Why gardening at our cottage has been difficult.

 More so this year than some.  Mind you, we see these ladies EVERY YEAR. They like my south-side-of-the-house garden, and they lay in the same spot, always.

Madame Snapper can just be seen amidst the milkweed and chives.

Here she is smiling (?) for the camera.

And this is one of her buddies, strolling over to the large sandy spot under the pine tree, which is popular with both Snapping and Painted Turtles.

This is a Painted Turtle enjoying the sandy spot.

I don't have pictures of the hail, since we weren't there when it happened, but it made swiss cheese out of most of my hostas, and broke dozens of ferns. Also damaged one milkweed, which I hope did not have any Monarch Butterfly eggs laid on it.

We also have to contend with the squirrels and the chipmunks, who think digging up my plantings to see if there is treasure under the roots is fun.

They're so darn cute, though!

Something we saw for the first time this year was a Giant Hornet a.k.a. European Hornet. Not very aggressive, fortunately, but HUGE! Head to tail he was about 1 1/4" long.

According to my insect books, they are supposed to only come as far north as Maine. It's another sign that North America is warming - everything is moving farther north.

And just for the heck of it, here's a picture of a dock spider that is unsettlingly large. He was hiding, but peeked out to see if I was edible, when I stepped onto the dock.

So, I guess an explanation is in order.

Here we are, at the beginning of November, and I haven’t written here since July.  Mea culpa.  Also, my computer’s fault, at least partially.

Due to the premature introduction of Windows 10 to my laptop, its hard drive ceased to function, rather suddenly.  It’s only now that I feel confident enough in its inner workings to trust photographs to my laptop again, and consequently am interested in blogging, once more.

Sadly, a whole summer has passed, and you’ve missed out (ha ha ha) on all my comings and goings and truly probably not-very-interesting stuff. But now, I’m BACK, BABY!

Some of my favourite moments from this summer:

Having Craig, Karen, and Kyle visit for a couple of days. It’s so hard to get us all together, and this was so much fun!

So great to have them visit us!

Camping with my buddies. We do eat like royalty.

Everyone patiently waiting for me to take the pic.

Discovering a Cedar Waxwing nest in our backyard. They were hatched and gone by the time we got back from our holidays.  So Cool.


Having Onyx and Jezebel enjoy themselves at the lake.


Finding some Crayfish!

These little guys are hard to spot. They also sort of freak me out, because I imagine they'll pinch me when I'm in the lake, swimming.

Almost (but not, thank God) walking into this spider in the centre of her web, on the way to the upper farm.


Finding a smiley-face in our hydrangea bush.


Day-tripping with my pals to see an old-growth forest.


Enjoying the most incredible sunsets.

The pillar of light is caused by the sun's light shining through a con-trail.

Hanging out with Iain – the best of times!


And that was my summer:  short and sweet, and the weather was beautiful!

Blogging Hiatus

Too darn busy, or lazy, or – maybe just out of inspiration lately. Caught in the humdrum, as it were. Anyway, here I am.

Spring was kind of miserable, after all, and that doesn’t sit well with me. Another of my favourite trees at the cottage has bit the dust – our double birch, which has been ailing off-and-on for a number of years, has finally thrown in the towel. We’ll probably take it down next year, or in the fall. So sad to see it go! And glad we planted a tamarack in the hollow near the old place, when we did.

Less shade, too - glad we have lots of insulation.

The big tamarack that we had to take down in the winter has yielded a lot of wood, and given Iain an on-going project with the chopping that needs to be done.

I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay...

Our dishwasher at home died, so we decided it was time to get all the appliances for the cottage at the same time.

Two problems: a) they aren't that lovely Harvest Gold we were enjoying for so many years; and 2) we can't rely on this refrigerator to heat the cottage for us on cool days (we used to refer to the old one as "The Reheaterator").

Nice to have the kitchen finished off.

Having a dishwasher is SO SWEET!

Did I mention that Sis gave me a beautiful bird feeder for Christmas? I love it!

When the sun hits it, the relections off the glass are beautiful!

My Aunt Eileen and Uncle Wilbert celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary! We were blessed to be able to celebrate with them.

Aunt Doris, Mom, Aunt Eileen, Uncle Wilbert

We have been at the cottage as much as possible.

Mom kicking back.

And we go in to see Sheila as much as we can, too.

Isn't she a lovely lady? We think so!

Her garden is so relaxing!

Her Honeysuckle is always gorgeous!

A November Update

The cottage is all closed up for another year. We actually closed it up the weekend after Thanksgiving – it was easier to just have it done.

It was a dreary day when we shut things down; we still hated to leave.

And now November is upon us: in fact, today is the 15th, which means half the month has slipped away already. We have most of the yard work done, and probably that is all we will do, lazy souls that we are. Hopefully it will be alright.
When cleaning out the mess around one of the rose bushes I discovered this vine, which I believe is Climbing Nightshade. It’s a weed – I’ll have to take it out in the spring; but look how pretty the berries are! Not good to eat, though.

It would have little purple flowers in the summer.

We have put out two feeders, one with a niger mix and one with sunflower seeds. The mix has been very popular with the goldfinches: it is made by Scott, and though a bit pricey is worth the money, as it attracts plenty of birds.

Goldfinch!

Stitches keeps an eye on what Wendy would have described as the “tragically flawed cat feeder”.

The birds flew away when I took the picture, natch.

Today a Chickadee had the feeder to himself for a while, but there are usually 3 or 4 Goldfinches on it. We’ve also had some Juncos.

The little sticks are improvised perches; the darn squirrel keeps breaking off the plastic ones.

Onyx has been lively and happy for the most part, but he has, in the last year, been grooming excessively on his stomach, and now on his legs as well. The vet had an explanation for it which involved the use of steroids as a possible cure, but we decided that unless he became  aggressive in his grooming (to the point of doing damage to his skin) we would just let him be.

Tongue out to lick!

Any spot he can’t reach is thick and soft.

This time last year, he was just starting to work on his belly, but he keeps making more bare spots.

You can see how bare his legs look in this picture. He still runs and plays, and attacks Snaps when he wants a tussle, and eats well. We have put all of the cats on a grain-free diet to see if it helps. We were, up until recently, using a grain-based litter, and until all of it is gone we won’t see if this makes any improvement. Here’s hoping.
My spare time – when I’m not goofing off on the computer like this – will go to baking, for the next month: first, baking for the church sale, and then baking for Christmas. Busy times. The snow is falling right now, and there will probably be some accumulation when we get up tomorrow. This should bring on the Christmas mood!

Thanksgiving

The cottage year is winding down. Thanksgiving usually marks the last full weekend at the lake for everyone. Most of us shut down the water and close our places up soon after.

Iain enjoying the sunset while barbecuing dinner.

We were blessed with warm weather and no rain (none of the s-word, either).

Sheila came to visit!

It was nice to have company for the weekend! Thanksgiving isn’t the same without family. Not everyone could be there, unfortunately, but we were happy to have those who could come. We ate tons of food and visited. I was too busy enjoying myself to take pictures, but you must trust me when I say the meal was amazing. Dodie and Myles roasted the turkey (Mom supplied it) and stuffing, made cabbage salad and cranberry sauce, and made awesome gravy! Iain made bacon-wrapped stuffed mushroom caps, mashed turnips and sliced carrots. I helped a bit and made peas. Sheila brought yummy buns. Janet whipped up some great potatoes, Brian brought tomato juice, and Carolyn provided us with TWO pies, one a deep-dish pumpkin and the other an amazing apple!

I took this pic with my phone, so it isn't the best quality, but just LOOK at the autumn leaves crust!

We were so stuffed, but we sat down to the same meal of leftovers on Monday before going home!

Mom enjoys sitting in the sun with a magazine or puzzle book.

Mom has had a pretty good summer with us. Since Dodie and Myles were at the lake so often, she spent more time there this year than she had for the last several.

There was hardly room for the Blue Jay to fit on the feeder, but he managed it.

Between the birds and the squirrel and chipmunks, we couldn’t keep the feeder full.


My favourite view!

At the narrows.

The Little Lake.

This oak gets more beautiful each year.

Still and lovely.

The colours were less than spectacular this fall, and many of the trees were past their best by this weekend, anyway, but the views were still wonderful.

Hitching a ride.

We encountered a red dragonfly which appeared to be cold and seemed to be having trouble drying out its wings. Iain picked it up and it perched on his thumb, tilting its wings down so they wouldn’t catch the draft as we walked along. After a few minutes it suddenly took flight, finally warmed and dry enough.

Now grow, dammit!

We finally got around to transplanting another tree, which we hope will survive the winter. We are told the fall is the best time for this, so I hope this little guy can make it. This one is a Quaking Aspen, and I wouldn’t mind getting a Big-Tooth Aspen and a Swamp Willow as well. Iain is interested in an Olive tree, and we’d both like a Cottonwood (not sure if one could survive in this soil, though – the sand seems most suited for poplars, willows, pine, birch, and tamarack).
Next weekend will be busy with putting away lawn furniture, chimes, and ornaments, and putting some plants to bed. Then the water shut-off, and good-bye to the lake for a while. We are thankful to have had another year to enjoy here.