Have you ever stopped to wonder where some of our phrases come from?  I am starting to as I seem to have adopted a large number of them from my parents.  Some I use freely without wondering what they mean (dangerous!) and some I have grown curious about their origins.  Well, today when I was seeking an ingenious title for my post on the Spencerville and Delta Grist Mills, I turned to a fun resource called The Phrase Finder, the site to end all sites on phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions.  You can check the site out here. It will undoubtedly come in handy if you ever meet my parents… 🙂

This past Saturday I literally “had the run of the mill” or freedom to roam at two of Eastern Ontario’s oldest grist mills, the Spencerville and Delta Mills.  I was driving home from a business trip in Ottawa and as luck would have it bad weather forced me off the main highway right at the Spencerville exit off Highway 416.  Seeking temporary shelter from white-outs, I pulled up to the Spencerville Mill site and decided to pull out my trusty Canon 7D and take a look.  The Spencerville Mill, pictured above, was originally built in 1812 and in the fair weather months is a museum and community centre.  The waterfall from the South Nation River beside the mill was in full force on Saturday and made a perfect setting for a snap.  If you want to find more out about The Spencerville Mill, check out their awesome Facebook Fan Page (!) and follow them on Twitter: @spencervillemil.  You may also find them here, at their website.

From Spencerville I turned my trusty Jeep west and made for another historical Eastern Ontario landmark, The Old Stone Mill in Delta, Ontario.  The drive was blustery, with a few stops along the way to capture old barns fading fast from the Ontario landscape.  The Old Stone Mill in Delta was first built in 1796, and rebuilt on its present site in 1810, making it one of the oldest surviving mills in Ontario.  Again, the poor weather meant that I could wander about the mill grounds in solitary pleasure, taking a few snaps along the way.  You can find all of my back roads photo adventure snaps here, on my web site and learn more about the Delta Old Stone Mill here.

Today I am grateful for the road taken, and here’s to having the run of the mill whenever you can!