Skywatch Friday - who is watching whom?

This is the sky over the Muskoka Airport Thursday.  Things will be really hopping Friday.

We are expecting some of the G8 participants and their 'peeps' in the next while. I know it involves small planes, big boys in blue and black, and black limos.

They arrive at the Toronto Pearson Airport Thursday night, and somehow wend their way here.

The protests in Toronto are absurd. The ones up here... well, you had to be there!

Oxfam's G8 Big Heads pose in Huntsville wearing "naked" pregnancy suits, with "Stephen Harper" in front. Protesters say they plan to pressure the G8 leaders to keep their promises on funding improved maternal health in the developing world.

Most exciting for our small region!

You can see the special radar and whatchmacallits out standing in the field!

The skies are blue, the signs bright orange. These will disappear soon!

I like the ones, like the one below. Much more dignified!

Muskoka Airport flying high

There is excitement everywhere!
Buff boys, not in black, jogging in the morning. RCMP & OPP EVERYWHERE!

We drove to the airport looking for the moving agency, and found only bizarre gear. One couple, walking their lab beside the airport road, had an OPP stop behind them with all lights flashing.

Then, in the field, very strange equipment. Lots of tents and boys and their toys and men in uniform!


The big black helicopters are really incredible, since I'm not at the lake hoping for peace and quiet. I captured one on video, towards the end.

Isn't this contraption kewl???
One dare not venture fare, with limos and escort vehicles hither and yon!

Even saw a perfect vanity plate...
Hubby went to visit a store along the airport road yesterday. As if. Long lines of traffic, black limos with darkened windows along the airport road.

Hubby won't let me get near the place. Spoilsport! We both have security checks. Me- as I volunteer at the penitentiary. Brian was the security manager for the airline from which he is retired.

Meantime, the planes are awfully loud overhead!
FLight plans are mandatory this week. No surprise. There is an 80 km no fly zone.

Nancy writes,  They're Here... and Here's to Them! with a photo of the big, brawny, boys in black (or blue?). Of course they are men and women, but that doesn't alliterate.

Muskoka G8 Signage & your tax dollars

Isn't it rather embarrassing? Projects incomplete, especially when the G8 folks won't darken

the doors of the rest of Muskoka. All of this seems to be a great hoodwink. Someone managed to convince one of those Toronto politicos, know, the ones who come up with the great ideas for their masters.
Sure, we need signage all over Muskoka. Signage that doesn't suit the rest of Muskoka. That bright fire engine red, hard to miss, yes, and totally out of character with the rest of the subtle signage that means Muskoka to me. Lakes, forests, and precious wildlife.

Heck, we have signs everywhere!!!

Town’s G8 project not complete
BRACEBRIDGE — A $609,000 G8 infrastructure project in Bracebridge might be open in time for this weekend’s summit, but just barely. As of yesterday, the 7,500-sqaure-foot outdoor theatre project in...

Town forgoes $200k from G8 legacy pot
GRAVENHURST — The Town of Gravenhurst will not take advantage of $200,000 in federal funding for G8-related infrastructure improvements. The municipality failed to spend the entire $1.2 million it was...

So long, farewell, I'll even say adieu

I am hoping we can move closer to Ottawa. I am throwing it up to the universe.
Making it so, and making preparations are important. Some, like Oprah's guests, recommend a vision board where one places images and symbols of the dreams you would like to attain. Hence my videos of our house hunting forays.

For me, I am planning on how to wean my 75 followers from My Muskoka to this blog. I hope to maintain my quirky posts and off center views of life, politics and such. (Brian won't let me near G8 - he says I'll just get into trouble!) My Muskoka pal, Ed (talk about quirky!), suggests I foretell the change, put it into my sidebar and go from there. Ah, life is such a challenge.

I am not sure we'll find a buyer for our unique 'entry level family compound home', with its semi-detached cottage (what were mom and dad thinking??!!) but I am hoping.

This little video shows how dear they are, as this is the good-bye from our last visit to Ottawa with the kids.

Josephine is like her mother and grandmother... there is their way and the wrong way. Josephine very clearly tells me 'go home' after we had said all of our goodbyes. What a character!
During our visit she was careful to assign everyone seats. They changed only if the total number of people changed, but she knew her own mind. Girl power!

Thunder and lightning...tornadoes and earthquakes

Ontario has had some big weather. Asuspected  tornado hit Midland, Ontario. Fortunately, the damage can be repaired and only 7 people went to hospital with injuries. No reported deaths, although EMS and rescue will search again today.

The trailer home park was devastated, some homes tipped on their sides, others ravaged by the storm of the beast. Most of the homes are weekend retreats and fewer people were there than might have been.

One survivor said the rain came and went. There was a lull and he could hear what sounded like a freight train. He could see nothing out the window, and headed for his bathtub.
When he walked to his door, his neighbour's place was gone.

The Honda dealership has lost its roof, and all of its stock. Hydro poles down and people's lives will change. How one responds to such a storm depends upon your attitude. I wish them well.
This video has some marvellous photos. Well done.

1. 
   
   
   
   

   Suspected tornado rips through town in central Ontario‎ - 7 hours ago Trailer park damaged by suspected tornado in Midland, Ont. It was the second ...Emergency Management Ontario issued a red alert Wednesday evening for ...

2. 
   
   Earthquake
   In my case, I was busily shovelling dirt in the afternoon. Trying to clean the place up in order to put it on the market. I moved the earth and didn't feel the earth move! All we had was a storm.
   
   In Muskoka, the winds were not nearly so bad and the weather warning from Orillia NW to Penetang and the Midland area were hardly prepared. Normal for
   
   Thunder rolled in and it was fascinating. But you have to pay attention!!!
   
   

Tats for you!

Not for me!

She'd just had it done in the morning, and said her mom hasn't seen it but doesn't like it! It goes nicely with the butterfly tatto on her foot...

It says, 'People are people and sometimes we change our minds.'

Hope she doesn't change her mind about the tattoo! She was rather red and sore!!!

Merry Muskrat tails

I adore watching the critters: Life on a Muskoka shoreline

Below is a video of the muskrat that continues to rip up the water hyacinth, eating only the roots.

The difference between watching a beaver swim and a muskrat- is that you can see the muskrat's  snake-like tail as it swims, but not the beaver's.

The birds chirp in the trees, like a church choir singing praises to the unfolding of the season.

Merry Muskrat continues to chomp away, boldly came up on shore awhile ago, while I was standing there!

When will it end?

The headlines read:  Canadian killed in Afghanistan 
 Sergeant James Macneil, 28, dead after IED blast.
Another soldier dies in Afghanistan. That brings the Canadian total up to 148.
For a full list: the 148 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan 
As the BBC said, 'Age doesn't matter: 18 or 30, they're someone's son' 

And in the UK...you can see that it hits many hard:

Britain's Afghanistan envoy quits
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles on 'extended leave' as British military death toll in country reaches 300.
News of his sudden departure comes as the Ministry of Defence confirmed the 300th British fatality in Afghanistan, a widely anticipated yet grim milestone in the nine-year war.

Not only family, extended family, friends, neighbours, all are impacted from these deaths.

A piece of tail and cheek

All you can see are pieces of tail.

The little critters are delightful. I walked slowly towards our frog pond. I am too big and create too big a shadow to fool them for long! Usually, I sit up top this rock and wait for them to assume I am gone. I happily click the shutter for dozens of shots. The pond muck is dark and the minnows quite black. There is no access to the lake from my pond. They have survived for eons here.

 The bullfrog tadpoles, who take two years to mature, are HUGE. With bodies the size of my thumb, they see me, give me a flip of the tail, and they are gone.  The pond is overflowing with recent rains. They seem quite happy to bathe in the sun.

Last July we had a preponderance of spring peeper tadpoles. See the adult frog with them looking like dots from 2009) Little-bitty ones, with few in sight this year. I know that the tadpoles eat anything that moves. So do the frogs!
 This one I noticed nibbling on frog eggs.
If you look closely, you can see  little legs quite well-formed.

Well, I'd better give you a better look than that!

Next, its arms will form and there will come a day when it metamorphosis occurs- the miracle of life, and it takes its head above water and becomes an air-breathing frog. Precious little creatures.


In the nearby swamp, the cranberry blossoms are beginning to set. If August isn't too dry, we may have cranberries. But it isn't likely here. The weather has been too dry for this piece of swamp, and the frog pond diminishes, failing to keep a steady supply of water for the little plants and the teeming wildlife.

With folks filling in swamps frogs will not survive, either. With pollution - their incredibly permeable skin is susceptible to many contaminants - they are the canary in the pond. Their skin is designed to regulate moisture and fluid transfer. This is why handling them is not a good idea, as you can put toxins from your hands onto their fragile skin.


In the meantime, where the bulrushes grow, the duck and ducklings make their merry way around the stalks. The wee ones leap for joy, or for bugs, trying to find a meal. Muskrat, ducks and geese chomp on the water hyacinth. They know to eat their greens, too!

Mama duck is hard-pressed to keep control of her 8 charges. There is always one in every crowd. The rebel with a cause.

The little dude who continues to feed in amongst the greenery, while mama and babies preen up on the warm, flat rock. You will notice that only 7 waddled up on the rock for a rest. As I approached, Mama leaped up, and the 7 formed  a line behind her. Immediately.
Except, of course, for Rebel. You'd think me weird, as I chuckle taking the photos. Rebel took off along the shore, eventually deigning to form the little lines maman so demands. I don't blame her. Not all of these ducklings will survive. The weak save the gene pool for the strong and healthy who are mercifully scooped up by predators.

Rebel isn't weak, but stubborn. I hope it survives.

I noticed yesterday that we seem to have lost one goose and goslings in the pack of 11goslings and 4 adults. Stay tuned for photos. News at 11:00! (Just kidding!)

Citiots and journalists

Muskoka keeps getting attention if a bizarre way.

They keep assuming that the rich, wealthy and famous are the norm. Yet another Muskoka article, by a reporter who talked to three people and made assumptions.

As popular as the Muskoka region is getting, locals insist it’s still a piece of paradise

Did she ever miss the mark! I didn't have time to talk to her, but this is what I would have told her.

On many lakes you can find lovely cottages that sell for $250,000, but these barely make their radar. Many hardworking people, like my parents, who were working class and saved every penny to cottage here, bought the land in the early years of development and scrimped and saved to build a true cottage.

Many moved into apartments, once they retired, to spend summers here in the outdoors. Today's prices, whatever the market will bear, is raised by those who like this lifestyle.

We had no town water or sewer in those days. I recall delightful picnics as we spent hours clearing the land.

I remember the hand pump we used to bring water up from the lake. The delightful little sink in which mom bathed us, and in which I bathed my children.
I remember rainy days indoors, in our 3-bedroom cottage, building tents of card table and blanket and having lunch in them.


I remember hours catching frogs, snakes, and toads, and swimming and learning about the wee creatures that lived on the land and the water.

I remember watching carefully as I stepped, so as to avoid smucking toads as I walked. I remember the trillium in spring, and the fall colours.

All of the neighbouring cottagers; Mr. Wilson who was a retired science teacher and taught me to look under rocks for creatures, Uncle Doug (below, left) who let us cross his property to get to my aunt's cottage two properties down, and taught me something about Muskoka. Uncle Bill (right) who all helped us learn to fish. My brother, also in the picture, just celebrated his 50th birthday this year. Time flies.

Mom (1925 0 2006) and Dad (1925 - 2007) taught me to look around me at nature and its beauty. They taught me to walk softly, and to put critters back where I found them. To take nothing and leave nothing.

I still have a list of the 1960 lake association.
All of the original cottagers have gone. A few adult children, like ourselves, still own the land and family cottage, but not many.


We rented a cottage, in the old days (1950s) on nearby Clear Lake. Eventually, Mom's brother, and her sister each bought some land and built a cottage. My parents saved up and in those days the land cost us $2000. Their mortgage (I still have the paper!) was $1000.

We scrimped and saved to finally build a deck on the cottage. Until then, we had a ladder we climbed up to get in the door!

The cottage, built of cedar, retains its smell after all of those years. I remember that first entry and the smell, every summer as we finished school and entered our summer home. Built well, it is nearly as old as I am (48 years!).

Of course, with bigger and better toys, the citiots do visit us. They do not understand the land and the water. But they are not the norm, they are the exception. Praise be! The biggest change is in technology, and the ability of visitors to zip around the lake on power boats, snowmobile in winter, and enjoy what used to be 2 or maybe 3-season life, at best. We are now on town water and sewer, and life up here is now 4-season. A thriving year-round community that depends upon both seasonal and winter residents for its infrastructure.