Goodbye to a Piece of My Childhood

Since I was born I have lived beside this giant beautiful quarry. It has been one of my favourite places for as long as I can remember. For years it has been owned by someone from Toronto with the purpose of building a survey on the property, but with many set backs and the abundant cost to clear the area and blast for water and sewer we figured that the project was pretty much an unattainable desire. But recently we were given notice that construction would start some time this winter. With this in mind I have felt a strong desire to spend some extra time there and document with my camera a place that was a large part of my childhood.

A place where we would build tree forts, make up silly games such as survivor, adventure into the "unknown", build rafts out of drift wood (that never got us far) and find little bits and pieces of history such as old glassware, shotgun shells, shoes, metal work and a variety of other things that would spark a child's imagination. And as we got older a place where I learned to swim, to jump off the cliffs, a place for friendships, a place that was largely relevant to the start of my romance with my long time boyfriend and a place for long walks, short runs, quad trips, canoeing, fishing, skating and many laughs.

And though it may or may not take place this year, I know that eventually "my" quarry will no longer be mine anymore, but I will always look at it with the fondest memories, even the very cold memory of swimming in it in march. So on this dull dreary day, I want to share some of my warmest memories, hope you enjoy.

One day this will be the continuation of our road, to lead into the new survey. 

My silly puppy, who loves to take walks with me to the quarry, and in the summer go for swims. (apparently in the winter too, as she just hopped in this passed weekend, crazy dog)

Back when workers will still mining the rock from the quarry there used to be train tracks that lead right up to this point that was a gravel road that went way out into the water just past that object floating in the water ( the rock crusher) and still today there is that path of gravel, just a foot or two under water that when walked on leads straight out to the foundation of the little office that used to sit directly in the middle of the quarry. 

Still today there are some of the remnants of the train tracks that stick out from the rock, as shown above.   And still today there sits in the bottom of the quarry, 20- 40 some odd feet down machinery such as bobcats and backhoes, which can be seen when flying above. 

These berries have always grown over the fence into our yard and made for an excellent ingredient in our witches potions when we were little. 

This last one is a picture that I took for a school project, and though the tree didn't really come from the quarry it looks fairly realistic.