Summer days

Things are winding down for summer. Leaves are thinking about giving it all up for a rest. Cool nights and warm days have been heavenyl.

🛩 Look for the helpers

I've been following the search for a small, home-built plane: ✈Search & Rescue, lost in Kawartha Lakes. They found debris in Wolf Lake. It'll be OPP Search and Rescue that will have to canoe in (?) and try to find him. It is terrible territory for searches. Local camps are offering support and resources. I am curious to know who found it, in pieces in a lake. So sad. Each red square is a QE II Park campsite. 

Wolf/Victoria Lake - QEII Wildlands

Little, teeny garter snake was looking at our black cat art piece! 

 Proof of life: Auntie Fred (left) and MiniFred by the lilac tree. Auntie was in a brood of 4 last year. So was MiniFred, this year. I think Momma is gone. I wonder and worry about them all. 

The sky was quite something as I popped into the library. I like the flowers, maintained by volunteers, but the sky!

Nutmeg does 'turtle.' She likes to watch TV this way. We're into the latest season of Professor T. 

It's been a slow year for monarchs. I've had several caterpillars, but I don't know if MiniFred has eaten them or not. He likes to eat milkweed. Obviously, one escaped and managed to build a chrysalis! I have to work on photographing this one. It is tricky with the bright sky and dark wood.

I found a second one!

I was in mind of the one who created its chrysalis here on frog! (August, 2019) See it on its chin?!

Some people raise them for release. I am dubious about this, though. I'm not sure they are viable if they are raised indoors. Port Carling library, July 8, 2010:

I managed to use the power washer the kids loaned me. I moved the metal hanging bracket here to the back, as I can't put anything on it at the front. It sets off the camera. 

Another rain storm on its way. The gutter drains into the goldfish pond through the water barrel. It is full. I've two water lilies in bloom. They stand so tall since the water has been high and low. 

Here is to the last days of summer. I do enjoy them. water lily,

MiniFred seems to be cleaning up the front garden. It's only milkweed and native sunflowers. He likes them!

 

He is getting chunky. It is hard to believe that he was born this year. This was Aunty Fred and siblings last June. They grow up so fast!

Book Review: Last Call

Sometimes you pick up a book and wonder... This was quite the read.  

It is a novel about addictions, and trauma, and what family and friends go through. I found it illuminating. I nearly couldn't finish, but persevered. It was heartbreaking, what people go through. People are quick to judge, and this really helps people understand. There is so much negativity around addictions. People are quick to judge. This let's those of us on the peripheral to better understand the hows, and the whys, and the nature of addiction. 

It is a story of redemption. I am glad I read to the end. 

 Fundraiser for Manie Daniels Centre in Maberly taking place ... 

Former drug user to open rehab centre in Lanark County - CBC 

Last Call is a story of redemption. It follows the life of Tommy Boyle, an addict whose life has spiralled to a low bottom and seems to have lost all meaning. The story is told by a third party unrelated to the events within the novel. He is a man named Joe who receives what is to be the last in a series of calls Tommy Boyle is making from a pay phone to members of his family. Joe was never meant to be the recipient of the call but the call would impact him forever.

Book Review: Caller Unknown

 What a great read! A new publication, 2026, I devoured it.

I finished it on the back deck, glued to my chair. It is a novel that is very much centred around the mother/daughter bond. I found that something to give me food for thought. 

She writes of cognitive dissonance. When we visited Jordan at university, it was very strange. How quickly they grow up, more so than one's own kids. The big question is, what would you do for your adult child? I found it riveting. A good read.

Gillian McAllister has a great body of work

Walkies with Cinnamon

But first, the kids went out and down to the Ottawa River Remic Rapids. The rocks are quite famous. John Ceprano has been balancing them for 40 years! Sunday was Caitlin's birthday. We had celebrated July 26th!

Cinnamon Walkies

I thought that he'd lost interest in them. Maybe with the bugs much lessened... We went out to the back 40, then the dock, and the frog pond trailcam, and then our 3rd lot. 

First we walked along the path to Barry's spot. Behind the buck is the path down to the viewing point.

Cinn roared along with me and climbed Barry's fallen Aspen trees. It was somewhat buggy, and I hustled to exchange the SD Cards.

I'd set the camera to 'photos,' which is totally inadequate for coyotes!

Lot #3
I haven't been down here since the July 1st storm. I couldn't bear to look yet. I was ready. 

You can see the frog pond on the right. The pond is draining into the wetland, and Cinnamon crossed on a small tree limb. I had flip flop on and was OK!

Ode to a pine tree

This tree the cats liked to climb. No more. The first photo is Aug. 2021, the next this past weekend. 

 

I think the coyotes brought up a road kill deer to eat in the safety of the forest.

He roared up the driveway. We went and put our feet up.

I was trying to clean out some Gramma Camp things from the play area in the basement. I found some Crayola markers. Why not test them, and see if they still work? They do. I'd forgotten my alien, but Joe and Jordan reminded me! 

A new week begins. We shall see what unfolds.

Odds and sods

 That was a storm on Friday. After dinner, we watched episodes 3 and 4 of GONE. Being happy go lucky, we watched 5 and 6! I love the layers of clues, the accents, the scenery. It was filmed at Downside Catholic School in the UK. 

"– inspired by the book To Hunt A Killer by former detective superintendent for Gloucestershire Police, Julie Mackay, and ITV crime correspondent Robert Murphy, with both Mackay and Murphy consultants on the series.^[2]  Wiki  

GONE

We'll often watch a foreign film with translation. We just finished Fosca Innocenti 2022  and it was one of those light, joyful, mysteries. Almost a RomCom. The lead female is the Commissario in this TV Series from Italy. The characters are gender diverse.

She's not a size 2 actor, nor heavily made up. It is refreshing. We've been discussing it, how the make-up, the barely clad people of the American shows, is left behind in the dust in comparison. Filmed in Arezzo, Italy. 

Well, back to our little piece of heaven. The frog in the goldfish pond is against photos. Can you see his little eye balls?!

I wasn't that near to him, but I caught his legs in the photo! I am slow to respond. 

I snapped a photo another day.

Another throw back to cottage life. Caitlin hung up diapers! I have been looking for this photo for days... 

Barry Beaver seems ticked off still. All the trees he'd prepared to chop down fell in the July 1st storm.  We had our path cleared July 30th. I haven't seen Barry since then. I noticed that the duck weed and frog bit hadn't budged. 

Aug. 12

There seems to be some action, Aug. 13th.

 

The Freds seem to be slowing down. The cool nights are doing it, I think. A bit of a shock this morning!

MiniFred peeks his head out. Auntie Fred is minding her own business. They are solitary critters, I've read. I've seen proof as Auntie doesn't go under the deck. MiniFred stays away from the shed.

That sweet little face!

We have lovely afternoons on the back deck. Joe pulled up a chair for Cinnamon. 

As we sat there, I spotted the resident hawk flying at eye level towards us, then it veered up over the roof. I was too slow to spot it and capture a photo. However, this one is a frequent flyer. 

I've noticed several millipedes wandering across the driveway. Three or four, methinks. It's a bit odd. 

Of course there are things that are on the hunt in the night. Finally a half-decent image grabbed from the video of our regular fox visitor.