In praise of flowers and wings

Orange hawkweed. Better known to many as Devil's Paintbrush. This is a very pretty little invader, who arrived in Canada back in the 1700's, hitchhiking in seed crops, and found the soil and climate much to its liking.

It's all over the place now, and while it may be invasive, it is certainly decorative!

The name hawkweed was bestowed on the flower by the Roman Pliny, who was of the opinion that hawks ate the flower to gain strength. That's doubtful. The name Devil's Paintbrush was given to it by the farmers who struggled with this invasive weed in their fields.

It's a beautiful flower, even if it can be troublesome. The Tiger Swallowtail butterfly likes it! And she at least finds it gives her strength!

Along the road, we've got fleur de lis, the original wild iris. It's name means "lily flower' and it packs a lot of punch as a symbol in old heraldry, and, of course, in France and closer to home, here in Quebec.

These are spectacularly lovely flowers, growing tall and graceful, surviving our climate and decorating the spring.

The Painted Lady butterfly was busy at work on them today, along with a host of bumblebees. You have to look close to see the Painted Lady -- when she closes her wings, she almost disappears with wings camoflaged to look like bits of bark, with eye spots. It's a good match on the iris! You have to look closely to see her!

Between the flowers moving gracefully in the lake breeze and the butterflies drifting on the air, everywhere we look right now it is a moving garden. Beautiful.

Here's to Their NEXT 50 years!

Andy and Dawn brought the gang along last weekend to help celebrate their 50th Anniversary.

We turned on the Sun. They could not have had better weather if they'd been here in mid-summer! The lake was 23 degrees.

While the wolves didn't howl back for us while we were out looking at the stars, there was plenty of Wildlife going on with the Anniversary Couple. Cake, balloons, gifts, photographs...

We can't wait to see if Dawn succeeded in getting the whole clan posed on the lawn, all in white t-shirts, copying a photograph she was carrying about with her for the composition!

Their roots go deep in the Dorset area -- Andy's father was known at Paint Lake as Doc Fisher -- so this was a homecoming of sorts. We hope they won't wait another 50 years before gathering up the family again!

There is no DIS in ABIILITY

Sunday I was able to sneak away to WindReach farm, near Whitby, to watch the musical freestyle portion of the International Paralympic Equestrian event. This was a CPEDI*... a lot of letters that signify it is an international competition, and a qualifying event for the World Equestrian Games coming up in September.

Sandy Mitchell, owner of WindReach, is an inspiration. He is seen here schooling with his own horse, Guinness Maskell. While struggling with a disability, he is in no way Handicapped -- and he has developed two WindReach farms to enrich the lives of people with disabilities of all kinds. One is in his native Bermuda, the other is here, just outside Whitby. Sandy has been very focused on this competition, held at his own farm, with the big goal of getting a qualifying score so he can ride at the WEGs. Delighted to report: Mission Accomplished, on both his horses.

I spent five years as National Coach of the Paralympic Team, and am still involved in coaching clinics with riders. And this event brought in folks from overseas, people I haven't seen in a couple of years, who were working on the event as officials or coaches, so it was a great little chance to reconnect.

Canada has a depth of talent in our Paralympic riders, and quite a bit of it was on display this weekend.

Lauren Barwick (who's wheelchair I slugged around in Portugal through ankle deep mud!!!) won both Silver and Gold medals in Beijing. She has matured into the most confident, graceful young lady, and she rides as well as you would expect a gold medalist to ride. She had her Beijing partner, Maile, along, as well as a younger horse. Lauren was disabled after a 100 lb. hay bale toppled off a pile and hit her in the back. The injury was both immediate and irreversible. But if you think being confined to a wheelchair slows her down, guess again. Not only was she riding two horses at this Qualifier, she drives the big horse-trailer rig herself -- fitted out with hand controls -- and when they are done in Ontario, she'll be heading to Colorado... She works with Pat Parelli, and tells me that she has an office with a window and a desk waiting for her at the Colorado ranch.

Here's a close up of some of the adaptive equipment she needs on her saddle -- the velcro straps and knee rolls prevent her leg from flopping and damaging the joints. The high cantle supports her lower back. The handle, well, that's there for emergencies!

These athletes truly define sport -- the obstacles they overcome on a daily basis and the dedication they bring to the competition - that is inspiring,

Riders at the Paralympics are graded by International Classifiers, with Physio backgrounds, following a very technical procedure. They are placed into one of 4 categories, with Grade IV being the most abled. Grade I and Grade II, for example, ride at the walk, and the trot -- but don't let that fool you into thinking they are riding walk and trot the way a novice rider rides it. Lauren is a Grade II, and if you take a look at her video from Sunday, you'll see how high the standard is!

It was wonderful to reconnect with my friend Mary Longden. She jets between Australia and the rest of the world, and quite literally wrote the book, on Riding for the Disabled, in her book Coach with Courage. Now she's got a set of three DVD's, Ride Towards Excellence, so of course, we had to have those! She posed with Valentine and the DVD's...

Congratulations to WindReach, for hosting the venue for this competition, and to all the people who worked so hard to make it happen. Great weather, and fantastic competition, made for an outstanding show. On the Worlds for those lucky selected riders, and another international competition under the belts of those up and coming riders hoping to go the Paralympics in London in 2014! Ride Strong.

Spinning the Lakes

Sunday morning saw a lot of bike traffic. The annual Spin the Lakes Bike Tour, hosted by the Muskoka Cycling Club, draws over 200 people to tackle three different distances.

That offers something for everyone, including families.

I snapped these "drive by" shootings of some of the participants near Grandview Delta on my way south on Sunday. There were plenty of bikes on the roads -- and plenty of signs advising people that Spin the Lakes was taking place, and drivers needed to remember to Share the Road.

Not a race, it is a tour, so a more relaxed occasion, and it runs around Lake of Bays. Just one more great reason to be here!

Seahorses in the Lake of Bays

The weather has been incredible. The lake is 23 degrees.

So after the horses schooled Saturday, it just seemed like a great idea to let them cool off their legs by splashing in the lake.

Luckily, with 2000' of waterfront, we have a couple of spots where we can take the horses that are well away from any swimmers.

Oakley had never met a lake. He had no idea he was a Seahorse... but with a little bit of a lead from Bailey and Sache, he was willing to give it a try. And loved it! He particularly the part where he discovered he could splash hard enough to get his rider wet. Not that Steph seemed to mind!

Sache preferred to pretend he was a submarine. Perhaps he's been hearing the rumours of a submarine patrolling Pen Lake during the G8.

And Marianne, who played with Squeegee, reported that she hasn't enjoyed a ride that much in 30 years!

Squeegee reported that he had a wonderful time being bathed, so he didn't mind not getting to go for a wade in the lake with the big horses.

Keeping the FUN in Fundraising

The Baysville Library held it's Silent Auction and Fundraising dinner Saturday evening.

The Friends of the Library did a wonderful job of decorating, in a Hawaiian theme -- from the eensy beensy pokadot bikinis and grass skirts on the walls, to the orchid and sandal centerpieces, and the welcome at the door with the flower leias, the upstairs of the Community Centre was transformed.

Dinner was catered by Chef Randy and his team from Tall Trees, so how can you go wrong? And the entire evening was MC'd by Roger Abbot, of Air Farce fame. Again, how could you go wrong? Roger was a delight, and as it turns out, he is a slap dab auctioneer as well... The live auction featured such goodies as a day at the new Lake of Bays Brewery, being Brewmaster for a Day; a catered dinner for 8 at your cottage; a basket of treats and VIP tickets from Air Farce... Tremendously generous sponsors ensured that there were almost endless door prizes and two huge tables of silent auction items.

But in truth, we don't go for the goodies -- although I am not considered safe at any auction -- we go for the camaraderie, and to support our Libraries.

So here's to good fun, good friends, good food, and great books... And to (who knows???) maybe being able to lure Roger to the Bondi Clam Race this summer. Would that be fun? Ya got that right!!! Oh Yah!

Blue for Sky, and Sunshine

Strange noises emanating from the field across the road for the past few days indicated that the solar panels were being installed.

They aren't black -- which is what I had pictured in my mind. They are blue, and rather prettily patterned. Who knew?

They are still extremely Star Trek, very very "Calling the Mother Ship".

And they are soon to be connected to the grid. There has certainly been no shortage of sunshine to welcome them.

And they are most definitely something that our parents and grandparents would never have expected to see growing on top of the hill, where once sheep grazed and peas grew...

The times, they are a changing.