Loree Lennox sits in front of her Back in Thyme antiques shop in the Medonte Hills.

As a computer service specialist for Simcoe County Board of Education, Loree Lennox tries to keep up with next year's probable internet developments -- but her heart is really back in the 1800s.

On weekends, with help from her husband, Dave, who also works with computers, she runs a country primitive shop in the Medonte hills near Mount St. Louis, about 125 km north of Toronto.

Loree and Dave live beside the shop in a beautiful house of huge pine logs that were hewn square with a broadaxe and meticulously dovetailed together some 145 years ago.

Loree calls her shop Back in Thyme. She tries to give visitors to the shop a time-trip back to the pioneer days of Upper Canada when early farm people made most of the things they needed. In her garden surrounding the house and shop she grows a lot of thyme, an herb that was a favourite with farmhouse cooks in the 19th century.

Located a short distance off Hwy. 400, Loree Lennox's place can serve as an interesting stop on a weekend jaunt to view autumn colour in the hills or as a break fromtraffic on the way to or from Muskoka or Parry Sound.

Loree has deep roots in Ontario's past. Born in Hanover, she absorbed a love of hand-made furniture and artifacts from her antique-dealer mother and a knowledge of woodwork from her carpenter father. Computers eventually became her profession but collecting and studying antiques has remained her avocation and hobby.

In the '80s Loree and Dave bought their present property and heard of an 1860s log house for sale near Alliston. They bought the historic building, tore off clapboard siding that covered the huge logs, numbered the logs, dismantled the house and had it trucked to a prepared foundation on their Medonte site.

With the house reconstructed, their next project was to build with their own hands a shop designed to look and feel like an early farm tool and implement shed. The shop opened in 2002.

It has since become a popular shopping spot for couples seeking antique furniture for country homes. In the pleasantly cluttered place you'll find everything from $1 or $2 linen handkerchiefs to a New England walnut dresser, tagged at $2,995,or a harvest table at $495. In between are hundreds of large and small items: A cherry-wood potato masher for $14 or a rotary cheese grinder for $22. There are herb-scented soaps made by a neighbour, original old quilts and something called a tin tart wamer, heated by a fragrant candle. For $1.95 a scoop you can buy a fragrant mix of rose hips and cinnamon for potpourri or a bag of home-grown lavender for sachets.

Back in Thyme is open on Saturdays and Sundays only from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. At Thanksgiving and before Christmas, Loree stages special events. Call 705-835-2046 or e-mail backinthyme@sympatico.ca for details.