Fall Colors Bradley House Museums Mississauga

I stopped by the Bradley Museum in Mississauga to check for changing Fall colors on the maple trees, and happened upon an Art Walk as a bonus! Here are a few pictures of this historic property, with links at the bottom of the page for more information. Tip: Click on image to enlarge, then click Back button to return to this page.

Bradley Museum Sign Post

Bradley Museum and Bradley House are at 1620 Orr Road, in the south Clarkson area of  Mississauga. During the early spring maple syrup season, the museum parking lots are full, and parking is allowed on one side of Orr Road (map at bottom of post).

Maple Trees in Red, Bradley House in Yellow

A few of the maples had begun to sport lovely red foliage, like this one, beside the lane that leads to the original Bradley House and its old style kitchen and antique filled rooms.

Museum Staff in Period Costumes - Bradley Museum

Two ladies in period costume headed past the barn to start the kitchen fire in Bradley House. Couldn't resist - how cute is this? I'm looking for pretty leaves and trees, and I get a double bonus: Cue the actors and Art Walk!

Old Time Kitchen Chores ~ Light the Fire

Though this day was fairly warm, the inside of the farm house was chilly, so the staff lit the fire in the fireplace. The table was set with utensils and mixing bowls, and the hearth held the cooking pots. I didn't linger to watch the cooking demo, but I have on previous visits. Well worth the trip!

Bradley House Interior - Museum Artefacts

This photo shows another area of the Bradley house, including the old wood stove and various barrels, churns and pots.

Inside The Anchorage - Bradley Museum Visitor Centre

The Anchorage is a grander home moved from its original location to its current home on the museum grounds, and it is used as the Visitors Centre (with public washrooms).

The Log Cabin - Bradley Museum Historic Newbie

The Log Cabin is the most recent addition to the grounds of the Bradley Museum, relocating here only a few years ago from Port Credit. Thanks to the efforts of concerned Mississauga residents, the Log Cabin was not demolished, but preserved for the museum.

Decorated Lawn Chair @ Bradley

Just outside The Anchorage, this gaily painted lawn chair seems to invite visitors to set a spell. See the links below for more information, directions and hours of operation for Bradley Mueum, and do try to drop by to check the Fall foliage colours before rain and wind take them away for another year!

Bradley Museum and buildings

Museums Hours, Maps, Bus info

Fall Colors Oakville Ontario

My Bradley Maple Syrup Festival pictures

Googlemap

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Russell Girl Filming in Port Credit

Update June 2010 filming - Two movie shoots in Port Credit:
See Lost Girl and Covert Affairs posts.

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original  post:
It seems there's always something interesting to see when you go for a walk in the village of Port Credit in Mississauga. Some days, it's nothing more exciting than mallards swimming at the marina; other times, it's something wonderful like a Jazz festival.

This week, the excitement level is closer to the 'Jazz festival' rating: The Russell Girl, a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie for CBS that's in production in Toronto is doing some location shoots here in Port Credit, about 3 blocks from my home. (Look for the pylons and you'll find it.)

Signs around the neighbourhood direct cast and crew to various camps, like the Crew base camp set up near here (photo below). Others direct them to the feeding and waiting area in a local church. Everyone seems to take all the activity in stride, save a few impatient motorists who were honking horns to hurry along a crew member trying to remove pylons along Lakeshore.

The Russell Girl cast includes Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Jennifer Ehle, Tim DeKay, Henry Czerny and Amber Tamblyn, who plays "Sarah Russell, a 23-year-old aspiring medical school student who makes a rare visit to her small hometown." The houses being used for the small town location are right from central casting -- ie they couldn't be more perfect. As I walked down the street (where the night before, the big light on a crane was simulating daylight), I noticed each house had a 'new' old fashioned mailbox out front, including one with 'Russell' stamped in red letters. Another front yard had wonderful new astroturf-style grass -- we've had a very dry summer here and it must have needed help.

When Russell Girl wraps, we'll be back to looking for excitement from simpler things, like these Canada geese on a pond in Saddrington Park.

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Update January 25, 2008
Half-page ad in the Toronto Star today for the premiere to air Sunday January 27, 2008
Great picture of Amber Tamblyn standing on the tree-lined street in Port Credit!

Update March 21, 2008 Good Friday in Mississauga.
On the street where the Russell Girl lived, Port Credit, Ontario

Working Men Aid Crosswalk Safety in Mississauga

On this very fine last day of summer, I was walking east along Lakeshore Road in Port Credit. At Mississauga Road, I couldn't help notice that the crosswalk positively gleamed in the bright sunshine. It almost hurt to look at it. It was the whitest crosswalk I had ever seen. Obviously, it had been freshly re-painted and it looked wonderful. This is a busy intersection and it would do a lot to increase the safety for pedestrians here. I continued walking and soon found the working men responsible for the newly painted crosswalks, and stopped to watch and see how they did it.

The men first measured and marked the width with spray paint at both ends of the crosswalk, then placed a thin chain flat on the street between the opposing curbs, and ran a thin line of spray paint to mark it. At that point I asked one of them how they planned to paint the grid (after I told them I was a big fan of their work at Mississauga Road). Did they perhaps use a stencil? No - they measured the grid themselves to customize it according to street width.

Two men continued marking out the crosswalks on both sides of Lakeshore Road (just west of the lighthouse in Port Credit), finishing with laying metal strips crosswise to act as a straight edge for the stripes. Men working in the back of the truck were mixing a bucket of paint. Then they began to fill in the stripes. In the picture above, a metal rectangle with no bottom is laid on the street and filled with plasticized white paint. It's then pulled across the width to 'paint' in the stripes. The paint has to be applied in dry and fairly warm weather, and dries in about 10 minutes, tops. To give the crosswalk additional safety and visibility, the freshly painted stripes are immediately sprinkled with a generous amount of glass beads. The beads adhere to the wet paint and are set fast. (The man in the upper left corner of the picture is scattering the glass beads.) These beads are recycled from broken windshields. Cool, eh?

Here is a closer look at the stripe. Notice the metal strip guide in the lower right. (Sorry about my shadow -- there was a lot of traffic just a few feet in any direction, so I had to watch out. Drivers intent on getting into the Starbucks on this corner for their caffeine fix are not to be trusted!)

Here's another view of the newly painted crosswalk. The work men painted one lane on one side of Lakeshore, then crossed over and painted one lane on the other side of Lakeshore. By alternating and blocking off the new painted lane, the wet paint wouldn't be ruined by traffic.

As I walked back to Mississauga Road and was waiting to cross, I looked down. Sure enough, some passing cyclist had left a perfect tire print gouged into what must have then been wet paint. It had left a mark in the plastic paint and glass beads mixture just as if it had been fresh cement. The paint apparently lasts for 5-10 years before it needs re-painting, so that bike tire impression will last a long time.

What, you may well ask, does any of this have to do with travel? Well, I have seen a lot of this style of zebra striping crosswalk in other cities around the world -- Australia and Hong Kong come to mind -- but I can't recall seeing many in Canada. Nice to know that my 'home and native land' is getting with the safety program when it comes to crosswalks!

Time for The Mississauga Waterfront Festival!

(Update : See Waterfront Festival 2008 blog post)

Photo :: Credit River, Dragon Boat Racers

The festival takes place a few steps from this point on the Lakeshore.
(K. Zabawa photo)

This weekend (June 15-17, 2007), the Port Credit area of Mississauga hosts the annual waterfront festival. While I am glad to now be living within an easy walk of all the fun and shows, I am a little dismayed, too, since prior plans for the Friday night have me altering my driving route to avoid the crowds!

The festival kicks off at 5 p.m. on Friday night (shortly before I have to drive to east Mississauga and the Lakeshore, right through all this traffic), with shows starting at 6 p.m., and winding up with Tom Cochrane (show starts at 9:15, and the park closes at 11 p.m.) With any luck, I will be back to Port Credit to catch the last of the show.

Saturday, the gates open at 10 am. with the first show starting at noon, and the final show -- featuring Chantal Kreviazuk -- is scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m.

On Sunday, the gates open at 10 a.m as well, but the park closes at 7 p.m., shortly after the final main stage show with Jim Cuddy.

If you'd like more information, call the festival hotline at 905 891 0002. A weekend pass costs $15 (adult) or $10 (kids3-12 and seniors). Children 2 and under get in free. Get your tickets at Shoppers Drug Mart or online at www.mississaugawaterfrontfestival.com

See you there!