Birthday Week part 2 of a couple more

But first, before we move on from Christine's birthday, a brief flashback...

Shortly after we opened the place this year, we dropped by Westport to do a little shopping.  Christine eyed a piece decorative metal art (I guess that's what you call it...) in one souvenir store that she thought would be a great fit.

At the time, because she was reluctant to get it, I suggested we go ahead and buy and put it down as an early birthday present for her.  We try to avoid cluttering, but I couldn't pass up that birthday gift insurance policy opportunity (damn good thing, too, 'cause sure enough...).

Anyway, here it is:

It's hung over the window to the left of the entrance to the master bedroom.  We like having a window there, but weren't crazy about the frosted sunrise/sunset decoration on it (can't seem to find a "before" picture at the moment).  We debated about scraping that decoration off, but thinking it might end up being difficult to do it so that the window is completely "clean", we decided against the attempt.  Christine did a great job of using it as a frame to her crows instead.

And it couldn't be much more appropriate in Crow Lake.  We've had a lot of fun with visiting crows this summer, leaving peanuts around for them to find.  We actually miss them between visits, even if they don't always look or sound all that friendly towards us.

Back to our current spot in time, my folks popped by for a couple of nights on Tuesday the 29th.  As usual, it took no time for my dad to get busy with odd jobs.  That included additional work on the picnic table, which had its legs replaced.

That's some sharp looking legs. And the picnic table's pretty spiffy too!

We also started fencing off the area at the end of the property in which Christine wants to build her boat garden.

I'm fairly proud of the above.  We bought three 12-foot pieces of wood, two of which I split down the middle (more or less.  It was eyeballed, so...) with the axe.  A few weeks back, I planted the posts through root and rock (and horse flies), then split two of the remaining 6-foot pieces lengthwise. Pappy screwed them into the posts all nice and tight to further things along.

When the cut pieces weather over time, the whole thing should look a bit more uniform. Christine has since planted flowers at the base, but they don't seem tremendously happy there. I'll wait until they perk up before posting any pictures of that.

Dad also installed an equalizer along our wonky living room floor.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture, but this shot from March, when the floor was painted, should at least illustrate the challenge he faced in making the floor equal.

On the night my parents arrived, they treated us to an excellent meal at The Maples Restaurant in nearby Sharbot Lake.  I've talked about their pizza before, and Chris and I had have had a good breakfast there, but they impressed again.  We had an excellent pasta primavera on their deck, near the beach.  Under some slightly worrisome clouds, mind you, but the rain held off.  Well, it did that night, anyway.

That takes us to Thursday, July 31st, when we made a brief roadie into a swell little town called Newboro.  That's next.

Soon...soon...

Still a little while, though...

Not sure if this is a long weekend for everyone but it is for us so we decided to take a drive up to Crow Lake and thereabouts on Saturday.  Christine had stopped by the cottage briefly on her way back from Kingston last weekend and noticed that the snow had piled up a little high (almost halfway up the windows) against the place.  She wanted to go back and clear some of it.  Everyone knows there's nothing I love more than a good shovelling session, so off we went.

There are people who live in Crow Lake year-round, but you still sort of expect the place to be deserted in winter.  Yet...not so much!  We decided to go take a walk on the lake and had to wait for three snowmobilers to make their way off from the public access area.  Then for some dude in a yellow truck who left and returned within a few minutes. Not sure what he was up to, he just sat in the middle of the lake.  We waved to our neighbours as they prepared to go for a walk of their own and then, being that in we're in Canada after all, there was a hockey game under preparation across the lake from our place.

We had planned to have a late (Valentine's Day, to my mind) lunch or early dinner at The Maples Restaurant, but the place was crawling with cars, as were all the side streets.  We had noticed a sign near the old school house to the effect that the Frontenac Heritage Festival was on all weekend, but didn't realise how popular that event is.

There was a huge crowd on Sharbot Lake and some sort of snowmobile event going on.  Seemed kind of fun, and I'm sure that if I looked around, someone somewhere would have been selling something maple-flavoured, too. But finding parking looked like a nightmare so instead it goes to next year's "things to check out" list.

Morning Glory

Our last couple of visits to the Sharbot Lake Farmers' Market resulted in gut-wrenching, soul-withering heartbreak.  By the time we arrived, the cinnamon buns were sold out.  Gone!  #CottageProblems.

Now we all know that a small town Farmers Market is a dog-eat-dog environment. You can't let your guard down for a moment or you'll end up getting punked by some old hippie who's all "peace and love, man" until it's you, him and the last cinnamon bun on the table.  All of sudden, it's survival of the fittest.  Peace and love are tossed right out the smoke-filled Volkswagon van window.  Pave paradise, put up a boxing ring.

It was determined by not me that we would be out a little earlier this Saturday in order to beat the bun rush and avoid once again having our spirits shattered.  I was reminded of my days as a stock boy clerk at K-Mart.  We'd have a $2 off sale on laundry detergent or some such.  You'd unlock the doors as the store opened then have to run for your life to avoid getting caught in the ensuing stampede.  It was like the running of the bulls, except the bulls all wore track pants and smelled like cigarette smoke and hair spray.

But I digress...

Awokened (what?  No way that's right...) at roughly 6AM by a daschund licking my back (or at least I assume it was Oscar, otherwise things got a little weird for a moment there...), I crawled out of bed, threw my bathing suit on, and jumped in the lake.

My pre-dive view

Whoo!!  That's a jolt!

That's one of those things that you think might be cool to do "one day" (well, some people think that...) but when dozing under the covers in your comfy bed, you're not exactly bristling with motivation to dive into a misty lake.  But dang it, the water's finally a decent temperature, a mere 10 months after we bought the place, so off I went.

My mum told me that this is something that, of all people, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith does regularly.  From a cottage (or small home, whatever) in one of the Carolinas, the first thing he does in the morning is dive into the lake.  And look at how well he's aged!

Right...That may not be the best example.  There may be other factors at play there.  But I will admit that it is an invigorating way to start the day.  Maybe not EVERY day but once in a while...

Scott the canoe and imported goodness

I had this idea.  No, really.

We were left all kinds of dishes when we took possession of the cottage, but I noticed that we didn't have much in the way of glass mugs for refreshing summer beverages.  With the added benefit of decluttering stately Fournier Manor in mind, we brought the pair of these to CFB Crow Lake.

Hmmmm...Grower's cider...

The mugs were a gift from Chantal when Christine and I visited Calgary in 1998.  We spent an afternoon at the Columbia Icefield (obviously) and these were given to us as a souvenir.  Here's a shot from that day.

What an intrepid looking bunch!

Prior to "renting" that delicious liquid, Christine and I called upon the adventurous spirit displayed above and took our canoe Scott out for a paddle.

Scott is actually his name.  It says so on the side.

We were roughly at Bambi levels of wobbly when we first set off, but settled in fairly quickly.  Tip: When you sit in the back, no one can see you loaf.

We made surprisingly good time and Oscar is WAY better in a canoe than in a kayak (shocking, I know) or pedal boat. Yes, he wanders around about a bit more than we'd like, constantly changing sides from which to look over the side (tip: It's just going to be more water), but he seems interested rather than nervous.  That's a significant upgrade.  So aside from occasionally licking or biting your paddle, he's absolutely no problem.

We set a goal of reaching Gull Rock.  A few weeks back, when I went to the cottage with my dad, he spotted what we both thought was a rather hardy kayaker in the distance, being that it was about 2 celsius out.  A dead kayaker seemed more likely when we saw him the next morning in that exact same spot, though a pile of rocks also made sense upon further reflection.

We (Christine and I) checked the map by the Captain's Chair and sure enough, it's a tiny rock formation and not a dead floater.  We resolved to investigate further and return with photographic evidence.  You might need to right click and open the picture below in another tab or window to get a better look.

So what's the tripod-looking thing in the middle?  We thought it might be a reflector to help passing boats avoid the rocks.  It also occurred to Christine that it may be a device built to study alien activity...or built BY aliens to study HUMAN activity.  Having heard too many stories about anal probes, I insisted we get out of there post-haste.  That's not the kind of story I want to tell around the campfire (although ask me about the misdiagnosis of my first kidney stone some time).

Then Kathy showed up and the weather went all to hell.  Coincidence?  I don't see how it can be.  More on that day's events later; I still need to trim and resize some shots first.

Oh yeah, and we saw Elvis.

Lunch at The Maples

This post is brought to you by...Mechanix Wear gloves!

My dad bought me these a few months ago to prevent thumb scuffing while paddling the kayaks.  Yes, I know that sounds quite diva-like but it's more irritating than you'd expect.

Anyway, they're basically a second skin when I'm out there.  Hell, I'd wear them in the shower, if we could ever get that friggin' curtain up.  I've worn them so much that they now smell like feet, which is somewhat puzzling, now that I write that out...I'm sure I'm doing it right...Anyway, they're awesome.

So...Dropping by CFB was kind of a last minute decision today but we're quite glad we did.

I didn't say anything about it at the time, but last week we stripped the Sun Room and replaced the carpet with the indoor/outdoor variety (indoor/outdoor?  How does it know??).  It's difficult to tell the difference, and there's still plenty of work to be done in that room, so I didn't get into it, but here it is for now.

This time around, we cleared an area right to the left of the front door.  That spot doesn't appear on any listing pictures.  Why?  Because it wasn't particularly attractive.

There was a small freezer there.  Sounds handy on the surface, but for our purposes, not really.  The fridge is plenty roomy for us and the freezer's location caused it to become nothing more than a convenient place on which to drop something as you walk through the door.  So why not put something there that actually serves that specific purpose?

Several weeks ago, we bought a very simple (i.e. cheap) shelving unit to put in the freezer's place.  We finally got around to putting it together today.  It went great and...we now have more freezer space at home, where we're more likely to need it, because the little guy actually fit in the car.

Nothing fantastic, but a bit of a space saver and we also got to use some of the leftover indoor/outdoor (how DOES it...) carpet to rest it on, so are getting a bit more of our money's worth there.

We made a couple of stops in Sharbot Lake prior to heading home, including The Maples.

We tried this bad boy...

Hot Italian Ciabatta Sandwich: Delightful roasted red peppers and tomatoes tossed with garlic and pesto, laid atop slices of provolone cheese and fresh tomato, on a fresh toasted ciabatta bun.

And will again. And again and again.  That restaurant is one of those places that whenever we'd drive by I'd say that I'd like to try it some time.  Nice to check that one off the list and to know that it's worth taking someone to if we have guests.  Good, simple family restaurant, all of 15 minutes or so from the cottage.  Something to bear in mind.