Norman Hardie

Prince Edward County & Bike Decor Project

Last year for Labour Day, my friends and I rented a cottage in Prince Edward County.  What a beautiful place!  The beaches have soft white sand and sparkling blue water that's waist-deep hundreds of feet out.  It's like being in the tropics.  


With friends, walking on the beach in Prince Edward County

The landscape in the region is gorgeous, covered with sprawling properties and vineyards.  Some of Ontario's best wines are produced in PEC.  We stopped in for lunch at Norman Hardie's vineyard and met the vintner himself.  He has a restaurant on his property with an outdoor pizza oven and the pizza was probably one of the best I've ever tasted.  And the wine, of course, is excellent too.  We went for a tasting then purchased a couple of bottles each.  

Norman Hardie Vineyard

Driving through the countryside on our way from the cottage to the vineyard and back, we saw quaint little antiques shops, beautiful properties, and something that inspired my next project - I've been waiting all winter to do it.  Two of the properties we drove past had a bike painted a solid colour, just standing on it's own in the middle of the field.  They each had a basket with flowers in it.  It was such a lovely vignette.  I have a bike that I no longer ride but has been in storage ever since I replaced it with a newer one, and as soon as I saw those bikes in the fields in PEC, I decided what to do with my bike in storage.  So I'm going to spray paint it all yellow, add a wicker basket, and prop it up in my front yard.  And of course, I'll have to lock it up since I live in the city.  I couldn't get a good photo of the bikes in the field that inspired me, so you'll have to wait for the 'after' pictures.  But for now, here's the bike that I'm going to paint: 


My first bike (as an adult).  It was a little too small for me when I first started riding it but it lasted me a couple of summers before I bought a bike that fit me properly.