The Second Annual Jamie and Sue Weekend

This weekend Jamie and I spent our second annual weekend with just the two of us at the cottage. On this last weekend before the "official" summer begins with Canada Day, the Park was very quiet and we felt we had the whole lake to ourselves. We chatted,sat on the dock, drank beer, went for a boat ride, ate great food, went swimming, laughed and chatted some more. It was a great weekend that we agree deserves to be an annual event.

A beautiful day in our neighborhood

We were very lucky with the weather on our second annual Jamie and Sue weekend. The sun shone and a light breeze blew on both Saturday and Sunday so we spent most of the weekend soaking up rays on the dock. The weather had been cold the week before and it was only 5 degrees on Friday night so the temperature of the water went back down to 68 degrees on Saturday. But with the sun on both days it was back up to 72 and rising - very comfortable for swimming.

Eat, Drink and be Merry

Which is how Jamie and I spent our weekend together. Here is a peameal bacon that Jamie brought from Toronto, and it spent 5 hours in the smoker. Yum!

New garbage bells

These bells had "not yet in operation" signs on them, and the big blue bin was still there, but these look like they're going to be our new garbage/recycling bins. There are bins for garbage, paper, organics and recyclables. I'm guessing it will all be ready for the Canada Day weekend

Is this landscaping?

Well I discovered what all the rocks piled on mainland were for. You can see here that they've been spread out along the edge of the parking lot. I'm not sure whether this is aesthetic or structural, but there it is.

Summer's coming

The signs of summer are all around. The new green on the trees is darkening, the water is warming up (to a ridiculous 77 degrees already), and the wildflowers are in bloom. These Labador tea blossoms are right at the end of my duckboard.

A New Guest

If you look at my post from last week you'll see a picture of me holding a baby snapper turtle. Well this weekend, Carolyn spotted Mom - swimming around our dock!! Here you can see her coming up for a quick breath of air and then diving back down right off the back of our boat. I think this not-too-welcome guest must have a home on our island this year. There are lots of snappers around the lake, but this is the first one I'ver seen off our dock.

Mystery on Mainland

Sometime between last weekend and this weekend this big pile of rocks was dumped in the parking lot. There are also "no parking" signs and caution tape. I'm intrigued!

A River of Needles

We left Montreal listening to the radio broadcasting tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings for most of the places we would be driving through. Indeed in Ottawa we had to pull off the road for a little while because of the intensity of the storm we ran into there. But as we got closer to the Park, the weather cleared and by the time we arrived close to midnight, the sky sparkled with stars. The amount of water in the boat told us that there had definitely been lots of rain prior to our arrival, and we had some serious bailing to do. When we woke up in the morning we found a “river of needles” that had been washed all the way down the pathway from our sleeping cabin to the path in the front of the main cabin.

The Greening of Algonquin

It turned out to be a magnificent warm and sunny weekend where relaxing on the dock was the order of the day. But despite the summer-like temperatures, you know it’s still spring by the “new greens” amongst the trees. While the Aspen and Birch and Maple sport the bright greens of their new leaves, the evergreens have newness of their own to show off.

Lilies Rising

Other signs of spring include the appearance of lily pads and lots of pollen floating on the lake. Here you can see that some lily pads have already reached the surface, while others are still making their way upwards.

Holy Smoke!

Here I am in front of my new favorite toy – my Texas smoker. And boy does it smoke! This weekend I smoked salmon, and as a taste test I smoked both Atlantic and wild Pacific. Carolyn and I agreed we like the richer more refined taste of the Atlantic salmon best, but both were delicious!!

Weekend Wildlife

This weekend in the Park was a busy one for wildlife. Amongst our wildlife sightings we counted 3 moose, 1 deer, a heron on our point, many dragonflies and this little snapping turtle that we found wandering by our sleeping cabin. It made me wonder if perhaps we have a little nest of baby turtles under our cabin!

A New Pond in Algonquin??

This used to be a ditch with water that ran off into a culvert that is slightly behind where this picture was taken. This year the beavers got busy and dammed the ditch, so now instead of running off, the water is forming a brand new pond next to the highway. We actually saw the beaver hard at work as we went by, but he’d gone underwater by the time we pulled over. We thought this was some pretty impressive work for one spring so we took this picture. I wonder how big the pond will be this time next year?