You know the story about the shoemakers children that never have any shoes....well, poor Lucy has become something like that, not that she needs shoes LOL, but I keep having to put her aside for other things! (She actually does have a pair, or 2 pair rather, of expensive winter booties that we bought for her a couple of years ago thinking that they would help with the "snowballs" she gets in her toes in the winter, but if someone knows how to keep them on her feet short of double sided tape, which wouldn't be nice, I would love to know!!!)
I've been busy in the last month, there are always garden chores to be done, I am now faced with the pruning of all the shrubs and bushes and a 2nd wave of clean out of the perennial bed now that the iris have finished flowering. The garden always goes into a lull after the iris, there are some flowering plants (roses, clematis, bellflowers, primroses, loosetrife etc) but not quite the big colourful show of the spring. Just waiting on the black eyed susans, shasta daisies, garden phlox and echinacea (cone flowers) to come on to fill the garden with colour again. I can't believe how fast the summer is going!
...oh! and we already have tomatoes the size of my thumb in the veggie garden!
I ordered a custom made canoe with my prize money from my "Best of Show" this spring, we took delivery of it on June 16th and left on a canoe trip up to the Sauble river on July 20th. We have stayed at Sauble Falls before and thought that the river might be a good baptism for the canoe, and a pair of "rusty" paddlers, and it turned out to be a great decision. The Sauble river
above the falls is about a 3 hr paddle before you get to the first "swift" and have to either end your trip or turn around and head back. We only got out for a long paddle once because the weather just didn't cooperate but we will definitely go again. I am hoping to be able to get lots of pictures of shorebirds with a bit of luck!
This is a picture of Sauble Falls, our campsite was just on the other side of the bridge and right on the river so we just had to carry the canoe over, drop it in and start paddling.
The Sauble Falls, Ontario Canada
Our new Novacraft Canoe
One thing I especially like about Sauble Falls is that every time we have camped there we have had "friendly" chipmunks come to visit. There were 3 (I think there were only 3?) this year that would all come right up and climb up our legs, sit on our laps for peanuts...and I came prepared for them with peanuts in shell and shelled.
This one is trying to stuff a 3rd double peanut in its shell in his pouch, he ended up just carrying it in his mouth back to where ever he was storing his "loot"
Helping himself (note to self, don't leave the peanut bag out on the table unattended)
"Please Sir, May I have some more?"
...and this fellow we called Alvin...who would spar with the Chippies for peanuts but was
also happy to gobble down some cat chow
As I said, the weather didn't actually cooperate while we were at Sauble Falls, I honestly have never seen (or heard) rain so heavy! My husband had to stand outside under the awning with a broom pushing the water off the canopy and also sweeping the water away from the trailer.... rainwater runs downhill of course and having a campsite next to the river meant by the time it got to us it was a river of its own! (Lucy was not amused by the stormy weather) It was a good thing that the weather was slightly less than best because I had work to do on the easel...I started 2 new pieces that I have since completed...but it is getting late so I will save those for another post...plus I do have some progress on Lucy also! LOL
Cheers!
J
