Belmont Corn Maize

No, that's not a spelling mistake on my part, that's what it's actually called, the Belmont Corn Maize; I think it's a rather cute and clever play on words. Anyway, onto the article!

About 15 minutes southeast of London, Ontario is a small town called Belmont which, for the most part, is not exactly the most exciting of tourist spots. But, if you go there in the fall from the beginning of September to the end of October you'll find a special treat; a 10 acre corn maze!

Each year Don and Lin Farquhar play host to one of the largest corn mazes in Canada.

The shape of the maze changes drastically from year to year, I'm not 100% sure but I think the shape is determined based on a yearly sponsor; usually a logo of some sort. This year the shape was the logo for the Husky Travel Centre.

The corn stalks that were used in making this maze were about 6.5ft (about 2m), so tall enough for both adults and children to "get lost" in the maze. I'd say that it took Craig and I about 45 minutes to get through the entire maze and that was without getting lost once; so obviously it would take much longer for the directionally impaired.

In addition to the corn maze itself the Farquhar's have also added a mini maze and a cornbox for the little ones, for which I sadly did not get a photo of. But basically it's a sandbox but instead of sand there are dried corn kernels in it (like unpopped popcorn, you know?).

As if that weren't enough a little Halloween fun to the mix by adding scary decorations as well as "haunting" the maze every weekend after dark.

It's not far from London, and it's not expensive either, this year's prices were $7.50 for adults to do the regular maze and $9.00 per person to do the haunted maze when it's on; they also have family packages available.

It was a nice way to spend an afternoon, so if you're in the neighbourhood you should go check it out!

Before and After

Weather is a funny thing in Canada, it can change quite drastically over the course of a few minutes. For example, this photo was taken today (Oct. 12, 2006) at 12:24pm.

And this photo, taken of the same place only a few minutes after at 12:36pm.

Weather in Canada can often be like this, stormy one minute, sunny the next. While I wouldn't say that this is overly common weather it does tend to happen at least once or twice a year in the Ontario region. In fact as the season draws closer to Halloween there should be more snow in the forecast and it will probably stay by the time Oct 31 comes around.

Note: If you're interested in seeing a few seconds of this storm in action I have a video.