Changes...

This is one of the train bridges in town, crossing the Mississippi River. Until this summer we had freight trains going by a few times a day. Sometimes it was fun, counting cars when the kids were little, or when the army base in Petawawa would receive a shipment of new tanks and jeeps and gun carriers, and we could watch car after car of green army vehicles go by...

Now the track is no longer used, and while it is so lovely and quiet, it is a sad thing to witness another tradition die....

Here is the same bridge, from a different angle, with a passenger train zooming by on it's way to Almonte....


This used to be The Queen's Hotel. It closed about two years ago, and in this photo was in the process of getting some "fresh" new siding on the first story. Great. It has since reopened as The Ale House...

Here it is in it's glory days as The Queen's Hotel. Sorry about the different angle of the photo. Things like that make me crazy!!


Continuing with my "before and after" obsession, I have been trying to take photos of friends' and neighbours' houses where the owners are lucky enough to have old photos of their house. This house is just around the corner from us and has had four owners in the ten years we have lived here. The latest owner is doing a fabulous job of renovating the inside. The grandson of the builder brought him these pictures from the 1920's...


A close-up...

How sad is this? Our neighbour would love to replicate the original porch, but might need to win the lottery to do so!


And a close-up of the detail on the porch...

Change is not always for the better.