News from the woods.

Many folks have been asking what we've been seeing on our trailcam. So far fox, foxcub, raccoon, deer, porcupine and squirrel. I can't deny it's pretty exciting to get up in the morning and check the SD card to see what is lurking there. If I was a patient sort of a person I would check it every week, but the most I can seem to last is a couple of days. Most of the creatures here are active after dark so the night vision on the Browning Strike Force trailcam has been useful. I recently switched to the video setting instead of photographs and our first appearance is the foxcub below. Since I set up the clock and temperature it's fun to see the exact time and temperature during his visit (too geeky?).

I don't know if we are seeing the same fox and cub but we've only seen one creature at a time on the camera. We've had partial sightings of some critters (including the back end of a porcupine) and some steamy looking images in the heavy rain. Below is a raccoon on a rainy night, poor guy. 

Meanwhile summer seems to have arrived at the cottage today. It's 25C and I doubled my swimming route early to the second diving board round the point of the bay. I make that a total of 1100 swimming strokes. Such is life at the lake where you film raccoons and log your swimming route. I'm hoping the heat might bring out more animals. There's no doubt daylight shots are the best and we were lucky to capture this deer quite soon after putting out the camera.

In the cottage garden the peony has produce three great blooms. Since the day I planted it, around 3-4 years ago, only one flower has appeared. (Usually when I am away travelling). I think it takes these plants some time to get established and so today it proved it is happy here at the lake. All I need now is for one of the animals on our camera to eat the flowers and then I will have a terrible dilemma. Flowers or beasts - which do I want in the garden? 

After a long wait the peony produced three flowers today.

Turk's Cap lilies. A favourite in the garden.

Read more about a Canadian country garden
The day we were nearly Humans of New York