Merry Christmas from Our House to Yours!

Everyone is undergoing the necessary evil of Christmas pictures, just for your enjoyment.  All the best from me and Iain, and all of the kitties on Deb Island!

Snaps

Jezebel

Onyx

Stitches

Not the best day for a bake sale

I knew it was going to snow a bit, but we were surprised by just how much snow we got! It did put a bit of a damper on our sale, though we still did very well and sold a lot of goodies. I apologise for the poor quality of these photos; I had to use my phone camera, which is less than mediocre.

By the time these photos were taken, we’d already had a lot of people through, and things were beginning to lull.

Dodie had a few Christmas decor items available, and they did get picked up.

The firemen across the way were showing off their new platform truck. You can see the amount of snow that had fallen before noon.

People came in by dribs and drabs, and we sold a lot more goodies before we closed up.
I fell in love with this ornament Lisette brought to decorate the table. Shiny shiny shiny!

These were available from Avon in 2003. I would like to pick one up someday.
 

Thanksgiving

It’s nice to have family around at Thanksgiving, and though everyone we wanted to have there couldn’t make it, we enjoyed what we had!

This is the “penultimate” cottage weekend for us, this year as most. One last weekend to relax and enjoy the beauty of the place.

Sheila and Kyle joined us for a walk.

Iain can't pass up a chance to undo some beaver work.

It was so beautiful and calm!


One of my favourite spots on the lake. Love this view, from Hefts' property.

There aren’t a lot of birds around now, so the woods are quiet and still.


Dandelions: the first to come and the last to leave.

We checked out the vinyard, where we’d been told the grapes were plentiful and not being taken by the birds for a change (few birds + a plentiful year = more grapes for us!).

This was Len’s vinyard, and he would have been so happy to have a harvest like this.

It took me about 30 seconds to find all these.

On Sunday, we prepared for dinner. Just about all set up here, waiting for people to arrive.


Sheila doing some setup.

It was a great meal, by the way. Many thanks to Dodie and Myles for an excellent turkey!

The ongoing war with the beavers.

Since Iain was free a lot this summer, he made a real effort to keep the creek open near the farmhouse. Lloyd did eliminate one of them (quite probably the adult male), but younger ones were still patching up the flow every night, though they weren’t doing as good a job.

You can see here that the water is not moving very well. The young beavers use a lot of small sticks and don't add stones and solid mud the way an adult would.

The amount of flooding, especially on Dodie’s property, made this worthwhile, but cold and messy work it is!

Iain uses a pitchfork to clean out a lot of the stuff. All the fallen leaves don't help - they get right into the dam and jam it more.

The water flows better when he’s done. Of course, it doesn’t last – the beavers do it again at night – but it keeps the lake level more like it should be.

Flowing well - for now...

The years of damming have taken their toll, though; the creek at this spot is much higher than its natural state of long ago. I miss the summer days in years past, when we had a bit of a beach along the shore, and when “gull rock” as we called it (guess why) was a good six inches out of the water, and the birds would perch there. Nowadays it hardly breaches the surface at all, even when the lake is at its lowest. It’s my thought that this is why we have so much algae and the nice sandy bottom we once had is now rather yucky: the lake doesn’t breathe the way it used to do, as the water can’t run away as well.

Iain took a little walk downstream (well, it wasn’t easy, as he had to push through a lot of bushes), and he thinks the beavers may be making dams further down in response to his “dam-busting”. They won’t be easy to get to, so this may become a problem.

The view upstream; what a lovely spot this is!

September…

The best part of driving in the cottage road is the chance to see deer!

These two didn't hang around very long.

Weather in the valley stayed nice, and we had lots of days to putter around the property.

This is a great place to sit in the morning. The view is nice and the sun warm!

The chipmunk, who has survived all the dogs in the neighbourhood, was delighted that I put out some bird seed (a.k.a. chipmunk feed).

It takes a while to empty the feeder when you can only do it a mouthful at a time.

Iain took this lovely sunset shot. We were just finishing dinner, and I made him run outside to get it.

This calls for a nice day tomorrow!

The marigolds were spectacular (I thought) and drew this pretty moth, among other insects.

It's a Common Sulphur moth.

Iain cut up one of the dead cedars and made two large fence posts. We’re going to put a small gate up, to define the East Beach area in the summer months.

Nice to have help with the work!

Onyx Update

I can't let October get away too far before wishing Onyx a happy birthday! I know he has fans out there. Believe it or not, our boy is eight years old. I did a double-take when I checked the year.

Relaxing on the couch (in my favourite spot).

And….summer ended, just like that

In August, the Touch-Me-Not blooms. I love these wildflowers, and there are usually several large bushes of them on the  “point” (what we’ve always called the little peninsula on which our cottage stands).


They've never actually "exploded" they way I expected them to do.

Iain was on his own quite a bit this summer, at the lake when I had to be at work.  He and I both noticed how early the songbirds left this year. We saw Blackpoll Warblers passing through before Labour Day. Below is another warbler he spotted on a long walk, during which it was the only bird he saw.

Dodie will know what this is; I forgot to look it up.

The moon rises over the lake.

Leon and Jill take one more canoe tour; soon it is time for them to close up the cabin for another summer.

They have some nice watercraft.

In the morning, a deer leaves the island for the mainland shore.

One of the joys of cottage life.

Paul’s harvest of cattle feed was much better than last year’s, when due to the drought he got (I think) 9 bales, compared to about 23 this year.

I'm not sure exactly what he was growing, but I do know it is for the cattle.

It was a very fruitful year all ‘round. Jo’s apples were amazing.

And delicious! Transparents.

And Mom celebrated her 96th birthday! Isn’t she a honey?

Love this lady so much.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Okay, summer is officially over, so it’s about time for a recap.
When we left for the cottage, the birds were already beginning to flock: pretty typical for the beginning of August.  For what it’s worth, I’m predicting an early winter, and lots of snow.

Happy birds, splashing in the now-very-dirty bath. Gotta love Starlings.

We had coolish weather, compared to the heat we’d been promised. Wonderful anyway, especially since we had Craig and Karen for a few days to visit! Much fishing was done, mostly by Karen. I won’t post her picture with her biggest catch (she wouldn’t want me to), but it was a proud moment.

As usual, much time was spent in lazing on our or someone else’s deck. Nice to visit with Carl and Irene, especially when Irene pulls out a new drink recipe!

The view as we relaxed on the deck. Can't beat it!

These were every bit as yummy as they look.

Hiking up to the “upper farm”, we found a lot of wind damage from the previous week’s huge blow that made such a mess around Petawawa and Pembroke (and flattened an old barn of my friend’s family; I hope the link works). Saw at least a dozen trees down.

Look how Iain is dwarfed by this tree's exposed roots. It was some kind of poplar, I can't remember which. The roots towered around 15 feet, and held in their grasp a rock that measured about 1'x1.5'x3'.

We didn’t do a whole lot of anything, really.  Lots of time was spent checking out the frogs and other wildlife that visited/took up residence at our place.

When I took this, I don't think I even saw the little turtle on the left.

We were privileged to have a Merlin visit us. I worried he'd catch one of our chipmunks, but I think they survived.

Touring in the boat or the canoe was also a favourite pastime. I never get tired of looking at “our” lake.

A group of weathered cedar roots.

This Kingfisher just caught a snack!

Sadly, I didn’t win the lottery, so back to work I go.

Iain putting away the boat until next time.

Nibbles

…would probably be a good name for this little guy. With him, Mr. Buns (as Iain calls our little rabbit) and the chipmunks, I’m surprised we don’t have more plants eaten around the cottage.
I’m happy to report they’ve  finally decided to let the Liatris grow a bit – here’s hoping we see something  nice from it this summer.

Iain is still doing odds and ends of landscaping: here finishing a stump removal (it looks much better with it gone).

We have had a fairly relaxing July anyway, so far. I’m looking forward to doing a bit of camping just for a change of pace, this weekend.

Under the carpet

We pulled up the carpet from the old cottage, last weekend. More accurate than carbon-dating, are these newspapers which set the installation of said carpet sometime after October 1979. I don’t know why Dad or Mom put them there; perhaps they were to level a spot? Or soak up a spill that was then forgotten?

The front page mentions a new industry coming to the industrial park, which I think must be Westinghouse.

This closeup of the picture shows Howie Haramis  on the left, and on the right is Joe Zerbach, who was the plant manager at Blue Bell when I began to work there.

The Shady Lady Disco was a hot spot in the 70's and early 80's.

If only tune-ups were still this cheap!

Thirty-four years sees a lot of changes, doesn’t it?

May is (almost) done–and it’s finally getting warmer!

…so as much as I hate to see May leave, I am happy to be getting some nice days.
A little pictorial review of May:

The ice was mostly off when this picture was taken at the end of April.

My Mom was with us – here getting ready for a cuppa.

The tree on our front lawn in Renfrew (a maple) had a lot of blossoms this year.

My first-ever sighting of a Clay Coloured Sparrow was on the long weekend; one for the life list!

We were happy to see a school of sunfish – cute little fellas.


Someone was enjoying the fishing, or maybe, like us, just drinking in the beauty of this little lake!

The full moon rising over the bay, last weekend.

Five o’clock: time for tea? No, time for ‘tini!
We’re ready for June!