Meg and I went over to White Tail Ridge for our walk this afternoon. White Tail Ridge is a controversial suburban-sprawl type development plunked down a couple of kilometres from town in a rural area. The advertising has been misleading to say the least. I saw one ad that proclaimed that WTR was "in the heart of vibrant and eclectic Almonte". Uh, no. There are road signs along the main road from Ottawa that show the distance to WTR, except that every single one understates the distance by several kilometres. There must be marketing science behind blatant lying about obvious facts, though the strategy is lost on me.
I like how the sign says "Imagine the Possibilities"and shows a picture of an olympic size backyard skating rink. Your imagination will get a workout here.
I stuck my camera in over the edge of a dumpster outside a house which is currently under construction mostly to see if there were any goodies in there. I was pleased to see some workmen had tossed their beer cans in the dumpster, as they mostly they seem to toss them into the ditches. It seems kind of European to be drinking at lunch, but I suspect these guys are not old world craftsmen.
Construction is proceeding (but not on this weekday afternoon) on three houses. Customers don't appear to be lining up to buy these homes, which are priced similarly to houses in the city, except they come with a bonus half hour longer commute.
I threw up a little when I saw this monstrosity. Luckily it will blow away when the first big wind comes up.
The forest here is gradually being blasted away to make room for roads and storm water drainage. Of course, as houses are built, the remaining trees will be cut down too. Sigh.
While I was poking around, I found a sign which reveals the site's previous use: Welcome to "Stan's Slaughtering Plant". It's hard to get too romantic about something like that, but I'd rather see a local food producer here than a bunch of oversized, vinyl and chipboard dream homes.
Same thing is happening were we live, the last of the farm prairie is disappearing rapidly and housing developments with their ugly plastic fences are going up everywhere...a bit depressing isn't it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school I drove a combine for a grass seed farmer one summer...all but one of his fields are now under housing developments.
And this is considered progress.
ReplyDeleteWhite tail ridge?
ReplyDeleteWith all the blasting, one wonders whether the white tails aren't the only thing that won't be seen once this "development" is complete.
Apparently Almonte is home to many rats, because of the proximity to the river and the limestone bedrock that has so many cracks and fissures and is so close to the surface. Apparently, with the blasting they are likely to flee their cosy homes and move into even cosier partially built house foundations.
ReplyDeleteThe explanation for how I know this is here: http://shackinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-blog-silence-explained.html