The Sixth Summer

Twice a day I walked to the end of the gravel road and back to the camp. Irish Line dead-ended at a private cottage so any traffic from the highway was very local. Waving to passers by was obligatory. The road ran east and west so I walked briskly into the sun in the morning and sauntered back with the light at my back as I looked in the trees and bushes for whatever I could see. The pattern was reversed in the evening.

On the last afternoon, a car drew beside me and stopped. A white-haired man, cigarette in the corner of his mouth and strong American accent asked,

"Didn't I see you up by the soap factory a while ago?"

We chatted for a couple of minutes and he told me he was from Cincinnati, Ohio. He had been coming to The Island each summer for the past 62 years, first as a child, and then as the owner of the family cottage. His daughter and her family would be visiting next week. A retired airline pilot, he was forward and opinionated in an friendly and direct way. I told him of our recent trip to New York City.

"Well I call New York City the armpit of the world," he offered without hesitation.

"And I never tell anyone at home about The Island," he continued.

Somehow I didn't believe that statement.

"Come up and see my garden sometime," he said as he drove off. "I'm number 102 up Cemetery Lane".

Well that was the end of that. Soon it would be time to pack to go home.

About ten minutes later he sped towards me in a golf cart.

"Do you want to see some deer? Get in! I already cleared it with your husband. I figured you were staying in cabin number one."

We drove up the gravel lane and at the top of the hill, three deer stood nervously at the edge of the bush. They went back to grazing as we passed them slowly. It was only a short distance to his cottage so I agreed to see his garden. Hostas and lilies lined the large lot and a well tended perennial garden was between the house and garage. I asked about some of the plantings.

"I don't know the names of all the flowers...this is my wife's garden...she has been gone five years...this is my sixth summer here without her..."

Grief looked out from under the bushy brows and his voice softened with the memory. I noticed a small memorial stone in the garden.

A short turn around the lake front completed the tour of his little park and he drove me back to our cabin with an invitation to drop in any time.

At dusk my husband and I walked back to his cottage to view the sunset from his ideally located dock. The call of the loon echoed across the water.

Peace and comfort can be found here in this lonely place.

Vacations and Parenthood

Bass Creek empties into Lake Manitou at the fishing camp on Manitoulin Island. Fishing boats are tied up at night along the wooden docks at the mouth of the creek and muskrats swim silently through the dark water. Water levels are high this year and the shoreline was plowed back by thick ice this past winter. The usual rocky shoals where ducks could perch and feed from away from the shore are under water, marked only by bobbing orange buoys.

In the mornings I watched a female Common Merganser bring her large brood to the creek to feed on minnows. The little ones practiced their diving skills and would pop up and down around their mother. Occasionally, groups of them would become separated from her and would scurry across the surface, their webbed feet looking as if they were walking on water as they shot quickly by to catch up with the others.

The little orange-headed balls of down and feathers were amusing to watch in the silent early morning hours. The camp slowly awakened and fishermen gathered their gear and headed toward the boats. As the motors hummed to life, the family of Mergansers moved on to the next feeding spot. Those closest to Mom hopped on her back for a free ride.


Unscheduled vacation days are a luxury, even at a backwoods fishing camp. Sitting outdoors and drinking hot tea as the chill of night lifts from the water is not part of my normal daily routine. There was no vacation for the female Merganser as she cared for her large family singlehandedly. My vacation is over too but the peaceful images of the week remain in my mind.


And I can return there in my imagination at will...


This post is dedicated to parents everywhere! My niece, Jaspenelle is into her second month of motherhood, and my niece Damara gave birth to a little girl this past week. I am now a great-aunt three times over. I skimmed over a great number of blog posts today from my blogroll and had to laugh at the synopsis of a scientific study on motherhood posted by Femail Doc, Dr. Judy Paley.

Summer Vacation

See you later! We are off to the Great Canadian Wilderness...

and a safe and happy 4th of July to friends south of the border!

Changes week by week...

Answers to many of our questions become apparent over time. Each week life progresses and things unfold before our eyes. Last Friday I posted a picture of a red flower that I found on a shrub in a meadow. I looked in all my flower guides and in the internet and could not identify it. Well that is because the flower is white, not red. This week I took a picture of the same bush and saw it is a variety of Highbush Cranberry. The leaves had looked familiar but I had never noticed one with red buds before. Some cultivars of these bushes have pale pink or green buds, not the dark red of this particular plant. This native shrub is apparently fairly easy to grow and attracts a lot of birds. The flowers, fruit and foliage are all beautiful. Our soil is too dry for Dogwood, so this is a planting to consider for the yard.

Female Orchard Oriole

There really are few new birds about in July. I am seeing birds that look different and am always hoping to identify one I haven't seen before. There are a number of juveniles who have left the nest and are venturing out on their own. The spotted breast of a young robin is unmistakable, but others are not as easy. I have seen and heard Orchard Orioles frequently this year and recognized the female in the picture above. The mature males are easy to identify.(see here)


But what is this? I was thrown off by the dark eye marking and different throat colour. My guess is that this is a first year male Orchard Oriole. Again, time will tell for sure.

Insects sometimes appear and disappear in the matter of a week or two. This week we found hundreds of non-native European Skimmers in the Timothy grasses of the field. I never knew what a skimmer was before this. These tiny winged insects are part of the moth and butterfly family and are so small they were a challenge for me to photograph. I don't know if they are beneficial or harmful in North America.

An old Chinese proverb says, "One who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever."

So I will keep questioning and looking for the answers.

Shorebirds

Spotted Sandpiper protecting its nest

I spend a lot of time walking along rivers, streams and ponds but this is the first year I have really noticed the plain brown birds along the edges of the waterways. In the spring I watched a group of little birds fly up as I walked unknowingly toward them. I was looking for swallows in the air, but looking down, I was surprised at the number of birds feeding in the mud. Kildeer (or Killdeer) are commonly seen and bring noisy attention to themselves.

Solitary Sandpiper (possibly)

I figured all shorebirds were big and easy to see. But the ones around here are small and easy to miss as they blend into their surroundings so well.

Least Sandpiper (possibly)

During spring migration I saw a few species on their way to their northern nesting grounds. And are they ever confusing to identify! Are the legs yellow or brown or grey? What about the beak, the spots, the peeping sound?

Semi-palmated Sandpiper (possibly)

Spotted Sandpipers nest in this area and I see them often enough that I recognize them easily now. Scanning partially submerged logs or looking on muddy flats with binoculars usually brings them into view.

Spotted Sandpiper (for sure!)

This week I was walking along a meadow and saw a Spotted Sandpiper sitting high atop a dead Mullein flower stalk. It was making quite a racket. Just when I was getting used to looking down for these birds, there was one perched high above the meadow. Apparently they are one of a very few species of birds where the males care for the young as females have more than one mate.

This male was on the look out as I approached the nest which was at least 250 m from the river's edge . While not as dramatic as a Kildeer, it certainly made its presence known.

I will have to study the bird guides and be more prepared for these plain birds as they move south this fall.

Happy 141st Birthday Canada!

Today is Canada Day and we celebrate 141 years as a nation. I am grateful to be a citizen of this great country where we enjoy freedom, peace and prosperity. Here is a little history of our national anthem found at this Canada Heritage website. The pictures were all taken around home this past weekend. I am very fortunate indeed!

"O Canada" was a patriotic poem written in French by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. Calixa Lavallée, the well-known Canadian composer, was commissioned to set it to music, and it was first sung in 1880 during a national convention of French Canadians in Quebec City.

Many English versions have appeared, but the one which was widely accepted was written in 1908 by another judge, R. Stanley Weir, in honour of the 300th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City. It was amended in 1913, 1914 and 1916 and published in an official form at the time of the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation in 1927 and during the Royal visit of 1939. A slightly modified version of the first verse of Weir's poem was proclaimed as Canada's national anthem in 1980. The original poem of 1908 by Stanley Weir reads as follows:

O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love thou dost in us command.
We see thee rising fair, dear land,
The True North, strong and free;
And stand on guard, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.

Refrain
O Canada! O Canada!
O Canada! We stand on guard for thee.
O Canada! We stand on guard for thee.

O Canada! Where pines and maples grow.
Great prairies spread and lordly rivers flow.
How dear to us thy broad domain,
From East to Western Sea,
Thou land of hope for all who toil!
Thou True North, strong and free!

O Canada! Beneath thy shining skies
May stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise,
To keep thee steadfast through the years
From East to Western Sea,
Our own beloved native land!
Our True North, strong and free!

Ruler supreme, who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our dominion within thy loving care;
Help us to find, O God, in thee
A lasting, rich reward,
As waiting for the Better Day,
We ever stand on guard.

Happy Canada Day!

Today is also my father's birthday and he is about half the age of Canada. (give or take a few years!) Canada is a young nation. And no, that is not a picture of him at the church BBQ.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Friday Flowers: Over in the Meadow

The river runs below the hospital and in the spring this channel is filled with deep, fast flowing water and large sheets of ice. With all the snow we had this winter, the river overflowed its banks and the trail we walked last year was washed away. The flood plain shown above has turned into a lovely meadow as spring has turned into summer. Pools of trapped water are full of minnows, tadpoles, frogs and dragonflies. Hoof prints of white-tailed deer are seen along the muddy edges.

There is a profusion of wild flowers because of the regular rainfall we have had this month. Most of the flowers above are naturalized aliens, but the variety and colour is most pleasing to the eye. Butterflies and other flying insects move from blossom to blossom and sparrows, swallows and finches fly up as you walk by.


The Ox-eye daisy is the most abundant flower this week. Daisies have such cheerful blooms and I don't mind picking a few for a bouquet as they are so plentiful.


I have not been able to identify the last two flower pictures here. The pink bloom above grew on a low shrub in dry soil and the lovely flower below was on a long stem that grew up from the water's edge. I almost missed it as it stood alone almost inconspicuous among the grasses at the water's edge. I spent too much time tonight looking in flower guides with no success in naming them.


The picture on the left shows the entire plant. (click to enlarge)

The children's counting song "Over in the Meadow" mentions toads, fish, bluebirds, muskrats, honey bees, crows, crickets, lizards, frogs and spiders. I haven't seen lizards in our area (there is only one lizard that is native to Ontario), but all the other creatures would be found in this meadow of flowers and grass along the water's edge. Formal gardens are nice to visit but these wildflowers are just as enjoyable and interesting in my view.

Silhouettes

As a child in grade school I made a silhouette of my likeness more than once. The teacher would sit us near the board, shine the light of an overhead projector on our head and trace our profile on a piece of paper. We cut out the shape, traced it onto black construction paper and then mounted it on another background. The finished projects would then be displayed on the walls around the room. Before cameras were invented, silhouette artists would be hired to create inexpensive portraits of people.

I create silhouettes of objects with my camera quite by accident. Birds do not always perch in convenient places and taking a picture into the light is sure to create results like these. Do you recognize these birds?


This bird was vocalizing loudly and fanning its tail feathers near a pond along the river. A thunderstorm was moving in quickly and the light in the sky was variable.


Here is another bird that was also making a lot of noise as it sang a metallic sounding song.


This bird moved around in the tree tops and was hidden by leaves most of the time. As it came out into the open I snapped this picture. I could identify it with my binoculars, but the camera missed the colour and details.


As interesting as silhouettes are, I prefer to see the full picture. But identifying birds has to be done by sound or shape sometimes...skills I definitely need to practice more often.

Answers: Male Red-winged Blackbird, Grey Catbird, Baltimore Oriole, Cedar Waxwing