Summer's Coming!

Have you noticed? The days are getting longer. The sun is reluctant to set. Spring is just around the corner.

It's time to think about your summer -- and have we got a place for you!

Take a great shallow, sandy beach, add sparkling water, a trampoline, a ski-tube or a canoe, toss in a few beachchairs, a play cabin at the water's edge -- just add children and stir.

Our boat rentals, hiking trails, and myriad other amenities mean that once you're here, there's no need to go anywhere else. But if you still have the urge to roam, there are plenty of shops and restaurants and artists' studios close by. We're near museums, zip lines, mountain biking centres -- and of course we are so close to Algonquin Park that the wildlife hangs out on our our property...

With plenty do do, and lots of room to find silent places when you don't want to do a thing except recharge your batteries and chat up a loon, we've got your summer.

Give us a call.

Migration always brings the nicest visitors

We were visited today by one of the scarcest of the ducks in all of North America: the Bufflehead.

These are charming, busy little diving birds, always in motion. Makes them hard to photograph -- you just find the focus and the birds dive again. Or get up on the water to dance. Or take alarm and fly away. It's a challenge. I wandered all the way along the shoreline trying to get a good shot, but in the end I had to rely on other peoples' photographs for the close-up!

They usually travel in small groups, no more than ten. We had about six here. Hard to count -- again, they were underwater almost as much as they were on top of it, busily stuffing themselves with groceries. That's because they are only stopping here briefly, on their southern migration, and the adults are going to store up to 115 gm of fat -- more than a quarter of their body weight -- for fuel for the long trek south. Mind you, flying at 55 to 65 km/hr, these birds can travel 800 km. in one night. Wow!

Their breeding ground is far to the north, and they are small enough to take advantage of old nests left behind by Flickers. They are related to our lovely mergansers, but far less often spotted in Bondi Bay, so today was a special moment.

Bird watchers prize the Bufflehead both for its striking appearance and its relative scarcity. Its activity and pattern make it one of the most easily recognized of ducks, and one of the most popular with waterfowl enthusiasts. This is a duck that is more valuable to people as an object of delight than as a hunting statistic. Long may it continue to brighten our waters.

Carving out a Niche

Jack spent quite a bit of time while he was here with us under the shade of the big pine tree, working on his wood carving.

We could tell... there were more wood shavings out there than a self-respecting woodpecker could have produced.

The carving began life as a wolf howling under a full moon. We understand it is evolving into his friend's dog, howling under a full moon. It needs a lot of carving -- there's portions of this design that require the removal of an inch or more of wood. It's coming on a treat however. We're impressed.

Anna and David came by for a close inspection -- Anna holding her

plush wolf pup for comparative purposes. They're pretty impressed with Jack's carving skills too!