Day #219 Greater Swimming

Sandbanks Park.
It's that time of year.
Hazy, lazy days in sun and sand. Enjoy.

Day #220 Great Swimming ...

... if you like it WILD - Point Petre, southwest side of PEC on Lake ON, and a free area.
It's a shale beach so that you walk into the water on long slabs of slate-coloured shale, not unlike a basement floor, except for this cove which is composed of small stones that are really hard to walk on.
It gets deep quickly and is cold. Makes for a wonderfully refreshing swim - if you can manage the frigidity.
Walk further on down, and someone has made a bench for us to relax on while we watch the fairies dancing and sparkling on the wavelets in the late afternoon.

Watch out for poison ivy along the shoreline in the cracks between the rocks on the shore, and in the fields above. I sprayed the ones I saw 2 years ago in the swimming area at the cove.
If you think it may have touched you, go into the water right away and rinse off the oil. It's water-soluble, but be sure to shower again at home with a good strong soap, and launder all clothing, including shoes.
Look how fast time has gone since Day #365.
Hard to believe - it's Day #220 today. I missed yesterday. Having fun baby-sitting my grandson, watching 'Cars' with him, going shopping, going for icecream, and sitting in the sun with the neighbours on our back deck and feeding them watermelon.
Is this really what retirement is like? I can hardly wait until February.

Day #222 Hay, Corn, n Cycling

I'm happy to report that the Millenium Trail is now, finally, being looked after - somewhat.
The big hump in the middle was been scraped down last week so that two people might now be able to cycle side-by-side once the rocks and dirt settle a bit more.
Presently, it's still a bit skiddy.
Today two vehicles were cutting the long grasses at the sides of the trail.

Day #223 Endurance

This little tree in a deep woods in PEC is thriving by growing under the top of a felled tree that has pulled it over in some intense storm and trapped it underneath.
Eventually, it's own power of growth will snap off the broken top of the tree that has imprisoned it,freeing it finally, although it will likely be very crooked for the rest of its life.
It's amazing what entities will endure in the struggle to live.

Day #224 Flax Flower Blue

I have never seen a field of flax before.
It's simply stunning, small light blue flowers which close up in late afternoon, returning a field of blue into a field of green. Tomorrow morning it will be blue again.
I managed to get there at noon today - Brummel Road, farm of Linda Wiggins, although the old barn may be that of another farm.

Day #225 Poisoning Poison Ivy

Even though I used Killex on all poison ivy around my cabin last year, these plants manage to defy all my attempts.
Well, I sprayed these ones Sunday. Hopefully, I don't get poison ivy again. For me, it seems, just looking at it is enough.
I promised earlier that I would get a good picture of it to put on the blog so I photographed it before spraying.
You notice that it droops like it needs water, has three leaves, the new leaves are red but the older leaves are green like normal plants in summer, and that there are notches on the sides. There may be 3 notches or points on one side and maybe none or one on the other side. Most leaves from other plants have the same number on each side...just picture the maple leaf - The Canadian Flag.

Day #226 Dry Spell

Down at the cabin for 2 days.
Even the daisies are having a hard time surviving.
No rain for a long time.

Day #227 One for the Road

...is one too many for poor Benny.


One sad event on any walk is finding empty beer bottles.


A full one, now - that might be a different story - heehee

Day #228 A Fun Guy and a Fungi

We took our grandson for a walk in a woods today, and Opa found a fungi and gave it to Mr. T.






Mr. T

taught

Mr. Lion

about mushrooms being from the fungi family.
You feel so alive in a woods. It's for that reason that I prefer to do my cycling on trails.
Mr. T found interesting leaves that he loved and kept, and berries that were still green, his favourite colour.
No poison ivy, thank goodness, as it's fast spreading all over southern Ontario.

Day #229 Skirting Lake Consecon

One of the most beautiful rides in the whole of Prince Edward County is the circle route around Lake Consecon.
You can start at Consecon and cycle up to Scoharie Road (#1), over to Melville, down Melville to Weedy Acres on Lakeside, and along Lakeside back to Consecon.
From Melville to Lakeside to Consecon you will be on back roads skirting the lake with trees on both sides of the road and an excellent view of this gentle lake, lush countryside farms and vineyards, and lovely homes.
It is an easy and quiet ride and so enjoyable.

Day #230 Giant Fisher

In Peterborough, I ducked into a bike shop and was shown a very good bike by Giant that I would certainly recommend for an older woman. It was easy to move the seat up and down, and also the handles bars, which were a good height anyway for seeing the countryside.
In Picton, Ideal Bikes showed me a Gary Fisher that would be $200 cheaper, and ever so much lighter which would be a life saver should I come across a fallen tree and have to lift it over. It could be modified, as well, for under $1000 to have all the things I need.
So: Giant? Fisher?

Day #231 What Did You Do Today?

Benny the Bumpkin, 12 years old.
Well, I let sleeping dogs lie, because, I did little more myself.
I made ice cream and strawberries topped with real maple syrup for my two lady friends - yogurt for myself - and then pieces of watermelon.
Doncha just love this time of year!!!

Day #232 Heaps of Bikes

Peterborough, ON
On the way to a Farter's Day Dinner with my partner and his daughter and son-in-law, we passed this trailer-load of bicycles, with young people still throwing more up on top. It's a bit blurry because the car engine was running when I snapped this photo.
If you check out the Internet under 'Bikes for Cuba', you will see that a group of passionate people will accept used bikes that they fix up and ship off to the Cubans. They even have members who teach Cubans how to fix bikes, too.
Perhaps these ones are going there, or perhaps they have another destination.
Whether you have an old bike, or a new one, hope you are enjoying these wonderfully warm and sunny days of June on some exciting rides with family, friends, or by yourself.

Day 233 Olden Times

Old barn. Old tractor.
Very old field. New crop.
Dusk. No time to linger. Try to be home by dark. Still no light on bike.

Day #234 Cat n Me Watching Horses

Lovely old County dirt road called Airport Road at dusk. A lovely, serene time to bicycle on roadways - great lighting for photography if you catch it in time (I didn't) and less traffic.

Day #236 Prairie Smoke

but no Fire.
Photo taken 2 years ago at Massassauga Point, in Prince Edward County.
A rare and delicate flower that grows along one of the trails there, overlooking the Bay of Quinte.
A very beautiful ride down that country road and walks of the same in the conservation area.

Day #238 Field of Daisies

Missed Day #239 - out having fun - gardening and then to the dump, to a restaurant and to work.
It may be a long time before you see a phenomenum like this again.
This is a large farm field on the corner of Old Milford Road and Miller Road completely covered in daisies.
When I first bought my 3 acres down on the south shore, which is actually the north shore of Lake Ontario, I was going to call it The Field of Daisies because daisies carpeted the property in and out among the cedars for the first two years that I owned it.

Daisies have grown there only intermitently since.
Folks, we are either building on land, or mowing it, or, of course, it's being dug up by farmers.
I figure this extreme mowing we're doing is the most insane and all because we have been brain-washed into believing that wildflowers are ugly and these sterile green deserts we're creating are beautiful.
Acres and acres are being mowed - look across the lawn - no life anywhere. Even the sides of the roads, that last 10 foot wide area which is the last bastion for bunnies and butterflies, is being mowed.
The most destructive human force - relentlessly annihilating life on Planet Earth and using up the last of our gas resources to do so as quickly as possible.
Our ancestors will refer to this era as the black era, or give it an even worse name, and we will be condemned as having been complete barbarians.
Time to start friendly gardening. Tell council to stop mowing in the country. Pass laws that will allow mowing only within 100 feet of the house. Mow around a wildflower patch - around a Queen's Ann Lace, plant orange lily around the base of your trees instead of whipper-snipping, etc.
Try it; you'll like it. It will reward you in return.

Day #240 Ice Cream

What do you do on a hot June day with a 3 year old whom you are babysitting?
Well, of course, you take him for ice cream, in our case, to the chocolatier's in Bloomfield where we sat outside under the trees and watched people and cars while we licked our ice cream cones.
I shared my chocolate with Mr. T because he didn't like his, nor did I. It was vanilla and too sweet.
When we had finally licked it down to just 2 inches above the cone line, he said to me "It looks like a peepee!"
Indeed, it did. Be careful how you lick those cones, folks.

Day #241 Beginner's Luck

As luck would have it, the only trike I could find with a parental handle on the back at a reasonable price was in this beautiful fushia pink colour.
My grandson doesn't mind the colour, he just doesn't want to use it. However, he lets his friend, Mr. Lion, try it out.
His Mommy is a cyclist and a runner. Mr. T likes to run beside her along their lovely pastoral country road. Cycling will come later.
Start your kids young and they will bike most of their lives and enjoy many adventures which they otherwise couldn't.
The hardward store has some nice blue metal paints, I've been told (by his Mommy).

Day #242 An Oldie for an Oldie

If you're looking for an extremely strong yet light-weight bicycle, ask at bicycle shops for brands that carry bikes manufactured with titanium. I also suggest you avoid department store bicycles.
My 2nd old Raleigh, while having also been very faithful to-date, is heavy and cumbersome.
As an older person, I think one should invest in a light bicycle. You can pedal hours longer, miles/kms further, and go much faster per mile/km of exersion.
I recommend a light-weight titanium bike for us oldies over an oldie for an oldie, such as I am currently riding and hope soon to replace.
However, you will enjoy cycling no matter what type of bicycle you ride.

Day #243 American Bullfrog

This American Bullfrog is a Canadian Bullfrog
from Wil-O-Lea near Milford, ON.
You can see that this is a male bullfrog by the fact that the ear spot behind the eye - the tympanum - is larger than the eye. A female's would be nearly the same size.

Day #244 Snapping Turtles Mate?

Without snapping at each other?
What a turn-off!
This mother is at least 2 feet in diameter with the shell being so high that most vehicles give way to her rather than running over her, as so many drivers are wont to do with reptiles and amphibians.
Every year she crosses the Wil-O-Lea Road, coming in from Smith Bay, to get to the soft soil beside the pond to lay her eggs. She moves very slowly. We always warn the children that she can turn quickly so do not put your hand near the front OR back end.
Then she heads back out to the open waters of Smith Bay, just off L. Ontario, and over to the marsh near Waupoos to spend her summer vacation, before hibernating again.

Day #245 Deerkill

This young Algonquin Moose is not the item alluded to above, but the closest relative to a deer that I have taken a picture of. This moose let me get within 20 feet of it, and its mother did, too, standing on the other side of the bushes.
On Friday night, I was being driven to Picton by a friend when our car was hit by a rather large male running deer. It literally ran into the side of the car and smashed in the side door and the side front fender. Dusk had fallen, and it came out suddenly from a farm lane.
On day #246, I mentioned roadkill, and tube travel.
Oh, how I wish it was invented already. We would have watched the deer cross the road unharmed, and pass right underneath us as we were sitting safely in our chairs relaxed and warm/cool, chatting or quiet, or perhaps listening to favourite music, hoping to see some wildlife.

Day #246 Toads n Traffic

This beautiful yellowish-khaki coloured toad was by the side of the road just outside the village of Milford, injured. I walked it down to the Mill Pond and gently put it under a thick bush.
Actually, I believe it must be a bullfrog in spite of the bumps on the skin.
In Canada, there are only 2 types of toad - The American Toad which has light and dark brown spots and orangish hues. Each dark spot on its body has one or two 'warts'. It has a white belly covered in spots, also.
The Fowler's Toad is found only in south-western Ontario along the north shore of Lake Erie, mostly brown, but with three or more 'warts' per dark spot on its body, and its white belly is not covered in dark spots.
One day, should society ever become enlightened, together with the ability of the new technologies that we've garned in the last 100 years, we will have tubes to travel in that are elevated above ground which will allow all Mother Nature's creatures to pass under. Seats will be enclosed within these tubes whereby people may be transported safely and swiftly from street to street, town to town, and city to city.
Only the seats inside will move.
Hopefully, and I expect, they will be plexiglass-like so we can see our surroundings.
Moths, butterflies, and birds will no longer make imprints on windshields.
Airplanes will be used for crossing oceans only.
Electric bikes and cars may be used in certain instances.
Trucks will be a thing of the past and also have their own tube system.
Car insurance will no longer be necessary.
Car accidents will be a thing of the past.
The environment will be given a reprieve from vehicle emissions.
Roadkill will be a thing of the past; that is, of The Dark Ages.
REALLY!?
If we make it that far before destroying everything on Planet Earth first.

Day #247 Cycling in the Lilacs

Millenium Trail off-shoot on farmer's lane, Wellington, ON, 2007.