Thursday Doors: Can You Feel The Heat?

While playing tourist with my cousin, I had the opportunity to discover parts of the city I hadn’t explored before.  One of these was Black Creek Pioneer Village.

The village is a re-creation of rural life in Ontario during the 1800s.  Although some of its heritage buildings are original to the site, most were relocated from their original location in the Toronto area.

Now, these kinds of outings don’t normally excite me, but my cousin and her husband were enthusiastic, so I became a willing participant.

It exceeded my expectations by a wide margin.

The history, the knowledgeable staff, and the abundance of old wooden doors was exceptional, but what really captured my attention were the variety of cast iron stoves in the various buildings.

I was looking for any reason – flimsy or otherwise – to feature some of these wonderful stoves.  I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but wood stoves do have doors to access its heating core, which I think makes them an interesting addition to Thursday Doors.

As a child, we spent our summer weekends on an isolated Island and the small cabin had a wood stove used for heating when it was damp and chilly.  I always liked that wood stove – in spite of the spiders and other crawlies that lurked in the wood pile – but it wasn’t nearly as interesting and decorative as the ones I found here.

Although most cooking on our summer island was done on a small propane double burner, we also had a large outdoor stove made of stone which my mom used occasionally for cooking.

It didn’t look as grand as this outdoor oven at Black Creek Pioneer Village.

… and yes, this outdoor oven also had a door … although a wee tiny one for such a relatively large structure.

I had a great time and would definitely recommend a visit to Black Creek for anyone looking to do something different in the Toronto area.

For more on interesting doors, check out Thursday Doors hosted by Norm 2.0.