Concluding Birthday Week

But first, let's go back to the first part of the week.  The dinner to which I referred is called "Canadian Chickpeas" and it's good. Perhaps more importantly, it's easy to make.  So don't pre-judge it because it's vegetarian and try it some time.  Who doesn't love...huh...spinach?

Right.  So Christine and I returned to Crow Lake on Friday morning with the fish fed, my hair cut and after much-appreciated showers.  My folks, Caroline and Astley joined us on Sunday to spend the night.

Most of the day was spent outside.  Asley, Caroline and I began training for Baywatch: Crow Lake.

Whoo!

There's still some work to be done...

Throughout the day's activity, we nearly lost mother.  Get a load of this beast on her arm:

"What are YOU looking at??"

Luckily, we were able to frighten it off before it picked up mum and flew away with her.

We enjoyed an evening by the fire and, as usual, retired early.  If ever I manage to make it to 11PM at that place, I'll feel like a bad ass.

Also, I came up with something of a new project while flipping through 20-something-year-old issues of Cottage Life magazine that had been left behind by the previous owners.  Take a gander at these logs.

I want to make tables and/or chairs out of them.  These come from the two dead trees that were cut when the place was for sale.  I already know that cutting them is a huge bastard, and we've barely made a dent in the pile after almost a year anyway, so we're not hurting for stock.  So I'm going to try to convert a couple of them into something both useful and more attractive than some of the pieces of furniture that were left behind.  We'll see what comes of it.

Something else that might arguably need a little work.  Our picnic table.

It was previously covered by a table cloth that had been stapled down.  The table cloth had faded over the years and Christine wanted to replace it.  The white strips across the top are what's left of that after Hurricane Christine blew through.  Clearly the table cloth masked more significant problems.  So we'll replace the five table boards as well as the four seat ones (which are covered by plastic above, apparently an excellent way to trap moisture).

Now it wasn't all cannonballs and fish feedings.  We did get SOME things accomplished.

The quarter-round is now almost entirely installed in the master bedroom.  Not that the room was unbearable without it, but I feared it would become one of those jobs that gets eternally put off (sounds like something I'd do), so I'm really happy that it's done and the room looks much better now.  And hey, I got to use a nail gun and did NOT drive a nail through my second toe and into the floor!  A win in every way!

Also, we (Christine) spotted this wall covering at Village Green in Westport and thought it fit in perfectly.

It's not crooked, my picture is.

It looks similar to rug we put in the dining room so it fits the theme (the theme is...huh..."cottage").  The previous wall covering was nice enough ("mallards in the marsh" or some such) but it ate up the whole wall and had no particular meaning to us.

This is more our speed.  It even motivates me to go snowshoeing, but I'm sure that will pass.

Oreo Cows and Crow Lake Wildlife

Moo?

These cows are not in the Crow Lake vicinity proper, but rather near a town called Franktown as we make our way out to the cottage.  We deduced, based on their unusual black-white-black pattern that these are the cows from which Oreo-dipping milk is drawn.

Chistine and I are on holidays.  We'd been at the cottage since Friday night and returned for one over-nighter today to take care of a few things (including a very important haircut for me).  We expect to head out again tomorrow late morning or early afternoon.

My folks popped by on Tuesday and stayed until this morning as well.  I spent my birthday making dinner (well, the main course, anyway) while drinking a glass of red wine and listening to Buddy Guy.  I'm not sure how I would have had it any different, but I'm damn sure I wouldn't have anticipated it a year ago.

My parents are coming again on Sunday, and Caroline and Asley will join us as well, so that should make for a nice night.  Since this week is still a work in progress, I'm going to share some of the pictures from past weeks that I didn't have the opportunity to use yet. Enjoy (hopefully)!

First, this guy:

I haven't been able to get a good shot of him (them) but that may be a blessing.  They are all over "Crow" Lake and look absolutely beautiful and majestic in flight.

And they look like hell up close.  Christine identified them as Turkey Vultures.  Ugh.  Think about it.  If I asked you to name the two ugliest birds on the planet, you would have probably chosen one, then the other.  This thing combines both.  Here's a closer look (not taken by me).

Oof.  That hurts my soul.  So let's flip that a bit.

Hummingbird!  They have been all over Christine's feeder of late.  I laid down on the deck and got that shot in about ten minutes. Caroline also got a good one, but because it may well make its way onto a wall inside the place, we'll wait until then to display it here.

Here's a fox we spotted while taking a walk on a side road.  He was way far so I couldn't get a great shot, unfortunately.

One actually scooted across the upper deck on the water side of the cottage earlier in the week.  That was a bit of a surprise.  We also saw one (my parents and I) during the drive to Westport on Wednesday morning.  Pretty cool.

We've also got turtles around...

...we saw a beaver doing its thing only once, but I was fortunate enough to be ready for him...

...and of course...

That one shows up an awful lot and constantly follows Christine around.  There is no lack of opportunity to take pictures of him.

I'm dying to get a good shot of a crow.  The one I thought would be terrific ended up blurry.  There are also raccoons around that I'd like to capture.  We'll see what happens this weekend.