Lower Brewers Lock 45

The existential mandate is never far removed from my routine daily absorptions. This morning while farming my way through the sliced green apple and steel cut oats I contemplated what I should be doing to expiate my Protestant Ethic.  Work - in the literal sense - was naturally impractical.  What I intended was an accommodating conceptual pursuit, say a visit to the National Art Gallery on Sussex Drive or delving into my latest literary acquisition, A History of Law in Canada, Vol. 1 (Beginnings to 1866).  The endeavour was speedily tranquillized by a confession that the approbation of social convention has increasingly diminished in value for me; which is to say, I can bear the deprivation of anything that doesn't appeal to my arrant instinct. This, it turns out, is a reflection of my burgeoning preference for such anatomical privileges as rural environments, country roads and bucolic settings generally.

The closest I came in my pyschic perambulations to a specific enterprise was a remote recollection of what I now know to have been Lower Brewers Lock 45 on the Rideau Canal. After mounting a brief internet offensive we established the exact location and pressed off on a dreary, rainy day to this as yet uncertain destination.  The GPS unfolded the directions and I incrementally awakened to a distant memory of my previous unwitting visit to the place.  It turns out to be further towards Kingston than I remembered.  Upon arrival it was however as Arcadian as I had hoped.

The venue is effectively a large park.  We purposively parked as far as possible from the centre of activity to force us to walk and relish the scenery, which we gleefully did. In the course of our discovery we landed upon the Doner Studio where we were treated by the proprietor Randal Doner to a scintillating introduction to the studio, his artistic endeavours and much of the community folklore (of which he is undeniably proud). He punctuated his congenial dialogue with Rumpole-like allusions to "She Who Must Be Obeyed"!

Doner Studio Website