Bunny Tracks

I spied bunny tracks on a hike a few weeks ago, this is apparently a well traveled path:

Friendly Feline

While cat sitting last week for a friend we met a very friendly cat outside of her apartment. At first we thought it might be the cat we were supposed to be cat-sitting since we didn't encounter a cat inside. We soon realized the mystery cat was much to friendly to be said cat...and it was also outside. That didn't stop me from getting some cute pictures:

A Walk in Trenton Park

*click the image for more pictures*

This past Thursday I went for a lovely walk with friends in Trenton Park. One friend is from Germany and her brother was visiting so we were on the hunt for a beaver, there's a dam in Trenton Park and being that beavers are particularly Canadian it seemed fitting.

I've only seen a beaver at a reasonably close distance once before, but it wasn't a very good view. We were REALLY lucky on Thursday and one was gliding around the little pond in the park and wasn't very shy of people. At one point the beaver was coming towards us in the water, there were a pack of geese (2 adults and 6 teenager geese), ducks swimming towards us and either a hawk or an eagle overhead - it was a pretty surreal Canadian moment.

Despite warning that geese DO chase people this lovely friend (not from Canada) decided to test my warnings. The goose chased him, hissing with its beak open, it was great.

Backyard Blue Jay

Like my quest for pictures of our ground hog I've been trying to snap a shot of the many blue jays in our backyard.

Today I got a few frames before this one flew off - such pretty colours!

Wildlife Paparazzi

This guy has been making a home in the rocks behind our house. While I know ground hogs are not ideal this guy does have some cute qualities. I've been trying to snap photos of him for the past week but I finally thought to bust out my zoom lens and it paid off.

Click the photo for more pictures.

Sleigh Ride

One of the many perks of living in Pictou County is that people own horses and sleighs....this means sleigh rides!

We headed to Stellarton last night to a friend's farm, hopped in a sled and was pulled around by two GIANT horses. It was great.

Piled in the sleigh

I've learned that blankets and padded seats are key to
enjoying a sleigh ride. Warm bums = smiling faces

I don't know too much about horses, other than they don't have shoulder blades (thank you 3rd year Animal Physiology) so I was SUPER surprised when our sleigh ride was over and the horses were steaming like a pot of boiling water. They were warm horses! Here they are in the barn, I thought they must have been hosed down or something, but they are wet with their own sweat - amazing!

Four Legged Friends

You might have noticed these awesome pictures of dogs taken underwater popping up on Facebook this week. Just in case you haven't seen these picture and you like dogs I thought I would share.

The photographer, Seth Casteel, has a website with other galleries of dogs, cats and people and their pets. But by far the best gallery is underwater dogs, who knew dogs looked so terrifying and sometimes hilarious underwater?

Screenshot: Littlefriendsphotos.com

Snow Birds

Ones who actually stick around for the snow. Wednesday was a snow day and while I sat at the kitchen table doing work out deck had many feathered visitors.

My first attempt was less awesome, I had the wrong balance on and it ended up more blue than I'd like, but these were 3 of about 10 that were hanging out on the deck. I was too slow to get all of them.

Now I really want to get a feed to lure birds so I can take better pictures - it's a win-win really! I get better pictures/more opportunities to take pictures and birds get food - hooray!

Homemade Toys!

It turns out that Santa and Mattel aren't the only ones who can make toys! Yesterday I started to make a stuffed elephant, it took a few turns from what I first imagined but I like what I came out with.

I drew a super basic elephant shape on paper and then traced it out onto a wooly sort of fabric I have. I actually have used the fabric to make myself a scarf so despite looking like scratchy wool it's quite soft.

The doodles are from fiddling with ideas for an elephant tail

I cut out the fabric and embroidered the outline in blue thread, made eyes, cut out ear shapes and sewed them on (with a super tiny stitch) and then pinned the middle strip on and sewed it up. Attaching the middle piece was pretty awkward and I stopped and started the sewing quite a bit.

Another view of the inside out elephant, the red thread is a heart I also embroidered:

One last inside out before I sewed up the other side and flipped it:

A much more rotund elephant, stuffed with...well, stuffing. It kind of looks like its ears are corduroy, but it's just the wrong side of the grey fabric, I was hoping it would add some contrast, it worked:

I added a tail, despite my initial drawing (I tried embroidering something a few times but it didn't look right) I went with the same idea as the ears  - fabric on the wrong side sewn on. It doesn't look quite like a tail but hopefully it's passable:

Depending on what other friends/family member have kids there might be other animals created in the future. Or maybe just when I get bored, so that could mean more animals shortly.

Birds!!

Too cool not to share, check out this video where A TON of starlings are flying together. They look like all kinds of things other than birds:




Found on Open Culture.

Labrador Adventure Update: Phase 3, Postville

We boarded the twin otter for the second last time today and took a 10 minute flight from Makkovik to Postville for our last week of camp.

I'm not sure if it's because the town has a population of less than 200 or because it's Sunday, but it has been pretty quiet around here since we landed around 3:45PM. We took an adventure stroll after supper to check out where we'll be spending the next week.

It seems like we'll have another enjoyable time:

A smoker and the sea

I'm a giant in Postville, ROAR!

There was an old row boat down on the beach, so we did what any normal person would do and sat in it and took photos:

Like everywhere in Labrador we found dogs! This dog happened to have the bluest eyes I've ever seen, I couldn't get a good photo...yet. We're definitely going to pay this wiggle-bum another visit so I'll try again. Brennen and the dog are now best friends:

Postville also has at least one cat. This has not been a common sight for us so far, it seems that dogs run Labrador. This cat was SO friendly and the softest animal I've ever pet. It also has pretty eyes:

There were these concrete steps just hanging out on the beach, perfect for sitting. So I clambered down the side to take some photos. Since Brennen's knee is on the mend I decided on a timered self-portrait. My fist attempt left me headless:

My second attempt is a bit more successful, but with an unfortunate rock in the foreground and it's pretty crooked. I'm going to work on my self-timer skills and perhaps invest in a gorillapod:

Potentially my next camera related purchase, gorillapod SLR

Makkovik Update: Out on the Water

It seems everyone in Labrador has a boat, and we've been fortunate to be invited out on a boat in both Nain and Makkovik.

Today was a beautiful day for it, a bit of cloud and a great wind to keep bugs away.

The folks who run the hotel we're staying in invited us out on their boat to try our hand at fishing and to have a boil up. I only learned what a boil up is today and I'll explain when I get to the pictures. There was a hope that we might see seals, whales or ice burgs, but we didn't get to see any. Regardless we had an awesome time and even caught some fish!

Group Photo!

Brennen caught his first fish! It was too small so it went back, but it was still exciting!

This is jigging, you run a long line with a hook on the end into the water until you hit the bottom. You pull up the line about 6 feet then make quick tugs on the rope trying to keep it about 6 feet from the bottom. Eventually (and hopefully!) you will catch something and you can feel the change in the weight of your line. Then hand over hand you pull up your line and hope that it's something you were hoping to catch!

I caught a rock cod!

Trying to pose with another one without it flicking me in the face

Again, a little too small. Back in it goes

A happy fisherlady

From jigging we caught 2 good sized rock cod and one cod (Lori, one of our hosts caught the real cod).

Then we headed up the bay to try our hand at rod fishing for trout. We didn't catch any, but I had fun learning how to fish with a rod...I was afraid of hooking everyone with my hook but thankfully everyone was in one piece by the end of it.

We traveled further up the bay to "Gull Island", nicknamed for the large amount of seagulls who live there. Thankfully there weren't too many around today and we were spared from being pooped on.

Lori brought a ton of snacks for the boil up - which is when you are out on a boat and you head to the coast, start a fire, make some toast, tea and eat snacks. I like boil ups!

Char bar - smoked arctic char...AMAZING!

Here's our fire, behind this great big rock to keep it from the wind, it worked wonderfully:

Boiling water and toasting bread, life in Labrador is AMAZING!

Brennen burnt one side of his toast, whoopsie!

Eating toast self portrait...flattering I know

A just about ripe bakeapple...remember the pie I posted?
This is the berry it's made from

Seal skull

Seagull nest

A pretty view and an awesome dog!

This is Molly, she's a really hilarious and fun dog who came along with us for the trip.

She took a big stick from our pile and played fetch with it for quite some time...adorable!

From this trip to Labrador I've learned you say yes to every opportunity presented to you, and if it's a trip in a boat you're guaranteed an awesome time filled with salt air and great food!