…..from my cottage neighbour’s garden
New Flower (August 12, 2016) – Yellow and Red Lily
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Category Archives: Christian Island
Night Visitor at the Cottage
….most wildlife at the cottage is pretty much unseen
When I arrived at the cottage last week I heard from a couple of my neighbours that a fox and her four kits lived close by. Usually the fox stay back in the woods but this mom and her family have been seen during the day checking out the area around the cottages looking for handouts.
The second night at the cottage I heard a very loud and strange sound. At first I thought it was the young man next door sneezing loudly. When I heard it a second time it sounded more like a woman screaming. The third yelp was clearly closer to the cottage and the sound was a half animal and half human cry. After several strange screams I heard the neighbours start to come out of their cottages.
D from next door was walking up the road with her head lamp on and soon saw that the noise was coming from the mother fox. She continued with her crying for a little while longer but we have no idea why she was so traumatized. Eventually she left and the rest of the evening was relatively quiet. There has been some speculation that the fisher in the neighbourhood may have gotten one of her kits.
Like I said earlier much of the wildlife on the island stays out of site and in the evening when you’re walking along a path you have to be careful not to step on the toads. One evening I went to the water barrel to wash my hands and I heard a rustle in the leaves. When I looked down I saw the biggest toad I’ve ever laid eyes on. With the aid of my lantern I was able to get a couple of shots of him before he jumped away.
Opening the Cottage in August
….I was dreading going to the cottage on my own to open up for the season
Before we left for Italy I was hoping to open the cottage so that it would be ready when we returned. Unfortunately that didn’t happen for too many reasons to go into to.
When we did return home from our amazing trip it took me a couple of days to recover from jet lag. My husband was still recovering from his gastrointestinal problems so a couple of days were spent visiting his doctor and then a specialist. One thing was for sure; going to the cottage meant going on my own. My husband didn’t feel well enough to be at the cottage, my daughters couldn’t make it until later in August and my friends were busy with elderly parents and health issues of their own.
Last Sunday I finally packed up the car and made the trip on my own. Leaving on a Sunday meant I missed all the weekend traffic and the line-up for the ferry (barge) was short. One of the other reasons I was hesitant about going up alone was because the regular car ferry had been taken off the lake forever and a temporary barge was transporting eight to twelve cars at a time (normally 20 cars were on the old ferry). The fear of the unknown kept me in the city longer than I had planned.
Everything went fairly smoothly crossing the lake. When I got to the cottage my neighbour’s adult children had already removed the plywood panel from the back door and had moved my propane fridge from inside to the deck outside. It was evident that the mice had moved in last fall after we left or early in the spring. It’s been worse. I quickly cleaned up the mouse poop in the kitchen and removed all the cushions from their protective storage bags.
Every day that I was there I tackled a new job or two. This way I didn’t kill myself trying to do it all in one day. After four days I had wiped down all the surfaces, washed most of the dishes I would need, swept and washed the floors on the main level and opened up the sofa bed to make sure nothing was living inside. Outside I raked the leaves from the pathways, swept the deck and set up the outdoor furniture and the barbecue.
While I was there I had some fun as well. I visited with my good friends next door, celebrated a birthday down the way with cake and a bonfire, learned a new board game, went for walks on the beach and actually swam in the lake, two days in a row when the water was calm. I was able to get some reading done and finished a novel I had started earlier in the year. I’m now on a second book that I hadn’t finished from a couple of months ago.
On Thursday when I left I luckily got the last spot on the barge for my car and had a leisurely drive back to the city. It felt good knowing that the cottage was somewhat visitor ready and that next time the trip would be less stressful.
The other fun thing that I found time for was taking photos that I will share with you over the next few days. You may have already seen some of the flower shots that I took of my neighbour’s garden.
New Flower (August 5, 2016) – Pink Begonia
….back at the cottage
I finally made it up to my cottage this past week. One of the reason why my blog has been quiet for the last four days is because I have no internet connection up there but I did manage to take numerous photos of flowers and my surroundings. Here is the first of the flowers that I captured from my neighbour’s garden.
Share Your World 2016 – Week 23
…..thanks Cee for hosting Share Your World
What was one of your first moneymaking jobs (other than babysitting or newspaper delivery)?
It seems to me that I’ve answered this question before so I will keep my answer short. When I was 14 I worked in my parent’s milk store. I did this till I was 16. That job ended after the night I was robbed. My parents gave up the business soon after.
What is your favorite month of the year?
I think my favourite month is October. It is still warm but the nights are getting cooler, the leaves are changing colour and the markets are bursting with the harvest.
What three things in nature do you find most beautiful?
I love being near water, trees in the fall and the first big snowfall.
List at least five of your favorite spices? (excluding salt and pepper)
• cinnamon
• cloves
• nutmeg
• curry
• cumin
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful for time spent with Winnie and her mom. On the weekend the two of them came to the house and stayed overnight while Dad drove to Sudbury on a business trip. They had also come over the weekend before but ended up going home Saturday night and coming back on Sunday. We’re trying to get Winnie used to sleeping away from home so that the the trip to Italy won’t be so traumatic. I thought she did really well but our daughter was a bit tired because she was up more often while she was here.
A trip to the mall with Oma and Mommy
Checking out the view from the Food Court
Enjoying pancakes for breakfast made by Papa
It looks like the plans for the wedding overseas are going well. The dress, wedding bands and the suit and tie are purchased. The registry office in London is arranged and the pub for close friends has been booked. In Italy the rooms at the villa have been assigned, reservations for dinner in the town of Assisi the night before the wedding have been made and the meal for the actual wedding sounds yummy. Three and a half weeks before we fly to Venice.
Share Your World 2016 – Week 20
….thanks to Cee for hosting Share Your World
When do you feel most connected with others?
I feel most connected to people during those quiet one on one conversations over a cup of coffee or tea. I like that intimate personal time with people where you can really get to know them.
Tea and Panettone
What daily habit would you like to introduce to your life?
I would like to do one creative activity every day. I paint and read sporadically now but I’d like to be more consistent. I’d also like to do some volunteer work.
What one mini-little-adventure would you like to have in the coming week?
This week I’d like to visit the art gallery or the museum. It’s a long weekend here in Canada and sometimes it’s a good time to visit places in the city because so many people head north to open their cottages.
List things or events that changed your Life: It could be as simple as a book or meeting a certain person?
• meeting my husband 43 years ago
• the birth of my children
• graduating from university and becoming a teacher
• the death of my mother
• meeting my best friends AB in 1976 and LC in 1989
• learning to drive when I was in my 20s
• my first art class where I learned how to paint with watercolour
• building a cottage next to my good friend DM
• the birth of our first grandchild
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful for being able to continue on my weight loss journey and for the support of my husband and my friends at work. My husband has lost 26 pounds and I’m down 18. My new passport arrived this week and I can check off one more thing from my to do list before I go to Italy in July. I’m also grateful that my photo isn’t the worst passport photo that I’ve ever taken. I have to live with it for the next 10 years. 
For the rest of the week I’m looking forward to our girls’ soccer tournament on Friday, visiting our daughter and her family in Hamilton on Saturday and seeing my older daughter on Sunday or Monday. Since it’s the long weekend here I’m also looking forward to planting some things in the garden and firing up the barbecue for a meal or two. It’s also suppose to be a spectacular weekend, weather wise.
Here are a few photos from this past week.
Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge – Sepia
The Beach That Disappeared
….Saturday, July 4, 2015
I’ve been coming to this island since 1988. I’ve only ever experienced a long,wide and sandy beach. Apparently the year before I arrived the water levels were at an all time high and many cottagers, especially those on the waterfront were afraid of being flooded out. One cottager at the west end of the beach built a wall to keep the water back and it worked.
Like I said I’ve never lived through a summer where the water was lapping up against green areas and covered trees. My first summer here the beach had returned to normal and every summer after the water levels went down and the beach grew larger. Some of us were concerned that the water levels had gotten too low. There was talk of water from the Great Lakes being drained into the U.S.. But the beach was grand and people compared it to being in the Caribbean.
All that changed this year. Our long cold winter and late spring saw the ice on the bay melt at a much slower rate and therefore the normal evaporation of the surface water didn’t take place and consequently the water levels rose and the beach disappeared. It hasn’t risen as high as the summer of 1987 but many parts of the beach have lost sandy areas because of the marram grass that was planted years ago to protect the dunes. The grass is indigenous to Ontario but not this island. The roots have held so well that they’ve created mini cliffs along the water’s edge on some parts of the eastern shore.
When man steps in to protect one aspect of nature to keep a natural change from occurring, i.e., the erosion of the dunes, he creates a new problem. The newly planted grasses have kept the dunes from shifting but they are now green grassy knolls and the beach is overgrown with weeds, grasses and trees.
When going for my walks along the beach I now have to walk in the water or I find myself walking on a 45 degree angle and stepping over masses of roots that have been exposed when the waves push the water up the shore line. After my first stroll along the sloping beach my hips ached from having one leg higher than the other when walking along the 3km stretch of beach.
Since that first day I’ve walked in the water so that I can still get my walk in. The good news is that since Friday (it’s now Tuesday as I write this) I’ve managed 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day.
Next year the beach may return or the water levels could rise again. Nature follows its own path and there’s not much we can do about it except enjoy what we have and hope for the best.
For more information about the problems of planting marram grass check out Marram Grass: A Hazard to our Beaches
Mama Cormier 