Saturday 26th May - 9 am - 6 pm with optional dinner
Registrants will gather for a light snack and welcoming at St John'sPresbyterian Church, Almonte - about 9.15am; the journey time from Ottawa is a little over half an hour. The market will be in full swing close by, so we have to park on side streets. We then travel by car to an old grist mill,the Mill of Kintail,which was restored by R. Tait Mackenzie, the skilled surgeon and world renowned sculptor, who had his summer studio there. The Museum houses not only over 70 of his sculptures but also many of his household furnishings.
Returning to Almonte -the earlier names of Waterford, Ramsayville and Victoriaville allbeing rejected by the postal authorities - the James Naismith Basketball Museum is in the Old TownHall; James' parents emigrated from Renfrew, Scotland in 1852 and settled in Ramsay Township. There are models and artifacts relating to basketball in the small museum. The first settlers in Almonte were Scots; they arrived in 1821 from the Glasgow area; a group of Irish from Cork arrived in 1823.
Before walking from the Town Hall to St John's Church, visit a Tait MacKenzie sculpture by the river, nearby: it is a memorial to his father William MacKenzie, the first Presbyterian minister of St. John's Church; he was earlier inducted into the Ramsay Congregation of the Free Church in1858.
After the light lunch provided by the ladies of St John's Heather Circle, a 10-minute walk (or a drive) across town and over the SlideBridge takes us to theMississippiValley Textile Museum, set in the Office/Warehouse annex of James Rosamond's Mill of 1851; the buildings are very reminiscent of the New Lanark Mills on the River Clyde, Scotland. Amongst the displays of cloth and quilts are Scottish-style looms, used by weavers specially brought over from Scotland; the museum is a fascinating place, and there is a good gift shop, too. Later in the afternoon we call in at the Waterford Tea Rooms for tea and scones (easy parking); a late afternoon historical visit to the Auld Scots Kirk (with brief lecture and cemetery tour), justout of town, is in the planning stages, after which the formal tour ends.
Tables have already been reserved for a7 pm dinner atJR'sRestaurant, an excellent Almonterestaurant just away from the town centre - there is a range of3-course dinners, all under $20.
Reserve by calling 728-5343h.reekie@ieee.org