Camping

We recently went on a little camping trip which I think is the best way  to ride out a  heat wave.  When the temperatures got too hot the lake was refreshing and we cooked our meals over a campfire.   Unfortunately due to a problem with the pump for their well  the drinking water  was declared unfit for human consumption.  This was a bit inconvenient since I  didn’t plan for that particular glitch.

The thing I like about this park is their reverence for the Black Rat Snake which results in these signs scattered around the park:

Not a sign you see very often.  It reminded me of another sign I saw recently which is also rare but really shouldn’t be:

 

Canada Day 2009

Yesterday we went for a bike ride to a small pioneer cemetary that is about two or three kilometers from where we live:

 

It seemed fitting to stop off at this cemetary on Canada Day.  Two families came from Scotland and settled here in the 1830’s. There are only about a dozen graves, the oldest is from the late 1800’s and the most recent dates in the 1960’s.  At the risk of sounding morbid, and I don’t think I am, I find old cemetaries fascinating.   First of all, there are trends in tombstones.  There was a period when all the tombstones seemed to have weeping willows on them, then that  trend died out ( of course the pun was intended) and  the weeping willow was replaced by another motif.   You just never see weeping willows on tombstones anymore.  References to lambs have always been popular on the graves of children.  I have seen many tombstones that say ‘the wife of so and so’ but have yet to see one that says ‘the husband of so and so’. Since families didn’t seem to move around very much,  several generations of  a family are often  buried in the same graveyard.  Lots of time can be spent speculating on whether this person was the son of that person,  etc.    Occasionally, by looking at the dates of death,  you can find  hints of other things that were going on.  Sometimes you will  find a tombstone saying several people from the same family died in the same year.   An illness?  A fire?  So really , hours of entertainment can be found at an old cemetary.  I’ve noticed plenty of pioneer cemetary signs on the  backroads around here and I think I might stop and take a look at some of them.  Anyway, enough about that.  After paying our respects to the pioneers we went into town, had a picnic and stared at the brilliant blue sky:

Eventually night came,  as is it’s habit,  and the sparklers came out:

No eyes were injured.

And, finally, the fireworks:

Happy Canada Day

 

Robins and Kittens

Late last week the robins flew away with no one to witness them go. The nest just sits there empty.  The whole thing has left me feeling strangely bereft which does not  bode well for the future when I will do this again with little humans flying from our nest.  We have seen some small robins hopping around the yard and  I like to think they are from the nest but it’s hard to tell since all robins  look alike.  So, now we will turn our attention to insanely cute kittens:

 

Odd Sighting

I have heard of shotguns in the back of pick-ups but this is ridiculous:

 

Bird Sightings

The robins hatched around May 15 and are getting ready to leave the nest:

There are two birds in the nest and the mother robin flies back and forth all day bringing them food.  I noticed while trying to take pictures of the babies that the mother  has a very distinctive call that makes the babies immediately crouch down in the nest. 

  Other bird sightings include these six ominous vultures on top of a barn:

Recently we went on a bike ride on a local trail.  Since the weather was perfect I expected the trail to be quite crowded  but we were the only bicyclists and these were the only pedestrians we saw for many kilometers:

We also saw this family of geese:

 

Robin’s Nest

Every year for the nine years we have lived here robins have  built a nest on our front porch.  This is not a particularly good place to set up housekeeping since there is an astonishing amount of human foot traffic on the porch.  Most years the robin gives up on the nest pretty early in the game and, I hope, builds  a nest in a more secluded area.  This year the robin decided to stick it out:

This robin can frequently be found sitting on her nest.   She flies to a nearby tree when she is disturbed which is quite often since we keep forgetting she is there.  This spot must have some very desireable feature that is obvious to robins because a nest is built here every year in this exact spot. But only one other time has the robin stayed in the nest until her eggs have hatched.  We were particularly  fortunate that year  because we happened to be leaving the house to catch the school bus just as the baby birds were taking their first flight.  Needless to say we stayed to watch, missed the bus and had to drive to school but it was well worth the inconvenience. Sometimes you just have to rearrange your priorities .  I’m hoping we’ll be so lucky this year.

 

New Additions

It seems that  I know many people who believe that to get the things you want you have to send the thought out into the universe and you will be rewarded.  I am very skeptical.   However, when we decided that we would like to adopt a mixed breed puppy I thought that sitting on the couch thinking about puppies would be a lot easier, physically and psychologically,  than going to the local shelter and  choosing only one or two  dogs.  So I thought very hard about the puppy we wanted.  Although I often appeared to be sitting on the couch drinking tea and staring into space, I was really very busy sending thoughts out  into the universe.  It was hard work and it took hours but eventually  I was rewarded with these: 

I know.  They are kittens.  I seem to be having a communication problem with the universe.

This is Frey:

Frey  was originally named Freya after the Norse goddess associated with cats but the vet told us that our ability to determine the sex of kittens was somewhat limited.  Fortunately Freya had a twin brother named Frey.

This is Fezziwig:

Fezziwig is named after one of my favourite characters in literature. 

If you need me I’ll be on the couch looking like I’m staring into space.

 

Country Fair

I love a country fair. They are small enough to enjoy in a single day and, as well as having a modest midway and plenty of greasy food, they have lots of things to do. Where else but at a small country fair will you find this:

Extreme lawn tractor racing. Do you see the extreme lawn tractor? The guy in the white t-shirt on the lower right is using one of those police things to measure the speed of the participants. This is serious.

The tractor pull went on all day.

There were lots of chickens, geese, ducks, cows and horses.

Plenty of entries in the vegetable, eggs and flowers categories including a couple of entries in the “vegetable people” category that came from our house:

And you remember those monstrous pickling cucumbers? I entered a few of them in the “ripe cucumber category” with pleasant results.

There were horse shows to watch, musicians to listen to and clowns to avoid. An entire building was filled with quilting, knitting, children’s crafts, woodworking, photography and baking contests. They have a new contest for next year that I am really excited about. The idea is that you buy a bag of wool that was available at the fair for a very reasonable price, then next year you enter the project that you made with the wool.

So, using nothing but my imagination and some sticks, I will transform this wool into something by next year. I already have an idea I just don’t know how to do it.

 

Misguided

I am notoriously bad at giving directions. No one has ever reached their desired destination by following my directions. I think it is related to my uncanny ability to get lost in a closet. I am frequently asked for directions and, when I am, something comes over me. It is much like the feeling you get at a piano recital when you have diligently practiced your piece but when you sit down to perform you realize you have never seen the instrument before in your life. So last week I was walking along the street in our local town when a car pulled up beside me. I turned around to see a car full of clowns. Yes, clowns. The ones with white face paint, frizzy orange hair and red noses. “Can you tell us how to get to Rogers Road?” one of them asked. “Oh, you must be looking for the fair.” I said and went on to give them perfect directions to the fair grounds. I followed it up by saying “Just look for the ferris wheel.” It turns out that stupid remark was the most intelligent thing I said. As soon as the car pulled away I realized the directions I gave them were completely wrong. Completely. There was no way those directions would get them to the fairgrounds in our town. Maybe if I was standing on some other street in some other town they would work, but not from that street in that town. It was too late because they had already driven off. I felt really bad about this. I still feel bad because I know there is a special place in Hell for people who give poor directions to clowns and make them miss the parade. I felt a bit better the next day when I saw them at the fair but I refused to make eye contact or get too close.