A sure sign of spring....

Is blackflies - and this year is the WORST year I remember EVER! There are masses of them and they're big and they're biting. Let the hot weather come and finish them all off!

And pollen on the lake

Every spring it coats docks, boats and the lake with a soft blanket of yellow. There seems to be an extraordinary amount of pollen this year too - directly proportional to the number of blackflies, but I suspect unrelated.

Old and New

Here's some new wood growing on some old wood. New bushes spring to life on the ruins of one of the two old railway trestles that crossed Cache Lake.

Come into my parlor

And a lovely parlor it is. This web was built on an old railroad trestle that collapsed onto the lake several years ago. A long time ago, the trains used to travel through the Park across these wooden "bridges" and deposited guests at a couple of luxury hotels in Algonquin. Now this trestle houses a "hotel" of it's own.

Red Sky at Night

This lovely evening sky was snapped by my wife Carolyn on Saturday night. It capped off a day of sunshine and blue skies, but contrary to the rhyme, Sunday was overcast and muggy.

Our Loon

I call her/him "our loon" because it was never far from our shoreline this weekend. This loon is actually one of a pair and we think they are nesting right in front of our deck. This one let me get within 6 feet to take this picture and about 30 seconds of some nice close video. The pair of them floated up and down the same 15 foot stretch along our shoreline all weekend while making soft cooing noises. We don't know exactly where the nest is because we didn't want to disturb them. We're hoping for babies! If you have a high speed connection and you want to watch the video, click here. It's best if you watch it at the smallest size since it is highly compressed for the web.

What Global Warming???????

Yes indeed - that is what you think it is on the ground! Snow. My cousin shot this on the morning of May 21st. Over the course of the Victoria Day weekend we had rain, snow, hail, wind and cold. Hardly a weekend for first swims or sunbathing. But hearth and friends kept us warm and cosy and a great weekend was enjoyed by all.

Beaver Art

This week we arrived to find that the lake contractor had removed all the fallen trees left us this winter by Bucky the Beaver. As a souvenir he left this piece of "beaver art" on our deck. It's actually quite beautiful and we will be sure to find a suitable display location for it this summer.

New Green

Here's one of the things I love about Spring in the Park. I call it the "new green". It's the soft green of the new leaves on the birch and maple trees when they first come in. It usually doesn't last more than 10 days so I'm always happy when I'm there to see it.

The maiden voyage

As many people have noticed - I drive on the wrong side of the boat. I have my grandmother to thank for that. She taught me to drive a boat when I was about 7. She was happy to teach me, but she wasn't giving up her seat - hence I drive from the left (or right depending on how you look at it). Oh well - it works! This is the maiden voyage of our new boat and motor.

Our new boat has arrived

This spring I called the local marina to have them get our motor ready to go to the cottage. Color me surprised when the owner told me the marina had burned to the ground and taken my motor with it three weeks earlier! So since I had to buy a new motor anyway - I bit the bullet and bought a boat too. I found a nice, used fiberglass boat with a 4 stroke Yamaha motor on the Internet and it was launched into Cache Lake this Sunday afternoon.

Eager Beaver

We arrived on the island to discover Bucky (as my cousin called our guest) had been very busy over the winter. He gnawed right through this big cedar and took out two more trees at my end of the island and a couple of good sized birches at the other end as well. Bucky needs to find a new home!

It may be spring, and although both Saturday and Sunday were gloriously sunny and warm, it still is pretty cold at night. There were still lots of pockets of snow along the highway and the lake entrance a full 10 days after the ice went out. We drove in on Saturday morning and it had been cold enough the night before to leave a skin of ice on the ponds.

Moose Season

Spring is a great time for seeing moose along the Park road. This was one of a pair of yearlings that we stopped to watch along the way.

Spring has sprung!

While the ice may be off the lake, there is still some to be seen on the rock faces along the highway. In some spots water rushed down the sides of the rocks and on to the highway. In others, water slowly dripped from the melting ice.