Jack’s Walk

Smoke tree

©voyager, all rights reserved

We haven’t had much rain lately and the lawns are suffering and turning brown. I think that’s a good thing because it means it’s easy on Jack’s feet. It’s the moist, green grass that makes his big, webbed feet itch so now he’s free to spend some time checking out his own nieghbourhood. Telephone poles and trees are of particular interest, but so are hostas, car tires, kid’s toys, flower planters and garden hoses. I swear a 3 block walk took us longer than a 3 km trail, including the car ride there and back. It’s Jack’s walk, though, so I let him take as much time as he wants. I figure it takes me a while to deal with e-mail, so it must take just as long to deal with p-mail.

A brand new feature: Tree Tuesday

There’s a new feature starting today at Affinity and we’re calling it Tree Tuesday. The idea came in response to all the interesting photos Caine has been posting lately of the trees near the cancer center she attends. They’ve been so enjoyable that I think it would be fun to see more trees from lots of different places.

The idea is as straight-forward as the name suggests and we want your submissions. Any tree is fair game so grab your camera or dig through your stash and send those photos in. Submitting is easy, but a bit different from the usual route for other things. Send your tree photos to me, voyager, at mameow2@rogers.com. The address is also on the sidebar now so I’m easy to find.

Caine and I will continue to post trees on other days as usual, but Tree Tuesday is a sure bet and the day when your tree photos take center stage. Thanks and happy snapping.

Waiting for Halloween, ©voyager, all rights reserved

 

Jack’s Walk

Strawberry Season

Better than candy

Too good for pie

Cherry, Cherry

Our local strawberries have been uncommonly flavourful and sweet this year. The small ones in particular are almost like candy. I’ve been overindulging, but the season is almost at its end and soon they’ll be gone for another year. That’s OK though, because now local raspberries and cherries and blueberries are ripe and ready and they too seem extra sweet this year. Maybe it was the late spring or the early heat wave, but whatever the cause I plan to keep overindulging in all the fresh produce that’s on offer.

Jack’s Walk

Off we go…

Jack and I enjoy finding new  places to explore so this morning we tried a new trail that had been recommended to us by a friend. The entire trail stretches 3 km which is a longish walk for both Jack and I, but we had water and a snack and I planned to have a rest or two along the way. The morning was warm, but not humid and we set out full of the spirit of adventure. The trail winds through an area of mixed hardwood and fir trees and it’s beautiful. Everything was going along well until we came upon a pond. That’s when things started to go wrong. The area around the pond was humid and full of mosquitoes so we veered away from it and somehow got off the main trail. We clambered along a small path for a bit still being chased by vampire insects until we finally found a larger path and took it in what I thought was the direction back. The mosquitoes stayed with us though and poor Jack’s nose was being bloodied by the damn things. I was faring better because I had on DEET, but they were biting through my shirt and pants to the places that I didn’t bug spray. We stopped for water twice, but couldn’t really rest. I finally saw a clearing ahead and sighed relief that we had made it back to the parking lot…only it wasn’t the parking lot. It was a field of grain. I should mention here that there was no field of grain anywhere near the entrance to the trail so we were obviously off course. The mosquitoes weren’t too bad though so we did finally stop for a good rest. I pulled out my cell phone, found a map of the trail and figured out that we were actually on a totally different trail that connects to our original trail and that the only way back was the way we just came…through the mosquito tunnel until we picked up the main trail again. Thankfully, by the time we got going a good breeze had come up which helped control the mozzies a bit and our way home was long, but not intolerable. I even stopped at the pond for a few photos because it really is incredibly beautiful, we were already uncomfortable and I won’t be back this way anytime soon. I’ll try to get them up in a day or two, but right now Jack and I are crashed and recovering from a bit more adventure than we bargained for.

 

Jack’s Walk

We’ve had beautiful weather here since the extreme heat of last week finally broke on Thursday night. Temps have been in the twenties with low humidity and the nights have been cool and comfortable. That’s due to change tomorrow when temperatures are expected to climb into the thirties again so Jack and I plan to spend most of the day outside while we still can.

Morning at the park, ©voyager, all rights reserved

Fire Rose.

Absolutely stunning rose, if this was in my garden, I’d be staring at it every day. From Nightjar: And here is the rose whose story I told in TNET 21. I love it so much, I find myself stopping to stare at it every time I go to that corner in the garden. Definitely click for full size!

© Nightjar, all rights reserved.