Bruce Trail - Escarpment Side Road or "The Day of the Roadkill"

We made an effort to get up early (?) and managed to start the hike at 10:15. The weather was cool, cloudy and there was a nice breeze. Not forecast, but we were glad of it and both of us started out with an extra layer of clothing on.

Most of the hike was on the road (this area seems to have lots of road sections unfortunately) but in three places the trail went off the road and into bush or meadows. The summer wildflowers were in full bloom.

We started at Willouby Rd, where we had finished the day before, and there was a tunnel under Hwy 10. It was full of barn swallows, swooping around, and their nests along the ceiling.

This isn't a particularly picturesque part of the trail and the paths (and stiles) were quite overgrown from lack of use.

Where there had been blossoms, berries were starting to form.

This was the first time that the path was so overgrown that we needed the white flash markings to find our way through the meadows.

Delicate wildflower that looked like Baby's Breathe

The mixed grasses were lovely. We were very glad at this point that it was not baking sun or lightning and thunder.

This bird was fluttering, noisily beside the trail and I thought it was upset with us passing close to a nest (it might be a Thrasher)

When I got my photos onto the computer I realized that it was probably upset at the red squirrel in the same tree. It looks like it might have a baby bird in its mouth.

Kennedy Road stretching off into the distance. We had a sense of our progress from the roads we crossed.

A hitch hiker.

We passed an old cemetery with lots of Scottish family names on the headstones. Perhaps they bought the thistles with them.

Three roads - 5km, and it was time for a snack. Trail mix, snap peas and coconut water.

Beside a horse farm with amazing views to Toronto.

From here on it was a dangerous road for wildlife. Some had been hit by cars and most were half eaten - coyotes? turkey vultures? Inventory of corpses: male turkey with beautiful feathers, rabbit, porcupine, squirrel, goldfinch.

The house was also a log cabin.

We started to use Nicola's app again for wildflower identification - Anenomes

The new leaves on this shrub were reddish.

Mum used to call these "Scrambled Eggs" but they are actually Birds-Foot-Trefoil.

An info board, randomly beside the trail.

We both commented that we really prefer an 8km hike. The last 2 of a 10km hike are tough but at least we were passing another horse farm.

We were done by 1:15 and had kept up a good pace, 10km took us 3 hours. Although walking on the road wasn't as interesting and was harder on our joints, hills were not as hard and we weren't as tired from negotiating loose rocks and tree roots.
18km in total for the 2 days is pretty good for us.

Bruce Trail - Forks of the Credit

Up in Guelph for Nicola's birthday (56), we had a fabulous day - mini latte's at home and then Starbucks while we contemplated our hike for the day. We set off for the Forks of the Credit, me following her, when she pulled over, walked back, pointed to the darkening sky and said "they are forecasting a 60% chance of thunderstorms", we were halfway there already so kept going.

We dropped her car at Willoughby and Escarpment Side Road and then parked mine on Forks of the Credit Road. A very kind man pointed out that we were in a "Tow Away" zone so we moved the car.

When looking at the map we had determined that this would be a very varied hike. The first thing was to cross the river.

Up a "No exit" road and through a little community

We determined that this probably meant that there was a brothel and a pub so we entertained ourselves by identifying which house that would have been.

I looked it up, it is a White Admiral - It took quite a while to get a picture of it with it's wings open.

The Bruce Trail goes through the Forks of the Credit Conservation Area. Trails through here are wide and clear.

It was hot and humid and we were glad we had put on the tick and bug spray.

We started to hear thunder (that we tried to convince ourselves was a plane, quarry trucks ....) When we hit an open spot we could see the amassing thunderheads.

The trail was pretty steep in places. After my difficulties on the last hike we had put coconut water with electrolytes mixed in, in our water bottles and I had drunk 2 bottles of water the night before. Although hot and sweaty, that mixture seemed to maintain our energy much better than water alone, although we really didn't care for the taste.

The thunder rumbled, constantly for about half an hour. Then it rained and we put our phones, car keys and my camera into my backpack and covered it with a poncho. We were glad of the storm, but a little concerned about going out into the open sections of the trail (although we never saw any lightening). It did bring cooler temperatures, no bugs and the rain was refreshing.

Even after the rain stopped, the thunder continued, rumbling away for about another half hour. The bugs came back, and of course now we had sweated and rained all our protection off. We checked the GPS, only looked like another km to go so we decided not to not reapply. 5 minutes later we were lathering up - they were ravenous!

Pretty happy to see the car although it had been a thoroughly enjoyable hike (except for the brief period of extreme mosquitoes)

For some reason, a vacumn cleaner, abandoned at the end of the trail.

Back to Nic and Dave's for a shower, light snacks and wine on the patio and out to dinner to celebrate Nicola's birthday.
We had planned to take a day off and then hike again but the forecast looks better for tomorrow so we will be hiking again then.

Long Point - Indigo dyeing

First an update on the vegetable garden. Although many people were complaining about the wet spring it was wonderful for my veggies. I have been eating kale and lettuce for over a month and have finished 2 rows of radishes (I bought the seeds on a tape this year, accidentally, but they were so perfectly spaced that I could eat every one, no thinning needed).

The purple beans are in flower

and the green ones

and the tomatoes.

When Brit and Nicola were here for a quilting class we had talked about wanting to do some dyeing with the Indigo that I bought in Maine a couple of years ago. It didn't work out for the weekend we had scheduled but we were all able to get together this weekend to give it a go.

I had only bought Indigo and Nicola was unable to find the other things to add to it, so she ended up buying a kit that included everything and we used that. We used an ice cream tub, from Stubs, as a "vat", mixed everything in there and let it rest. You have to stir it very gently as oxygen in the vat will negate the dye.

Even though it rained, sometimes heavily, off and on, all day, we kept the vat and the dyeing process outside as it was pretty messy and I didn't want a blue kitchen floor.

Inside we prepared our materials. Brit and I were dyeing wool. This is mine and the long piece is to be a dip dye.

Brit decided to model hers as accessories.

Nicola's prep took more time as she was dyeing a 100% cotton, king size, sheet set. She said that if it didn't turn out she could always quilt with it.

Then we started the dipping. I had worn a mask when adding the dry ingredients and we wore rubber gloves for the dipping.

When it first comes out of the vat it is green

and the contact with the air gradually turns it blue. The dip dye on the left has been out of the vat for about 15min while the other just came out.

Once it has turned blue you can dip it in the dye again. We dipped everything 3 times.

Next we rinsed them with water from the hose and then we took the elastics and twine off. Then washed them in mild soapy vinegar water and hung them on the line where we rinsed them off with the hose again.

Tada! Nic's fitted sheet and a pillow slip.

Tada! Brit and my wool.

The cotton, second from the right, took on a more vibrant blue than the wool did.

The sheets also used a lot of the dye, we had to make a second vat for the top sheet. Now I have half a vat left over.

We had crouched, dripped, dipped 3 times, rinsed, washed and rinsed again and the products of our endeavours were all out on the line, getting rained on periodically. We had blue feet, legs and fingernails. So we had lunch!
But we were on a dyeing roll so pulled out my Woolly Mason Jar dyes and did 2 casserole dyes and a crockpot dye. We had read that you can't use our dye (designed for protien based fabric - wool) for cotton (plant based fabric) but Nicola had some cotton yardage with her so we had to experiment.

Results of our casserole dyeing. The centre pieces are the cotton and the outside ones, the wool. The two left hand ones were in the same casserole and the two right hand ones were in the same casserole. The cotton did not pull the dye as much as the wool did and seemed to be selective about which colours it took.

We had purple dye in the crockpot. The cotton, on the right, pulled the red, leaving only the blue for the wool, on the left. Fascinating.

Tired, we retired to the beach side deck for a glass of Vinho Verde.

Brit had bought her applique project to show Nic and Rasta had to give it a test run.

Kevin, my nephew, was also visiting and he loves to cook. So he made us sea bass (done on the BBQ), scallops, fresh made salsa and grilled red peppers for fish tacos. Also charred radicchio with melted blue cheese and leek ash. I went for simple on the dessert; strawberries and whipped cream with some candied ginger on top. Dave (not being a fish or veggies fan) had a hamburger.

It was a great day.

Now I am back to making samples for my Sheep Tricks class in September.