Now This is Sad, and Not for the Faint Hearted

Driving into Peterborough this morning I saw something dangling from an osprey's nest. Sadly it was an osprey. Its leg caught in some string or binder twine and, unable to get away, the bird died.

This morning the nest had two other birds in it and I wondered what would happen. Was that the male bird who died? Would the female fish and find food for the young? It's almost time for the adult birds to be on their way so would the female leave? Would they all leave?


On my return journey I couldn't see any birds in the nest at all. It's very sad. These birds have been helped by a man-made platform for a nest and this one has been killed by mans garbage.

Visiting

Yesterday's drive and walk took me up north of Highway 7 near Cordova Mines. The scenery changes from the rolling hills and farmland in this area to dramatic rocky outcrops surrounded by conifers and silver birch trees. This is the start of the Canadian Shield, a huge swathe of land covering much of eastern and northern Canada. It's mostly forest with thin top soil covering ancient granite. The rocks have many minerals which have been and are mined. Gold and silver were mined at Cordova.

The buildings and land of my friend's house were previously an fish hatchery but are now a gorgeous home with riverside walks and cabin.

This is the view from the ice house where the fish were stored

A good spot for fishing, or just contemplating

Camping at home

Sharing a stick

The house and outbuildings, with beautiful gardens

The lake at the end of the road

It's Starting............ Skywatch Friday

I saw these leaves today, a hint of the fall, let's hope it's slow to arrive

For more skies visit Skywatch Friday

Edit, added for those doubters who think that it was a sick tree...........

The Rain

Yesterday we had one of the many thunderstorms we have been having recently. I rushed out into the rain to try and get some photos showing the force behind it.

No hail, thankfull,y as that can be a warning of tornadoes but heavy, heavy rain.

I took scores of pictures of the birdbath trying to show the drops bouncing back up but without success. This one has some strange white lines which must be something rainy but for the life of me I can't decide what.

Today is a beautiful day. The humidity has gone and the sun is shining. It's going to be a cool 24C so I can open the curtains and window and let the air in the house. I'm even going to go for a walk.

Spooky Cat., Loopy Cat

Same cat, different moods

Higgledy Piggledy

On Thursday a friend and I drove around the area looking at possible areas for her to move to.  Just driving round with nowhere in particular to be by any given time is rather nice.

We watched this cute foal and a friend galloping round the field just for the hell of it, then he rolled around in that sand, probably also just for the hell of it. If you squint you can just see him in this shot, foals having fun do not pose for blogs.

We stopped at an arts barn that has intrigued me for a while but I have never had the chance to stop and look around. It  has a sign ourside advertising garden decorations and art, I can't remember the exact wording used. Anyway we stopped.  The grounds and barns are scattered with many, many paintings on wooden boards. Paintings of sunflowers, cats, cockerels,and horses, all lying around higgledy piggledy. (The paintings were lying around not the sunflowers, cats, cockerels, and horses.)  Lively fun paintings full of movement and colour. I didn't take any photos of the paintings and nor did I buy one. I should have though as I would like one, I'll have to go back.

I've found the barn on Google street view and here is a link to it for you.

I loved the paintings and the barns, I took some snaps on the Blackberry but it's hard to convey the atmosphere. 

It's a place that appeals to the magpie and the artist in me.

Giant Royal Bare Behinds

For some reason Canada likes to have giant statues of local things, things such as apples in Ontario's apple country, a cowboy in Alberta (predictably), the town of Dildo in Newfoundland has a whale, (disappointingly (and don't google that one on a shared computer)) Mattice in Northern Ontario has a voyageur (historically), and Campbellford has a Toonie.  A toonie is a $2 coin and Campbellford has a giant one because  Brent Townsend, the artist who designed it lives in the town.

Did you know that Canada is the only place where the Queen has a bare behind??

The Queen is on the front of the coin and a polar bear is on the obverse.

My World Tuesday- Swimming in the River

This seagull was at Crowe Bridge Conservation area near us, recently reopened it's hard to find a more beautiful place to swim. The water is clear and warm, the river bed smooth rocks, the people happy.

I was so jealous of the people in the water but had to make do with wading in up to my knees. Next time I will be able to swim

More glimpses into others worlds can be found at My World Tuesday

Aah, A Great Weekend

We've just had a superb weekend. Some friends came to stay and others joined us Saturday for a BBQ.

We fished from our dock

And watched the swing bridge swing open to let the boats through.

This is lock 18 on the Trent Severn Waterway in Hastings. The bridge has a weir/dam underneath it and on the aerial photo, just to the right, you can see the lock and the swing bridge.

Photo taken from the Parks Canada website

The Trent Severn Waterway is one of Canada's National Historic sites. It connects Georgian Bay in Lake Huron to Lake Ontario. 240 miles and 44 locks of water travel. They started building it in 1833 and finished it 87 years later. "They" being various people and organisations who wanted better connections for trade. There was opposition to building a canal too, and funding eventually came from both Federal and Provincial governments. By the time the waterway was finished it was out of date and it has never been used for commercial traffic but building it provided employment for many.  It's now a great tourist resource with beautiful scenery and attractions along the route.

Skywatch Friday Osprey Looking Back at Me

I make no excuses for posting more osprey photos. I stopped to take these on my way into work on Tuesday, I even missed collecting my cup of Timmies - If you are in Canada then you will understand the significance of that! Edit: Timmies = Tim Horton's curiously addictive coffee for the Canadian masses.

I like the ominous way the family are outlined against the sky, waiting for Dad to come home with breakfast perhaps?

After a while the way they stare back becomes unnerving especially when combined with the warning cry that
 they make.

For more Skywatch Friday skies visit here

A Sunflower for Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesday posts visit here

The Perils of Dining Out.

During the horrid humidity we had last week we were forced to go out for dinner. After all when it's almost 90F inside and you have no air-conditioning its best to go somewhere cool.

There isn't a great deal of choice round here for restaurants unless we drive into Peterborough. All the menus have variations on some sort of dead animal between some sort of bread with a side order of fries. Salad dressings are usually out of a bottle. I usually have burger without the bun and fries or salad or both. Why no bun? Because the bun is full of gluten and gluten and I are enemies.

This means no wheat, rye, barley, malt, oats, or anything made with them. No beer, pasta, pizza, bread, fries with coatings on them, malt vinegar or anything made with it, glucose made from wheat, no soy sauce. It's ok for eating at home but eating out is problematic.

I also have a problem with MSG, monosodium glutamate, when I eat that my hands and feet swell up and get very hot. Not like a balloon but enough to be uncomfortable.

Plus my gall bladder is an angry thing and does not like me to eat fats especially deep fried dead animal with a side order of fries with ranch dressing.

So you can see our dilemma

On Wednesday we headed off to a much praised Italian restaurant. A bit of a ride from here but we had been told it was by the water and the food was very good. It was by the water but the water was stinky. The food was nothing special but they did have gluten free pasta and I ordered seafood linguine without the scallops. After a while I thought to ask if the pasta sauce was also gluten free, you would think they would realise that would be needed but no, the sauce wasn't but they would fix it.  My linguine turned out to be macaroni and the sauce had 7 shrimp/prawns in it. That's all. 2 bucks a prawn. The crab was missing in action- turns out  that it was 'select crab' ie not crab at all but those fish sticks. Dumb eh? Select should mean the good stuff not the crap stuff.  MSG featured in the meal too but at least they had air con and the wine was good.

On Thursday we were still sweltering so this time we went local. To Capers in Campbellford. They have no trouble with the whole gluten free thing and their specials are not deepfriedandwrappedinbread. This time they even had gluten free gnocchi, a thing of wonder and delight. No chemicals just real food.

heatwave and smog Skywatch Friday

Seven days into a heatwave, 5 days of temps above 30C. Right now at 8.30pm it is 34C, indoors and out.

This was the view at 7:30 this morning, it looks lovely but that haze is smog blown up from Toronto, SE Ontario and from the the Ohio Valley in the USA dumping ozone on us.

For more skies visit

Dog Days of Summer

Aren't very pleasant at all.

                                                                    The outside thermometer










The inside thermometer



Factor in some humidity,the humidex and it feels like 44C, that's over 110F.

Environment Canada have issued this Special Weather Statement

Today will be a day of elevated air pollution.  Help spare the air
By taking public transit or by car pooling.  The air quality index
Is expected to exceed the poor threshold of 50..Due to ground level 
ozone and fine particulate matter.

The weather will remain mainly sunny and hot with light winds due to 
a stagnant weather pattern.  Pollutants from US and Ontario sources 
will react with sunlight to form photochemical smog.

Many of our leisure activities contribute to smog formation.
Help spare the air by reducing car trips..Avoiding the use of oil
Based paints..Solvents..And gas powered engines such as lawn mowers 
and chain saws.

During the episode individuals may experience eye irritation.
Heavy outdoor exercise may cause respiratory symptoms such as 
coughing or shortness of breath.  People with heart or lung disease 
including asthma may experience a worsening of their condition.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside ................... in Cobourg?

I spent yesterday in Cobourg.  It's a town I like very much

Settlements were established in the area by United Empire Loyalists  in 1798 and in 1818 those settlements became Cobourg. It has some glorious old buildings, tree lined streets, interesting shops and very pretty shore line on Lake Ontario.

This is Victoria Hall which is the town hall as well as having the Art Gallery of Northumberland and a concert hall inside too.

The main street is King Street. No idea who the statue is of, I'm guessing some civic minded geezer.

There's a marina with some  $$$ boats, a pier and a lighthouse. If you peer to the left of the picture then you can see the lighthouse on the pier.....

A sandy beach, very popular too.

You see the size of that cool box?? When a Briton takes a picnic to the beach its a few sandwiches and a bag of crisps/chips. The Canadian way ? well today I saw; chips, dips, fruits platters, sandwiches, pop, cake, butter tarts, bottles of water, pizza slices. Phew.


I went for a wade/paddle in the lake, god it was cold, and brave souls were in there swimming.

Cobourg feels like a seaside town to me, the whole Kiss me Quick hats and funfair on the pier thing. It looks like the sea but with tiny waves and no tide. It's a really odd sensation when you are sitting on the beach and keep looking up to check where the tide is and then you kick yourself  when you realise how daft you are as there is no tide to come in and wash your sandcastle away. There are seagulls too to swoop down and steal your chips, but no seaweed and no salty smell.  I call it the sea, it's an inland sea after all.

My title for this post?? It's a classic British music hall song that pretty much everyone knows

Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside
I do like to be beside the sea!
I do like to stroll upon the Prom, Prom, Prom!
Where the brass bands play: "Tiddely-om-pom-pom!"
So just let me be beside the seaside
I'll be beside myself with glee
For there's lots of girls besides,
I should like to be beside
Beside the seaside!
Beside the sea!

Canada Day - Part 3- Elvis!!!

Probably no words needed but you are getting some anyway.

Early evening - before the fireworks- we went to Campbellford to see/hear Elvis. An Elvis tribute act though not the real thing as he didn't move over the border even though deep fried sugar coated foods are plentiful here and would be a big attraction to him.

Note the Canada chairs in use.

Elvis handing out Maple Leaf flags, not a sight you see everyday.

An Elvis meets Monty Python shot here.

He was great,  a rather tongue in cheek impression rather than an accurate one, and an excellent entertainer. The crowd was jolly, we sang along, Elvis handed out leis and kissed the girls. The classic Elvis songs got people up dancing  - especially the wrinklies who showed us a thing or two about jiving, arthritis restricted some of the moves but it was so lovely to see the couples dancing.  It reminded me of the movie/film Cocoon.

Canada Day was much fun, a lovely, happy day where people were proud to celebrate their country's birthday but did it without smugness and superiority. Just happy.