An unexpected holiday in Renfrew, Ontario

This last week has featured more surprises than we ever expected, some bad, some good.

We went to Ottawa for a checkup for Brian with oncologists at the hospital where he had his surgery.  The good news was that everything is clear and that he requires absolutely no further treatment rather than the normal checkups.  They credit his health and his positive attitude as good underlying factors, and he certainly is healing quickly.

The bad news was that shortly after leaving Ottawa, his muffler detached, giving him that great muscle car feeling as we literally roared along.  This was a problem that could be handled.  However, just after we passed through Renfrew (about 10% on our way home), to his shock the temperature gauge was on Hot-Hot-Hot and there was no question that we had to turn back.  Limping along at a slow rate of speed, we finally passed a little gas station, where he asked the owners for a suggestion on where to take the car.

The owner was more than kind, and drove to lead us back into Renfrew where there was a little owner-run repair shop in the back streets.  We would have never found it ourselves, and this guy drove off without even letting us thank him.

The repair shop owner, Jim, was even kinder.  He took us in immediately, did some problem solving himself, and determined that the problem was merely a stuck temperature gauge.  However, this was now about 4:30 in the afternoon, and he needed a part which wouldn’t come in until the next morning.  His wife drove us 10 minutes to the nearest hotel, where we stayed for the night.  Jim fixed what he could the next morning, gave the car a thorough test drive, and then picked us up at the hotel.  In the meantime, the hotel let us stay in the room an hour or so beyond checkout time, because they knew we were stranded.  I can’t speak highly enough of the kindness of strangers in the little town of Renfrew.

Coming back was a bit more of an adventure.  We knew a storm had blown through Barrie during the day while we had gone.  We had called a neighbour to let him know we were delayed and he offered to clean our driveway while we were away.    Thank goodness!  We had left with a foot of snow on the ground, and returned to another 8” of well-packed snow that had obviously compressed since falling.  We got another 3” after coming home, so we both did a lot of shoveling and snow-blowing yesterday.  The squirrels were invisible unless they were standing up like the one below.

We went snowshoeing today.  As usual after a good snowfall, it was a bit of a fairlyland.  We only saw tracks of a rabbit and a relatively fresh trail of a porcupine; the rest of the birds and beasts were probably a bit too snowbound to get around yet.

Hope everyone has a good holiday season, and we will be in touch in the New Year!!

Fall and culture

Wow!  This one is overdue...........

Greetings from fall in Ontario.  Fall has been absolutely beautiful here this year, with lots of bright colours and generally great temperatures, with one or two nights of frost to tweak the leaves to change colour.

This week, we have had strong breezes and rain, bringing the leaves down by almost 75%.  Only the beech and the oaks, traditionally late changers, have been clinging to their foliage.

Earlier this week, we went for a walk in our woods, and you can see the colours and the leaves.  Red squirrels had again left their mark, hiding mushrooms in branches.

We have some extremely old trees along 3 of our fence lines, and were checking them out.  I don’t know how well this shows up in the picture, but this huge old oak has grown enough to “ingest” the barbed wire fence that was strung up along it.

We got an opportunity to get a little unexpected culture a couple of weeks ago.  (These pictures were not great because I took them from my cell phone, but it’s the thought that counts….)

The city of Barrie is twinned with a city in Germany called Zweibrucken.  This year, a German band came over and played several performances.  Brian and I had been invited, and were kind of expecting an “oompah” band, but were we ever wrong!  Yes, they did play some drinking songs, but they also performed some rather spectacular sets including a trio on alpenhorns.  That was a first for all of us.

They also had some performers who did some rather spectacular syncopation music slapping their hands, feet, etc, as well as doing a great skit with saws and axes.  This is highly recommended entertainment if you ever get the chance.

Although we got 2” of snow within the last week, it was all gone in two days, and we are looking forward to some double-digit numbers (with no minus in front of them) for the next few days.  As you see, we continue to suffer out here…………..

Gadding About Ontario

Do you have a bucket list?  We are developing one about Ontario at the moment, trying to see some of the highlights within our region.

We started getting serious about it a couple of weeks ago, and went to Sudbury for 2 days.   Sudbury, you ask?  The city is home to two fascinating museums, one called Science North, and the other called Dynamic Earth.

We spent a full day at Science North, much to our surprise, because there were so many things to see and do.  One could argue that Science North is for children, because there are so many ways they can interact with the displays.  On the other hand, some of us seniors held our own in getting to do things.

One of the first displays we saw was a 4-D display on firefighting wildfires.  Yeah, we had the screen and the special glasses, which gave us a terrific 3-D picture.  Then, our seats shook as the water bomber took off to deliver a load of water, raindrops fell on us as the load was delivered, and mist arose when we were following the groundfighters into the smoky forest.  Wow!  What a bag of fun!

Most displays had information explaining natural forces and then opportunities to see how they worked.  Doesn’t this remind you of playing at the curbs after a rainstorm?

They had an excellent bug museum where everyone was encouraged to hold the insects and spiders.

In addition, a butterfly museum challenged photographers to try and catch the insect on the wing.

A collector’s trading place allowed kids to bring in whatever rocks, insects, pressed plants, etc. they had collected to earn points.  Those points could be used to “purchase” other collectables.  The rock samples were to die for—I almost came home to get mine to trade in.  Staff helped a collector to use the library provided to correctly identify their samples, and points were awarded not only on the relative rarity of the sample but the knowledge of the collector as well.

As you went up the stairs to the topmost level, a huge dinosaur skeleton hung overhead.

The topmost floor was dedicated to space (naturally) and participants had the opportunity to participate in a gyroscope that trained astronauts on their new orientation to different perspectives.  The guys toughed it out, but the women always screamed.

The best part about Science North was there was never too much on any one topic; there was just enough to stimulate curiosity and interest and make us plan to come back soon to see more.  (And play with the toys when the damn kids weren’t around!)

Our second day was spent at the museum called Dynamic Earth, but was best known as the Big Nickel.

This museum focused on mining and the history of mining.  We got a tour (merely 70 feet underground) which depicted mining from the 1800’s to today.  What I didn’t expect was all the water dripping down the rocks (it was raining outside), and realizing how miserable it must have been in the primitive conditions the early miners experienced.  Our tour guide gave us lots of useful info.

Today’s mining mostly comprises machines underground that could be remotely operated, and you could try your hand at it at different points in the museum.  Apparently it is an acquired skill.

Dynamic Earth also featured fossils to some degree, and had a special feature on sharks.  The ancient ones were BIG.

All in all, it was a wonderful Ontario adventure, and we are looking forward to the next one.

A Walk in the Forest

We went out to walk our property yesterday to see the state of the forest.  The summer had been so dry and hot this year that until last Tuesday there were fire bans everywhere and our lawn was brown and dormant.  Then, on Tuesday, we got 42 mm of rain.It did help, but we still have a long way to go to fully replenish the soil.

Our first pleasant surprise was there were lots of apples on our apple trees (or on the ground) which would have been good news for Mr. Bear who has plagued our back yard continuously this summer.  A sure sign of a red squirrel in the forest is a carefully stashed apple in a crook of a branch.

There were signs of Mr. Bear around as well.

I have probably never mentioned that our property was actually a farm at one time, with the back part used for crops or pasture.  The way the farmers marked the lines of their fields was partly with the big rocks they hauled out of the ground, partly with tree stumps and partly with maples that were planted.  We have several lines of maples in the back, and all of them are impressive size since they were planted well over a century ago.

With autumn approaching, the goldenrod has come into bloom and provides bright colour among the grasses.

I released the six baby squirrels I had under care and at least three of them have figured out that if you come to the back door, you will get treats like almonds.

Like any other squirrels, these guys are gathering nuts, but like many other babies they are somewhat unclear of the process.  Look at the nuts they have gathered below!

My rocket-science babies have harvested the plastic nut-covers on our lawn chairs!  This happened yesterday, and we replaced them all, only to find a similar story this morning.

We had another big wildlife drama, although I have only one very blurry picture to show for it.  We had a couple of juvenile Cooper's Hawks visiting our back yard on a regular basis to check out the bird feeders.  These guys were clearly unsophisticated babies as well.  One chased another, and to my horror the chasee hit a window screen, injuring itself.  I could see tissue injuries and so took it up to my wildlife vet, who determined that the bird had ruptured its crop, and needed surgery, which the vet promptly did.  Apparently, birds heal quickly, because it was released in our back yard 8 days later.  It partly needed a quick release because it was fighting the confined space required to let the wound heal, and if it ruined too many feathers it couldn't fly.

This is a very blurry picture of it springing out of the carrier.

All this had done is add a lethal mix to the back yard.  Coopers Hawks are supposed to chase birds,  like doves and blue jays.  However if you are young, hungry and inexperienced, you might try for squirrels instead.  This does not work when you weigh about 370 gm as this one did, and baby squirrels weigh at least 200 gm (adults weigh more).

Anyway, we now have a number of squirrels in the back yard with mysterious wounds on the top of their back.

Let's hope all these babies survive to adulthood despite themselves!

Welcome to our New Family Members

We have two new family members, named Dexter and Sinister.  We saw a them as concrete statues on the Isle of Arran (Scotland) years ago, and have searched for them ever since.  Because we had no luck, we ended up commissioning a woodcarver to create our own.

Voila!

Naturally, there is a story behind these guys, who represent warrior monks from medieval times.  

Dexter (based on Latin for "right") opposes Sinister (based on Latin for "left").

They glare suspiciously at one another and are obviously a caricature of heraldic emblems.  As it is, they make us laugh every time we see them.  The carver has done an exceptional job and we are thrilled with our most recent "Art".

Events here and there

Some interesting things have happened since I last posted, some from afar and some from home.

Brian and I volunteered to be marshals at a Couchiching Conservancy Nature Day.  The Couchiching Conservancy is an organization that owns and manages properties dedicated as nature conservation areas for the future, and they have some outstanding nature-based events.  On this day, they had a falconer come in to do a Birds of Prey presentation, and we got some really interesting (and close) looks at some local species such as Great Horned Owl, Turkey Vulture, and Red-tailed Hawk with their handler.

Then he brought out a Falcon chick.

And some Red-tailed hawk chicks.

As you well know, when you are taking baby pictures, it is rare that you can get everyone to look at you at once.

And when feeding time begins, no one is going to look at you.

When speaking of babies, we had a surprise one appear at home.  It may be difficult to see, but there is a single chick close on the right of the turkey hen.

The protective colouring of the chick is excellent (lower left hand corner).

When the hen appeared with the chick, we knew the chick was at least two weeks old, because they can fly at that point, and it is now safer for them to venture out.  Once they are out in the open, the feathering becomes more obvious.  They have been regular daily visitors and the chick is growing rapidly.

And speaking of visitors, look who turned up again!

And look what the nice cylindrical peanut feeder looks like after his visit!

As usual, things are generally wildlife-oriented here, with the latest rush project to build an outdoor squirrel cage to house the fast-growing babies under care.

The cage is meant to be modular, so it can be easily taken down and moved, so it started with a basic base and walls.

Once it got erected, it got temporary sheltering on some sides to protect from the elements, which will be replaced with some nice bark pieces this weekend.

The inmates seem to enjoy it, and the cage is apparently so desirable that the chipmunk decided to dig in yesterday.  He is merely one of many.  A few days prior, I noticed digging around all sides of the cage, and was a little worried about coyotes.  This was not the case at all.  A day later, I caught the criminals in the act.  It was Mom Coon and 5 kits!  I could just see her showing the kits how to dig, and them all copying enthusiastically. 

In the meantime, my new little flower garden in the back yard is showing excellent results, thanks to contributions from my gardening friend Norma.  Once I get the cage completed, I will start on a little more landscaping this year.  More pictures will follow……….