Tag: Huron County

Locality: Fresh Lens Photography

Sarah StrightLeave a comment

photographing the photographer

At the risk of sounding like my Locality posts are all about my friends, Hayley Morgan, the owner of local photography company Fresh Lens, is a friend of mine.

Not that you need to know that we’re friends to appreciate her skill. Her work speaks for itself.

Florence
Florence

Hayley is one of those incredibly multi-talented people: she can draw, she can paint, she can write, and she can take a mean picture. And those are just in the creative arts genre.

Photography is merely the most recent of her creative endeavors. When I met her, she showed me a drawing of Brad Pitt that could almost have walked right off the page, it was so lifelike.

When it comes to things aesthetic, I would trust Hayley’s judgement 98% of the time. The other two percent of the time, I probably get it wrong. Yes, perhaps I’m laying it on thick, but Hayley has the proverbial eye that sees how something should or could be captured, not merely the way that it appears.

Dapper groomsmen

Hayley is not merely a good photographer: she is also involved in the community. After the Goderich tornado of August 2011, Hayley put together an album of images of the storm’s aftermath and the people it affected. The proceeds from the sale of the full-colour book go towards tornado relief in Goderich. Check out dis.tor.tion here.

dis.tor.tion

The mom of two is also involved with Owen’s Light Mothering Project, an initiative that “financially supports our community’s doula program” (learn more on Hayley’s blog post). Hayley recently donated her time to a fundraiser for Owen’s Light (which you would already know if you read her blog post and came back), a fantastic community initiative. If someday I am so fortunate as to have babies, I would love to have a doula.

baby in a bowl

I will be officially interviewing Hayley at some point, so that you can feel like you have met the woman behind the camera.

Of course, you could always go ahead and meet that woman in person!

To contact Hayley or for more information about her photography sessions:

(All photography in this post is by Hayley Morgan)

Expressions

Locality: Expressions Hair Design, Bayfield, Ontario

Sarah Stright3 Comments

 

Expressions
Expressions is a charming combination of the unexpected and the vintage.

There’s nothing quite like sitting in a small local hair salon, as the stylist talks about children and parents and pets with the client seated in her chair. You get absorbed in the pretty people on the pages of Vanity Fair or House & Home as your hair colour steeps above your cape-clad shoulders and music plays just loud enough to prevent silence from reigning, and the conversation blends with the music to become a pleasant background buzz. Beautification is happening.

Beautification is happening
Natali at work: Beautification is happening

Beautification is essential for the modern woman, but a local, small-town salon where you know your stylist and there are no huge corporate endorsements hanging on the walls does something for the soul as well as the follicles.

Here at Expressions Hair Design in Bayfield, Ontario, the smell of peroxide and hair dye mingles with that warm breeze aroma of freshly blow-dried hair as owner and stylist Natali Tarnowski goes busily about her business of washing, cutting, drying, curling, and chatting.

Expressions is a gem hidden away in the side of one of the buildings on the heritage Main Street of Bayfield, and Natali is a gem of a proprietor. None of her clients, old or young, seem fazed by the young stylist’s close-cropped bright cherry red hair, the rose tattooed on her throat, her other tattoos and piercings, or her fantastically individual style: pastel tie-dyed t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up a-la-5o’s-greaser, and skinny dark grey jeans tucked into beige leather lace-up, pointy-toed boots.

Vintage cash register
Vintage cash register

Natali is the heart and soul of Expressions, but seated in her chair and listening to her talk, you’d think you were. I went in for a much-needed haircut (and surprise colour) today. It was only my second visit, but I now know why my friends from miles around head to Bayfield to get Natali to cut their hair: she’s sweet. And she’s good!

You can find Expressions Hair Design on Facebook, or call Natali at 519-565-5800 to make an appointment. Make sure to let her know that you read my blog. 🙂

light the night

Locality: Light the Night in Bayfield, Ontario

Sarah StrightLeave a comment

It’s becoming a big week for A Transparent Life – this is the second weekly series that I have introduced!

Meet “Locality,” a series that will feature something local every week. I am from an area that is rich with heritage and culture and  talent and community and agriculture and so much more. It took leaving the country for several years and then returning for several MORE years to really appreciate all that Huron County is, but it has finally sunk in: we’re not all hicks!

For the inaugural post, I have chosen to promote an activity that is part of Family Day celebrations in a town that has come to be one of my hometowns: Bayfield, Ontario.

This is a new tradition in Bayfield, but one that I hope will continue for many years to come. Please tell your friends!

light the night

Really, who wouldn’t love a winter stroll down a quaint heritage street carrying sparklers and sipping hot chocolate?!

For the schedule of Family Day events in Bayfield, go to the www.my-bayfield.com website.

You can also get Family Day event updates by RSVP-ing to the event on Facebook.

Playing Favourites: Coastal Coffee Company

Sarah Stright5 Comments

*List of retailers updated March 16, 2012. Stay tuned for a few more being announced soon!

To introduce what I hope will be a new series appearing every Monday, Playing Favourites, I have chosen what is a relatively new favourite in a category that will always be on top of my list, coffee. Coastal Coffee Company coffee, to be precise.

Coastal Coffee Company

This local company is owned by a childhood friend, Ben, who was raised in the tradition of organic farming, so it was only natural for him to find a passion that incorporated those values.

Meet Ben and his wife Bri:

Owners of Coastal Coffee Company

A few years in the making, Coastal Coffee Company started with a popcorn popper and some green beans, in Ben’s garage in a small town on the coast of Lake Huron in Ontario. Friends and family began to ask Ben to roast batches for them, and so Ben began producing bags of locally-roasted beans.

Today, Ben has a small but beautiful roasting machine that he imported, not without aggravation, from Turkey, and a new shed in his backyard pretty much completely devoted to roasting coffee beans.

I have stopped buying coffee roasted anywhere else, partly because I believe it’s important to buy local, but mostly because Ben’s coffee is delicious!

This is what I drank today:

Nicaraguan Cafe Diego

In the last year, Coastal Coffee Co. has begun to sell beans in several nearby towns (Goderich, Exeter, Clinton, Grand Bend, Bayfield, etc.), in locally-owned stores and at farmer’s markets. You can find these tasty beans at the following locations:

And, you can enjoy delicious food and Coastal Coffee in your cup at Eddington’s of Exeter restaurant.

If you’re not going to be near any of these locations but would REALLY like to try my favourite coffee, let me know and I’ll pick some up for you. Of course, this only really makes sense if it’s feasible that I could deliver it. No, I won’t be road-tripping to other provinces or countries anytime soon. Sorry. But perhaps Ben does shipping!
You can also find Coastal Coffee at local events such as the Zurich Bean Festival and the county-wide culinary festival Taste of Huron, among others.

If you’re a coffee-drinker, consider giving up over-processed, pre-ground, imported cheap coffee in exchange for fair-trade or direct-trade organic, locally-roasted beans. They’re better for you, better for our community, and better for coffee growers.

Coastal Coffee table at outdoor event

Learn more about the “Fair Trade” certification and why it’s important: http://www.5min.com/Video/Learn-About-Fair-Trade-Coffee-517049684

“Like” Coastal Coffee Company on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Coastal-Coffee-Company-Roasted-on-Ontarios-West-Coast/180368545350175

For more information or to make a custom order, email Ben at coastalcoffeecompany@gmail.com.

Life in the H.C., Part 2

Sarah StrightLeave a comment

I went on a sorely needed long walk this evening, and I started to remember how much I love summer in Huron County. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the feel of it. It’s unique, and I miss it when I’m gone.

As I walked briskly along the soft shoulder of the county road I live on, outside of the blinking-yellow-lighted hamlet in which I reside, I began to smile to myself. I found myself recognizing red-winged blackbirds and killdeer; identifying corn, bean, and winter wheat crops; picking out honeysuckle and milkweed.

The long-lasting sunset and the familiar pinky-oranges of it, behind the occasional lazy clouds, seemed perfect, and the freshly sweet fragrance of the cut grasses on the roadside the icing on the cake. I took the time to gaze into the roadside ditch and stoop down at the edge of a bean field to admire the tiny plants just popping out and shedding their seed shells.

The chattering of the birds as they dived into the ditch for their supper, crickets hiding somewhere close by, the humming of electricity through the hydro wires overhead.

Everything seemed familiar yet mysterious, and so, delightful.

I can’t necessarily describe what makes Huron County different from other parts of rural Ontario, or rural areas anywhere in the North-Western Hemisphere, but I sure can feel it. Perhaps the surrounding counties share similar characteristics, but venture much further and something, however slight, changes, and the sights, sounds, and smells are different. Less familiar. Less enjoyable.

One can’t help but take deep breaths of the fresh air around here, especially in the cool summer evenings. A simple whiff of it should be enough to make you smile, provided you aren’t doing it on a manure-spreading day!

Even the sound of cars driving by on the road in front of my apartment building is nice and homey. Could it be something about the pavement they use here? Oxygen molecules and how sound travels through them? I’m making stuff up now, but my point is clear, I would think: the familiarity of this area is fascinating to me.

You can take the girl out of the county, but you can’t take the county out of the girl. Apparently.