Saturday's Critters

We are enjoying the last of the critters. Soon they will hunker down. The tree frog likes the camera. This was an unusual spot!

 

Aug. 10th - a buck

Porcupine is so cute!

   

 For some reason it visited the dock!

   

 Then there was a cottontail in the forest.

Butch, on two trailcams, eating grubs.

   

 And the coyote:  

 The turkeys are out in the forest.  

 The fisher came by on both trailcams.

Saturday's Critters # 559 <= I am joining more critter allies!

Algonquin Park Canoe Camping

 I live vicariously. Our Ottawa kids were canoe camping in Algonquin Park on Sunday. They rented a canoe, and had it dropped off at their launching point. Then they canoed along the lake, portaged, canoodled down another lake and found their camp site. 

You can buy fabulous maps: Maps by jeff.com  Caitlin tells me they are wonderful. All the things NOT on regular maps: hiking trails, warnings of poison ivy, locations of easy, medium and hard hikes, etc. 

Loaded up, and on their way! 

Isn't it beautiful?! You can see the kayaker down in the water.

"A quick stop at Barron Canyon Lookout trail before we get to the canoe launch site."

JL took a video:

They paddled and portaged, and made it to the camp site. Next they had to create their camp.

The living room!

Fire pit and cooking station

Hammock tents for Jo and Aster

A panoramic of the whole camp site:

This is the path from the camp up to the thunder box.

This is the thunder box! Caitlin saw a bear amble by it, but it was a good bear, didn't smell any food, and off it went. Caitlin wrote that she thought the wind and rainstorm kept it home.

Morning coffee in the kitchen! The blue barrel holds their food and toiletries that the critters like.

They forecast a storm Tuesday/Wednesday. Algonquin Park is near Huntsville, just in case you aren't familiar. It is an iconic park. Natural, and wild, with no cell phone coverage! Caitlin told me, just before they left, that she was looking forward to turning off electronics. It was cold overnight, colder than anticipated. 

 

After packing up Wednesday, canoodling and portaging back to the car (2 1/2 hour adventure), they had fast food in Renfrew and arrived home in the dark. Showers all around and then to bed.

Bugs and blooms

Wednesday was an interesting day. I was worried about the rainfall. We didn't have any!  I did some weeding, while Joe went for a walk and a grocery shop in the morning. Cold mornings, but no snow, unlike out west!

It was chilly. Which isn't unusual as it is meteorological Autumn here. I ended up nearly falling asleep in my chair, and I trundled off to bed for a one-hour nap. This is so unlike me! I woke up cold. Joe made me a cup of tea, and I felt better. 

He brought me home some peaches as I had a plan. PEACH CRISP! Also, some spaghetti for dinner with fresh basil from my planter.

 My garden clean up is going well. As I worked, I spotted a 60cm garter snake. I was sorry to disturb it, eating all those bazillion crickets! 

My goal was to get rid of the weeds and their seeds ASAP. It was bad the day the wasp got me, but that has healed. Tuesday, it was the bees. I was so careful. Bless their little hearts, they are working hard. 

During the big clean up, it occurred to me that I have too many white flowers on either side of the sidewalk! There is the white Trumpet flower vine, sitting in a pot with white petunias. Beyond it is the Angel's Trumpet – more white flowers. Even the hibiscus is white! All within a few metres. 

I noticed our first Monarch caterpillar had disappeared, and it has eclosed Tuesday. I was there for it! They have to hang to let their wings unfurl and lock into place. I let it be. Soon it was gone. FAREWELL!

The second one will take a bit more time. 

On the back deck, baby tree frog is still hanging around! It slept in the sun all day on Tuesday. 

The kids came home from their canoe camping trip. More on the later! Poor Aster re injured an old Aikido leg injury. I went to bed before they arrived home. More later!

Summer playtime

We're both still managing cold symptoms. Mine is in my sinuses, Joe cannot hear, even with his hearing aids. Nothing to do but treat symptoms, and try to relax. 🎾 Tennis didn't help. Our Canadians aren't achieving up to their potential! 

Our Ottawa kids are canoe camping in Algonquin Park. They plan on swimming, canoodling, visiting a couple of lakes, and having a grand time. Tuesday I was watching the weather. A storm rolled in, a north/south system, moving east. 

The kids launched at Achray Campground. We are in Lanark County. The clouds rolled in during the afternoon. 

There was some lightning, but not a great deal. This is a good thing.

Sunday, they grabbed their canoe and then headed on south to a portage, and then east along another lake. And another portage. They are really good at it, freeze drying foods, planning the menu, fitting food into the bear resistant container. They knew the rain would come. I'm sure they put tarps over their cooking area. 

There is another storm on the way today. I hope the kids aren't soaked. They are experienced campers, however. 

Their intended route!
Camping on St. Andrews Lake

Muskoka

I was looking back at summer, beach time photos. This is Isabelle, now known as Aster, in Muskoka. She is 14 now. 😜😝😅  

Jo and I liked to canoodle. Jo is 16 years old, now!

This is me, back in the day when I had perms! 

My parents bought this canoe for me when I was 15! We left it for the new owners when we moved here to Perth. I loved that canoe. It never tipped. Nice wide gunnel.

Caitlin, with Aster in the snugly, Jo on the dock. 

When the kids were here for Gramma Camp, before I sold my Lanark County canoe, we'd go out on the nearby lake. My old back precludes it now. 

Enough reminiscing... I am enjoying our backyard and the back deck. This is a panoramic photo, taken with my phone. I'm getting better at it! The clouds rolled in.

I heard the Eastern Wood Pewee! 

The quilted bag holds all my equipment. This was a lovely 60th birthday gift from JEAN. Such a kind person.  I've been sketching on the back deck, finally relaxed enough to do so. 

 

I was playing around with this drawing. I found an old How-To Draw book we used during Gramma Camps. It had stickers that worked really well! 

Flying things

I'll start with another sunrise photo!

 

Our little friend. I hope you don't mind repeat photos of this little one. It hopped hundreds of metres to get to the house from the wetland. It sits here sleeping during the day, and hunting for bugs at night. It's been here for about 5 days (20th), leaving little poop tales! 

Poor Joe! It's taken three days and two professionals, to figure out what is wrong with his ears. 

It wasn't wax, although I put oil in to loosen it just in case. The nurse at our GP's office checked him out. (She's really good at getting the wax out.) 

He took antihistamine, no help. Then Reactine, no help. 

The hearing aid dude gave him a couple of tests. He has water in his ear which prevents the ear drum from communicating sound to the brain. He turned up Joe's hearing aids, and showed him how. 

It could be Allergic Rhinitis, AKA Hay Fever. But these are different symptoms from the old days. I think it is a cold. 

We've gone back to Closed Captioning on the TV. Normally this isn't a problem, but when the music rises, as it does, or there is gunfire, for example, you know what happens.

 These are the last few days of sitting out on the deck. Soon it will too cold. I do remember sitting on the front deck of our cottage, bundled in my great-grandmother's quilt, reading.

Monday went well. The garbage was out in time. Yay me! A little Leopard Frog was encouraged to get off of the driveway into the grass. 

It's a nice 100 m walk to the end of the driveway.

I tried the slow motion, but I'm not thrilled. Maybe I am missing something on the iPhone. Old dog, new tricks!

   

 From there, I found other flying things!

 

Aug. 25  11:30

Then there was this one! Yikes!

 

sputtering plane from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.