What I Did On My Summer Vacation

July is always the fastest month of the year. Always. That’s my excuse for not blogging for ages and ages. I look back at my calendar, and find nothing written in anywhere, but I know stuff happened that kept me busy. Really, really busy.

Onyx napping.

Some of us pretty well slept the month away, but that’s not unusual.
Honestly, this is the only picture I have to show you from July. Onyx sleeping. That’s it.
August however, saw Iain and me taking holidays, and heading to Bon Echo Provincial Park for a few days with the usual gang. It is a beautiful place. One of the walks we took led past a lovely swamp area.

I love all the little mushrooms growing on the sides of this fallen tree.

It looks magical and mysterious to me!

Although the day was rather gray, we enjoyed exploring the grounds.

WTF??

There are plaques in many places throughout the park, like the one below which recounts the history of one of the characters who played a big role in the days before the area was given to the government by the former owners.

Bon Echo Mike

The small cabin he lived in no longer stands, but the fireplace is still there.

There wasn't any info pointing to this old chimney. We could see where the plaque used to be mounted on it, and conjectured, from the bits of stuff recently burned in the fireplace, that the administrators found it best to not draw attention to it.

The museum there features the cedars that live for over a thousand years on the cliffs of Bon Echo.

This fascinates me.

Any time I see cedars growing from the sides of rock, now, I wonder if they could also be that old. It seems plausible.

Nothing like a hidden treasure trove to spark interest!

The cliffs are magnificent.

...and the lake itself is over 400 feet deep. They say no one has ever seen the bottom of it (and lived, I'm guessing).

The size of these cliffs can be appreciated if you note the canoe at the base of them.

An interesting thing I didn’t know about: they have available for rent a “cabin in the woods”. I don’t think it has running water, but would be a good spot to stay if you want a rustic experience and don’t enjoy tenting or RV-ing.

People are asked to not approach this building. You can, however, peek at it through the trees.

We spent the rest of our holidays alternating between relaxing times and working on projects. Iain lent a hand to the job of raising Dodie’s cottage.

Iain and Carl guiding a beam.

It’s a huge job with an extended completion date, as it has to be done very delicately!
Iain put a new roof on the swing, made from the same steel that is on the cottage roof. I don’t have a picture of the completed project because the sun refused to shine on the days after he completed it, but this gives you an idea of how nice it will be!

On the nice days, it was great to get Mom out to the gazebo!

She's a sweetie!

We had all the cats up and staying at the old cottage for most of our holidays, just to save on trips to Renfrew. Jezebel and Onyx really enjoyed themselves, and we’ll definitely want to bring them up again next summer if we can. The other two, not so much. Stitches slept under the covers on one of the beds most of the time (she does that at home, too), and Snaps was, from what we saw, in a constant state of fear the whole time.

Jezebel was very relaxed when outside, except when she decided to explore under the old cottage. Onyx was out for a while too, but I wasn't with him at the time, only Iain was there, so no picture. We kept a close eye on them both, but they were quite well-behaved.

I was worried that we would have some deceased chipmunks, as they tend to use the old cottage as a thoroughfare, now, but I needn’t have been. Jez made some attempts to catch them, but without success, as did Onyx; but the wee rodents tended to make their moves when the cats were being fed, and our kitties are not easily distracted from their dinners. Smart rodents.

On our last (very rainy) day there, the wee bunny felt safe enough to come out for a nosh.