Walking Muskoka Woodlands

Walking Muskoka woodlands 

Rustling layer upon layer of Maple leaves

The grand girls filled the woods with giggles and brightness

Fallen trees criss-crossed the ground

Nature at work

I wasn't the only photographer

and

 I wished I had bright yellow boots too!

Lakes are strewn all over this land of trees

Rocks too

Magnificent rock walls can stop you in your tracks

One thing for sure you won't find either one of these

in Muskoka!

But you might come across a few of these

And you will for sure come across folk with a sense of humour!

Water is never far away

And big sticks abound for small dogs to test their strength with!

Learning to fish is a serious business in this family!

Ashley actually caught a fish
and used the occasion to practice her big fish tale technique!

Brett and Amber have chosen a beautiful environment to call home.
Thank you both.

Someone Was Watching Us

Do you see him up ahead?

not really

Let's zoom in

How about that.

We see him so regularly nowadays

that the rusty pups don't even give chase any more.

What Caught My Eye This Morning

Funny what catches your eye

You've seen this seagull before

he greets us on our morning walks

This morning black, black crows

perched in his place

And these young ones

trotted along the road

right in front of the car

until they found a garden

with an irresistible tree

to nibble upon

Tracking Transitions

Water on sand from Friday's post

presented a challenge that I decided to try out.

how to stitch it.

Really doesn't look like water

more like a contour map.

But that lead me to think about transitioning from one stitch to another

and decided to try from blanket stitch to straight stitch.

One way

and then another.

More work needed.

The rows of daily scratchings are lining up one after the other.

Snowshoe hares have been laying tracks behind the pond.

and because I've seen one wandering around

I reckon this must be muskrat tracks.

They dig homes into the side of the pond. 

Human and rusty pup prints crossing the stream

which is frozen over

and yet I still seen the heron visiting this spot.

Winter Foraging

The big guy on the left brought along two younger lads to nibble at the high bush cranberries that grow along the stream..

Always alert to movement in the house, especially rusty pup barks.

Females heading for the wild rose bush that they like to nibble on.

Hoping to find a forgotten and by now frozen runner bean.

We have our pond back....we think

We believe he comes to visit when the water gets low up the mountain, because torrents of rain came down for a couple of days and we haven't seen him since. But on the other hand perhaps he comes to get away from the "kits"! Anyway, we don't mind sharing our apples and our trees if our pond is only a vacation spot.

Beaver in the Pond

We were all enjoying the beaver's annual visit to our pond....until he felled the tree on the right! The dogs and I sit and watch as Mr. Beaver swims around the pond and tries to tell us it is HIS pond with mighty slaps of his tail. He has absolutely no fear of the dogs and they in turn think he is a fascinating friend. However us humans are beginning to think he should not take up permanant residence in OUR pond!