Post-and-pre-weekend blog

I am definitely getting tired of painting. Last weekend I spent most of the two days painting the large cupboard (two coats of lovely "Bellini" colour paint from Para), and I'll be doing the small cupboard soon; but not on the long weekend. I'm taking a one-weekend break. No pics of the finished cupboard yet. I'll take one this weekend when it is moved over to the cottage.

Summer is truly here.  We took a walk to the far field, and discovered it full of - what?  I can't remember what these bushes with the tiny pink bells are called.  At one time I could have relied on Wendy B. to ID them for me.  I will have to research them on my own or ask Irene G. for her help (she is full of herbivore lore).

What the heck are these things?  They smell lovely!

Iain made a friend on the way across the field.  He always finds a snake or a frog, or an interesting bug!

There are always lots of garter snakes.  We've spotted a couple of brown water snakes as well, but that's as exotic as we've managed, so far.

On Monday evening, the sunset was glowing and dark; very mysterious-looking!

I'm looking forward to an extra day this weekend; happy Canada Day to all!

Very striking!

I do love summer.  Everyone else can complain about the heat:  I don't care!

Now that I have that off my chest, here's to Iain, who celebrated his 47th birthday on Friday.  Many more years, my love, and good ones!

Myles made a fire-poker for Iain.  Engarde!  He and Dodie also gave him several interesting bbq implements.

When we made our dump run on Saturday (it is becoming our weekly entertainment, to drive out to the Brudenell waste site, and every week our lot is a bit neater as a result) we surprised a doe and fawn on our way back.  Click the pic to see them a bit better.

There was some excitement at the lake during our absence:  a tree on Roger & Vicki's lot was hit by lightning.  This seems to happen about every 20 years, as far as I can tell.  When I was about 16 there was one hit, and Roger recalls one hitting shortly after they bought the place - which would have been about 20 years ago.

You can see how the bark has split, all the way up the tree.  The blackened area toward the bottom is tree paint that Roger applied to try to keep the bugs out of it.

The lightning entered (or exited - who can say) the ground at the base of the tree.

 We haven't had much rain, but the roses are all in bloom!

Sheila was up for the weekend, and had a good time, she said.

Relaxing with a cuppa.

 On Sunday, Iain tried out the sword/poker.  It worked perfectly...good job, Myles!

Company Came

We had better weather, which was nice because we had company!  Sis, Janet and Les came for a visit, and Bowser came along too.  Bowser is a very nice, well-behaved and handsome dog. 

It was great to see Les, who was just in Renfrew for the weekend and came to the lake to see the new place and do a little fishing with his mom.

Janet tossed the ball for Bowser, but he declined to fetch it.

Sis and Les got out for a couple hours, and caught (and released) lots of fish.

Les had to row - we haven't gotten around to charging the motor battery.

Joann brought Kallie by for another visit.  She is one adorable puppy.

Mom held Kallie for a few minutes.

As soon as Janet went outside, Bowser wanted to be there too.  He also took a liking to Iain, who had fun teasing him.

Bowser intent at the window.

Unfortunately Sis et al couldn't stay for dinner, but we enjoyed having them for the day.

I had to put in this shot of three of us working on dinner in the kitchen.  I'm so pleased with the amount of room we have to move around!

...and please take note of the big "Ottawa" bowl on the table - it's the one I got at the yard sale last weekend!

Anniversary Weekend

We have a tradition of spending a few days away, for our anniversary each year.  In the past we travelled around southern Ontario, usually, and for our 20th we went to Chateau Montebello (which was lovely).  For quite a while now we have just gone to the lake; it's cheaper and we love it there.  There's lots to do, of course, but we managed to have some fun as well.  Most of the time it was chilly and damp, but a wood fire took the chill off quickly.

On Friday, Iain started working on spreading soil and seed next to the cottage, again.  He'd begun last week, but the seed was old, so we had to use fresh stuff.  By Tuesday, when we left, he had this whole area covered with sifted soil and seed.

Really hoping this will grow grass, and the sooner the better:  cleaning up the tracked-in sand is a constant chore.

We've been trying to figure out what to do about tv reception.  Since CBOT went digital, we haven't had any CBC at the cottage.  Not that we watch much tv, but it's nice to be able to tune in a hockey game or the news. We'd expected to have to purchase a UHF antenna to tune in channel 59 from Barry's Bay, but after checking out the TVFool website's chart for our cottage, Iain made the brilliant observation that we should be able to pick up the channel 3 CBC station to the north of us in Whitney (South Algonquin).  He'd picked up a signal booster and we ran the cable up from the old place and used that to help strengthen the signal; and he had to climb up on the old place's roof and use a plumber's wrench to turn the antenna north.  He did this in the rain, while I fretted.

The antenna with the new, improved orientation.

We gave it a try, and voila!  Channels 2, 3 and 5 (Global, CBC and CTV2) all coming in just fine.  We buried the cable and Iain drilled a hole through the nice new siding (it was a painful moment) to bring it into the cottage.  All in all, a rewarding day!
Saturday, we decided to go yard saleing with Dod and Myles.  There was a heavy wind on Friday night, and we didn't go far before we were stopped by a fallen tree.

Iain preparing to move the tree:  nothing must keep us from those yard sales!

Iain and Myles hopped out and dragged it away.

Myles didn't get very dirty doing this, but Iain was muddied.

We saw several snapping turtles laying eggs alonside the road.

Approach with caution...they can be crabby!

...and the deer were out, too!

There was a younger one here, too, but I couldn't get a pic.

We didn't buy a lot, but did stop at Susie's Sweet Shop (run by my cousin Susan Gienow).  We had some of her famous Rice Pudding for dinner that night, as well as some buns and an excellent Rhubarb Custard Pie!
When we started to move things over to the new cottage, I couldn't think where I would put spices.  I'd always kept them in a nice rack that Rod (Iain's dad) made, but there isn't a lot of wall space here, the kitchen being quite compact.  Iain had the bright idea to put magnets on the rack and hang it on the refrigerator!  And it works very well there.

Very handy to have them here, too.  My husband is so clever!

Lots of puttering around to do.

Iain doing some caulking.

Because we didn't make the kitchen too large, we also need more cupboard space for dishes.  Also, I like the old cupboards and want to make use of them.  I did some scrubbing and sanding to prep them.

Can't wait to get this painted and moved in.

Under the stick-on shelf paper, I made a discovery that made me a bit weepy.  My Dad's been gone almost 27 years, but the old cottage is redolent with memories of him.

Dad was a typical carpenter: always in possession of a pencil, but rarely paper.  Easy to jot down the measurements on a shelf that will be covered anyway.

I'll be painting the little cupboard too, and it'll go over as well.

Not sure if this will hold glassware, or books, or maybe dvds.

We were glad to see a bunny on the lawn; we haven't seen many this year!

Why are little bunnies so cute?

And little puppies are adorable too.  Joann brought over the new addition to her family, Kallie, for a visit.  What a cutie-pie!

Jo holding little Kallie.

Tuesday was a gorgeous day - hated to come home - but we had a nice weekend.