I'm Cheap

But not easy for those of you whose minds head naturally in that direction.  Yesterday Connor and I went to the grand opening of our new Supercuts.  We waited in line for about an hour and a half to get a free haircut.  I also won a t-shirt and frisbee from our radio station on site for the opening.  Today we braved the crowds at our new Harvey's for a free burger.  Sure we paid for the "extras" but $10.47 for a meal for 3 was still a good deal.  Both times there were people we knew in line to chat with so the time passed pretty quickly.   Unfortunately I missed the free iced coffees at Tim Horton's earlier in the week but I think I did pretty good for one week!  

Tiny Marsh

Connor, Kevin and I went canoeing at Tiny Marsh today.  Normally we are the only ones there but it was very busy today despite the cool temperature.  There are trails and observation towers, an education centre and of course the marsh.  The water was very high so we got to paddle in places we normally can't access.  We saw swans, a turtle, a muskrat who went right under our canoe, several beavers and fish, a few great blue herons, terns and red-wing blackbirds  and Connor found the 2 Northern Water Snakes shown below.  They weren't bothered at all by us sitting there taking pictures for 10 minutes.

After the paddle, we went for a brief walk on one of the trails.  All the mama Canada Geese were hiding there with their babies.  There must have been 50 goslings in 50 feet!

 

Sorry we didn't get any pictures of the other wildlife.  The camera is buried in a dry bag andKevin couldn't get it out fast enough when the swans took off nearby.

For supper we had quiche with asparagus and chives from our garden.  Yummy.  

Meet the Author

Cantering Caitlin and 4 other Wasaga Beach authors gave a talk at our local library today.  The focus was how they got their books published (and how you could get yourself published).  Caitlin did a great job!  She was the only one to do a power point (all the other authors were over 50, many well over).  She didn't appear nervous and answered all questions.  Several young girls from an elementary school came with their teacher just to meet her!  She sold a few copies of her book but I am sure gained a lot in experience.   

There were 2 fiction books, one on fishing, one about everyone being psychic and a non-fiction on women in the fishing/sailing industry in Newfoundland.  The only one not self-published is the one about Newfoundland women.  

Well done Caitlin.  We are proud of you.

Busy Weekend

We finally got a new washer!  We have been without one for four months so it is definitely a big thing.  Isn't she a beauty? She is so much quieter and water and energy efficient.  You can delay your laundry up to 9 hours.  She makes cute little chime noises and plays a song at the end of the cycle.  It does take longer than our old washer - up to 75 minutes depending on your cycle choice but so far we love it.  We hope to get the matching dryer but will have to order it as we want a gas dryer again.

Kevin was busy this week replacing the rotting wood on the raised vegetable beds.  We picked up a load of soil and filled the boxes.  You can see the rhubarb up in the front bed.  The next bed is asparagus but we covered up the stalks with fresh soil so you can't see them any more.  The other beds are waiting for planting.  There are 6 beds though only 4 show in the picture.  The larger structure is the compost bins. 

Bizarre Spring

This is definitely the most bizarre weather I recall in the last 8 years.  Normally my spring working in garden centres and gardens has a predictability to it.  You start out with long johns and extra layers (sometimes waterproof) in early April.  Then gradually take off a layer every few days or week until you hit shorts and t-shirt weather.  There is usually the odd rain day but this year is crazy.  Yesterday it was short weather (28 degrees) - today back to extra layers and full rain gear at 7 degrees.  That is just one example - the whole spring has been like this.  It is very hard to plan my weeks activities.  And the weatherman is getting less accurate.  I go to bed expecting rain and wake up to a changed forecast of sun.  It is very frustrating but I will look on the bright side.  I get today off or you wouldn't be hearing from me!

Minesing Swamp

Today we went for a paddle at the Minesing Swamp.  It is an area about half an hour from us that has what used to be the largest Great Blue Heron rookery in North America until some of the trees blew over recently.  I have always wanted to go but it is easy to get lost so we went on a guided trip.  Most of the day we paddled through trees as shown below.  If you look very, very close you may be able to see a heron on a nest far, far away.   

One website referred to the Minesing as the northern Everglades and I could certainly see some similarities. "It is the largest and best example of fen bog in southern Ontario, one of the most diverse undisturbed wetland tracts in Canada and is a provincially-significant Area of Natural and Scientific Interest. The swamp’s hydrology provides for an interconnected network of swamps, fens, bogs and marshes".  Which means it was tough going.  Submerged logs everywhere.  There was one spot about an hour in that we had to pull the canoes through a shallow spot so our feet were wet until we got back to the truck 4 or 5 hours later.  It was only 4 or 5 degrees out today.  After lunch the wind really picked up and that made it even more difficult.

"It provides habitat to over 400 plant species, of which 11 are provincially rare. Minesing Swamp is an important staging area for thousands of migratory waterfowl and is the largest wintering ground for white-tailed deer. It supports numerous plant species which are at the extremities of their natural range, including those indigenous to the arctic tundra in the north and the Carolinian forests to the south and is home to the largest pure stand of silver maple in the province".   We saw 2 sandhill cranes, a swan waddling a fair distance away, a porcupine and a raccoon sleeping in trees and a dead crayfish, frog and muskrat.  Later in the year there would be more wildlife but it is harder to paddle and the Friends of the Minesing Swamp only do the guided trips early in the spring.

If I had to sum up the day in one word - that word would be brutal.  I am exhausted.  The muscles between my shoulder blades are sore and my tennis elbow is bugging me.  I thought I was in fairly good shape (because of my rebounding and gardening and dog walking I keep active) but I am embarrassed that we were almost always the stragglers on the tour so it looked like we couldn't keep up to the seniors.  Our group of nine (Kevin and I and 3 of our kids and Kevin's brother and his 3 kids) had 3 canoes and 2 kayaks.  We had to do some juggling to work out paddling partners.  Hopefully though they will all remember this as a great family experience in the years to come.

What is it?

When we were on our hike down to the Whirlpool in Niagara Falls last week, we did considerable cleaning up of things that had washed up over the winter.  Connor brought back 14 assorted foam, tennis and hockey balls and a large fishing bobber.  Victoria brought back some empty bottles for her collection.  Kevin got a kiddie's inflatable ball (he uses them for something do do with canoeing).  Caitlin got a sunburn.  None of us were willing to carry up the10 pin bowling ball.  I brought this back.

 There appears to be a a space for a band of some sort around the middle.  Someone told us they thought it was a marker for a golf course but since we don't golf we don't know.  There is a golf course up the 300 steps and across the road so it is highly likely.  Anybody know for sure?

While raking the lawn today I found the poor creature below.  Yup - he is dead.  I was going to include him as a what is it but I know for sure what it is now.  I couldn't decide if he was a bearded dragon or an iguana but another neighbour knew who he belonged to and went to get the owner.   Buddy the bearded dragon escaped last summer.  They apparently searched for him for hours.

I should have known where he belonged.  Everything they lose ends up at our house.  Over the years we have rescued their sun shelter (which the husband denied was his for days), 3 of their dogs that somehow got out and now this.  How he "escaped" is beyond me.  But I know where to go for sure next time something strange shows up at my house.