Gone Fishing

A few of you wanted to see pictures from our spring fishing trip at Kiosk, one of the northernmost parts of Ontario's famed Algonquin Park. Well I got pictures! Pop yourself some corn, pour yourself a fresh cup of joe and settle in. If you want to see a bigger version, click on the photo. We were gone for four days and all but one day (when this photo was taken) were terrible, weather-wise. This is Lake Kioskokwi in all its spring splendour.

It's been such a late spring in this neck of the woods, one of the latest in recent memory. Dave and I fretted that there would still be ice on the lake but we had convinced ourselves that last week's warm temps and high winds would have gotten rid of the last of the ice. Apparently not. We were greeted with this shore ice upon our arrival.

While the ice had left the lakes in our area of Muskoka, Kiosk is about three hours north of us. That three hours makes a huge difference in temperature. Here you can see the ice has broken up but washed in towards the bays.

Dave holds a couple chunks of the remaining ice. They remind me of small icicles, all stuck together. You can break it apart, one "icicle" at a time. This is perfect ice for cocktail making.

The pretty view from the park office. Even with the ice.

Take a good look at this picture. That "wave" is a wave of slushy ice. As it hit the shore, it made the loudest, most unusual noise – like a heavy downpour of rain. 

There were moments of sunshine on Thursday. This was one. The cabin is an original ranger's cabin dating back a century or so. It has been restored and is a popular rental for campers who want a taste of what it was like for forest rangers back in the day. After this brief spate of sunshine, the rain and wind returned. The wind was ferocious and we weren't set up for more than 20 minutes when a microburst hit and tore the awning off our virtually new trailer. One minute Dave was saying, "It's sunny." And I said, "Don't trust it." But the words were barely out of my mouth when the sky went pitch dark and the wind hit. Oh well. It can be fixed. At least we didn't wind up like Toto and Dorothy.

Thursday was terrible. So terrible, we went to bed and had a nap, crying ourselves to sleep about the awning. Friday morning, we woke up to falling snow. Ack.

Because Friday morning was crappy, we went for a drive to explore the road to Brent, a sister camping area to Kiosk and also part of Algonquin Park. We thought it wasn't much of a drive but it was. We travelled down a dirt road for 18 km before we came to this spot on the road, completely flooded. So we turned around and headed back. It was a nice drive.

Ooooo .... check this out. Kiosk has a brand new state of the art composting outhouse. Solar-powered, this beauty is made of cedar and smells heavenly. Our travelling companions, Tom and Sue, didn't like it as much as we do. Frankly, I'm in love with this outhouse. I wish we had one at our house.

Friday afternoon the weather cleared enough to head out for some fishing. It wasn't the best, though, with intermittent rain and some steady wind. I was bundled up for a reason – it was cold! And no fish. Sigh.

Saturday was glorious! Beautiful calm water. Sunshine! We got up early, gorged ourselves on bacon and eggs, and spent the day out on the water. 

We stopped at a vacant campsite for a shore lunch. This is our dog, Misty, looking adorable in her pink raincoat. She loves camping, loves the boat, loves pepperettes.

Dave's brother, Tom, and his wife, Sue, were our camping buddies. In this picture they are suffering from a common camp ailment known as "moke-eye."

The campfire and gorgeous lake view. We had cheese sandwiches roasted over the fire on sticks. They were delish. No, no fish, because we didn't catch any. None. Nada. Not even a bite. We figure the fish were still dormant, seeing as how the ice just went out. And the lake trout, which are skittish, get all freaked out during bad storms. Either way, no fish.

The water was really high during this trip, at least four feet higher than the last time we were there. Normally we boat underneath this old railroad bridge to gain access to the rest of the lake. We sure couldn't this time!

We fished all day Saturday, until we headed back to the camp about 8 o'clock or so. (Sunday morning we packed up and headed home.) This photo was taken about six Saturday afternoon. The sun was still warm, the sky was blue and the water was sparkling like a field of diamonds. We may not have caught any fish but we couldn't deny the spectacular scenery and its restorative power over our souls.

Get Lost!

Handsome Jack Layton

Man, you go away for four days of fishing and the whole world changes.
Kate and Will got married? Seriously? I never saw that coming.
Osama Bin Laden was killed? Wow, I thought he was already dead. I know, I have got to start watching the news more often.
And today is Election Day in Canada. Big surprises happening in the polls. I gotta hand it to the handsome and spunky Jack Layton, the fellah nobody was taking too seriously, but who is now kicking some serious Conservative butt in the polls. That big news developed while I was away, too.
But the biggest news was Casey Abrams got kicked off American Idol. WTF, people? Oh well. Whatever. James Durbin is gonna win it; he deserves to win it. I loved Casey but love is fickle (just ask my ex) and now I love James.
Did I mention my son wants to dye his hair blue?
I came home, checked my e-mail, and there's a proclamation from Angus on facebook that he's dying his hair blue. When I saw it, the post was 19 hours old. I was on the phone faster than you can say "freaked out."
I was gonna be so cool, talking to him about it.
The second he picked up the phone and said, "Hello," I was like, "DID YOU DYE YOUR HAIR BLUE?"
The answer was no but I think he's gonna do it.
He has such nice blonde hair and blue eyes. I don't think it would be handsome if his hair was bluer than his eyes. He might as well wear plaid plants with a striped jacket.
Anyway.
I do have real news to talk about from the blogging world.
First of all, I got a fabulous package in the mail from Umbrella Lady Kathy. IT'S SO CHOICE! I'll show you my gorgeous stuff later, as I can't find the cord to my camera. But thank-you Kathy! It is SO lovely!
And there's big news over on The Rock with Alan W. Davidson and Laurita Miller. The two talented Newfoundland writers are co-hosting a short story contest, Lost on the Rock, with entries due May 8.

For contest details, go here.

For prize details, go here.

On the one hand I'm reluctant to tell you guys about the contest because you're all way better writers than me and the prizes are really, really good.
On the other hand, I love Laurita and Alan and want to help spread the word about their contest.
So, get busy! You've only got a week to write the story.
Geez, I've gotta take my own advice... Lost... Rock... hmmmm... all I can think of is Lost on the Rocks... a new Newfoundland cocktail.

Z is for The Dreaded Z

Long before the invention and acquisition of iPods, laptops and pounding your brother, we played car games on long trips.

You likely know these games. 

Punchbuggy is a favourite amongst my sons – at least until the bruising and bleeding begins. 

I Spy was OK until car manufacturers painted the interior of automobiles uniformly grey and that kinda took some of the spark out of it.

Another of our favourites is the Alphabet Road Sign Game. 

Here's how it works: Someone, usually the loudest and most obnoxious enthusiastic child, starts with the letter A. He has to find a road sign with the letter A in it and read the word out loud. So there's a sign up ahead for Anne St. He says, "Anne St.," usually at an ear-piercing volume and usually directly in my ear.

The next child looks for a letter B, I look for a C, Dave looks for a D, and then it comes back to the starter for E and winds its way through the alphabet until the final letter is found.

Simple, huh?

It is for some letters. A, for example, is dead easy. So is R and S and T. X is one of the easiest letters because speed limit signs all say maximum.

B isn't as common as you might think and the letters J and Q are as scarce as hen's teeth. Your only hope for Q is an antique shop and you wanna hope there's one of those JESUS SAVES signs along the way if you want a J.

They're so hard to find, in fact, that we call them "The Dreaded J" or "The Dreaded Q."

There is one other letter that is "dreaded" and that is "The Dreaded Z."

If you're going through town, it's no sweat – just find yourself a pizza shop and you're good to go.

If not, you can drive a long, long way to find a Z. There have been times when someone in the car has woot-wooted in excitement just because we entered a Construction Zone.

Today, though, I am not dreading the letter Z. 

This post brings to an end an entire month of the A-Z Blogging Challenge.

I did it, I did it! I posted every day in the month of April, except Sunday, with a different letter of the alphabet featured in each post.

Was it hard? Nah... not really. Then again, I didn't have a format to worry about. I just blathered about anything and then fit the letter with the blathering.

Was it fun? Yes! It was! The best thing about the challenge was visiting so many of the other participants, finding new blogs to love and follow, and discovering more followers for my blog. There's no way I could visit every participant – at last count there were 1,282 bloggers. 

Isn't that crazy? I know!

If you'd like to check out the Linky list, press the green A-Z badge on the right side of my blog. There's some good reading to be found and some really cool people.

Hey, I really do recommend the Alphabet Road Sign Game. It encourages young readers, it makes the car ride seem shorter and it requires no batteries.

Happy trails.

Y is for Yellow Jellied Salad

Don't you be turning up your nose at jellied salad until you try it.

I know lots of people who would eat dog turds on a bun before they'd eat my Yellow Jellied Salad but they're just silly. This is the best jellied salad in town, any town, and it's the perfect accompaniment to a turkey dinner. Its sweet, tart and crunchy yumminess makes even the driest bird easy to swallow.

This enhanced cole slaw recipe comes from my mom, who probably got it from her mom, but she forgets. Regardless, I have adopted it as my own and now am the official purveyor of Yellow Jellied Salad at all family functions.

As promised, here's the recipe:

Yellow Jellied Salad

Finely chop and mix in a medium-sized glass bowl:

2 cups cabbage

1 stalk celery

5 green onions

5 radishes

Add 1 tbsp. white vinegar and toss.

Pour one cup of boiling water into a small bowl.

Add one package Jello lemon jello powder. Yes, it has to be lemon. No, it can't be diet. 

Stir until jello powder is dissolved.

Add 3/4 cup Miracle Whip salad dressing and stir with a wire whisk until smooth.

Pour jelly mixture over vegetables, give a quick stir and stick bowl in the fridge.

This salad sets up quickly and is best enjoyed the same day it is made. After a day the red from the radishes gets runny and the salad turns pink. You really don't want that.

No Miracle Whip in your neck of the woods? I guess you could substitute mayonnaise. If you have to.

X is for X-Rated

So there's this little kids' TV station in Canada (let's call it Treefort) and it plays shows for preschoolers (let's call them the Pull-Ups crowd).

One morning this week when mothers across this great nation were just slurping back their first cup of coffee, sleep crusts hanging off their eyelids from last night's parent-child debacle (let's call it barfing, scary dream, poopy pants, fight with drunk husband, lost pacifier, or empty valium bottle), small child with fresh diaper and filled sippy cup firmly ensconced in front of the TV watching Dora the Explorer (or Caillou, or something involving a bunny, a bear, a turtle or a bearded man in short pants), the unthinkable happened.

Treefort TV showed a clip from an x-rated horror movie. 

Let's call it The Ring (because that is what it is called).

Moms dropped their coffee and made like NFL quarterbacks on their way to grab the clickerbox and save their spawn from having their eyes burnt out by images of blood, guts and nekkid people.

The Twitter world came alive with outraged tweets.

Parents called the station to lodge their complaints.

Treefort was apologizing and apoplectic on Facebook.

Kids were sitting around in the sandbox talking to their play group buddies, saying, "FINALLY, something good on TV."