Kincardine Channel, Penetangore River, Lake Erie, Ontario
As a Canadian ex-pat who married an American and is currently raising my youngest son in the Chicago area, I must admit that there are times when I just ache to get a glimpse of my beloved homeland Ontario, Canada
Though I long ago left my birthplace Toronto, (my father was transferred here when I was a child) I’ve continued to enjoy a spot in Haliburton County that my family has owned for going on 70 years.
Once a week or so I pick through the webcam shots which are available through the Ontario Weather Networkand I click to the areas that are closest to our cottage with the hope that I’ll get an approximate glimpse of an area much like ours. Every time I’m disappointed and disheartened by what I see–which is very unlike what I see in person when I come to stay each summer in the gorgeous Haliburton Highlands.
The area that is closest to our cottage geographically is the town of Haliburton, 12 miles from our lake.
The webcam for Haliburton is hosted by Halcom Communications Ltd.where one must often click through to their advertisements before getting a glimpse of the webcam shot.
Unfortunately, I’ve never seen a webcam shot of Haliburton that wasn’t out of focus. The person representing Halcom Communications Ltd. who set up the camera overreached and the camera is insufficient to render the entire top half of the webcam shot as anything but a haze, on my screen currently, a purple haze. The camera also to put this charitably, is at such an angle that Haliburton’s best side is not showing. It is also at such an angle that I feel compelled to adjust it.
This would not be the end of the world though no matter what, it is an exercise in waste of resources but Haliburton County depends on people realizing what a jewel it is and visiting –perhaps for an extended stay?
What’s the best advertisement for Haliburton County? Haliburton County itself! And if you cannot see the county in person, a webcam image like the ones below (except the Haliburton one) should capture the area so you get a general feeling of it’s great attractiveness.
Though I have emailed Halcom Communications Ltd and politely asked them to adjust their webcam, I have gotten no reply and worse, there’s’ been no change in the quality of the webcam image.
To sum up, Halcom Communications Ltd does a terrible job of representing Haliburton and thus Haliburton County with their poor webcam image that the entire world is privy to via The Weather Network webcam feature.
Halcom Communications Ltd. takes full advantage of offering it’s crummy webcam feed to flog their services to the public yet gives virtually nothing in encouraging folks to visit Haliburton County.
I know first hand that there are some wonderful professional photographers in Haliburton and I urge anyone that cares about contributing to the economic health of Haliburton County to alert them to this wasted opportunity to promote the town and county and at the same time their services. A number of town like Barrie for example have more than one webcam image ( Barrie has 4!)
Please, pro photographer or amateur please consider adding your webcam feed of the beautiful Haliburton Highlands to the Ontario Weather Network. It is in fact free advertising that can potentially reach millions of people. All you have to do is care enough to show off the place you live.
Thanks!
Please note: both Kincardine photos are showing as pixelated because the originals are small. I should not have included them in the gallery but I love these areas–so excuse, please. The main point was for you to see Haliburton, which is offered as a large image by Halcom and contrast that with Reach Harbour in Lakefield, Ontario which is a very good, large webcam shot.
At top is how Kincardine is supposed to be viewed, I have enlargef them slightly which is causing a bit of pixelaton but even so, there is far more detail in their small shots of the harbour than the ginormous one taken of Haliburton by Halcom.
Lake Muscoka, Gravenhurst, Ontario - March 19, 2009
Yesterday, whilst we were taking our dog Raven for her nightly walk, my husband remarked that “the snow is melting off the docks on Lake Muscoka.” He’d been looking at the webcam shot available on the Internet as he made the assessment. Since “the melt,” as I’m calling it seems to be underway (I’m never certain that there is not going to be another freeze of any duration–is anyone?) I thought it best to see what I could pull up on the Ontario webcams.
As much as I hate sounding curmudgeonly there remains only a couple of public webcams in the entire province of Ontario that give access to a nice scene. Otherwise webcams , especially those that are sponsored by business’s like oh say, the Toronto webcam by CBC television are absolutely unremarkable. The shot CBC shows could be of “any city” and it’s any city of not great beauty. Conversely, a second shot of Toronto Island sponsored by The Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto, though a long shot, is in focus and gives a wonderful view of the magnificent vista.
Toronto Island - March 19, 2009
It still flabbergasts me that a province like Ontario that depends so on income from tourism does not take advantage of the ever-burgeoning use of the Internet and strategically install tourism-inducing webcams in some of Ontario’s most gorgeous areas. I’m sure if the province put a bit of money into this and found some competent people to periodically make sure that the camera was pointed in the right direction, in focus, not obscured by dirt, debris, etc. that the pay-off over time would more than outweigh the initial cost of installing the cameras and the recurring cost of bandwidth that allows the showcasing of the picture pretty Ontario webcam shots.
If I sound discouraged, I am, mostly because it’s such a wasted opportunity for the province and frankly, that sharp minds in Ontario haven’t already thought to do this when so many residents have been industrious enough to do so, despite the fact that they are almost always selling something. I don’t mind adverts but in the case of Haliburton’s webcam shot “sponsored by Halcom Communications,” one must go to their site, which many of us are reluctant to do as doing so as a practice makes one vulnerable to cookies attached to one’s browser. I’ve actually written to Halcom asking it they could adjust/clean the lens of their webcam–got no reply. So they get free advertising and they give us next to nothing in return.
Kincardine Harbour, Lake Erie
Indian River, Port Carling, Ontario - March 19, 2009
Lake Kawagama, Dorset, Courtesy Mountain Trout House
Sincere apologies to the small group of folks who read Maple Lake Ontario that the site has been unpredictable in it’s availability over the past couple of weeks.
I was using a host company that became increasingly less dependable and after trying to work with them to resolve the difficulties only to have them suggest ultimately that I take down most of this blog _permanently_ to “fix it,” I opted for another host for the website that had been recommended by a number of fellow bloggers.
It’s understandable now if you are wondering, “Was it her own fault?”
Nope. Don’t worry, I triple checked on that myself but the giant fumble in forgetting to fully transfer Maple Lake Ontario over to the new sever was not my doing. Being a brand new customer I should have had as my new host trumpets, them “do all the file transferring” for me. It should have been as simple on my end as essentially plugging in in a new address to send the Maple Lake Ontario name to it’s new host. “Should” being the operative word here.
They forgot to move the Maple Lake Ontario files and I ended up dealing with a succession of people at the new host, two of whom told me it was not their responsibility to help with that. One, I caught when he “found something” on his end (duh!) and he let out an involuntary “oh-oh.” With that he said he’d put in a ticket–but failed to get complete information so my website languished yet another day.
Again, I apologize to anyone that may have come back here after getting essentially nothing for two days.
As you may have noticed, in order to make some pocket money and pay hosting fees (and this year buy myself my first full-length winter coat in a decade–50% off at Old Navy) I do some posts for which I am paid well, pocket money.
I choose who advertises here and believe me, I turn down far more than I accept. But my point is the advertisers have a right to have their posts that I wrote on their behalf be accessible and my new hosting company prevented that, too.
I’m not sure what to do. At this point I’m adopting a wait and see attitude because there’s not too many other options.
Getting a post-high school education is something that people of all ages and stages in their life, as well as from a spectrum of economic backgrounds consider.
Added to the roster of many financial considerations which have popped up in the last year or two is the cost of transportation. Especially if you were considering commuting to school, the cost to get you to school and back must be factored in as a major expenditure. And so it’s unsurprising that pursuing Online Degrees is an option that five times more people chose over getting a degree in the traditional fashion.
If you are interested in a comprehensive search directory of where you can pursue online degree programs and/or courses please click the link above.
I love to travel whenever and wherever finances permit. I guess that’s no surprise–given that I’ve dedicated this blog to a place that affords me the opportunity to see many interesting things as I make my way to and fro’ several times a summer–not to mention the unforgettable sights I see once there.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to appreciate that just about everyone has an interesting story to tell and their stories are often coloured by their place of residence or the various places they’ve been.
For example my friend “E,” who now lives near my parents about 700 miles from here and with whom I’d very much like to spend some time, spent most of her life in Australia, her native land. I have always wanted to travel to Australia and will someday but until then, hearing first-hand tales from an Australia native is as close to being there as I can be. I would love to share some of her amusing tales of growing up Aussie but she has a particular fantastically humourous way of relating her life story. I have to have her varbatim contribution. She is that funny. It would be neat to (with her permission) switch on a little recorder and later use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to transcribe a post of E. sharing her story. If you are unfamiliar with what I call “the Dragon,” make sure to have a look atDragon Reviewsand get a good feel for it by takingDragon’s typing speed test!
Back to my Aussie friend. What has made her life even more fascinating to me is that now she lives in an area of the country that is trying to make changes intrinsically to morph itself from slums into middle class neighbourhoods. She has a condo with her spouse and because she lives in this uncharted territory she constantly witnesses interactions that must boggle her mind though she puts an amusing spin on them when writing of them. I can’t even begin to get a grip on what it must be like to be an Aussie ex-pat transferred to the seedy side of a big American city, witnessing drug transactions from your back porch, gunshots as a semi-common background noise, drunks staggering past, between you and your little path to your front door–moments after they’ve taken a wee on your front gate. :p
The Dragon could take me a long way in committing to the written word so much of what is conveyed but ends up either lost in translation or forgotten due to my imperfect photographic memory. That’s kind of how I envision Dragon NaturallySpeaking–as my photographic memory-travel blogging assistant.
