On Family and Friends

Staying in Killbear Provincial Park meant we wouldn’t get to visit with my sister while on Manitoulin Island. Instead we arranged to meet in Espanola as she headed off the island and we headed on. It was her birthday and the first time in many years that I was able to wish her Happy Birthday in person! Most years we are already on the road on this day and have to sing Happy Birthday long distance. Probably the most unusual spot we’ve sang from was the confessional converted into a phone booth at The Convent, a bed and breakfast in Val Marie, Saskatchewan near Grasslands National Park. Happy Birthday again Little-Big-Sis!

The Island of course is still home to me in so many ways. My Mother is there. And there is just something about Manitoulin.

Cattle - Click for larger

Barrie Island Shore - Click for larger

After Mom’s we put in another long day on the road and drove to Pukaskwa National Park. The sound of the waves hitting the shores of Lake Superior is just so restful.

Pukaskwa National Park - Click for larger

Still following Lake Superior we stopped again along its shores in Sleeping Giant Provincial Park at Thunder Bay. There the whitetail deer are so used to people they graze right through your campsite.

Whitetail Deer - Click for larger

After getting past Lake Superior we took refuge in a lakeside motel in Nestor Falls and watched the thunder storms and pelting rain from the safety of our room. We were glad the motel was uphill of the lake as a raging river soon formed as the water rushed toward the lake from the parking lot. It would have been much worse if we had camped just south of there in Caliper Lake Provincial Park as originally planned. There we would have had to tent camp at the bottom of a hill. I can’t imagine that would have stayed dry during those downpours.

The highway north to Rushing River Provincial Park was flooded over in two places although still passable. The river was swollen but not really worse than the last time we photographed it, but then that was a wet year too.

Rushing River - Click for larger

In Manitoba we stayed with friends Dennis and Frieda - they are such good hosts! While we are with them the conversation never ends - hope we didn't talk their ears off! We also did some wildflower photography in the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve and visited with Christie and the usually barefoot Laura – the guardians of that untouched grasslands.

Wood Lily - Click for larger

Good Intentions

This is my first posting of 2008. Time, the years, my life - it is all really flying by! Is that why at this time of year we always find it necessary to make resolutions? Normally, I don't resolve to do anything specific. Of course throughout the year I always have a running to-do list that includes things like: loose weight; exercise; clean the basement; and the other usual things that some people would call resolutions. This year I'm thinking not about resolve, but good intentions. So here are my good intentions for the year: I intend to get out more into the rural areas of Ontario, to get to know our province better by taking hikes through its rugged vistas like this one along the Chikanishing Trail in Killarney Provincial Park: But I also intend to be in a canoe more often, to jump in and give my arms a good work out not only by going for short paddles in Lake Ontario and any other navigable body of water that might be nearby, but also to go on overnight canoe trips into the interior of Ontario's many organized parks and wilderness areas. The image to the right shows me paddling on the Montreal River - an access point into Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park northwest of Temagami. Algonquin is another favourite place of ours for canoe-in camping. The north side is not as busy as the south. I would like to get back to this wonderful campsite (below) on Lake Manitou (accessed at Kiosk near North Bay, Ontario). There we had pitched our tent on a hill with a view facing east right up the lake. In the morning I could lay in bed and watch the sun come up over the flat, mist-covered water beyond my feet. It is highly unusual for us to be in bed while the sun is rising. We normally are up long before first light to be ready to shoot at some previously scouted location. But on this trip on Lake Manitou we decided we would take a bit of a rest - almost a holiday. Ron let me lay in bed but he couldn't resist the mirror-like flatness of the lake. He got up and photographed himself paddling off into the mist (below). So this year I intend not only to canoe more, but to watch the sun rise over a lake and from bed more often. But besides getting into our canoe often, I intend to also use my kayak more but drive less. Driving less means we will spend more time in Ontario and won't be doing anything as dangerous as launching our kayaks near icebergs like this one stuck in the harbour at La Scie in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Yes that is me and my kayak in that image. Ron is photographing me from his kayak. He likes to tell the history of this picture, how it is only my 4th time in a kayak and there I am in the North Atlantic near a BIG iceberg. We even had to paddle through small ice flows, pack ice or bergy bits to get this shot. You'll notice that we were lucky and the water was relatively flat for the ocean - probably as flat as it ever gets. He makes me sound brave. However we both know better. It was not a very safe or smart thing to do - especially when you consider at the time that I didn't know how to recover from a wet exit and get back into my kayak. I eventually did practice that manoeuvre in a warm lake in water over my head but very close to shore. It's harder than it sounds to right your boat, haul yourself out of the water and back into a very easily tipped kayak. I eventually managed but we both know that had I tipped on that day by that iceberg that I would have succumbed to the bone numbing cold water in much less time than it would have taken to right the kayak and climb back in. So this year I am not only going to continue to practice recovering from wet exits but I intend to learn how to stay in the kayak and roll myself upright. It's a long 17-foot sea kayak but I'm told rolling is possible - hopefully I won't drown trying to find out! Other good intentions: to get to know more interesting people like Margery above, and have fun by visiting more frequently with friends and family like these two below hamming it up for the camera: I also intend to finally sign up (and actually attend) a class where I hope to learn how to use Ron's nature images such as this one below of a Long-tailed Duck and turn it into my own stained glass art, perhaps a window something like this: Also since we intend to drive less we will be home more. So I intend to enjoy our house and yard more. To that end I intend to turn our weedy yard into a native wildflower garden that will attract birds such as this yellow warbler (left) or this monarch butterfly (below right). Not only will we enjoy seeing more birds and butterflies in our yard but it means Ron can photograph them right here, without going anywhere. That should help with the good intent of driving less too. The intent to canoe and kayak more should also help with those old to-do list items of loosing weight and getting more exercise. So keep watching this blog over the next year and I'll let you know how it is going and whether I've managed to turn my good intentions into actions.

Thanksgiving

It's hard to always feel thankful. I must admit that I wasn't feeling very thankful exactly one week ago today when we were saying our final farewells to Ron's Father. Then there was that other sudden phone call about my Mother being in the hospital. But there is something about Thanksgiving that makes one really stop and think about things - take another assessment. This year I find my mind keeps returning to last Thanksgiving which we spent with Ron's parents in Brockville, Ontario. It was beautiful weather all weekend in this historic old Loyalist town on the St. Lawrence River that was named for Sir Isaac Brock - Canada's hero in the War of 1812. It was the way it should be at Thanksgiving - cool enough to wear jackets but sunny enough to have blue skies behind those beautifully coloured leaves. That contrasts with today which is incredibly hot and muggy with hazy skies. The first morning in Brockville we got up early enough to catch some rowers in the mist on the St. Lawrence silhouetted against the rising sun. We walked around Blockhouse Island - which was one of Ron's Dad's favourite spots to watch the boats and the ships going down the river. His Dad also took us on a driving tour of the area and we ended up watching ships go through the locks at Prescott, Ontario. His Dad's fascination with ships probably goes back to his Navy days in WWII. Later he would talk about those days and the many adventures he had while assigned to a harbour patrol boat in Sidney, NS. One evening we also would play a friendly game of Euchre and wagers would be placed. At the end of the tournament Ron and I found ourselves up a Loonie in spite of the usual cross table talk by our opponents - such as when his Dad would ask or perhaps state, "Now if I order my partner up I have to go alone right?". We would laugh when he would then decide to pass and Ron's Mom would pick it up, and laugh even harder when his Dad would complain about us getting into his whiskey - something he rarely touched himself. We were always told it would be added to our bill which we would get in the morning - and of course which we never received. No doubt also over the weekend Ron's Dad and I would have one of our "discussions" - a sort of debate of the politics of the day as he took his role as a Senior seriously with its requirement to complain about the government full-time. But in these debates he always let me be who I was too, and let me have my own opinion - seemed even to appreciate that I had one. No doubt I've missed an interesting discussion about this week's Ontario election and referendum. Last Thanksgiving wasn't our last visit with Ron's Dad but it was one of those memories I am savouring and am extremely thankful to have. So this Thanksgiving I am thankful for last Thanksgiving and having had 27 years to get to know Ron's Dad. Of course I am also thankful for the same things I always have been - the love of a wonderful spouse, our health, and family. But as we mourn my Father-in-law and worry about our Mothers it hit me that I should be thankful for the fact that I'm part of TWO wonderful families! That's a lot to be thankful for! Some images from the way home: - Swirling water in the Jones Falls Lockstation on the Rideau Canal, Jones Falls, Ontario

St. Barnaby's Catholic Church, Seeleys Bay, Ontario