AJ CASSON AND THE CONROY MARSH

My wife and I received a lovely framed print of "Conroy Marsh" by AJ Casson for our wedding. It was wonderfully thoughtful, as the Conroy Marsh is very close to our cottage near Barry's Bay, and is also a lovely examply of fine Canadian and Group of Seven art.

It took up residence in our formal living room at the Field house, above a wonderful little nearly antique bookcase. There it hung for many a year, and still does, occasionally reminding me of a still mostly wild part of Canada. Upon getting serious about canoeing about four years ago or so, my wife reminded me of it, and I then purposefully thought about finding the Conroy Marsh, to explore it via canoe.

After exploring various ways in to the Conroy Marsh over the last two years, my father in law recently reminded me of the painting, and suggested Rudi and I look for the site the next time we get into the marsh.

THE REPLACEMENTS!

We finally got to the cottage for the first time this year, and on the way, picked up an older, relatively well used, repainted fibreglass canoe, for use while the 'Cottage Coleman' undergoes it's slow and tedious restoration. I needed to find a canoe for a hundred and change, and not out of the way of our drive up to Barry's Bay. A few visits to Kijiji later, and I found a gentleman selling a canoe located just outside of Bancroft. She ain't pretty, but she floats, holds a line well, and paddles easily. Here is a picture of Rudi with our gear after taking out of the Conroy Marsh at Mayhew Landing near Combermere.