The rainy season……

 

Our Location:

Summer Spot, Manitoulin Island, Ontario 

We are still getting settled here, much slower than usual but we are getting things accomplished. Our routine is becoming re-established and I have no doubt we will soon be back to our regularly scheduled summer life. 

It is always nice to finally unhook in our spot.

Our Cabin, the first opening of our side door. We need to remove some of that stuff .

I have spent a fair amount of time strolling in the trees, some well worn paths and a few less familiar and sometimes just in a general direction. My sense of direction is good and I can usually find the point I wish to find without any trouble. The amount of dead spruce trees is frightening and high winds bring more crashing down often. High wind days are not meant for walking in the trees.

A few things coming up in the rock gardens.
Garlic, chives and rhubarb.

We are having some very odd temps here, well below seasonal norms some nights and the cold winds from the lake are keeping our temperatures down significantly. The rains have been off and on since our arrival, a dusting of snow, some very heavy frosts have been witnessed as well. As of this writing we are expecting 3 days and nights of rain, with the heaviest being today, forecasters are saying 20-45 mm, which for our non metric friends means close to 1 - 1 1/2”. That is a lot of rain. However it is needed as the snowfall was minimal over the winter. We are safe from any floods as we are high up, on flat limestone, with no significant water pools until we go down the long driveway to the bottom of the quarry. 

Yep, it’s been a little chilly at times.

Can you spot the morels? I’m not sure if they are just starting or ending!

Happy Birthday wishes to a few folks. Nephews Allan and Jesse, April 21 and 28 respectively. Allan is of course my sister’s only son, and Jesse is my brother’s youngest son. Also to neighbour Earl, I believe his day is the 26 th. Happy birthday gentlemen, we hope it was a fabulous day for each of you. Nephew Jesse shares his birthday with his great grandmother Katie, also born on the 28th, many years ago.

We come in way down there by the slim white birch treee to the centre left.

Although it doesn’t look it, it is uphill most of the way.
This would be the least steep part of the climb, and yes we wind our way along.

A few pictures of what I’m seeing here. I hope you enjoy them.

Until next time…..

Take care, stay safe,

Deb

We are 10 days from leaving our summer spot.....

 

 

Our Location: 

Summer Spot, Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada

 

Fall is definitely in the air. Rain, cold, damp and a carpet of leaves rustling and falling in the north/ northwest winds that blows most days now. From time to time we do manage a west wind but it too is cold. I do believe fall has arrived and will likely be here until Old Man Winter settles in. 

 

Two original cabins...

are now one.

 

Leaves carpeting the yard at Dad's. The metal wood shed in the back is now full awaiting winter.

We have been busy getting things cleaned up, gardens, yards, etc. Work is slowing down a great deal this past week or so. We will be attending an end of the busy season staff party tomorrow at the little inn which keeps us busy during our time here. Looking back in time I determined that we have started our 5th year at the little inn this past August. Our first year was only about 6 or 7 weeks before we left. It has been educational, annoying, enriching, and extremely entertaining. I can honestly say that most days I enjoy going to work, the hours are great, the pay is wonderful (our winter groceries), the people are fantastic, and of course, we manage a few laughs, a few sighs, a little blood, a lot of sweat and yes maybe even a few tears on occasion (from laughter most likely). It is a good place to work, and gives us some structure to our time here. 

 

Dixie the Lab is having a bath in the early morning sunshine.

I never tire of this ever changing view.

The morning sun will pop out soon.

 

My personal cleaning jobs are also winding down, one more visit to each before we leave. SIL Barb will take over those two little jobs for me while I'm away for the winter. Thanks Barb, we all appreciate that very much. The two couples I work for are amazing. I always enjoy my time there, they brighten my day and I hope I brighten theirs just a little too. I will miss them all! These two jobs are providing our Mexico spending money this year. Thank you folks!! 

 

 

How can one tire of this?

It's close to the freezing mark on this morning, and the water is much warmer than the air.

Even the deeper water out in the bay is warmer than the air.

 

We are firming our plans a bit more each day. We will be bypassing the farm this year and spending less than our usual 2 weeks in southern Ontario. We are looking at approx 1 week instead. A change in our route has us being able to leave earlier than expected. The quick change in the weather here also has us looking to let the Big Dog run south quicker. The Big Dog has had his check up and all things are good to go! We will be airing up the tires on the Igloo this coming week and putting the last of our things away in the cabin for winter. I will admit I've been wearing my heavy mittens and winter hat, along with a scarf on my early morning treks to Dad's for coffee at the now dark hour of 6:15 am.  Jeans, fleece jacket and my sploggers (due to the early morning wetness) round off the fall clothing necessary not to be shivering by the time I reach the house.  Coming home the sun is up and the flashlight stays in my pocket.  Fall has arrived. 

 

 

The old dock is white with frost this morning.

The frost is starting to melt as the sun comes up.

A very cold bath for any birds brave enough to break the ice.

 

On that note I'm signing off. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the visit. 

 

These logs are covered in frost.

The tree pile in the pit has grown steadily all summer and fall.

The white is frost on the ground at Jason's lake front property.

Until next time....

 

The Ferry Dock is the shiny buildings on the left, the others are just cottages along the shore.

I love the sun on the trees over there.

 

Take care, stay safe, 

 

Deb

A few photos....

Our Location: 

Summer Spot, near South Baymouth, Ontario, Canada

(I uploaded the photos again, I'm not sure why they didn't load the last time, they looked fine in the preview. Hopefully this works.)

Well below seasonal norms is the way the weather folks are talking about our stretch of weather for another week or two, possibly into mid May. However, they are guessers and we shall see how well they guess. 

We have been puttering around for a few minutes each day but really not accomplishing anything of note. We spend a great deal of time looking out wishing it was warmer and less windy but soon that shall not be the case, or at least we hope!  Soon we hope to be putting out our summer stuff and clearing up some of the mess left behind by winter but until we get some warmer, drier, less windy weather, we'll just have to keep looking out and wishing, and hoping, and.......you remember that song right? 

A few photos, all taken with my phone so forgive the blurry ones please. 

 We refer to this area as "The Green" and although you can't see it, the whole area is covered with frost and sparkling in the sunlight. 

 You can see the small slash of sunlight on the path. 

Water frozen in the ruts off at the side of the path. 

If you look carefully you can see at the very edge where I broke the ice and the water bubbles under the rest of the ice. The heavy frost on the area around the water is also evident. 

 The small line shows where I melted the frost on the lumber. Everything was white and sparkly this morning.

We refer to this as the frog pond, although it's used to water the cattle that roam free here from the long weekend in May until after we leave in mid October. As you can see it's frozen at the outer reaches and a very dark blue indicates where the water is deeper.  One couldn't walk on this ice, it's paper thin.

 A bit of snow here and there still.

 Ducks on the water at our favourite swimming place.

 Way over there across the water is the reservation known as Wikemikong, (Wick- quem- i- kong) however everyone simply calls it Wiky. 

I know the photo is blurry but I wanted to show you folks that patch of dark blue out there. I haven't been to the village of South Baymouth yet but I'm guessing that very dark patch of blue is either ice or very very frigid waters coming into the bay from Georgian Bay/Lake Huron. You can easily see the colour difference. It is against the far shore which is the Wiky shore. If I had visited the Village I would know if it was ice or water as that flows directly past the Village and the ferry docks. 

 So a few photos that I've managed with my phone while taking a short walk this morning. One of these days maybe I'll carry the big camera but then again, it may just be a wishful thought. 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are all well, healthy and not suffering from social with drawls or cabin fever. Remember folks, we are all in this together. Let's keep our cool, behave ourselves, and respect each other. 

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

Deb

Heavy frost over night...

Our Location: Big Buck Resort

 

(205 Sparks Road, Hornsby, TN) 

 

A very cold over night with temperatures reaching down to 27F/-2.7C. The day warmed up with sunshine and blue skies to a high of 45F/7.2C. A beautiful fall day for a wedding. I noted preparations were complete by shortly after noon. 

 

Heavy frost on the leaves this morning.

Ice on the water holes too.

 

It was a quiet day here and I will leave you with a few pictures of this mornings walk around the park. 

 

Can you see the frost on the windshield?

 

I don't think we'll be worrying about mosquito's now.

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you had a wonderful day.

 

Heavy frost on this car left at the office overnight.

Very heavy frost on the straw by the roadside.

 

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

 

Deb