throw back thursday – Pictou Lodge Resort

January 14, 2016 by tam

I have so many images that I have yet to edit and post but many of them are over a year old! I enjoy sharing our ‘goings-on’ on the blog because I love scrolling through and seeing what the year was like, what we did, where we went, and friends and family we spent time with. It’s all so wonderful for me!

I decided to create a Throw Back Thursday blog post. I am hoping this will give me incentive to edit all of those images!

Last July we made our yearly visit to Pictou Lodge Resort. We all love the resort and look forward to the next year’s visit before the current one is over!

There is so much family that comes along that there is always someone to chat with, play with or swim with! It’s a ton of fun for kids and adults alike!

Fun playing basketball with the cousins. The ladder toss game is the first things the boys run to. These hammocks are placed throughout the resort and we just love them. It’s the perfect spot to just chill and watch family play the games. The boys were really keen to try the new paddle boards at the resort. Instead of standing they decided to sit on the boards and use the kayak paddles to maneuver. I think they would have stayed on them all day if they could! A lot of swimming was had at the salt-water pool. We laugh every time we go to the pool because it’s most often busy with just our family. One year we took a family photo and there were 97 people! 97! Wow! For the first time ever we saw a blue heron during our visit! We saw it fly overhead when we first arrived and I was thrilled to see it stayed around long enough for me to take some pictures of it on the beach. I swear I did not saturate the greens in this one bit. Aren’t they amazing? Love that bird too! You just cannot go to the beach without skipping stones! Finding skipping stones is hard work! The boys are big into Nerf and so this cool piece of driftwood happened to make its way home with us. I think that particular stone may have too. Eventually you have so many stones and sticks around the house you forget where they came from! This fire pit was a new addition last year and we were all too eager to put it to the s’mores test! There’s always at least one marshmallow that catches on fire. I’m not sure it’s all by accident, either. 😉 These are the best vegan marshmallows. So so good!How often do you get to play checkers like this! If you go to the Pictou Lodge home page there is a video ad where you can see us playing checkers! We had a good laugh when a relative told us about it. His kids happened to be in the pool portion of the ad. Yes, there are a lot of us. 🙂
The sunsets. My goodness. This one is just a hint at what you get. They can be just amazing. On the Saturday night a hefty portion of family get together for a sing along complete with instruments. It is now the boys’ absolute favourite part of the weekend. Plus, they get to stay up super late!
These orb weavers were very cool – and very busy with their dinnertime ‘guests’. Goodnight Pictou Lodge. Until next year…

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2016 by tam

We had a wonderful day yesterday, a lovely Solstice and Christmas as well.

A dear friend of mine bought us this beeswax cancel for Solstice. Every year we say what we are thankful for and look back on last year’s wish list and make another. It just goes to show the power of intention because most of our wishes from last year came true and we hadn’t even looked at the list we made last year until this Solstice!

I finally got around to finishing my fire cider (all bottled and with a kick!) and doing the third round on my bee balm glycerine. I just love the colour that the glycerine is turning!I don’t do much baking. I actually hate baking. But I love this cookie press that my mother used to use to make us cookies as kids. It’s dear to my heart and quickly becoming our own tradition.

Christmas Eve is always an exciting time and never passes without reading The Night Before Christmas from this beautiful book! Christmas Day proved to be so mild that I was thrilled about not having socks on my feet! Snow is a beautiful thing but I gotta say, bare feet are pretty awesome too! There are always Christmas Crackers to pop! Oui Oui!The boys received a few games and we all had a great time with this one. Qwirkle rocks! Even our little Gypsy received a gift. *I think she likes it!* whispered*On the 27th we had a storm and the boys took no time in throwing on their layers and getting out there!Candy cane precision.We had a wonderful new year celebration just the four of us. The boys stayed up and we rang in the new year together with some Minecraft fireworks that L made. He even made seats for us to sit in to watch the display. I can barely build and they do this! We took a screen shot in front of the banner that Xman made. Here we are in our MC skin glory!Of course today we had to toast to a wonderful new year! The boys have sparkling peach apple juice and we have mimosas. Yum! I am all ready for January! I even painted a calendar for this month and plan on doing one for every month this year. They are sized to fit perfectly into my Leuchtturn1917. Love it! If you want to download a copy for yourself just hop on over to my art blog! Here’s to a wonderful 2016 and more posting! 🙂

Tam

Hello! It’s been too long!

November 20, 2015 by tam

Yes, I see the last time I posted over here was in July. My goodness!

Truth is that I hate editing photos and I would rather being doing other things. But, one of the main reason I have this blog is for family that lives in other places and for us, as a keepsake. So today I grabbed some photos from the past month to show what we have been up to.

I have a bunch of photos to edit from our summer vacation but they are on my big camera (my real camera as I call it!) and it’s just a matter of sitting down and editing. It’s always hard when you try to edit your own pics and decide what to show when you want to show it all! Maybe later this week–it’s only been four months after all!

We got back into the swing of lessons and some winter prep with herbal concoctions. Plus I got some time to do a bit of other things with the boys and for myself.

There are a lot of photos:

Busy with herbs. Tis the season!Love our sunsets! Happy!The season for knitting!We have spent many a day outside enjoying the fall weather.Pretzel making!The Lunar Eclipse was a big deal for us. The boys stayed up late to watch. Totally worth it!
The moon the morning after the eclipse.Lessons!More fun outside.Love all of the colours!Trying to catch the leaves as they fall.
Chipmunk!
Feeding the chickadees is a favourite pastime of ours. It never gets old!We love the hemlocks at our local park. So big and beautiful!We went to a friend’s house and picked cranberries in her back yard! How cool is that! Thanks, Dawn! xx Love Dawn’s yard. There is always many a treasure to be found.My bit of time to make some fun art. (more on my blog)Birthday Lego making together. 🙂New socks!More outdoor fun!Halloween fun!Splatoon Inklings! I had to take a quick pic as they rushed from house to house!Brains! Who doesn’t love Pop Rocks?!Weekday mornings. Someone always end up getting rolled up in the yoga mat – yoga sushi!Minecraft Lego table making!It’s always a lot of fun outside. The boys loved raking the leaves and even went out to do it of their own accord. This may be why…it’s fun to bag them…or fun to play with the bag!They also decided to whittle the hammers they made a while ago so that the handles were rounds and then filed smooth. Love this stuff.With all the leaves we collected I decided to frame them. I love how they look. Nighttimes consist of games of all kinds. 🙂Home made bread. Oh man, that’s good.
Eek! The Eyes of Cthulhu!One of our bridges is being completely redone without closing it down. Amazing, right? He loves tamari almonds and loves making them almost as much!
These are a couple of big camera pics – as in the real thing and not my phone. Love these guys.

Hope you’ve had just as wonderful a fall season as we have. Yesterday we got our first taste of snow. It was a quick one and nothing stayed on the ground but still exciting and beautiful.

Our week in review | July 11 pt1

July 12, 2015 by tam

This week was all about bugs for us as we are joining along in the Mud Puddles Summer Nature Camp! The camp is spread over a month and each week there is a different focus. This first week was all about bugs! It’s always fun to hit the outdoors and see what we can find!

The boys really got into drawing and labeling bug parts after reading about bug anatomy in the Summer Camp pdf.
Later in the we learned about making a bug hotel! There were some great ideas posted onto the Mud Puddles Pinterest board. The boys had a great time hunting around for bit of bark, twigs, pine bundles and dead leaves.We had a great time with the first week of the Nature Camp and the boys were excitedly asking what we would be doing for the next week!

Other goings-on: I have had a pile of my husband’s old t-shirts laying around waiting to be repurposed into a rug. This was one of my tasks for this week and the boys helped me with the prep. Well, they kind of helped! Ha! I cut up strips of t-shirt and they pulled on the strips until they curled in on themselves and then rolled them into a ball – or onto each other. Fun! I wish I had counted how many t’s I had before cutting them up. It would have been nice to be able to gauge how many t-shirts it takes to make a certain size rug. I’m guessing there were about 12-15. And so it begins! I will post the final rug next week. Xman was interested in learning to crochet as he sat next to me watching. He caught on quickly and will be helping me finish the rug. 🙂 While mowing the lawn this week I happened upon some little mushrooms as we have a lot of shade in our yard. I decided to pick a couple and make some mushroom prints. I wasn’t sure which colour of spores these wee ones would have so I used a sheet of black and a sheet of white paper.

We also spotted these love bugs…on our hike yesterday. Amazing colours! Wow!

To see more from our hike go to part 2!

Happy week everyone!

Our week in review | July 4

July 5, 2015 by tam

Stephen was waiting for his new Merrill running shoes. He got a hole in the sole early on and Merrill helped him into a new pair – awesome customer service! He was like a child waiting for Christmas day: he kept checking the tracking on the package and when the day came for them to arrive he was looking out the window more often than not in hopes of seeing Joyce, our postal deliverer (she’s awesome!). When Joyce did arrive she joked with him saying she expected to see him in a moment running in his shoes on the next street over!

Arriving a Cleveland Beach with some friends. The best sunscreen. 😉
Okay, so Xman and I found this mushroom and it’s for sure the best find in a long time! Look how big it is! On returning home I found it in our mushroom book as being a fly agaric, it’s poisonous/hallucinogenic. How ironic since I had commented on it being a very Alice in Wonderland ‘shroom that the caterpillar would love! 😉 Seriously, the coolest! I love the rocks, the seaweed, the coral, the shells and more. Always good finds at Cleveland Beach. …and good friends make it even better! 🙂 <3 Dawn and L found this awesome jellyfish on the beach. They are called comb jellies or Sea Gooseberries. I found an interesting article here about them here. When we first made our way to the beach we all had on sweaters or hoodies but once there the sky opened and the weather was beautiful. F found a crab with eggs. Geez she find the coolest things!Fun in the water!
Saying goodbye to the mushroom. It was like a beacon along the path. Thank you, Mushroom! Another morning, making the most of the weather: enjoying a bit of breakfast with my basket of things and my bullet journal while listening to the birds sing. At one point I got up to survey the garden and saw a spider’s web alight in a neighbour’s tree. At another angle I wouldn’t have seen it!

Car wash!Fun with Dixie Cups!

The boys are getting used to their new bikes and the best place near us (since we live on a narrow street with rushing cars!) is the nearby parking lot. The day went from sun to rain quickly but the boys were having too much fun to stop and the rain was warm. The pavement had been hot from the day’s sun so when the rain came it started to condensate on contact. Very cool! My witchy Willow ordered from the local comic book store. The boys love Lumberjanes so we are in there on a regular basis. If you haven’t heard of this comic book series you should check it out. It’s great for kids (I laugh my head off!) and all about the girls! We visited a friend at work and the boys got to test out a demo toy to see how well they could understand the directions and construct it before it went out to stores. Very cool stuff! Plus, she showed us their cool 3-D printer! A relaxing evening at home. Love. Happy Canada Day fireworks! It’s hard to see but just to the left of the fireworks is a white dot in the sky – that’s Jupiter. Venus is hiding behind it all. Some hopscotch fun at the local ToysRUs… …a little Pikachu drawing…

…and more hopscotch.

We had a great week and we hope you did too! Again, if you’d like to share post your link in the comments!

Here’s to the week ahead! 🙂

Forest Friday – Oakfield Park

June 27, 2015 by tam

We had a wonderful day today at Oakfield park as part of Dawn’s Forest Friday group where we get together and learn about nature while going on a walk through the woods. It’s always a lot of fun for the boys and myself – I always have my trusty iPhone and rubber band macro handy (so much easier than my DSLR for these kinds of things!).

Warning: I took many photos and most of them are included! So fun!

Since reading Gathering Moss I find I am more in love with mosses if that’s possible.
Lady Slippers! I love Nova Scotia for its abundance of this beautiful orchid – you just have to know where to look… I am a big rock lover and in turning one over I found some busy ants. I think I made them busy by exposing them! They hurriedly carried all the babes into their underground home. Mama was a big one and was the first to disappear down the hole! British Soldier lichen Irises – I just love wildflowers! Spiders are the coolest. Dawn created this super fun exercise where we place masking tape (or duct tape) on our wrist or onto a sheet of paper sticky side out. Then we find flowers, acorns, whatever strikes our fancy and stick them on. I enjoyed this so much that I wore my ‘bracelets’ into the grocery store and Tim Horton’s afterward!Lightening bugs mating! Summer is the season of love…! 😉
This guy was hanging around the lovers. I dare say he was quite the voyer! I bought a bird/nature journal a couple of weeks ago. I could have used a basic journal but this one has some great quotes and nest illustrations in it so I couldn’t help myself. I think I will use it for a flower press too and then write down what happened on that specific day. 🙂 A wee little daddy longlegs. I love this guy. He hung out on my thumb for a long time. We played together: I would gently raise his leg and he would hold it there. I’d raise it a little further and he’d still hold it there. I’d lower it down and he’d again hold it there. I think he was humouring me (simple human…). Mushrooms! Love mushrooms! I haven’t checked the type of this one yet but had to show a couple of photos for details of the gills… …and the webbing across the top… The kids became completely absorbed in playing in the woods and surrounding field – as kids should and it makes me sooo happy! Xman was in the woods and found this dragonfly just coming out of its nymph skin. I have never seen this before. It was THE COOLEST thing I’ve seen in a while. I’m sure I will see something just as cool tomorrow because Nature is that way but for today, this was THE BESTEST. Beautiful life. If you aren’t familiar with Dawn’s Forest Friday and are in the Halifax, Nova Scotia region you can find out all about it here.

She also has a workshop coming up on her and Annie’s Mud Puddles to Meteors site that I am so excited about called Mud Puddles Summer Nature Camp. It’s an online workshop so you can be anywhere in the world and still participate. It’s gonna be awesome! Hope to see you there!

Conrad’s Beach

June 13, 2015 by tam

One of THE BEST things about living in Nova Scotia is that you do not have to go far at all to find yourself in a natural surrounding. Yesterday morning we went with friends to our usual park and trails and this afternoon to a beach.

Oh, what a great day! I’m pooped! But it was worth it because the weather was amazing and we were in the company of good friends. What could be better?

The water was freezing but that certainly didn’t stop these boys! Digging, digging, digging! I love that they still become so enthralled with sand and all of the things you can create.I found this amazing shell with some coral anchored into the top. Nova Scotia coral is often white and very small.

After taking a good look I had to bring it home to draw. It reminds me so much of a heart with all of its veins and arteries. Goodness, it’s just the coolest.And then there was this guy making the most of an amazing day. Totally.

Everyday Nature

June 11, 2015 by tam

The boys and I are having a great time participating in Dawn’s Everyday Nature for Families workshop! It’s a ten day workshop and every day we receive a pdf with different ways of connecting with nature, easy ways to connect in our busy world. Even though we are often outside I found that doing this workshop has me thinking about what we do and what we see in new ways.

Today Dawn encouraged us to take another perspective and imagine what it must be like to be a bug out there in the world. Life is completely different from their point of view. So, tonight we all went outside and got down low to the ground or up close to the plants and trees and we found some very cool things!

Forget Me Nots have hair on their buds!

A bug walking on lichen on a tree must be like us walking barefoot on gravel. I recently planted grass seed and it’s begun to sprout! Moss everywhere! I love moss! Samaras are just beautiful. After the rain… The bark was peeled off a downed tree and this was what was underneath. It looks like skin to me. The beginnings of moss or lichen in the medicine wheel garden. I think it’s lichen…we shall see… Love those dandelion seeds! This sowbug looks like it’s traveling in a dense rain forest! So, so cool! I found this as well in the medicine wheel garden. It was attached to a downed twig and when I moved it it release some spores into the air and on me! A fern frond with…eggs? A columbine bud. Such rich colour and all those hairs! This wee little guy was in our herb garden walking on legs that look very translucent (and a bit hairy). I was surprised to see dew from this morning still hanging on the Lady’s Mantle by dinnertime. Can you imagine being an aphid trudging through those hairs? I had to see up close how our Virginia Creeper holds onto our maple tree. Amazing! Prickly raspberry buds! Our first ladybug larvae of the season! Yay! A busy ant. I love how cute it looks..and that fuzzy body! Soil still clinging to the new grass.

If you would like to learn more about getting outside yourself or with your kids you can visit Dawn’s website as well as Mud Puddles to Meteors, run by both Dawn and Annie, where you can sign up for newsletters and join their Facebook group.

Global Big Day – the bird count!

June 7, 2015 by tam

On May 9 (yes, I’m a little behind in my posts because I greatly detest editing photos!) we had an amazing time outdoors counting birds for Global Big Day.

Global Big Day happens once a year as part of Cornell Lab of Ornithology events. The goal is to find and record as many bird species possible worldwide. The boys had the binoculars and their phones for the app and I had my camera while Stephen took note of species spotted and how many.

The first place we went was Porter’s Lakes Trail just across the street from our library. There are so many trails in Nova Scotia you don’t have to drive too far at all to find one – many are in the city!

I think this nest belonged to the American Goldfinch that we heard and spotted nearby. We had seen this osprey nest from a distance many times on our way to the library for years but never went on this trail. We were excited to get so close to both the mother and father! They were clearly used to all of the people walking on the trail – they just ignored us all.There were also many signs of beavers…

The Merlin Bird ID app was extremely useful in not only identifying bird species but also in matching certain bird calls to the bird before we saw it! At our first location I heard a bird call I did not recognize and the boys used their app to find that it was the Red-winged Blackbird. I was so excited because when I lived in Wisconsin as a child they were my favourite bird. I had heard that they spent time in Nova Scotia but I had yet to see one so I was very excited to know that the bird call was indeed a Red-winged Blackbird. This picture is the bird reacting to the call on the app!

There also just happened to be a geocache in the area so why not find it?! And of course a wooly-bear caterpillar! I am not sure what tree this was as there were yet to be any leaves but it reminded me of an oak.

From here we went to another location about 20 minutes away. We were totally psyched after seeing the blackbird and osprey, plus a Yellow-rumped Warbler whose was camera shy. I was told of a place where there was a blue heron and osprey so we crossed our fingers…

As we walked onto the trail there above us hovered an osprey searching for fish in the waters below. It was quite an experience to watch and were awed by its ability to just float in one spot in the air, catching the currents.Of the times I caught the osprey with my camera diving for fish, I’d say 85-90% of the time it came out with a fish.

The tree swallows were so fast that it was very challenging to get a decent picture. They were also hanging around the osprey as you can see in the photos above.A Common Grackle. Part of the Crow family but with this beautiful blue/purple neck.

A Yellow-rumped Warbler (twice), a Downy Woodpecker and a pair of Goldfinches.

We saw the Blue Heron but it was on the other side of the marsh and my lens just wasn’t long enough to take a decent photo. Boo. 🙁

I cannot go to any trail without a picture of some moss these days!

Double-crested Cormorant with a fish!
We really just couldn’t get enough of that osprey. Look at those wings!

We did a lot walking that day and all got a bit tired. A huge overturned tree is a great place to take a rest!

My silly boys! Those binoculars were just purchased last Christmas and they are amazing! Bushnell Bone Collector Trophy 10×42’s in case you are wondering. Water and fog proof. Just right for Nova Scotia! 😉 Haha!

It’s hard to believe we saw all these amazing birds so close to home – you can see an apartment complex in the background above.

Below are our findings for the day. Can’t wait for next year!

Emerald Falls

June 4, 2015 by tam

Yesterday we got a chance to visit a trail we have heard about from a friend many times and seen some pretty cool photos as well. The weather has always been the kicker so myself and the boys were excited to get a chance to explore here.

I have posted a lot of pictures because I had a hard time choosing what with such wonderful new life on the forest floor and other places!

It was quite a steep trek up but the sound of the rushing water made us want to make it to the top!

Xman was enjoying poking at the soapy froth – it was pretty cool, I have to say.
Here is a bit of it dried up on a stick overhanging the water. So glad that I brought my macro lens along! My camera bag was heavy but it was worth it – and a good workout up the hill. 🙂

A miniature first filled with a life of its own! The boys love seeing the evidence of beetles. It’s not often I get a photo of myself with my boys! Thanks, Dawn! 😉 The walk down was somewhat tricky in spots but hand-holding made it that much easier. I just love the little fiddleheads! Dawn spotted this spotted gall – she has an eye for them – and the oaks. 😉 …and this wing…from a June beetle. Poor dude. Love the droplets! This guy was superbusy and supertiny! and just would not take the time to pose for a portrait. Puddles do not ever go unnoticed – so fun! It’s a whole other world out there that amazes me in so, so many ways. Great beauty and wonder.