Kammie’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge – June 13, 2019

Posted on June 13, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Kammie for hosting the Odd Ball Photo Challenge

Happy Victoria Day

Posted on May 20, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….to all my fellow Canadians

As far as long weekends go this one was pretty uneventful. Daughter number two went up to the camp to continue cleaning out their cabin that they’ll be living in this summer but they only stayed one night. The black flies are pretty bad this time of year and it was cold.

On Saturday I got some gardening down and cleaned out part of a flower bed and trimmed back the Rose of Sharon and the ornamental grass. Even though it was warm enough to garden without a jacket it wasn’t warm enough to sit outside without a jacket to enjoy a cup of coffee.

On Sunday daughter number one and our daughter-in-law came over to drop off their dog, Olive so that they could camping in a yurt up in Tobermory. While they were there my husband felt well enough to make a fabulous dinner that he had seen on Jamie Oliver’s show, Dinner in 30 Minutes. This is a photo of the salad he made with fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, roasted peaches, olives and salad greens.

Olive seemed to settle in quite nicely and she certainly made herself right at home when her mommies left. Unfortunately night time was a bit rough and I ended up sleeping on the couch with her until 4:30 in the morning and then my husband took over.

Today started out promising but the winds picked up and the temperatures were well below normal. Later in the day I bundled up and took the dogs for two separate walks. Frances would only let me take her around the block but Olive went five times as far. We ended up in Col. Sam Smith Park. The water levels are still high and one of the pathways was completely under water.

No sunburn or tanning this long weekend but the good news is that I walked over 13000 steps today. How was everyone else’s weekend.?

Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge – Hands, Feet or Paws

Posted on May 16, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Cee for hosting the Black and White Photo Challenge

A Surprise Visitor(s)

Posted on April 11, 2019 by Mama Cormier

…this time last year we discovered a similar visitor in our backyard

Some of you may remember the racoon we found in our deck box last year. We managed to get a couple of photos before it scurried off and never returned. All spring we’ve had a heavy metal pan sitting on top of the box so we figured that would be enough of a deterrent to keep the racoons out of the box.

When our dog Frances started to get excited and agitated around the outside of the box this week my husband suspected that the racoon had returned. We took the dog back into the house and quickly the racoon escaped. When we opened the box we found another surprise.
The mama returned shortly after but she wasn’t sure what to do.

We called Animal Control and they told us to make the area very uncomfortable by playing loud music, especially at night, and throwing in some dog fur into the box. The one thing not to do is add moth balls because they are too toxic for the babies. Apparently racoons have more than one den site so the theory is that the mother will take her babies somewhere else.

We were all set to do that but my husband didn’t want to wait until nightfall so he started by opening the box all the way. Again the mama racoon scurried away. It didn’t take long before she returned and one by one she removed her babies and waddled across the deck and the backyard, up the chain link fence and into the neighbours yard. We were afraid she was going to move into our old garage or crawl under our deck but I guess one of her other den sites is in someone else’s backyard.

Dogs of Blogs – Day 4

Posted on March 5, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Jessica for hosting Dogs of Blogs

This is Frances. She is a strange mix between a Dachshund and an Australian Shepard. We’ve had her for over 12 years and she has certainly slowed down over the years. Her favourite place in the world to be is at the cottage. She loves the water but now she spends more and more time sleeping in the shade.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Eyes

Posted on February 9, 2019 by Mama Cormier

…thanks to Travelling at Wit’s End for hosting the Weekly Photo Challenge

From the family dog, to Albert Birkle’s The Acrobat Schulz V, a golden retriever, a cow and finally our granddaughter, the ‘eyes’ have it.

Brrrr!!!

Posted on January 21, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….it’s sooooo cold

At first it looked like winter would never arrive but then the snow came and the temperatures dropped to -13 degrees Celsius with a wind chill of -20. For my American friends that would be the same as -4 Fahrenheit.

It’s even too cold for my dog, Frances. When nature calls she goes out and comes right back in.

Happy Birthday Frances

Posted on December 13, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….December 13, 2018

I can’t believe that our dog, Frances is already 12 years old. We got her as a puppy from our daughter when she got a new job that made it impossible for her to properly train a new puppy. Frances immediately became my husband’s dog. It was love at first sight.

Over the years Frances has brought us a lot of joy. She’s a strange mix and whenever people ask about her breed they’re surprised by the answer. To the best of our knowledge she’s a cross between an Australian Sheppard and a Dachshund.

Here are a few photos of her over the last 12 years.

Bringing Home the Tree

Posted on December 13, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..a tradition that happens sporadically

Is it a tradition if you don’t do it every year?

This year we decided as a family to cut down our Christmas trees. We’ve done it in the past and always get a lot of joy out of it. Two years ago there was a ton of snow on the ground and this year there was next to nothing. Nonetheless we had a lot of fun and I discovered a new landmark that I didn’t know existed.

The tree farm we used this year was a smaller place, owned by an older couple. There were no sleigh rides or wagons, hot cocoa or tree balers. It didn’t matter though because we were able to walk through the grounds at our own pace and not worry about hoards of people all eyeing the same tree. The dogs were also allowed to run freely. We just had to make sure that they didn’t wander off because there are coyotes in the area.

I don’t think the place even had a name. We just looked for the signs directing us to ‘Cut Your Own Christmas Tree’. From Toronto we drove westbound along the QEW and Hyw. 403 until we reached Hwy. 6 going north. From there we drove till we hit concession road #6 and went east. Luckily we had our daughter, Gaelan on the phone and she directed us onto the property.