Glorious

Gloria Woodside kindly sent this photo along, just to remind us all that Spring at the Lake of Bays, even if a little tardy, stills brings with it moments of stunning beauty.

She took this picture about a week ago, down on the south shore of the lake, looking over by Bigwin.  The ice soaks up the colour, but the open water along the shore reflects it back.

It is just the tonic we needed!

NovApril

  

We woke up this morning to find over two inches of slushy, icy snow. Once again, a blanket of gleaming white dressed the place up.  Except that right about now, almost through April, the only white we're keen to see is probably on the Royal Wedding Dress...

It is pretty... we have to give it that much. This is the spring at the edge of the property, from which Springside cottage takes its name.  Taffy and I went looking for Spring...    with no success.  The forecast for the Easter weekend, on the other hand, is talking about temperatures soaring up to 17 degrees. That will melt this, and how!

This year, we seem to be cycling through all four seasons on an almost daily basis.  The calendar seems just a little bit confused.. is it November? Is it April?

This has been going around on the net. And, for once, it's not only pretty funny, it has some smidge of truth within. 

INSTALLING SPRING...

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Season "Spring" cannot be located. The season you are looking for might

have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.


Please try again.
 
 

 

We're game to Try Again. Tomorrow, I'm taking the snow tires off my car.  That, if nothing else, should encourage the weather to moderate. I hope!

In the meantime, if you're heading to Muskoka this weekend, pack in layers.  The lakes are still icebound, there will be no boats out there. Swimming is definitely out.  You'll want waterproof boots because the woods are wet.

On the other hand, you'll not be bothered by flies, you will get to see moose while driving in the Park, and bird watching in the spring delivers new birds every day.

Reflecting on Mallards

Despite his striking breeding plumage and bright green head, Mr. Mallard is surprisingly well camouflaged in the waters of our small pond.

I just liked the way the reflections and the ripples framed him, this morning on my walk-about.

The killdeer are back as of today. They, too, would like to see the weather warm up. 
Anyone planning to come north for the Easter weekend should be prepared to spend time hiking. There is too much ice on the lakes for any boating, and with this cold spell, there is still lots of snow to be found, too!

It's a MOOSE-T-see!

Jerry Schmanda photo

This is the best time of year to go moose spotting in Algonquin. The snow storm today notwithstanding, a drive along Highway 60 will almost certainly score you at least one moose sighting.

As spring breaks through winter's grip, the moose come out along the roadside, eager to get the salty water from the road run-off after a long hard winter of nibbling on boring twigs and buds.  They are rubbing off their winter coats, and the bulls are wearing their velvety antlers -- small and fragile looking now, but going to develop into massive racks by the end of summer.

It's worth a drive.  Our good friend Jerry Schmanda works with Algonquin Oufitters, and gets to spend a lot of his time in the Park. (lucky him!) He is rarely without his camera, and has been kind enough to let us have some of his pictures to go with this post.

Jerry Schmanda photo

The moose are eager for spring for other reasons as well.  They can hardly wait for the ice to go out of the lakes, letting the moose move in.  Moose love the water, and the water lilies that grow therein.

Many years ago, I was paddling along at dusk (coming back much later than I was supposed to, in fact).  There was a large log floating in the water where the cat-tails and reeds grow in the corner of the bay.  At least, I thought it was a large log, in the gloom, it lacked definition.  Until it lifted its head, and looked right at me.  This photo of Jerry's reminds me of that moment, and how I then managed to set a world record for speed paddling a canoe.

One Step Backward

Spring has been struggling a little this year. The weather has been cool. The wind, funneling in from the west, has been downright cold on occasions.

So when we woke up this morning to find that everything was white again, it should have been no big surprise. 

That it continued to snow all day long, however... THAT is beginning to be a bit much. It is, after all, the beginning of Holy Week... almost Easter.  Spring flowers, bunnies with baskets of chocolate eggs, bonnets, all that stuff.  All of which is much improved by sunshine and warm breezes blowing.

It is almost the opening day of Trout Season. Vic called to say hello, and to check in on ice conditions. He is heading to Kiosk, at the north of Algonquin Park next week with some buddies for the start of the fishing season.  My advice? Take an ice auger along with you.

Taffy is on goose patrol. Chasing them off the lawn, she is a bit disappointed by their habit of not playing fair... they climb up on the ice and honk at her from a safe distance.. And on land, unlike the chickens, they fly away from her. Still, she's pretty sure they could be playmates if she could just catch up to them.  She couldn't -- geese are notoriously not very friendly.  We have our fingers crossed that these will continue their northern migration. They are lovely to see floating by, but if they set up housekeeping and invite over friends, they can be a real problem.

The mallards are back, too. They are never an issue -- oddly enough.  Every summer we can look forward to having Momma Duck float by with her little ducklings, scouring along the shoreline for food, and pausing to entertain our guests at the dock.

The mergansers, also, will sweep past in big flotillas, much to everyone's excited admiration, and then move along.  It's the geese who tend to sit on the lawns, rafts, docks, and generally make themselves unwelcome.

I've been told that they are not migrating as far north now because of the abundance of snow geese -- who graze down the tundra until there is not enough left for the Canada geese.

All the same, I don't think we've really seen the back of them. I think this pair are planning to stick around.

I just hope the snow doesn't have the same intention.

It can melt any time

David and Brian got the canoes out yesterday.  Not that we're pushing the season, although you can still see the ice on the bay behind them.  Just that we like to be ready!

Taffy took the first dip -- actually her second dip, but the first that was intentional.  Last week, running on the beach, she made the mistake of trying to run out to the ice.  The chest-deep-for-small-dogs water stopped her (dare I say?) COLD!  Never having met a lake, she was more than a bit suprised by the introduction.

Having explored the canoes thoroughly -- including jumping into one of them before it went up on the racks, she volunteered to be the one to test the waters.  Verdict? Still too cold to swim, unless you are a duck.

They returned this week as well!  We'll keep you posted on the progress of the Great Spring Melt.

Hocus Pocus, what's in Focus?

The weather has dipped back down into Chilly on the scale, bringing with that temperature drop some rather unpleasant rain.  Good news from that forecast is that the rain will drive the ice out of the lakes faster.  (Bad news out west, where the Red River is running amok, but not so serious here, where the lake has plenty of room to accommodate that infilling.  Besides, Trout Season opens next week, and with almost 20" of ice still on Lake Opeongo in Algonquin Park, it's going to be tough trolling for the boats...

Crocus took advantage of the sun this past week to spring up out of the lawn, their bright cheerful faces making the gloomier rainier day much brighter.  Our deer don't eat crocus. We don't know why... they eat almost everything else, including daffodils, tulips and asparagus.  And trilliums.  Our woods have taken a beating with the increase in the deer population. There seem to be fewer of them here this spring, however, so perhaps the balance is being restored.  Mind you, finding this many right outside the window of my house makes me wonder if there really are less of them about!

The deer are beautiful creatures, when they are not nose-down in the gardens.

They are sharing the property with the wild turkeys, who are in full mating display,   The big tom is traffic stopping magnificent when he has his tail spread, wing tips drooped, and is doing his display dance for the ladies.




The lawn has also been playing host to a convention of moles over the winter.  As the snow melted, their molehills became obvious. While unsightly, and not great for the lawn, we have found that if we simply rake the hills out, the grass comes back very quickly. Moles don't eat the grass roots.

Nor do they eat the crocus.