Other places I wouldn't mind being

Kananaskis Country, powerful skies and a soon to be married fisherman - The beauty of the mountains is just breathtaking and they have fantastic rivers. Not a bad place for a photographer and an water resource engineer - except for the lack of Ocean in Alberta.

I'm in this kind of hyper-space that is racing in a zillion different directions, however - I suspect that bed is in the near future for me - long day tommorrow.

Sit Ups tommorrow - at least 30! There's a goal and maybe some lawn reseeding. I wonder if any of the mint seeds I planted will come up. It was an old package - so i'm not sure if there were at all viable.

Night,

Jennith 

Cape Breton Mists

Late April in Cape Breton is hardly out of winter - in fact there was still several feet of snow on the other side of the Cape - forcing us to flee to Yarmouth and fairer weather.

This is a place I most definately want to visit again - preferably in the fall when the leaves are changing colour. It amazes me how many beautiful places are in this country. 

Tintaglia on the Cape

Gabe was wistfully reminiscing about the ocean today - so I thought I'd post this picture taken at Cape Breton Park last spring at the end of the end of the road. 

Take me to your leader

Aliens bearing large white snowballs from Europa have arrived here on earth.

Hopefully I don't get my butt kicked for posting this one - but I just thought it was entertaining.

Possibly you'll be able to see more pictures and hear all about what happened at www.araska.org should he ever update his blog.

Cheers,

Jennith 

The Ginko Survives

Proof that plants are more resiliant than you give them credit for. . . This ginko was recently bitten in half by an inquisitive kitten. Its not my tree, but Ginkos being another of my favourite plants - favourite ornamental/foriegn plant for certain.

I should add that our grape vine that the city absolutely masacered leaving only a few leaves left after they cleared the vegetation on the other side of our fence, has impressively regrown its leaves and looks quite healthy after all. It may not be a good year for green grapes, but at least the plant doesn't look like it'll die.

CHeers,

Jennith 

Red Canoe on George Lake

You really can compare the image of a red canoe in an Ontarian Lake to anything. There is simply something symbollic about it. The rugged country behind it has a special kind of beauty - a rugged Canadian Survival beauty. Its a piece of home for me at any rate. The down side of the bright sunny weather when I took this picture almost a week ago, is that my back is still itching from the sunburn I got from being on the lake all day and was wearing sunscreen and I only took my t-shirt off to swim and for a brief while in the canoe. Lesson learned.

Anywho, other exciting and northern news. . . we had a visit last night from 3 clumsy, noisy, young raccoons who tried to climb on our house up the drain pipe... we scared them off, but it may result in further tree pruning which has been my hobby this summer. The other day I worked on the maples and pine in the front. Its a good thing the city picks up yard waste and does stuff with it.

I might go up to Terra if I get a chance to pick up some sand and more soil and see if we can't get some grass reseeded. We picked up some cheap rakes from Canada Tire, but the ground is so dry and hard right now that we can't get the rakes into the parts wee need to break up.

Sigh... so back to work for me -

Jennith 

Half Moon Over Killarny

Framed by maple leaves
The half moon smile gleams white -
Chesire cat stalks joy 

Ground Cedar

Another one of the best plants in Ontario... 

Troubles on High

Two stunted spruce trees
Windswept in winter - one dies
Survival impaired

Okay, thoughts for today - its been a busy one already. I'm hoping to go help Geoff a bit with his basement.

Anywho, off I go, time has run outing chatting with a good friend about a wedding next weekend.

Cheers,

Jennith 

Solitary Dancer

Curving Gracefully
The solitary dancer
Sways in summer breeze 

Floating Photography

Here Gabe fiddles with his camera preparing to get the perfect shot of that moose in the background. Note the fashionable Ontario Parks Bucket Hat (purchased at rain lake several years ago when Doe Lake banned baseball hats for staff) and the bright orange life jacket. Bell Lake's far end is a bit on the marshy side, and the place you pull your boat out isn't far from here. The pull out is kind of mucky though.

A few other thoughts:

First, an article about healthy eating advocating healthy sources of fat - I thought I'd link to it, because there were some interesting facts included. The gist: fat from fruits and seeds and nuts are healthier than those in meat and french fries. They often contain other chemical that help your body to process fats better as well.

Second, an article in the Toronto Star about the impact that massive immigration could have/is having on major cities in Canada. It advocates reducing our numbers of immigrants while funding programs to help immigrants get jobs and avoid poverty. Its a bit doom and gloom for me, but it certainly suggested some valid actions for improving the lot of immigrants while beniffitting all Canadians who live in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.

Cheers,

Jennith 

Itsy Bitsy Spider

This itst bitsy spider blends in amazingly with its surroundings. 

Infected Berries

Rose Family - possibly a service berry, but I'm afraid I don't actually know its name.

One of them is obviously suffering from a case of the mumps and bumps. 

Madiculous Ecosystem

I was writing a few days about Madiculous Ecosystems were water seeped over a bare rock - well, here is the photo. 

Paddler's Delight

Parked in tea water
A crowded disorder, tethered
Lillies float serene 

Sneaky Beams of Twighlight

Echos of thrush song -
The embers of daylight fade
Behind a cloud veil 

Looking Downstream - End of the story

Looking Downstream on the French River from the suspended bridge - we come to the last picture in my story.

SINCE THIS IS THE LAST PICTURE - I SUGGEST THAT YOU GO TO THE FIRST PICTURE IN THIS SERIES _ A FEAST FOR SNAILS and work backwards, unless you'd like the story in reverse.

Cheers,

Jennith 

Final Stop - French River

The highway 69 bridge over the French River has always been a nice bathroom break on the way to and from Thunder Bay. A historic site marking one of the key furtrading routes - I last canoed this river in highschool. Its a nice river.

A new French River Visitor Centre is set to Open July 14th, 2006 (i.e. next week) There is also a suspended walking/snowmobile bridge over the river just downstream of the highway bridge. Its design was facinating the photogragher while the engineer was running around taking landscape pictures - we've been hanging around each other too long. 

Yum - Ice Cream

 

1956-2006: The Hungery Bear Trading Post

I've eaten here before, but it looked inviting (and busy) so we stopped, as I remembered that there was an unusually nice tourist junk gift shop. We had burgers and ice cream (yum if not healthy) at a very reasonable price. They even had stuffed mascots of the hungery bear and blueberry hound.

The giftshop hadn't changed, nothing that I wanted to buy, but lots of neat stuff to look at. It wasn't hard to figure out how they'd managed to stay in business on the side of a lonely highway for 50 years. Although, with the improvement of the highway, twinning it until Parry Sound - I'm sure it is a lot less lonely than it use to be.

I had expresso flaky/chunky monkey icecream. Yum. 

Mystery Bird

 

Canoe to Killarny Lake

On our last day, we paddled through George Lake, Freeland Lake and over a 455 m portage to Killarny Lake where we had lunch on a rocky point, followed by a refreshing swim. You'll note if you look carefully there is a large bird in the tree nearby. I have a close up, we believe that it is a heron, but didn't get a close look to see its colours.

We had amazing weather, although by the time I took this picture it was starting to become overcast. It started to rain, just as we pulled out of the entranceway to the park and continued to rain at scattered intervals the entire way home. 

Ghost Family Reunion

Speaking of favourite plants, Indian Pipe is one of the most fascinating plants in Canada. This clhorophylless parasite saps its energy from neighbouring trees via fungi.

We saw two other unusual plants - one whose name eludes me and striped coral root - an orchid that also takes its energy from decaying organic matter again with the help of soil fungi. (A saprophyte)

:D JP 

On the Slopes of Silver Peak

White quartzite rock gives these hills their characteristic colour. In a windswept landscape of stunted trees and shrubs clinging to the crevices and pockets of soil on this bare rock, one is amazed at the smoothness that the surface has been ground too while towering above the other hills. Glaciers are mind boggling grinding machines.

From the top, you can see Sudbury in the distances, landmarked by its ultra-tall smoke stacks. Georgian Bay glitters in the distance while a sea of hills dotted with gem-like lakes makes the 45 minutes of straight up hiking worth the climb even on a hot humid day. 

A Meal for a Moose

Here is our moose at Bell Lake near the landing for the Silver Peak Trail. The hilarious thing is that she was still there when we came back.