cottage country

Our most recent trip to the cottage started our uneventful until the arrival of a neighbour's son - his mode of transportation is always entertaining to us ...

This time round there wasn't much wind and it was pleasantly warm.  Summer made it's entrance with 10.5" of rain over 7 days, 6" of which fell in one day.  The river is high and all sorts of interesting debris floated by including a 30' tree - it was raining too hard to get a photo.   This was the harbinger of the rain .....

Magpies have nested very near the top of a large spruce tree by the deck .... we always know when the babies are hungry!  According to our NG bird book "in English folklore the magpie is a bird of omen - one magpie is for sorrow, two for mirth, three for a wedding, four for a birth, five for silver, seven for a secret not told, eight for heaven, nine for hell, and ten for the devil's own sel' " .

I spruced up my cottage garden journal and even remembered to include a pocket on the inside front cover....

And this is one of the Columbines that was blooming .....

making cards .....

I've been doing lots of x-stitching but have far too many wee pillows, pincushions, and what-nots so I decided I'd finish some as cards .....

 This doggie was fun to stitch

and I simply love him!   It's going

to a friend for her birthday.

 This wee fairy brings "a bit of happiness" - it went to my son
and daughter-in-law in France.

after the rain .....

We just spent a couple of delightful weeks at the cottage!  The garden is doing well there but there are very few birds around now.  We had a lovely meal with friends/neighbours E&M who are both fabulous cooks and hosts; they served up fish and chips (fresh caught pickerel) along with homemade perogies and strawberry shortcake.  Another day other neighbours were cutting down a tree and it fell on the power line ... oh boy, were they ever being teased about it!  Power was off for 4-5 hours but considering cottage country is out in the boonies we thought it was rather good service.  Fishing is starting to be productive so we've had a feed of fresh caught fish - yummy!  The weather has been so-so; still a lot of wind and on the cool side.  One day there were tornado warnings issued for at home and at the cottage but nothing materialized; usually tornadoes come with the heat and humidity and we've not had any of that yet - curious.

It rained overnight and this is what greeted us first thing in the morning .........

Mr. Spider was busy but the wind was causing some problems .....

These wildflowers are called 'hoary puccoon' and have the loveliest fragrance.  When I was growing up there were fields of these flowers and we called them 'cowslips'.  I think cowslip sounds much prettier than hoary puccoon. 

Little Dog resting after fishing - she tries to herd fish toward the fishing line .... it's most amusing.  I should add that she thinks she's herding the fish - the results say otherwise.

enroute ....

These photos were taken at Singush Lake campground in the Duck Mountain Provincial Park in Manitoba .... we stopped here enroute to the cottage.  There's a cottage development across the lake.  This particular day the Canada Geese were the only other ones around - it was a week day and a rather chilly one so there were no campers.

golden globe ....

The Man of the House captured this fabulous photo of some goldfinches.  This feeder is designed to keep the bigger birds out but Nigel the squirrel can squeeze into it - the little buggar!

just blooming .....

These are some of the wildflowers in bloom just now in cottage country along with a couple of other pix. We were delighted to discover a couple of wildflowers that we hadn't seen before. 
  
It's been cool and extremely windy, which has been unpleasant ... I was in a turtleneck and jeans the entire week that we were away.  However, we were appreciative that the heavy rain stayed south of us. The really good news is that the garden is up and thriving.

 Hum, the hummingbird, kept us well entertained with his antics to and fro and in and out of the verandah.  Nigel, the squirrel, kept Little Dog occupied....she says that one of these days she's going to catch that guy!