WOULD HAVE SPENT CONSIDERABLE TIME, IN THESE SNOWY WOODS, OF THIS MORNING, AND MARVELED AT SUCH TRIVIAL INCIDENTS, AS COMING UPON THE TRAIL OF A PASSING DEER, OR THE TELL-TALE IMPRINTS OF A RABBIT ALONG THE UPPER RIDGE OF THE BOG. I COULD LOSE MYSELF IN THE CALMING, BEAUTIFUL SCENERY, OF THE DECORATION OF SNOW UPON THE EARLY SPRING LANDSCAPE. IT WOULD TEMPT ME GREATLY, TO STOP FOR AWHILE, TO LISTEN TO THE MYRIAD, SNAKING CREEKS THAT RUN THROUGH THE LOWLAND, TUMBLING IN TINY CRYSTALLINE FALLS, JUST BEYOND THE MOUNDS OF OLD SEASON GRASSES, MAKING RIDGES THROUGHOUT THE HOLLOW. I WOULD STAY TO WATCH THE WOODPECKER SEEKING SUSTENANCE FROM THE DECAYING PINE, AND FIND IT FASCINATING HOW THE SQUIRRELS, BY LEAPING BOUGH TO BOUGH, CREATE THE SUNLIT SNOW SHOWER AROUND ME. IT WOULD ALL REMIND ME OF THE ART WORK FROM THE SCHOOL TEXT BOOKS, WHEN I WAS ONE OF THOSE STUDENTS, CONFINED TO A CLASSROOM. THE PRINTS FROM THE WORK OF THE CANADIAN GROUP OF SEVEN ARTISTS, AND TOM THOMSON, SAVED MY SANITY IN THOSE YEARS, WHEN ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS ROAM THE WILDS, AND PADDLE A CANOE TO THE HORIZON. THOSE OLD TEXTBOOKS SAVED ME FROM IMPLODING FROM BOREDOM, AND THE HUGE CLASSROOM WINDOWS GAVE THE VOYEUR HIS ESCAPE.

THE MUSKOKA WE OFTEN MISS, IN OUR HARRIED PACE TO CONDUCT THE BUSINESS OF THE DAY

     When I began working with Muskoka photographer, Fred Schulz, to collaborate on a special blog project, to offer readers the benefit of our years of experience, hunting and gathering inspiration from our home district, I didn't wish to set down any encumbrances to our own creative spectrum. I didn't want to put either one of us back in that classroom protocol, or engage what might be considered a "harried" pace, to "get it done." The project began because we both felt, at our elder statesman time of life, that we wanted to share our respect for Muskoka, via editorial content and photographs, which we both feel are consistent with our own attachments to this part of Ontario. We didn't wish to put together a book, and it was never about a single cent of profit, to do what we have both been doing most of our lives…….living the good life in a truly amazing region. There are no fancy wrappings, framing, or special effects to dazzle readers. Fred is an exceptional photographer, who has never felt the need to "jazz-up" what is fascinating on its own. We both have an enormous respect for the representation of Muskoka without embellishments. Without bending to editors or publishers, who will dictate how our work is to be presented and made effective. This blog project, I guarantee you, is about as pure and honest to the objective, as it could be crafted……and if at the end of its run, which may take a year to complete, our satisfaction will be attained, just knowing we stuck to the basics, and followed our hearts, about the best way of showing you, what has enthralled us for most of our adult lives. We would like to think we can attract some readers, to stick with us on this journey of re-discovery, but I have made it policy here, at Birch Hollow, to never once, during its run, ever check the numbers of readers registered per day, per week, and per month. This number must not interfere with the outcome. We are both looking at this, as being a resource for the future, that we will gladly share with others who feel about Muskoka as we do. As for winning awards like the other media outlets like to boast on their front pages……we don't expect any such scrutiny. It's not about winning an award. It's about performing our own due diligence, to represent our district respectfully, winning your endorsement……and in the words of David Grayson, "we are friends; our orbits coincide." 

     This is why there are random season photographs from Mr. Schulz. I requested his spontaneity, when looking for file photographs he has archived over forty years, as a hobby and then professional photographer, with a great deal of media experience. As Fred's submissions are based on his interests of the day, my infilling of editorial copy will be based on the inspirations of the moment…..and even the weather of the day. It is a celebration of Muskoka. From the pen and camera of two chaps, who feel it is important to remind folks, about what they often miss in this fast paced existence…….and what they should observe of their surroundings, that would make their days more invigorating and exciting.

     There are a few paragraphs written by author David Grayson, that I have always relied upon, to peak my curiosity, at times when I fall into the mire of commonplace. The words help me look beyond the obvious…..and to see what often is inadvertently obscured by the hectic pace we endure, and the dullness associated with exhaustion. They read as follows:

     "I cannot well describe it, save by the analogy of an opening door somewhere within the house of my consciousness. I had been in the dark; I seemed to emerge. I had been bound down; I seemed to leap up, and with a marvelous sudden sense of freedom and joy. I stopped there in my field and looked up. And it was as if I had never looked up before. I discovered another world. It had been there before, for long and long but I had never seen nor felt it. All discoveries are made in that way; a man finds the new thing, not in nature but in himself. It was as though, concerned with plough and harness and furrow, I had never known that the world had height or color or sweet sounds, or that there was feeling in a hillside," wrote Grayson, a refugee from the urban jungle.

     "I forgot myself, or where I was. I stood a long time motionless. My dominant feeling, if I can at all express it, was of a strange new friendliness, a warmth, as though these hills, this field about me, the woods, had suddenly spoken to me and caressed me. It was though I had been accepted in membership, as though I was now recognized after long trial of being here. Across the town road which separates my farm from my nearest neighbor's, I saw a field, familiar, yet strangely new and unfamiliar, lying up to the setting sun, all red with autumn; above it the incalculable heights of the sky, blue, but not quite clear, owing to the Indian summer haze. I cannot convey the sweetness and softness of that landscape, the airiness of it, the mystery of it, as it came to me at that moment. It was as though, looking at an acquaintance long known, I should discover that I loved him. As I stood there I was conscious of the cool tang of burning leaves and brush heaps, the lazy smoke of which floated down the long valley and found me in my field; and finally I heard, as though the sounds were then made for the first time, all the vague murmurs of the country-side; a cow bell, somewhere in the distance, the creak of a wagon, the blurred evening hum of birds, insects, frogs. So much it means for a man to look up from his task. So I stood, and I looked up and down with a glow and a thrill which I cannot now look back upon without some envy and a little amusement at the very grandness and seriousness of it all. And I said aloud to myself - 'I will be as broad as the earth. I will not be limited'."

     Muskoka. There is so much we've neglected to observe and be thankful for…..in our home district. Please come back again, as we explore the Muskoka we have found, that we wish to share with you.