The Great Purge...

A massive decluttering process underway in Savannah's room. This child's space was pretty much a Storehouse of Crap.....well, some of it was crap...most of it was toys-not-played-with or boxes and bags of bits-and-pieces. After much discussion and pondering, a collaborative effort ensued whereby we made three piles -- garbage (thankfully, not much of that), free-cycling (a veritable mountain of Joy to be passed on) and Precious Memories (Savannah's term) -- which were packed in that green tote you can see in the photo. A Divine decluttering indeed.



Our neighbour-friends getting first dibs on the freecycle stuff - -they're all dressed in their finery for Eid ul-Fitr celebrations....how apropos that we are also celebrating the spirit of sharing and Abundance.

And what it looks like now....a clear space..uncluttered and ready to play in. *sigh* Bliss.

Science-y things, Wild Places and Playing with Art

A jaunt out to the Royal Botanical Gardens...for a wee hike (by our recent standards), the Earth Art exhibition and a picnic.

First stop was the Discovery Garden for a spot of science -- cork *boats* floating down the little waterfall thingy...experiments with dams and other interesting alterations of the current.


The current Grand Poobah of our Fungus Collection....a GIANT orange bloom on a tree stump. We were mesmerized.
The ducks graced us with a viewing.....
From the "Make your own Desktop Wallpaper" collection...

Sitting a spell....
One of the Earth Art installations. Something to do with paranoia....I fiddled with this one to make it extra sinister....

Savannah walks the paranoia spiral. Auntie Sarah 'got it' but it eludes me still...

My 'bee shot'. Auntie Sarah had a few that 'got away'. I got this one. You just have to find the right blooms.

Riding on the art. Transformed tricycles and wagons....yours for the low, low price of $4500...


One of my favourite scenes..Sebastian 'dialogues' with the giant chess piece.



Must have been a Tragedy.

Tuesday September 1 - Mashkinonje Provinical Park

Thus begins our hiking adventures...

Pronounced mas-kin-onj, Mashkinonje is native for muskellenge, one of the largest fish inhabiting the surrounding waters of Lake Nipissing. A relatively *new* park, it is slowly expanding it's visitor potential and apparently has over 35 km of hiking trails throughout its 2000 hectares. We did the Loudon Peatland trail -- a nice easy warm-up for the trails-to-come and were blessed with some amazing views and experiences. Mostly wetlands - again, despite the boggy area, NO mosquitoes - it's greatest feature was the fact that we were the ONLY people there! The trail itself was quite overgrown in places and we're thinking it's one of those Best Kept Secret things...

We were very much enjoying the marshy bits --




For the Fungus Collection...a lonely toadstool amongst the lichen....
Yes..that's poop -- by the size of it we're imagining moose or elk....or maybe just a Really Big Deer...
Orchids....they were swaying in the breeze and my shots were blurry so I had to hold onto it -- haven't got around to editing my hand out yet...:)

One of the best things about the trails in this area is the outcroppings of bedrock - the Canadian Shield -- which made not only for easy footing (although we did experience some steep climbing/clambering on later days) but great spots to sit and drink in the vistas...


Back at the cabin....the sun sets on a beautiful day...B and Auntie B and Savannah were out doing some evening fishing so Sebastian and I went out to get the evening campfire started....

Dusting off my fire-starting skills...seems I've still got it....


Why is it that you can't stop taking photos of a beautiful sunset? Must be the need to capture the sheer gorgeousness of it all....

Monday, August 31...first full day

Aunty B hadn't arrived yet - she had to write an exam on Sunday night (ACK! Thanks to the strike at York U.) - she was due in the evening so we amused ourselves for the day.....

Starting with the inaugural boat ride. After a rather steep learning curve for B on the intricacies of the outboard motor (in his defence, he was given conflicting information from our lovely hosts) we were out for a tour of the river....
Yup -- we had a heap load of fun....learning that loons are much bigger than we thought...
...found lots of little coves and inlets that were to become the future fishing hot-spots.
But mostly we just enjoyed the views and the wind in our hair....


With views like this - how could we not?
In the afternoon we decided to venture out to the nearby French River Provincial Park to do a spot of hiking. After much confusion and wrong directions -Grandma had to practically beat the information out of two nice ladies at a roadside restaurant (the official visitor center was closed and looked like it had been for about fifty years) - we found it. There was one trail that looked short enough to fit our schedule...a trail out to Recollet Falls...a little blip in the smoothness of the river which evidently gave the early Voyageurs a spot of trouble....

But first -- the quite fabulous, if not extremely terrifying -- snowmobile bridge. Grandma took the pics as I was fighting the urge to lie down and sob...it bears a close resemblance to a bridge in a recurring nightmare of mine...I did very well at not transforming into a babbling idiot in front of the children...
Nice view...in retrospect...
The highway across the river...

On to the Falls....a rather boggy trail - we had to do much avoiding of mud and muck and had our first experience with the very shallow root systems of the trees in the area....despite the mud and wetness, there were NO mosquitoes! Which is good, because I am loathe to douse the kids in pesticides and decided to tempt fate and come unprepared...
Lots of photo-ops to add to our Fungus Collection....

Regrettably - I had a camera incident halfway through the hike - lesson learned - don't buy the cheapie batteries...and Grandma had forgotten her camera so there are no pics of the Falls -- it was actually more of a chute (having Niagara as our frame of reference for waterfalls) but very beautiful, nonetheless...

And you can't just pop out to the corner store for batteries around these parts - mostly because there are no corner stores -- so that's the lot for today.

Sunday August 30...we arrive....

....in Paradise....

A little pine-ified cabin on the French River...perched on the rocky outcroppings that line this lovely stretch of watery Bliss. We had our own little rock *jetty* which came in very handy for such amusements as clambering, stone-transfer (Sebastian's personal favourite which involved moving stone from one side of the jetty to the other by tossing them in with each *plop* being more satisfactory than the last), exploring of *tide pools*, casting a lazy line (B's favourite) and just sitting soaking up the Zen (my favourite)....


First dipping of feet into the French River....the day we arrived was the coolest and cloudiest...it only got better from there...

That's our cabin, perched on the rock with the tenacious evergreens and lichen...the bit you can see is the Divine screened porch which hosted many reading and writing sessions, morning coffee and mini-putt....


Eye candy.....and Soul food...


Sometimes the stone-transfer activity interfered with the lazy-line casting activity.....apparently the fish don't enjoy depth charges...


These were the only clouds we saw all week...

We just loves us some rock-climbing....


....and pool exploration. We found a plethora of mussel shells which we learned afterward, were not the remnants of someones campfire party, but the leftovers from a river otter feast....

Searching for just the right stone...the entire landscape has been adjusted now...if the river breaches its banks this spring it'll be because Sebastian has altered it's flow...

Light fades on the first day....

...and what a grand first day it was....

Headin' out.....

Really....we have....

Well...I won't be fishing...I'll be watching from the dock where I sit with a mug of steaming chai and my book.....*grin*

I PROMISE...there will be photos.....lots of 'em.....from here.

Promise.

Until then.....happy Not-Back-to-School!!!

Bounty of Lughnasadh...

(a Lilliputian pepper..fear not, it's early days yet!)

Well....it may have been time for the first harvest for the Celts but we're a ways away from that here! Thanks to our less-than-typical weather this summer, the growing season is all in a twist. But, from our wee garden at Nanna's we've already had some delicious zucchini....the tomatoes are on the vine - green still, but there - the taties are flowering (after a very late start) and there are a multitude of flowers on the cucumber and pepper plants....

Pudge's lily in bloom....



The fabulous tendrils of our giant pumpkin...

The first cucumber! Looks a bit more like a gherkin at the moment but we're not in any rush....

I'm fascinated by the tendrils of the pumpkin and the gourd.....these ones look just like a tightly-coiled telephone cord....they've completely ensnared the sunflowers. We should probably post a warning so that people don't stand still too long beside the plant...lest they become entangled..

Our lovely gourd! We couldn't remember which plant was the gourd and which was the giant pumpkin so we just had to wait....pretty sure this is a gourd....

Not bad for our trial garden.....next year's gonna be BIG! I'll be lobbying for a nice big herb bed...