The Foliage and the Weekend Were Perfect

I don't think I can remember a Thanksgiving weekend that was as beautiful as this one was. The weather was unbelievably mild (someone actually went in the water on Saturday). And the colour totally reached its peak on Saturday.

When we went for the tin boat ride, I didn't have my camera. So we went out again this afternoon and I took quite a few pics. Even with boat motion, they are not too blurry and I think capture the colours. I love the juxtaposition of the colours to one another, the leaves to the evergreens, and the contrast of the foliage against the trees that are nearly gone and how the birches stand out in the colour.

I hope you enjoy these. There are 35 here and I just decided to share them all. No editing.

It really is like living in a Group of Seven painting at this time of year.

Fall Foliage Update

Well, in my humble opinion, we are not yet at the peak of colour. At least not in some areas. It's odd that one travelway will have great colour and another seems to be weeks behind.

There are some patches of good colour like this, which is along Salmon Lake Road.

And then, just a little further down the same road it looks like this (excuse the car in the shot).

I'm not good at math, but I still don't think the leaves are at 50% colour yet. I am shocked at how much green there still is. Some trees haven't started to turn at all. The birches went first, with their yellow hues.

Here are a couple of pictures of the bay - again, one side further ahead than the other.

The one thing that is pretty consistent from what we've seen is that the pines are dropping needles like crazy this year. We can hardly see our stone path now.

So I am guessing that we either aren't getting the glorious colours this year, or they are still a bit away.

Here's a sumach shot I took a few days ago, and again you can see a lot of green in there with the luscious red. But I will keep checking and posting.

Today is a magnificent day here with bright sunshine and very "fall-ish" light. But a wonderful change from the steady downpour yesterday. And the first semi-dark morning. Yuck.

Falling into Fall

The colour show has begun.

In some parts, it is more spectacular than others, and I bet they will peak just in time for Thanksgiving. (Time for me to get a new camera, so I don't have to keep using my phone.)
The drive in from Oastler Park is becoming quite colourful. Here is our cottage name tree with its orange crown.

Since it was such a glorious weekend, we did two day trips - Saturday to Huntsville along the Aspdin Road (which was spectacular) and Sunday to Killbear. Just that little bit further north, the leaves were quite a bit behind. Someone said that the trees on the Bay are the last to turn and I saw proof of that this weekend.

 

And proof of lower water levels as well, as you will see from these pictures.  

The black line is the usual water level.

These rocks have always been under water before.

Strolling into September

The last couple of days have been downright chilly, with temps just barely into the double digits. The dip in temperature not only cools the lake, but changes all the flora around us. I brought my camera along for a walk, to share the beauty of early fall.

Mother Nature sure knows how to ease us into the fall. The plants are beautiful and the palette is remarkable. She just never gets it wrong!! I'm not even sure what half of these are, but they were worth capturing and worth sharing.

I know that these are Astors.

And these are Queen Anne's Lace.

Golden Rod, which is NOT ragweed.

A pretty white berry on a red stem. No idea.

This was meant to be the little orange "pop" flowers, but
it looks great with the twigs and the Golden Rod.

Leaves beginning to change all over the place.

A shock of red maple in the distance.

The colour combination of lilac and yellow and green is beautiful.

And the sumach begin to glow. 

The mist horses are back.

I was up early this morning and watched the sun settle on the lake.

First it had to push the "mist horses" out of the way. I love watching them dance across the water.

Colder nights and mornings. Cooler water for swimming. The summer is waning and there are even colours on many of the trees.

But hopefully, there is still a good Indian summer yet to come and fingers crossed that the last long weekend of the season is a gorgeous one.

Summer Birthdays Cottage Style

Since I am a summer baby, I know what it is like to have your birthday then. The good news is that you are usually somewhere wonderful - like camp, or the cottage - not at school. The bad news is that you are not at school, so your school friends aren't usually part of the celebration.

This is a cake I found when I googled "cottage birthday cake".

One family in our bay has two teens who both celebrate their birthdays here. And they are lucky enough to import friends and family to share in the festivities.  In fact, one of them imported his entire basketball team and some of their families this weekend to partake. And they sure had fun.

Water activities, basketball, paintball, fireworks - they did it all. And they loved every minute of it.
Even as a spectator sport, it was contagious. And we really enjoyed the fireworks.

I don't know how you stay sane with that many people for an entire weekend, but the host and hostess seemed to do it without breaking a sweat.

Congratulations and happy birthday(s). We enjoyed watching.

Rattlesnake Week

For those of you who missed the meeting last week, we learned that last weekend was prime time for the Massassauga Rattlesnake incidents.

Apparently it is the height of mating season and the males are wandering around looking for love. On the August 1st long weekend, because of the high volume of visitors, that is the weekend when most "incidents" occur.

Glen Maxwell, who has a big property on the other side of the road, said he saw three "beauties" last weekend over there, so the statistics appear to be true.

Best defence, according to Glenda the wildlife expert, is to wear closed toed shoes. Most of the bites happen because people literally step right on them. Or try to pick them up - either thinking they are a stick or just being stupid!!!

So keep your eyes open for the next couple of weeks. They may not be warm and fuzzy, but they are endangered.