Start of 2023 Sailing season

As always the Port Dover Yacht Club Racing Division starts the season with a night of "practice racing" in case we have forgotten, over the winter,  where all the sheets and halyards go and what all the flags and horns mean.

The inside of Caldeioscope  has never looked this good and certainly wont once we start racing.

Mark had been busy, this spring, fixing a few things (there's always something)

Mark, Steve and Rick. There was only the 4 of us and it was quite a windy night so we did not even bother rigging for the spinnaker.

Canace, the Committee boat for the evening, started each of the 3 fleets, 3 times and we raced on the last time. They flawlessly went through the flag and horn sequence 9 times!

I got a chance to snap a couple of pictures

as we sailed back to the marina.

At a J.J.'s meeting...Heather working on a chair cushion of her own design.

Gail working on a Deanne Fitzpatrick design.

Sherry's rug on the wall of the church hall that we meet in.

The robin on the electrical box next door now has two hungry mouths to feed.

The neighbourhood rabbit has only eaten the tops of a couple of tomato plants and a bean plant. He doesn't seem to realize that he is big enough and could actually reach everything in the raised bed.

Just a few Swallows around

but one couple has taken up residency.

Bruce trail Hike - Kilbride to Crawford Lake, Map 10 & 11.

Bath, wine, supper, sleep on the couch, breakfast, digging up plants and we were back out on the trail again.

Same problem, no parking spots, so I parked in Kilbride and Dave dropped us off on Derry Rd.

 

We had anticipated that this hike would be a breeze as it was shorter than the day before and flatter but we were in trouble from the start. The mosquitoes were horrendous. They flew up from the grass and surrounded us, the only sound their buzzing whine.

It was a very marshy area and we were the first hikers through that day. They were hungry. We smeared on tick lotion and sprayed ourselves with mosquito repellent

but in the end had to resort to the bug hats. Photo by Nicola.

There aren't many pictures as we had to keep moving.

Often I was snapping pictures while still walking.

There was a muskrat swimming across the pond at Twiss Rd.

We did manage to find a

pretty spot,

relatively bug free

to eat our snack.

Glad that hot, sticky, buggy hike was over.

From the App.

That finishes the Iroquoia section. We have now completed the Niagara, Iroquoia and Toronto Sections of the Bruce Trail.

Bruce Trail Hike - Rattlesnake Point to Crawford Lake, Map 11

Nicola and I have put off doing this section of the Bruce Trail because there are no convenient parking spots, So I parked in Campbellville and Dave drove us to our start point on Appleby Line and then picked us up again at our end point on Guelph Line.

Great start, saves peeing in the woods!

We had missed the peak of the spring flowers

but there were still a few stragglers, hanging on.

Some massive trees had come down over the winter.

The trail volunteers had been busy clearing the trail of dead trees and planting some new ones.

We stopped for our usual snack...cheese, coconut water, snap peas and trail mix, and spotted a Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

Areas of wild Columbine.

It was a very pretty area

with ancient trees,

lookouts,

the occasional trail marker (with a handy seat)

and some very rocky, ankle twisting, sections. The main trail between the two conservation areas was very busy but we saw far fewer people once the Bruce trail turned away from Crawford Lake.

As this was our first hike of the year (we cancelled the April hike as it was pouring rain) we had anticipated it being a bit of a slog but we were happily surprised

when we got to the end, still feeling pretty good.

Waiting for Dave to pick us up. Photo by Nicky.

Nicola had downloaded a free trial of the new Bruce Trail App and overall we were quite happy with it although Nic thought that the "user interface" could be better. We could find where we were while hiking and

it gave us a nice summary when we had finished.

May catch up

 After a day at Mark and Emma's in Pakenham, Nicola and I drove Dad back to Fort Erie and then came back to Port Dover. Long day of driving!

Since then it has been all about the gardening, new beds, new plants and keeping up with the grass.

Chris, Jason and Cigi visited and delivered a lovely Mother's Day Brunch

and a pretty card that competed

with the real thing.

Spellbound was "splashed",

with just a couple of "oops". While putting the boom on, the part at the mast snapped. 40 year old piece of plastic, it's not really surprising. Rick was able to source a new one and, when putting it on, he dropped half in the water. Had to order it, and wait for delivery, again.

Caleidoscope is also in the water now, just the day before the practice race.

Robin nesting on next doors electrical box. Last year they tried to nest in their BBQ. This is a slightly better choice.

For my birthday Rick gave me a gift certificate for Northland Nursery. After we went there (and I overspent) we visited Rick's friend Steve who gave me a couple of trees for the bank and a shoe box full of seeds (he collects them from his plants every year) Mostly Shasta Daisies and Coneflowers, which is great as they should be able to grow on the bank to the lake.

I planted a lot of them in the "nursery bed" that Rick built in front of the sunroom. It will be very interesting to see what, if anything, comes up.