Good morning all:

Weekly Wisdom, finally from deep in the North Woods:

“De short Canadien sommer it ees meen heverybody should spent in de out-de-door-air, in ponts, pools, reevrs, en laks” — our local everyman we’ll name Claire is still on vacation—this was sent in by his friend, a Québécois who we’ll name Armand

The warm lake waters combined with the cold morning air means that morning fogs are wafting along the cove’s shoreline. Add to this whole mix some bright morning sunshine and everything sparkles under a bright silver sheen. It sure does make my morning coffee taste extra special.

We left home Wednesday morning. At 6:00 it was already 82 degrees and very humid. The newscasts reported that the daytime real-feel temperature would be 105. This meant that I packed the truck prior to taking a cooling shower as part of the “get-ready-to-travel” ritual. We arrived 11.5 hours later. Temperature here was in the upper seventies and low humidity. Except yesterday it barely made it into the sixties and the wind gusted up to 25 mph. Nights require a light blanket. It’s oh so loverly as the Brits would say.

I forgot to mention that the night-sky has been perfectly clear and the stars, planets, and Milky Way are too spectacular for words. There was a chance of seeing the Northern Lights, but that did not happen.

Vacation – As some of you might have guessed, our ‘vacation’ time at home turned into a massively busy couple of weeks. So finally we’re back here, up north. This means that for the last couple of days Marcia has been gardening and vacuuming hour after hour (there just had to be a mouse turd or two somewhere). I ran around the cabin with the weed wacker, glued and screwed one of the outside chairs, and cut down a substantial branch which had fallen across the “bunkie’s” roof. Luckily it only draped over the Folbot kayak that was in its regular place on a rack on that very wall; its soft fibre skin it could have easily been punctured. As you can see, our vacation time is in full swing with a massively busy couple of days. Wait, didn’t we just leave all that behind?

The other evening Marlene invited us over for some Cincinnati chili—there is nothing better than a large – think supersized – plate of chili complete with beans, raw onions, and shredded cheese. All their kids and their partners were at the lake as are sis-in-law Jeanne and David. As good as the food was the Badminton tourney that followed was even better. This group is vicious! Vicious both in the way the game is played and the constant stream of razor sharp barbs hurled from both the players and the grandstand. It was great to see everyone – thanks for the invite guys.

Tomorrow evening we’re off to a neighborhood pig roast supporting the Wharncliffe community center. Our neighbors put in the reservation for the late seating. The ‘late’ seating is also the final seating, at 6:30 pm. I hate to think what time the early seating starts—mid afternoon? In any case it should be fun.

Animal Planet – It’s a bit unseemly to say that all is as usual, as if the amazing array of wildlife in these parts can become common; having said that, our cove’s Loons are still serenading us day and night with their wonderful array of calls. The hummingbirds must be in the early stages of “bulking up” for the long trek to their winter home since they’re at the feeders constantly.

Marlene discovered that their SUV is now a bat-house when one very panicky little guy flew out as she opened the tailgate. Last evening our neighbors casually mentioned that there is an otter that has made his home underneath their turned over metal boat sitting by the water’s edge—I can’t wait to see it.

Remember my ‘momma’ Bass and the nest by our dock tales? I did some reading and I was totally wrong. The male smallmouth creates the nest after which several females lay their eggs in it. The male then stands guard over both the eggs and the young fry—around 2,000 of them. It’s a good thing that P&G hasn’t caught wind of this potential windfall; they’d have their development team figure out a way to create little-teeny baby fish diapers. At 2,000 per nest it’s just too good an opportunity. Can you imagine daddy smallmouth having to take on that extra chore should P&G be successful?

Make it a great week everyone.

Cheers,

Dirk

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