"What happens on the boat ......."

I have heard "What happens on the boat stays on the boat"said many times. Not just on sailboats that I have been on but George used to say the same, often when fielding questions from me about the Interclub race. Today Mark said "don't tell anyone about this" and I replied "Really, you can't expect me to keep this secret, its going on the blog".

For the second Tuesday, Mark, Angie and I met at the boat for an afternoon of sailing. Last week it was dead calm and, although we went out and put up the sails, there was no "sailing", as such. This week there was too much wind for a comfortable sail so we decided just to put some extra shade over the cockpit and have our snacks and wine there. We pulled out the cushions and chairs, put up the shade, took off the wheel for more room, prepared the cheese, tomatoes, sausage rolls, and cookies and poured the wine. We chatted and watched the goings on of the marina. After about an hour and a half Mark proposed taking a cruise down the river. There was a flurry of activity as we put away the food, took down the shade, started the motor, undid the lines and pushed Caleidoscope of the dock. Then - PANIC- there was no wheel! She continued to gently back out of the slip and towards the boats on the next slip over as Mark dived below looking for the wheel (which of course wasn't where he would have put it). Angie and I stood on deck ready to fend off anything that we were about to hit while Mark scrambled to re-attach the wheel. After that the river cruise was a bit tame!

Fishing tug following us in to Port Dover harbour

Past the new condos being built at the wharf side.

Under the lift bridge.

Past the tugs, old

restored

and new.

past the Yacht Club.

We motored up the river pointing out the high water levels, marshy lawns, docks awash, geese and ducks, kayaks, power boats, sail boats, cigar boats, monster homes and little cottages. Turned around and docked at the Yacht Club to wait for the lift bridge to go up on the half hour.

Past Orgasm on the way back. She was the first boat I did the Interclub race on. "What happens on the boat...."

"Putting up" food

One sense of this idiom is with regard to foodstuffs. If one "cans" (in jars) or otherwise preserves foodstuffs (as from their garden) then they are said to have been "put up", as in "We put up ten quarts of green beans this week."

Figuratively referring to the placing of the jars "up" on a shelf in the "cellar", where all the winter food was stored. (Though note that the same idiom would be now be used to refer to placing food in a freezer for long-term storage.) From the online Cambridge Dictionary.

I picked at Lakeview Blues, on Radical Road

watched by hydro lines of birds waiting to swoop in and feast. The air guns don't seem to deter them at all.

I have always preferred getting my produce from the farm where it is grown or at roadside stands. I am even more likely to do this now that grocery shopping is no fun at all. This stand is on Front Road, where the road dips down to see the Turkey Point marsh. I bought my first corn of the season and a delicious Cantaloupe.

I froze all of these, even the Cantaloupe, preparing for a winter in Canada.

Corn always reminds me of cottaging at Ipperwash. Because we always went for the last week in July and the first week in August, we were there for the first corn of the season. As soon as the kids were old enough it was their job to sit outside (on the steps or the deck) and shuck it. Like strawberries its a "taste of summer".

Another reminder of Ipperwash, kids feeding gulls, on my Long Point walk with Brit this week (we are trying to do it every Monday).

George's mum used to save bits of bread and crusts in a bag that she would bring to the cottage so that the kids could feed the gulls. Another cottage tradition, I don't think we did it anywhere else.

Whereas last week had been hot and still, this week it was hot and windy. Kiters were out in full force, speeding and jumping and crashing and falling.

Playing with reflections in the wet sand

and with the photo editing

on the computer.

Not abstract art but fungus on wet driftwood.

The best breakfast - coffee and cinnamon bun (courtesy of Brit).

Getting to know the neighbourhood

Walking East takes me along the road towards Nanticoke with the lake and houses and cottages on the right and farm fields and windmills on the left.

I have always liked the windmills (not popular with everyone). They look like they are elegantly cartwheeling in place and I believe in the need for renewable energy sources.

The sides of the road right now are full of colour; blue cornflowers, yellow"scrambled eggs", orange "ditch lilies" and white Queen Anne's Lace. Plenty of Teasels too, which I didn't realize had a flower.

What is common teasel? An exotic plant native to Europe, common teasel was introduced to North America by the earliest settlers. It has escaped cultivation and is often found growing in prairies, meadows and savannas, as well as in disturbed areas along creeks, railroads and roadsides

Read more at Gardening Know How: What Is Common Teasel: Tips For Controlling Teasel Weeds https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/weeds/controlling-teasel-weeds.htm

What is common teasel? An exotic plant native to Europe, common teasel was introduced to North America by the earliest settlers. It has escaped cultivation and is often found growing in prairies, meadows and savannas, as well as in disturbed areas along creeks, railroads and roadsides

Read more at Gardening Know How: What Is Common Teasel: Tips For Controlling Teasel Weeds https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/weeds/controlling-teasel-weeds.htm

What is common teasel? An exotic plant native to Europe, common teasel was introduced to North America by the earliest settlers. It has escaped cultivation and is often found growing in prairies, meadows and savannas, as well as in disturbed areas along creeks, railroads and roadsides

Read more at Gardening Know How: What Is Common Teasel: Tips For Controlling Teasel Weeds https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/weeds/controlling-teasel-weeds.htm

What is common teasel? An exotic plant native to Europe, common teasel was introduced to North America by the earliest settlers. It has escaped cultivation and is often found growing in prairies, meadows and savannas, as well as in disturbed areas along creeks, railroads and roadsides

Read more at Gardening Know How: What Is Common Teasel: Tips For Controlling Teasel Weeds https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/weeds/controlling-teasel-weeds.htm

What is common teasel? An exotic plant native to Europe, common teasel was introduced to North America by the earliest settlers. It has escaped cultivation and is often found growing in prairies, meadows and savannas, as well as in disturbed areas along creeks, railroads and roadsides

Read more at Gardening Know How: What Is Common Teasel: Tips For Controlling Teasel Weeds https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/weeds/controlling-teasel-weeds.htm

Lakers to watch coming in and out of Naticoke (bulk carriers or oil tankers) and track on my Marine Traffic or Boat Nerd Apps.

The fishing tugs coming in and out of Port Dover, our source for Perch dinners.

Heather and Don loved the view when they came for a deck visit.

Brit and I went for a beach walk. So weird to park opposite Stubbs, go down the walkway and past "my place" with strangers sitting on the deck.

Not much beach

but we walked to the middle of the Old Provincial Park beach.

4 fishing tugs were in surprisingly close to the beach.

One solitary little, black headed gull in a flock of larger gulls sitting on the beach. He's a Bonaparte Gull. Brit identified him immediately. The only gull to nest in trees.

Had a magnificent, spooky looking sunset after a stormy day.

Mark and Angie invited me out for a sail today. No wind, we bobbed in the same place for a couple of hours but the wine, cheese and chat were all good and it was lovely to be out on the water.

As we motored back to the marina, past the entrance to Port Dover harbour, a small plane was taxiing out.

My video of it taking off didn't turn out well.

According to Don the tree in front of my porch (which I will move this fall to give it more room to grow) is a Limelight Hydrangea. It's flowers started out a bright green and some are now almost white. They should gradually go pink before brown for the winter.

I received another photo of a completed sheep from my Sheep Tricks class last fall. Joanna chose just to do the button sheep and spent most of the class sewing, not hooking, bu "Buttons, Buttons - whose got the buttons" is now finished.

Getting to know the house systems

At Long Point I had a Sand Point (essentially a well, dug in the sand) and a Holding Tank and Septic System. Here I have a Cistern and a Holding Tank. The instructions from the previous owners were to call for water when the gauge read 15.

The gauge is in the sun room, above the chair in the corner.

On Monday the gauge read 15 so I called Wayne's Water Wagon (owned and driven by Rob, it has changed hands 3 times since Wayne owned it) and Tuesday he delivered the water.

The tanker backs up in the driveway and Rob takes a hose around the house to the lake side

opens up the access to the cistern, that sits beside the sun room, and fills up the tank with water from the Port Dover town supply (it is drinkable).

2,000 litres filled the gauge up to the 60 mark. Now I have to find out how long that will last. Each fill costs $100.

Nicola was down for a few days and although we did do some unpacking and organizing we also did some quilting

and hooking.

The commuting Bald Eagle had another successful day at the office.

Bird watching and considering a better camera.

When Mum and Dad decided to come for the weekend I told them to bring their binoculars as there are lots of birds to see in the trees on my property and the surrounding properties, in the air over the bluff and over the lake.

I am regularly seeing bald Eagles and Herons flying back and forth. Dad and I saw a Merlin skimming past my Muskoka chairs one morning

Saturday afternoon this Mourning Dove was sitting on the lake side lawn. We realized after watching her for a while that she was sitting on a chick. We watched her feed it and it seemed really young to be out of the nest. Eating dinner, I looked out at the lawn and she wasn't there but a large raptor was. I grabbed my camera but it flew before I got a chance to take a picture.

Dad's suggestion was that it was a Coopers Hawk. We looked at the bird books and web sites but they didn't really fit what we had seen. Dad mentioned a Peregrine Falcon but said he thought they were rare here. We looked them up, they fit what we had seen and Dad found that there had been a Peregrine Falcon sighting recently, just down the lake at Nanticoke. I believe I had a Peregrine Falcon on my back lawn (I think he had a baby Mourning Dove for dinner)

Sunday sunset, looking WSW.

And WNW

Nic and my dinner

on the deck.

While Nicola went in to get dessert this Bald Eagle cruised by.

I had the time to put my camera on "sport mode",

which gives me a much faster shutter speed, as he dipped down towards the lake

and grabbed a fish,

making me think that I would  like a better camera, to get really clear shots of activity like this.