A few leisurely days....

Our Location: Buttercup Ridge, Roseneath, Ontario

A very nice few days here at Buttercup Ridge. Warm sunshine, and a nice warm breeze from the south helped to make things quite nice here. The mud is drying up, the flowers are starting to show promise of blooms and of course the buds are beginning to appear on some of the trees near by. 

Tulips just scream SPRING.

We've been having the big door open most days for a while, windows as well, even the vents open at night. The frogs are close and very vocal, as well as chipmunks, squirrels, birds and various other forms of life. The odd moo of a cow, the honking of geese, while the gobble of the wild turkeys hasn't been heard they are around. Some deer are also lurking as I've noticed some of the tulip blooms have been eaten off and I doubt that was anything else. I don't have a picture but I'll get some before we leave of a number of  the new calves which have been born here at Buttercup Ridge. According to Mike there are 16 new calves already, and I witnessed a 2 day old calf kicking his heels and testing his wobbly legs as we chatted.

Buds are coming slowly.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we headed out for a couple of errands and managed to accomplish most of them. One more will have to wait until we arrive in Sudbury I think. We left Buttercup Ridge and ventured along County Rd 29, crossing over County Rd 45 where we settled down for a few miles on County Rd 9 in a westerly direction. We turned North on County Rd 15 (the little subdivision) toward the small hamlet of Harwood. It's a very small little bump in the road but it has an amazing feature. Free (donations welcome) water from an Artesian well or an aquifer that runs all the time. The water is amazingly cool and crisp. We will return before we leave the area to fill all of our drinking jugs. It's a mere 10 minutes from Buttercup Ridge. 

Just one of the  many statues here at Buttercup Ridge.

Leaving Harwood we retraced our steps to County Rd 9, again turned west, until we met up with County Rd 18, which we took south all the way to Cobourg and the local Walmart. We've shopped here before and so knew where we were heading. It's a bit more straight forward than coming down County Rd 45 which would make us wind our way through the city of Cobourg. 

I was quite far away and couldn't really tell what that was as it was just getting to be dusk.

We managed to get just about everything on the grocery list, which of course mostly consisted of fresh veggies and some juices. We also managed to exchange one of our small BBQ tanks, $24 CAD which seems to be the consistent price range here in Ontario. Our next stop was the Bulk Barn for some sea salt which we prefer instead of fine table salt, we use our little salt and pepper grinders to provide a fresher flavour for us. After that it was a stop at Petro Canada Gas Station (the only one in the area unless I venture further into Cobourg) to top up the Big Dog's drinking bowl. Diesel prices are high at $1.28 per liter which works out to be about $5.12 a US gallon.(There is approx 4 liters to the US Gallon) But surprisingly much less than even the lowest gasoline prices at the pumps there which started at $1.36 per liter which works out to be $5.44 a US gallon and continued to climb in 10 cent increments. After that it was home once again to Buttercup Ridge. 

Then he turned around and I could see his charming face.

The last few days have had us outside doing a few odd things, raking, puttering, etc. A quick chat with Mike (his cow's we hear mooing on occasion) had it decided that no more raking will be taking place as he assured me that his mower will mulch all the branches and sticks down on the lawn now that I've moved the big limbs over to the large pile by the barn. Any piles I make he'll have to clean up and he would rather not do it that way. So I'll have to find something else to putter at for the next few days. 

Very blurry but this guy was big and fast.

The other evening I went out to get a few pictures and noticed something by the pond. Heading that way I couldn't really tell what it was but once it turned around I knew it was a raccoon. It is the biggest coon I've ever seen in my life. This thing was huge. He took off running as I went nearer and while the pictures aren't the best I think it gives an indication of what a constant diet of corn will do for a raccoon that lives in the barn here at Buttercup Ridge. As that's where he made his get away dash for, the open areas that allow them access to the hay loft. 

He's under the hay wagon turning the corner to head back toward the barn. That's a regular sized hay wagon and look how little space there is above him to the bottom of the frame.

We've been catching a few episodes of our boxed set of Hawaii 5-0 as well as reading and getting a few walks in up and down the driveway. Today however we will be Igloo bound off and on as the rain falls outside, stops and starts again. The temperatures are still warm, 57F/ 13.8C over night with yesterdays high temperature reaching 69F/20.5C. I'm sure today won't reach that high but it's still a sign that spring is coming. Yeah!!!!!

I was more interested in the geese than the foliage or lack of it in the back ground but as you can see there is no hint of any colour yet.

So there you have it, our few days of leisure here at Buttercup Ridge. Amazing how the time is slipping past. We have only 4 more days here before we head to Peterborough for a stop at Kal Tire for tires, and then a bit west before turning our noses northward again. We'll take a few days to reach our Island destination as we have a thing or two to accomplish before leaving the Sudbury/Lively area. 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

Until next time.... take care, be safe, 

Deb