Too darn hot!

After having to light the wood stove just a few days ago to take the chill off in the house I hate to complain but with temperatures inthe shade over 30c and a humidex of around 40 we are hiding in the house with all the dooors and window shut today, its still over 70 in the house but better than outside. Most time we enjoy being so sheltered in the woods that we get little wind but today a cool breeze off the lake would be very welcome. Ah well there are compensations and last weeks blossoms on the apple and pear trees was wonderfull despite the cool wet weather. I have added a pic of them to the photo page. (tab above).

Woodland Walk

This morning I took a walk around our trails between showers and saw that the number of Trilums in flower continues to increase. A little beat up by the recent rains some of them are huge (click on the 'Todays Photo' tab to see a pic), there are also a much greater number of Red Trilums this year. The violets are mostly all now out, I have seen Common blue, Dog, Long Spurred, Smooth Yellow & Canada violets on my stroll, the Trout Lilly are done flowering but the Toothwort and Bellwort are now out. A wonderfull showing this year.

The 'Todays Photo' tab is a new idea to give dialup users a choice as to wether they wish to take the time to view the pictures or not and pictures will change with time rather than be added to. Enjoy!

Rural Returns.

Having been fixated upon the state of our democracy and the federal election things have been pretty thin here at The Rural Canadian but now having decided that for my own mental heath I must step away from political commentary for a bit and realizing that with the current majority government talk of democratic or electoral reform is but a distant dream I will be returning to my rural roots and posting a little more here.

The first part of that healing process is well in hand now that spring has finally arrived, a few walks around our bush trails to view the woodland wildflowers quickly puts thing in perspective. Getting down in the dirt creating new flowerbeds and doing battle with the never ending twitch grass in the existing beds is very therapeutic. Simply sitting out in the sun recharging my batteries whilst checking out the latest birds to arrive from parts south does wonder to push thoughts of more weighty matters to the back of my mind.

The long list of jobs to be done nags at me a times, those trails need cleaning up and branches fallen by winters wrath need picking up and cut to fuel the camp kitchen BBQ where an ever increasing number of meals will be prepared in the coming weeks and months. Customers drift in to disturb my daydreaming with mowers to get ready to trim the greening grass, traded equipment needs to be dug out and check over for sale, the veggie garden needs tilling ready for those tomato plants that have been stretching up seeking the light in the greenhouse, the list is long but I don't mind, whilst the political winter may be yet to come the Canadian winter is over.

Although my old bones do protest a little more each spring it is good to get out and DO something, to see a flower bed without weeds (even if the next one in line offers the next challenge), getting that chain saw running and making short sticks out of long ones, putting the first few beet seeds in the recently warmed ground. Even just wandering around LOOKING at jobs to be done outside is a wonderful way to spend an hour or two, after all we cannot rush into these things now can we?

So my philosophy for now is to relax, puddle along at my own pace, let the world largely pass by whilst keeping a few locals from having to go get a new piece of junk to trim their grass, share our woodland hideaway with a few nature enthusiasts and simply enjoy the summer.

Much of the equipment I work on may well be like the guy working on it, a well used oldie, but I hope with proper maintenance they both will go for a few more years yet, but please use us gently eh!