dog – Page 7 – OldPlaidCamper

Holiday spirit…

We’ve been searching…

Looking in the old town, there were some bright sparks:

I think this old fella might know a thing or two about it:

The chap above seemed to have some competition from the chap below (we’ve been keeping an eye on him, looks the sort that might attempt a chimney-based home invasion, and he’d be tough to spot…)

“Come back, young fella – I can tell you where to find ho-ho-holiday spirit – I’ll drop in later!”

Yikes, I found him a little scary and way over my head. I turned to these friendly looking types, but to be honest, whilst they seemed to be in good spirits, it was all rather wheezy and too smoky to get to what they were saying:

Before the big glitter of the big town got too much for me, we retreated into the woods:

“Follow us, OPC, you’ll be fine!” They seemed friendly enough…

I have to say, for me, it was a touch more manageable. A breezy day, so the wind whistled through the treetops, and if I couldn’t make out the words, well I was happy enough with the tenor and tone:

In fact, with a whisper of light snow, and the rattle and rustling of dry leaves, I’d say there were plenty of spirits in the woods. Holiday spirits? Who knows, but it was pretty and peaceful:

To finish, we absolutely found some holiday spirit:

Full(ers) of good things

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

A pinch of cold and a dash of colour

A pinch of cold and dash of colour? Sounds like a recipe for early winter…

Ingredients? Nope! Essential, though? Maybe!

It has been the coldest week of the season so far, and, for the first time, we could feel the cold pinching, almost painful, on our earlyish morning walks. After a dull and rainy (in parts) weekend, it was good to get a light dusting of snow followed by cold and bright days. Yes, frigid enough to find “proper” gloves and toque, and to dig out the thermals. Not for now, those thermals, but soon, very soon…

We’ve been into the old town as well as the woods, and earlier this month had fun in and around Old Quebec, showing a friend some of the sights on their first visit. They thought it was so cold, whereas we thought it was almost warm – still above freezing and sunny!

To keep warm, we focused on food and drink (stores, bars, and restaurants) in between roaming some of the more photogenic streets. In the end, I think we spent more time eating and drinking than we did walking – great fun!

I’ll keep it brief as Scout is nosing me toward the door – maybe she can already smell the snow we’ve been promised this week? Or maybe she thinks I could do with an extra walk or two after all the recent eating and drinking…

Cheers! And happy thanksgiving if that’s for you this week…

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

“*C’mon PC, follow me – you need a walk!*”

An almost true tale of terror

Scout is an adventurous dog. She’s first out the door, first to pee in the driveway, first to pee in the woods (I’ll let you decide who’s second – in the woods, not the driveway…) and really, not too much fazes her. Sensibly enough, she’s irritated by flat earthers, election deniers, liars, folks of that ilk. Don’t get her started on Brexit, Braverman, Boris and all that nonsense – life’s too short, though not as short as Sunak’s time left in No. 10, teehee…

So, she’s adventurous enough. Got snow? Yes please! Mud? Why, let her at it. Sandy beaches? Let’s run and run! More snow? Yippee! Water? Screech of brakes sound. Er, no. Nope. Absolutely not.

Not even a shallow puddle? Let’s find the long way round. Incoming tides? Forget about it. Backyard sprinkler? Nooooo. All that time on the island, loving the beaches but never the water.

Our local woods have a few damp places, and in some spots along the trail there are ankle to knee deep puddles after prolonged rain, but we (mostly Scout) always find the detours. Now the woods have opened up after most of the leafy undergrowth has died back, we’re discovering different trails, perfect for Scout to get into expert snow tracker mode.

Her new favourite story – thanks, Bob – is The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood. She likes an old fashioned tale of terror, where things are so indescribably horrific the author/narrator almost cannot describe them. Now that’s scary. Almost as disturbing as me liking the name Algernon.

The Wendigo takes place more than a century ago, in the north woods in late fall as the first snow is coming. A hunting party falls prey to something. There are strange tracks, unpleasant odours, and frightening sounds. People disappear. What’s out there? Is it the Wendigo? Highly recommended, a hugely enjoyable read, but not one to think about too much in the late fall at dusk in the woods.

But Scout will think about this tale, wagging her tail, just as the sun starts to set and just as we’re as far from home as we like to get. She’ll start at the sound of a squirrel – or was it?! – scrabbling in the undergrowth. If she wore them, she’d have wet her pants when a grouse or similar did it’s exploding out of the shrubs thing, startling me (just a little, don’t believe her…)

So when she stopped dead in her tracks and stared intently ahead, into the woods with the trail going up a steep incline and out of sight, was I bothered? In Wendigo country? As darkness falls? No, no, not this close to home. Right?

We stood still, and the woods stood still with us. The squirrel was long gone, and there wasn’t even a breath of wind to rustle the last of the leaves. All was quiet. No, wait, what was that thumping sound, faint but quite insistent? Wendigo footsteps on a steady and stealthy approach?

Nope, just my heart, finding a more normal beat after the double whammy of the steep slope and that damned grouse thing…

We got going again, deciding not to tell any more woods based ghostly tales until we got home. Ignoring the chill and totally not faking how brave we were, on we went, up over the rise and then picking our way down the slope, taking care not to slip on the combination of partially frozen leaves and icy snow. Scout did stop to point out the stone house where the troll lives, but they weren’t home and we weren’t hanging around.

Then we came to the worst part, so horrific it’s almost indescribable – Scout doesn’t want me to go there, but I will. This new terror? An even bigger squirrel? Two grouse? Grouses? Grice?! (A terrifying new plural?) No, bad as the grouses can be, this was much, much worse. It was a raging torrent! Treacherous looking icy banks and deathly cold black water gushing downstream.

*“Yeah, not too sure we can cross this – it’s pretty fierce!”*

Did Scout want to cross it? Nope. We debated retracing our steps, but knowing the horrors we’d already almost encountered, how could we go back? The troll might be home. The squirrel might be hungry. I can’t (and possibly shouldn’t) even write about the grouses. Instead, Scout scouted up and down stream, looking for a place to cross, knowing she’d have to face her worse fears and dip a toe in the water.

And then, just as I wasn’t ready, she stepped back then leapt forward to clear the raging torrent in one mighty bound! I was so happy she made it across, and even happier that the short leash she was on wasn’t any shorter as I narrowly avoided falling in. Now that would have been horrific – I can’t even begin to imagine the grousing had that happened. Disaster averted, I took a short step (Scout here – he meant to write “giant leap”) and followed Scout over.

Somehow we made it home. Somehow, I managed to open a beer and drink it. Somehow, I’ve managed to recount this tale of terror. And somehow you’re still here reading…

Somehow managed to open and drink this one (a very good stout!)

So there you have it, a tale that isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s one that (no doubt about it or you can call me Algernon) will be whispered and retold around many a winter campfire in years to come.

To be fair, the scariest stuff here this week is in the first paragraph. We do love scary woodsy tales but that isn’t how we find our local forest – not even the streams faze us, do they Scout?!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Woodsy wanderings

After all the excitement prompted by the first (heavyish for the time of year) snowfall last week, we managed to calm ourselves and continue to enjoy the woods even after the snow disappeared pretty quickly. The granite greys and golden browns haven’t been as dull as that might sound, and there were still patches of snow to provide contrast.

In fact, our woodsy wanderings took place on almost warm days – warm as in a few degrees above freezing and under mostly blue skies. There’s a real delight in seeing the shape of trees that have lost their leafy cover. The woods are more open, the views are a little longer, and we can see the very healthy looking grey and black squirrels being busy in their autumn work. They dash and scamper, with an occasional pause to confirm we’re no threat, and then on they go. To say scamper makes it sound like they’re being frivolous, but that’s not really fair or true. Goodness, don’t they work hard?!

The tree bones in the woods near our house are much more slender than the mighty western cedars and hemlocks we were used to back on the island. I’ve enjoyed that difference, and the crunch of leaves, as well as the less damp and somewhat drier mustiness of an eastern fall.

As I write this a few fat flakes are starting to fall, and they’ll likely continue to do so with increasing frequency as real winter approaches.

Golden brown – and chilled, squirrels and all…

What’s left of the last of the leaves will be buried under deep snow, and any crunching will be of an icy nature. What a wonderful fall it has been, and what a wonderful winter we’re looking forward to! Our woodsy wanderings will continue, slower paced by being on snowshoes or in winter boots through deeper snow. Maybe we’ll speed things up from time to time on xc skis – if we have enough muscle memory to remain balanced enough to get away with it. A winter on skis? It’s been a while…

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

First snow of the season!

A bit earlier than we expected, and it didn’t stick around too long, but it was a welcome first sight of what we hope will be an enjoyable outdoorsy winter. (Ask us about that again in late March…)

Scout was absolutely thrilled to see the snow and couldn’t get out of the house fast enough. Fortunately, our door and front gate is each wide enough to accommodate one excited canine and one excited human at the same time. C’mon, Scout, it’s not a race…

The total amount didn’t top out much over a handful of centimetres, but it was enough to kick and slide around in, and it remained cold enough to still look pretty the following day, quite dazzling under bright blue skies.

Mrs. PC managed to calm Scout (and me) down, explaining that there’ll be plenty more snow the next few months and wondering if we might be a little less excitable, ‘cos it’s a long winter? I can’t speak for Scout being less excitable about snow, but I’ll try. Although, whisper it, it was Mrs. PC looking up local xc ski trails and searching out the snowshoes in the basement. Cool!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Fall-tastic?

That’s not a word, but it is an attempt to convey how much we’ve been enjoying the season. Being up with or even ahead of the latest thing is so very much us, haha. Identifying fall is beautiful? Couldn’t be more on trend… Moron, you say? No, but I’ve been called worse, by worse…

Where was I? Clearly, you’re not going to get high quality season-centric (huh?) writing here (see “fall-tastic” above) but we really have enjoyed our eastern woodland leafy fall into autumn.

What a mood enhancer! We’re pretty chipper anyway most of the time, (don’t judge a book by it’s cover; it’s a smiling – on the inside – visage I present to the world) but being out in the woods the past few weeks has further boosted our generally sunny outlook. Each recent morning we’ll approach the local trail and murmur “that’s beautiful”, then a few yards on and a few turns into the trail, say again “that’s beautiful” and on and on we go.

The crisp air, the bright blue sky, the green through yellow through orange and into red leafy splendour, plus Scout’s bouncing gait, the wet-dry smell of leaf decay, and the satisfying crunch and scrunch underfoot? We add it up and our answer is “that’s beautiful!”

“Bouncing? Me? I’m far too dignified for that. But if you wanted to say beautiful…”

Yup, here we are this week struggling to find words and phrases to describe our autumnal adventures. Fall-tastic? Fallsome praise? Autumnulent? Why I autumn do better… Hmm. Should I stop, leaf it for now?

If you’re looking to read about fall – about any season – with thoughts on the joy found in the natural world, then head over to Walt at Rivertop Rambles. He posted this week, and, like always, it’s a great read. I’m not blowing smoke from a leafy bonfire up his a- … read him, and you’ll see.

Anyway, it’s far too nice outside to be in here writing. I can see the trees from my office window, glowing in sunny autumnal glory, and let me tell you, it’s beautiful!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great weekend!

“His vocabulary really is limited, isn’t it? I mean, bouncing?! What’s wrong with regal, majestic, purposeful…”

Cooling…

…and thank goodness, particularly after the recent mini heatwave! So, how have we spent these cooler days? (Be warned: bouncing around like a box kicked rugby ball, this post will chop and change more times than a fly half trying to fool the opposition, showing no coherence, like a game spoiled by a fussy rugby referee with a whistle breaking up the flow of a game, or, or, like a…) Yeah, if you don’t like rugby, maybe stop reading?

Let’s try the non-rugby stuff. Falling temperatures and falling leaves helped make the week a pleasant one. Scout has been very happy to get back to the woods, and we’ve enjoyed the almost bug free wandering through the trees. Yesterday morning was cool, close to the point of chilly, but it isn’t light jacket or rugby jersey weather quite yet.

Gentle breezes prompted some light leaf fall, and the photo below is colourful evidence autumn is more or less upon us.

Red leaves seems a reasonable reminder to look out for red ales (it does? On what planet, OPC?), and hats off to Brasseur de Montréal for their splendid red. Autumn in a glass with the cardboard and toffee caramel flavours I like in a red. It tasted far better than I’ve described it…

We spent a couple of mornings mooching about the Old Town, enjoying the slightly slower fall pace compared to the more full on summer visitor business. Shall we stop for a coffee and pastry? Oh, ok!

Almost forgot – rugby stuff! The rugby World Cup is in full swing, but at seven weeks long, I’ll pay more attention after some of the opening phases are finished. My hopes are very high indeed for Ireland, unrealistically high for England, somewhat high for France, but let’s be real – most likely New Zealand or South Africa will win the whole thing.

I recently read a great piece about remarkable rugby grounds in attractive locations, and for me, this place was the winner: (we’ve agreed with friends to watch a game there sometime and go for a pint or two of Guinness after!)

Donegal Town Rugby Club’s pitch, the Holmes, next to Donegal Bay in the Republic of Ireland. Photograph: Connor Doherty/Harper Collins

Must leave it here as there’s a rumour our backyard lawn (that’s too grand – let’s say patch of grass) is being laid today, needing my expertise (huh?) and fast developing skill with a garden hose. Nope, I’ve no idea where or why Scout is hiding…

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

*Backyard and him with the hose? You haven’t seen me…*

Followed by a Guinness? Oh, ok… (Photograph: Connor Doherty/Harper Collins)

The furnace

We’re enjoying (I think I mean that) a brief heatwave this week, one that is threatening thunder this afternoon (Thursday) and all through tomorrow. It’s been too hot – hot, like a furnace – to charge about doing anything interesting aside from walking with Scout and retreating from the woods due to the resurgent mosquitoes. I got multiple bites on my right shoulder after something got in under my long sleeved shirt. It chewed away for quite some time until I noticed. Itchy…

Bugs! You can’t see them, but they’re there…

The furnace outside has meant mostly staying inside, time well spent with reading, writing and watching a few movies. The best of the movie bunch for me was The Furnace, (yup, you’ve seen what I’ve done here) an Australian outback western set in the late 1800s.

Spectacular locations, more bugs than even in our local woods, and a ripping yarn full of interesting characters doing bad and not so bad things due to greed over gold. An exciting and thought provoking piece, with lots to chew over regarding race, avarice, indigenous rights, immigrant experiences and camels. Yup, camels. If you don’t like camels, don’t watch the movie, you’ll only get the hump. (It’s warm, I’m tired, this is the best I’ve got…) If you’re interested, here’s a better review: The Furnace Guardian review – I think this review acknowledges the Treasure of the Sierra Madre vibe, and I’d agree. If it’s not up to that level, it’s still decent enough.

The book I enjoyed most this week was Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks. If you liked Human Traces (I did, even if it was long winded at times) or Birdsong or A Fool’s Alphabet then you’ll likely enjoy this one. What’s it about? Love, death, grief, recovery, political tension between the wars, identity and belonging, small kindnesses in the midst of tragedy, and, as I’ve found with most of his novels, it stays with you. Also, let’s be honest, snowy Austrian mountain scenes were just the thing to read in a heatwave and after watching the outback movie!

With the heat allegedly diminishing after the weekend, we’ll be back outside a bit more and looking to explore Quebec in early fall. It’s starting to get colourful out there.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Shudder

Judder. Shake. Quake. And here’s a bit of wobble thrown in. Am I dancing? Huh? No. Well, maybe later. Read on for that. Is this an early Halloween post? No, nothing as interesting as that. Ok, PC, what’s going on?

As I write this, our house is shaking and there are huge thudding sounds from outside. An earthquake then? Nope. Those contractors who were on vacation? They’re back and they’re working, rain or shine, on our backyard and driveway. Oomph! There’s another one. Let’s keep this brief.

They left the keys in the ignition, and I was tempted…

Scout is hiding under my desk because she’s not a huge fan of big noise. As a result, I keep hitting my head whenever she gives a muted bark. I was here first, it’s my safe place, but I’ve had to scooch along a bit to give Scout some space. (Scooch? Or scootch? Are these real words?) It’s getting crowded under here. Mrs. PC? She checked in on us earlier and is rather less bothered by the noise and rather more bothered about why I’m not using my desk properly. I said I’m under here for Scout…

Fortunately, we have very understanding neighbours, and one side used this time to get a bit of yardwork of their own done, so they’re all good. Our neighbours on the other side aren’t quite ready to do their yard yet (these are all new builds) but have been happy to let the work crew access our space across their lot. An outdoor meal in our new yard could be some sort of thank you. After the last meal we shared, who knows if they’d like that?

A culinary tale and explanation as to why our neighbours might not enjoy another meal with us? Here goes. Two days before the outdoor work started our immediate neighbours joined us for dinner. Me being of European descent, and only mentioning the adult names when making the invitation, I’d assumed just the adults were having dinner with us. Being of African descent, our neighbours assumed the whole family was invited. I didn’t even blink as five children followed their parents in. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome and welcome. Quick peek up the street, nope that’s it and close the door. Yikes, five extra! Anyway, I remained very much the appearance of kitchen calm (but paddling feverishly under the surface) as I prepared extra servings. Luckily it was a pasta based menu and I hadn’t gone for making those individual soufflés. Beer, wine, speedily defrosting an extra baguette and dancing papered over any cracks caused by the suspiciously small servings. Yeah, we think it went well…

*Driveway?! Do you mean parking spot, OPC?* Yeah, ok…

Jolt! An enormous boulder has just been prised out of what will be the driveway and dropped onto our neighbour’s land. Thump! We owe them – I’d better search out that soufflé recipe, scale it up for nine…

Let’s leave it here, since it’s actually quite challenging to write with Scout sitting on my lap. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful (long – hooray) weekend!

Do I look like I’ve been upstairs hiding under a desk?

Two vehicles could almost squeeze on, so isn’t that a driveway? Oh, ok…

Dog days

It’s been an odd summer, not at all bad, but certainly mixed. We’re thoroughly enjoying exploring our new home, and enjoying securing contractors to complete various landscaping projects a bit less thoroughly. To be clear, the contractors are great – they’ve all been, quite rightly, “en vacances” – but they’re back now and trying to catch up on backlogs due to the rainy weather. Finding contractors? An invisible modern day problem to be sure, and actually the delays have been helpful – we’ve agreed not to go with the Poseidon statue. I was so hoping…

Almost there… perhaps a Poseidon statue?

It hasn’t been all rain and meetings with builders. In between showers we’ve enjoyed picnics in the park. One picnic spot looked like a set from the Teletubbies show. (If you don’t know the Teletubbies, keep it that way. Our daughter loved them when she was a toddler. She probably still does, but don’t tell her I said that…)

Scout has become more used to the heat and humidity, and with all the recent rain has even wondered if we left the rainforests behind? She might have a point:

Agreeable weather permitting, Mrs. PC has absolutely insisted we go along to the Festibiere this coming weekend. It took a bit of arm twisting. I mean, over 100 local beers? OK, yeah, maybe we’d enjoy that… We’ve put in some training:

Thank you if you took a look at the pig photo last week – I was going to write a not so controversial caption connecting pigs to Tories, but decided against it. All those greedy snouts in the trough, who wants to think about that? Instead, and far better, how about this joke from ACI?

A pig walks into a bar and orders 10 drinks. After he drinks them all, the bartender says “Don’t you need to know where the bathroom is?” The pig says “No, I go wee wee wee all the way home.”

That’s still funny after the umpteenth time!

There’s no way it’s going to get any better here this week, so let’s leave it for now. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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	Jet Eliot on Spring forward!
	Jet Eliot on Tall trees and complete quiet…