nature – Page 3 – OldPlaidCamper

Still by the river…(part one was last week, and it has the sunnier stuff – this is part two, and less sunny)

…and we wouldn’t mind if we were still down by the river, but we came home after the third day of rain, and five nights out overall. It wasn’t the rain, it was the cold – it barely hit 10C for the afternoon high. Ok if you’re hiking, less so for sitting around enjoying the fire in between rain showers…

“Mountain” sector tent site – light that fire!

One afternoon we decided to revisit the microbrewery just outside the nearby village of Frampton. It wasn’t too busy, most likely due to the unseasonably chilly temperatures, but we received the usual warm and friendly welcome from the brewer on for the afternoon. We tasted a light lager, pretending it was late May, not mid-March, and it was pretty good, one for properly warm days ahead. For those, we stocked up on the raspberry sour we’d enjoyed so much last summer. It’s not a style I usually like, but this one is really good.

Last summer – raspberry sour on the left – yum!

I couldn’t resist a new NEIPA and bought a couple to savour later – slightly too strong but very tasty if you like a big hoppy beer. The last one we tried was only currently available on tap, so we’ll hope to return and buy a bottle/can or two – a new nut brown that was, for me, a perfect autumnal sipper. Goodness, I only had one sip but it was absolutely spot on!

We weren’t only tasting beers or sitting by the fire or snoozing or in between snoozes – we also wandered up and down a couple of nearby trails. The vibrant fresh greens and bright new spruce tips were very welcome sights.

The rain and mist cleared from time to time so we were able to see longish views across the valley. The trail winds past a second section of the campground, a few walk in tent sites in the “mountain” sector. These are lovely secluded spots if you’re happy to hike up a steepish short way with all your gear.

One afternoon, mind and body suitably rested from the hiking, the scenery and the all round pleasantness of the Etchemin valley, I fell asleep and had the strangest dream. There was beer, spruce tipped and resinous, growing on trees. Oh, if only…

Time to wake up! Well, this has been less sunny but not miserable, like a rested OldPlaidCamper during the second and rainier half of a camping trip. Apologies for the ridiculously long post heading this week, no idea how that happened. Sleepy brain?

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

By the river

Thunder? Heavy rain showers? Heat? Humidity? One or two bugs? Check, check, check, check and check!

But… almost constant birdsong, a musical river, freshly unfurled spring greenery, a distant farm dog barking, spells of warm sunshine and a remote campsite in the trees above a river? Yup! On balance, let’s just say “when can we go again?”

We had a splendid few days down by (or just above) the Etchemin. Two decent sized bug bites on my ankle (how? I was wearing boots!) had me temporarily renaming it the Itchyman River, but I got over it, and barely mentioned it at all out loud. I didn’t provide any insects a free lunch once I’d applied the bug repellent. Use it, OPC. Happens every start of camping season – when will you ever learn…?

Itchyman – are those clouds bubbling up? Maybe…

The trailer and bug screen performed as hoped for, the wood-store was well stocked and dry – one match got our fire lit every time, maintaining a pretty good run (he says, modestly) – and is there a better outdoor aroma than woodsmoke and coffee? Perhaps my hiking boots left outside and under the trailer? With that aroma, why do the bugs even approach my ankles?

We saw and heard geese, and I startled a pair of ducks as I leant over to snap a shot upriver, at which point a kingfisher scolded me, Scout shook her head, and Mrs. PC seemed happy enough I didn’t fall in.

Several mornings a hummingbird buzzed me as I was making coffee, darting to the side I wasn’t looking as I tried to spot her. I caught a blur of small brown bird as she buzzed into the trees, perhaps disappointed we don’t take nectar with our coffee.

The Etchemin flows through a lovely little valley of low wooded hills and patches of cleared farmland. Not much more than an hour south of Quebec City, it is a delightful spot to find a change of pace. Breathe in, breathe out, stretch, relax, repeat, and it’ll soon be beer o’ clock.

It’s beer o’clock already? Well alrighty…

A very welcome break from the noise and nonsense that can be hard to avoid in the wider world. Spring this year hasn’t been all that it could have been, but a few more trips like this as we edge towards summer and maybe all will be well, with equilibrium maintained…

More about this trip next week – the river, the rain (yup!), the microbrewery and hiking trails nearby.

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

Rain or shine…

…this long weekend will find us camping. Enjoyably off grid, I’ll catch up on unread blogs and comments later next week!

Either way, we’ll be gone and busy being happy campers! Enjoy your weekend!

Flowers!

Aiming for glass half full in this brief post, but be warned, it might seem like I’m moaning about the weather. If so, it’s because I am.

Right, let’s give half full a go, with something to brighten up our slow start to the season. C’mon, spring, time to show yourself – it’ll soon be summer…

We wandered the Plains of Abraham last weekend, taking a picnic with us as we searched for some spring colour. We found one or two bright patches in the not quite planted Joan of Arc gardens, and it was pleasant to find a bench in a sunny spot and turn our happy little faces up to the sun, almost golden and contented. Yes, mother, with suitable hats and sunglasses. We’re hoping to head down there again this coming Sunday, see if any more has been planted.

Prompted by two sunny days in a row for the first time since, well, it’s hard to remember, we uncovered the camping trailer on Monday. Happily, all is well with it, so we’ll be up and out from midweek and through the Victoria Day weekend, camping whatever the (rainy) weather. Optimistic sunblock and bug repellent, as well as a tarp or two if needed. Surely not…

Let’s keep it short this week and end here with a spring in our step! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Bright, cheery, and hoppy, like a springtime OldPlaidCamper – cheers!

May!

Hooray! I said I’d share the first green blades of grass when they appeared, so here we go, from earlier this week:

Ok, so we had to look hard, but it was there! Since then, with a morning of sunshine and a few more heavy showers, it has been greening up nicely. Spring! Boing! May! Phew!

Finding and fixing a puncture – the bike would be enormous!

Now our thoughts can turn to camping, so much so, I finally repaired a puncture in the inflatable tent yesterday, and next week we’ll be uncovering the trailer and seeing if any small critters need rehousing before giving it all a general spring airing. A riverside site in mid May is booked and beckons… Yup, it’s May! Hooray!

Short this week, rather like the stretch of sunny spring days so far… Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

“It’s Spring?! Hmm…”

Scout here. He’s not looking, so I’ll type this real quick. Yeah, of course I know his username and password (*OldGitindenial25 and Scoutisthebest if you’re wondering, but don’t share these top secret details on Signal or anything, ok?) Now, let’s get this done before he’s back from the fridge.

I won’t say we’re in deep midwinter ‘cos I can read a calendar as well as the next dog, but don’t tell me it’s spring:

I’ve been pacing the deck, listening to the birds, searching for a dry patch to warm my bones – and also for a gap in the fence to make my escape. No luck there. Spring you say? That’s for the birds…

So I’m indoors more often than not, stuck with the old fella, and who wants that? He might not be ranting on here, but trust me, he’s ranting. Wake me up when warmer days get here.

When it isn’t snowing it seems to be raining – yeah, ok, slightly warmer, but who thinks a walk in freezing rain is fun? Do I look like I had fun?

That’s enough from me. Maybe I’ll post again, some other time when he’s distracted by the fridge? Perhaps after we’ve had a few sunny days out and about? On those future sunny day plans, I should say yeah, he can whinge too much, and don’t we all know he’s an old git in denial about his real age, but on the plus side he did get me that new dog bunkhouse on wheels:

Scout signing off. Shh. Tell no one. I was never here, right?

Nope, not doing anything, just waiting for you, old fella. Hehehe…

Pondering

Pondering ponds. I’ve been dipping a toe or two in Walden Pond the past couple of weeks, if only on the page, and mostly as respite from the spite and stupidity on display in certain quarters. Away from ponds for a moment (I won’t rant, honest), but does stupidity and incompetence even begin to cover it? Unbelievably useless at almost every level… No, no rant, but as I’m here, how can this level of incoherence and destruction also be so predictable and boring? The “very best people” appear to be so very dimwitted and dull. Dear oh dear. Anyway, ponds.

I like how Thoreau is so thorough in his pond descriptions, be they of the ice structure, surface water, volume, depth (ha!), water creatures, or the variety of reflective qualities he found in the many ponds he was acquainted with. I’ve sat staring out over the page and at our current “springter” (thanks, PW), with my thoughts casting back to lakes we’ve visited, and recalling specifically our trip to Lake Témiscaming last summer.

Goodness, how that vast body of water entertained us. When we weren’t paddling or hiking, we must have spent hours sitting by the water, on rainy days and dry days. To borrow/paraphrase from Thoreau, what a delight to be enthralled by ripples and furrows caused by water nymphs or fish, and isn’t it something to marvel at how, on a calm day, the see through mirror surface reveals the heavens above and below?

Yup, hours spent watching the water-skimming insects and ducks make their way, sometimes disturbed by the occasional canoe near the shore, or by one or two motor launches farther out. Tranquil scenes, enjoyed at the time and now many months later, and well suited to encourage calm – I’m happy for that in these strange times…

As springter gives way to spring proper, we’re planning to head out and enjoy some more quiet pondering time by the water. Without wishing days away, now the snow pack is beginning to disappear, perhaps there’s a little countdown to that first camping trip?!

Anyway, stay sane everyone, and let’s plan for the best while enduring some of the worst. We can get by, by dreaming of and enjoying outdoor life. Life in the woods! Or mountains! Or coastlines, parks, gardens and the like! Thank goodness for what remains of our wild and natural spaces – enjoy and protect them!

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

Vernal

If we’re looking ahead with a sense of optimism, then in terms of light and dark we’ve tipped towards the former having passed the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere. Spring has arrived!

Well, sort of… Scout and I enjoyed a lazy hour with that all important second cup of coffee on a sunny deck yesterday morning. Birds were singing, we could hear the tapping of a busy woodpecker in the nearby woods, a fly or two buzzed past, and there was the steady drip, trickle and gurgle of snowmelt from roof tops down drainpipes and along pathways. So, it is spring then – why only sort of, OPC?

*Could that woodpecker keep it down? Some of us are drowsy…*

The deck may be clear (for now) but the grassy parts of our back yard are yet to reveal themselves, and the medium range forecast suggests another bout or three of snow. Still, until those last blasts of northern winter arrive, we’ll take a sunny almost spring morning each time we’re treated to one! Vernal if not yet verdant, with our glass, oops, too early, I mean coffee cup half full and all that. Onwards!

Oh spring, you tease us with this glimpse of grass (all three blades!)

Let’s keep this short but happy enough, like a first false spring before the real thing. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

This and that (ce n’est pas la fin du monde…)

Let’s hope so! ACI mentioned that I hadn’t been on much of a rant recently. She’s right, and I don’t know about you, but I really do (I mean, who doesn’t?) enjoy the occasional state-of-the-world-today rant. The thing is, given the current global situation, if I started, I might never stop and just repeat myself on a boring doom loop. You know, like delivering an interminably tedious monologue to Congress…

So instead, let’s keep it light with a bit of this and a bit of that as we head towards spring. Those clocks spring forward this weekend, and that’s a pleasant switch, from dark days to somewhat lighter, isn’t it?

I was chatting with my brother on the phone the other day, covering this and that, and he was sceptical about the amount of snow I was shovelling, so I sent him this from Sunday morning:

Next door mountain – you can see where an attempt on the summit failed

I didn’t mention the use of snow moving machinery – if he thinks it was all my own work, well I don’t want to correct him… Maybe we’ll try for the summit again another day, using oxygen tanks and a snow dog to haul us up?

“That mountain? Forget it! In other news, did I just hear a can of hoppy IPA popping open?”

That Scout – what is she like? We’re easily distracted around here. Where were we? Snow? Springing forward? We’ve kept most of the snow off the back deck, often wondering if it was going to be me or the deck collapsing first. Scout says me. She is hopeful she’ll be sunning herself outside very soon, what with the clock change. I’ve just seen the two week forecast, and I haven’t the heart to tell her…

“Let me know how your mountain trip turns out when you get back. I’ll be out here waiting…”

So, no rant, not from me, and instead, plenty of other stuff to be getting on with or looking forward to! In fact, let’s finish on a very positive, even hoppy, note:

Hoppier news? Glass half full? I sure hope so…

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

Small changes

After our desert wanderings last week, it’s back to our more usual everyday northern style for this one. No lemons and lots of snow. This means that we were able to get into the woods and plod along – gracefully, of course – on our snowshoes through the deep snow. Splendid!

With daylight hours lengthening, and occasional almost warmth when the sun reveals itself, we’re seeing some of the small changes that add up to the approaching new season. Realistically, it is distant yet, but we sort of fooled ourselves that spring is (almost) in the air! Yes, the snow was deep, and yes, we were on snowshoes, but we could see change coming in the hints of new buds, birdsong above, and in the slight thaw after a period of deep freeze.

Yes, it all points to the same eventual outcome even if it sometimes seems like it’ll never arrive. Our northern winter will end, in snowmelt, and we’ll begin to enjoy the pleasant anticipation (no matter how much I love a proper winter) of bright green days ahead. No, not yet, not yet, and not until we’ve finished playing in the snow, but spring is coming!

Until it does, we’ll continue on skis and snowshoes, and I’ll complain about (but secretly enjoy) shovelling snow, so we can reward ourselves with an almost well earned dark beer or two at the end of the day – they go so well with the season! (Don’t worry, pale ales, I’ll get back to you soon enough. Another small change…)

I think that is a cheery enough note to end on this week. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

	Bob Stanton on Cabin time
	Maria on Cabin time
	Miriam on Cabin time
	Thistles and Kiwis on Cabin time
	plaidcamper on Cabin time