These are a few words that describe the peaceful Wolfe Island, off the shores of historic Kingston and the largest of the 1000 Islands right where the St. Lawrence River begins from Lake Ontario.
My dear friend Catherine from Ottawa was on holiday and wanted to take a day trip to Kingston, with me. Kingston is small and I know it well so I suggested we take a jaunt on the ferry from Kingston over to Wolfe Island.
Wolfe Island is a sleepy island with lots of farms. But what made it interesting this year is the installation of a new wind farm that began construction in the spring of 2008 and just became operational two months ago.
The wind farm has 86 turbines which generate about 594 gigawatt hours (GWh) of power - enough to create enough electricity to power about 75,000 homes. It's the The second-largest wind facility of its kind in Canada.
We drove around the island and had a wonderful lunch on a patio on the water. Looking in one direction you were able to see other islands while in the other - the shoreline of Kingston with all its hotels, boats and historic buildings.
While some may complain that the windmills are a nuisance, I believe that we should use renewable power whenever we can. The location of this wind farm is great because the mills catch the prevailing and strong winds from the west off the lake.
Our only disappointment of the day was when we were asked to pay $8 each for a 1.3km nature walk. We didn't feel it was worth it. Instead, we decided to do some window shopping in Kingston which was fun!
9 comments:
I'm glad you had a great mini-holiday. Sure feels like summer all of a sudden, eh?
xx
AM
Lovely photo of the turbine and the field...I like to watch them rotate!
lol!
Sixteen dollars to go for a walk with your friend! I'd have nixed that one, too.
The island sounds nice, though, and interesting enough. How big is it?
I cannot imagine how a windmill would be a nuisance... too noisy? too big? too white?
I never spent any time in the 1000 Islands area, so I'm not that familiar with it. My friend, Sue, grew up in Kingston, though.
Nice weekend, Lesley!
xx
I love the idea of the windmill energy. Wish there was a feasible, reasonable way for every household to have one or more! Me too String ... love to watch them go around. It's oddly soothing.
We had hot/humid conditions in Illinois for about a week in August, but it was the coolest July on record for the Chicago area. Then we had rain and severe storms for 5 days straight. Now, we're back to cool but sunny :o)
Good choice on bypassing the double 8 fee for a "nature walk" ... yikes. Are there actually 1000 islands? What a beautiful area!
xo
Oooh, I'm a bit late here Lesley. So sorry! I must put your blog on my list so that I know when you've done a new post.
This was very interesting to me as it reminded me a lot of our own scenery and wind farms. Koos hates them with a passion, but I rather like these windmills and they don't really make that much noise. There are those who say they cost more to install than they can ever give back in energy, but I don't know. I just like the idea and the sight of them.
Glad you had a good day there on Kingston Lesley, and by the way, your photos look a bit like NL too!
ps I wouldn't have paid that much for a walk either!
Sounds b eautiful. I am happy you had a good time.
Love the pictures :)
It was nice weather to take the pics. I was surprised at how little noise these machines make.
Dale, the island is 20 miles in length and ranges from 1 to 7 miles wide. It's right on the border with New York, which is so close that if people swam on the south side - they may be swimming in US waters!
Tink, not sure if there are 1000 - but certainly many. Its also famous for the salad dressing.
Val, I guess that Koos - who is a real dutchman prefers the old style of windmills that are part of his culture ;-)
In the Okanagan Valley they have little windmills in the orchards. They call them "wind machines" and, when there is any threat of frost, the machines are activated to make more air flow to discourage still, cold air from freezing.
They also have very annoying CO2 cannons that discharge regularly to scare off foraging birds...
Post a Comment