Scout will try and be outside in any weather:
She’s like a cricket fan in an English summer:
Sometimes rain does stop play:
Ok. But look:
Hey, Scout, look! Dreams do come true:
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend! (We’ll spend ours trying to persuade Scout to leave the deck…)
As I write this (Wednesday) it is snowing! I love winter and I love snow, but it is late April now and we wouldn’t mind an escape. We’re making plans, and they mostly feature a tent. Next month? In a tent? We’re quite intent on seeing it happen. Oh dear…
Hard to believe, but yesterday we were in shirtsleeves on the deck drinking our morning coffee. To be fair, snow aside, we could do that every morning if we really wanted to. So many food and drink pieces the last few weeks. Coffee on the deck this week, the two in a row prison and food stories told here the past couple of weeks, and now this one is called Escape plans – do we have a third prison tale? (And a broken promise?)
No no! Late winter cabin fever, that’s all. I’m stuck. The walls are closing in! No more prison stories this week, not after two weeks. Instead, let’s escape, break out (stop it, PlaidCamper) and make a run for it, to the woods. They’ll never find us there…
Yes, we have had enough dry days for the ground to be less soggy and make walking in the woods a more or less everyday event – until the mosquitoes hatch. Scout has been very pleased by our woodland return, and it’s been an effort to keep up with her.
Of course we had to check in with the trolls. The ground had been trampled all about, but no sign of the trolls themselves. Sensibly, they keep out of sight, not wanting the publicity. It’s bad enough I take pictures of their house. That is bad of me, since trolls must be an endangered species – after all, have you ever seen one? (I don’t mean the trolls that, mentally or literally, have never left the parental home, and are living in the basement, sad little things, fighting culture wars and being aggrieved ‘cos, oh I don’t know, bathrooms and toilets are binary/non binary or gendered or some sh*t – honestly, keyboard warriors, do you think a toilet even cares if you’re non-dangly/dangly? There’s so much going on and wrong in the world, but our brave culture warriors want to fight about potty time and get offended that a s/he/they person is using the “wrong” bathroom. Ok…)
Tangent alert! Oops! Too late. Instead, let’s pretend I care enough about forest trolls to pretend to go along with the story they aren’t real. (Huh?!) So, they aren’t real, and they don’t live in a stone house in the woods behind us. Forget I mentioned them. And forget all the dangly stuff. And, I don’t know, maybe forget this entire post? It must be the cabin fever talking – let’s get out of here. Quite potty. I should go now. To the bathroom? Oh dear…
A brief post this week since I can’t talk about trolls or prison. Or bathrooms. It’s like I’ve been shackled. It’s definitely time to make an escape!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
To spring! There have been one or two days this past week where the air has felt almost warm, with a softness or mildness that is more than just strong sunshine on a cold winter day. Yes, I think spring might be right around the corner! (Let’s ignore the forecast for tomorrow – Thursday, at the time of writing – where it’s likely we’ll delight in a high of 1C and somewhere between 5-10 cm of snow. Nothing more than a seasonal blip…)
In recent days we’ve enjoyed a cup of coffee or two on the deck, wavering between do we need a jacket – yes we do – and/or we don’t really need a jacket, do we – yes, you really do. Give it another week or three, and maybe then lose the jackets.
There has been a steady increase in birdsong, along with the almost ceaseless sound of snowmelt and surface water dripping from roof tops and gurgling into drains. The edges of gradually reappearing grassy areas are showing just a hint or two of green as the sunshine melts the last of the ice banks.
Goodness, have we time to finish the Easter chocolate before finding time to start cutting the lawn? (Lawn? Steady on, OldPlaidCamper – I think small patch of grass is closer to the mark. Lawn…)
I’ll leave it here for now, feeling optimistic about spring as we look past the next few days towards a weekend and beyond that promises something positively balmy. In the meantime, where’s that jacket? And, oh no, the snow shovels?
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Yup, we’ve been spring breakers, if by that, we are taking a break from spring. Or spring is taking a break – or yet to arrive – in Quebec!
I do like to say how much I like snow, so at the risk of sounding as if he doth protest too much, we’ve had plenty of snow and I doth like it!
We – I – was delighted to see the latest large dump of snow stick around this time. For most of March it has snowed on and off and melted almost as fast as it fell. This made walking in the woods somewhat challenging, with a thin topping of slush over another thin layer of ice, with a large layer of mud lurking underneath. Sounds like a spring break drinks order at a dubious beach bar.
My Dad would have liked that. He used to drink whiskey and coke (yuck), always ordering it in a tall glass, lots of ice. I thought of him enjoying that slushy delight a few times when my foot post holed into the muck. Raised a smile as I wondered if my feet would stay dry…
So no spring break style weather for us, but at least the last round of snow fell through a colder patch. It stuck around on top of ground that was more frozen, making travel into the woods much easier. Hard to say who was happiest, me or Scout? Probably Scout by a nose!
If you’re on a spring break, I hope it’s going great for you, whatever the weather. Maybe order yourself a glass of something good? Tall glass, lots of ice?
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Oops, I mean pause… Anyway, here’s Scout enjoying an almost warm and sunny spring morning earlier this week:
She, like us, was surprised late Saturday and through Sunday, when just as we were finished organizing our spring camping plans, the snow began to fall. And fall. And fall! Not too sure of the final amounts, but it was close to a record for a March snowfall in Quebec.
It was certainly pretty, although it might have been the wettest and heaviest snow I’ve ever shovelled. More like weighty sorbet rather than light fluff. Temperatures have climbed since the weekend, so when we were enjoying the fruits of my snow shoveling labour by sitting on the cleared and sunny deck, the noisiest sounds were those of running and dripping water as the sorbet defrosted.
We took a walk out around the neighborhood once the storm passed, and it looked more like mid-January than it did back in mid-January:
The snow was too claggy for us to walk on or through to access the woods, so we made do with looking at the edges. Pretty enough:
After all our exertions, we went home and enjoyed a well earned glass of something good!
The next week or two looks set to follow a similar pattern, with another small spring forward and hints of warmth, followed by a drop in temperatures and more snow. Is it jumper or jacket, or both?!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Let’s do that!
We spent an enjoyable weekend celebrating a friend’s 60th birthday. Some of us are slightly older, some of us (me) are much younger, but we mostly all agreed we’d hardly changed from the vibrant young things we all were last week, or last century.
It’s likely we have fewer springs and summers ahead than we’ve already enjoyed, so each one left to us is one to look forward to but not rush. With that in mind, we’ve been planning a few spring and summer camping trips. Unbelievably, at least for someone who likes to pretend he knows a bit about camping and being outdoors, I don’t think I’ve slept in a tent since autumn 2022. Goodness!
Part of the preparation – it’s getting to mud season here, no more skiing or snowshoeing so we might as well look ahead and be prepared – is checking out what equipment we have and what state it is in. We’ve had to acquire a new tent – our palatial green one seems to have gone missing. Hopefully it’s getting well used out on the wilder parts of the west coast of Vancouver Island!
I do have and absolutely love my “work” tent, a tiny one person camping miracle perfect for backpacking and carrying onto small boats, but not one for two people and a dog. So a new tent it is.
For this coming season, we’ll be front country camping in sites accessible by truck. It’ll be sometimes somewhat remote, but not the remote remoteness we enjoyed on the coast. My brother has a new tiny teardrop trailer, and we’ll be meeting up somewhere twelve hours north of him and twelve hours west of us, to test out his new rig. I don’t think he’s done too much camping in the past, so I did mention there’ll be at least three (and maybe as many as five) mosquitoes where we’re headed. There, now he can’t complain about not knowing…
So do your worst, mud season, we’ll get through whatever you throw at us the next few weeks – late season snow or rain or late season snow and rain – because we’re almost prepared to spring forward and land right side up, ready for the big outdoors! Boing! Squelch! Smile! Why, we’re hardly any older than the last time we were hardly any older…
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Hidden dangers? Sounds exciting – they could be anywhere and everywhere. Goodness, let’s explore this some more – follow me into PlaidCamper dangerous daydream territory…
I’ve rarely found outdoor places to be overly intimidating, preferring instead to enjoy and be amazed by the beauty of the natural world, at least as I’ve experienced it. I’m sure if I was ever truly lost in the woods, or really caught outside in an immediately life threatening situation, then I’d certainly feel trepidation, and be afraid. I don’t leave home unprepared, but perhaps I’m getting complacent? I should snap out of it, because maybe it’s not so safe out there…
Mostly though, I’ve been outdoors in relative safety, often due to the company of more experienced fellow travellers, people who’ve taught me, as necessary, how to safely navigate the genuinely wild and remote places we’ve found ourselves. I count myself very fortunate to have been taught and trained by so many tremendous individuals.
But what about those hidden or unexpected dangers? Do you ever wonder how you’d truly fare if you found yourself in a serious and dangerous wild situation? I think about this quite often, although I don’t go out of my way to seek danger. It’s just… suppose danger finds you? There’s always something lurking in the woods, isn’t there?
Recently, I’ve noticed that sometimes I’ll wander along and daydream, somewhat inattentive, almost complacent because I’m walking in woods mere minutes from our current home. I’ve yet to see bear or wolf tracks, so it’s all good – isn’t it?
A little while back, I fell behind Mrs. PC and Scout, mostly because I’d been dawdling, stopping to take a photograph or to look at a particular tree up close. Distracted, I stepped off the trail in a spot a bit more overgrown than the surrounding area. It was heavily blanketed by recent snow and my snowshoe went down and then down some more.
Struggling to extract myself, something on the far side of the nearest tree positively exploded into motion, up, off and away. You should have seen me jump up, out and back on the trail, heart hammering. In this place I’ve never seen tracks for anything larger than a deer or another person, so I’ll assume it was a deer. I didn’t see what it was – too busy waiting for my overactive imagination (everything ran through my mind, so many possibilities – fortunately, nothing ran out of my undershorts) and my pulse to calm down…
Once I’d steadied myself and caught up with Mrs. PC and Scout, (my outdoor cool and nonchalance restored, acting like I’d never been, you know, even slightly startled) it was back to daydreaming, asking how I’d cope in a dangerous or unexpected situation?
Seems like being taught and actually learning might be two different things. As for what might really get me out there? Well, why worry about a bear when a deer combined with an overactive imagination might do for me. How would I really cope? Hmm…
PlaidCamper caught daydreaming – I’ll say I had a wake up call! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
It’s been an on and off sort of winter, and speaking for myself, I prefer a steady seasonally appropriate winter rather than a surprise thaw followed by a freeze followed by a thaw. Mud season can wait! Those lumpy with slush to ice sidewalks can wait! It’s a thaw point for me.
We did get into the local woods fairly recently, a decent snowfall providing some fun snowshoe conditions. We plodded and Scout scampered – I really do think snow is her favourite substance (or second favourite, just behind anything a dog can safely eat. Or unsafely. Fortunately, not too many incidents like that…)
We’ve heard a bit more bird song on our recent outings, and last week a woodpecker flew across the path ahead of us, landed high and crept up and down a tree trunk looking for good things. A red head! Was it a pileated woodpecker? I honestly don’t know, but it was lovely to see.
The silver bark, green needles and a light dusting of early morning snow made what could have been a monochrome morning somewhat brighter than that. It was cold, but not so cold we couldn’t stop and sit to enjoy the quiet and a dusty muesli-style bar. Sort of healthy, but maybe go back to carrying chocolate? Just a (sensible) thought…
No amazing glass trees, and no graceful gliding, but the silvers and greens and our steady snowshoe plodding after a fresh fall worked a different sort of wonder for us! The latest thaw is behind us, and I believe both more snow and appropriately steady seasonal temperatures are in the forecast…
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
A short post this week, a mini-celebration of winter, with something of a dog’s eye view on embracing the season! At least, she would if she could get out there…
Scout likes to get outside whatever the weather, and, when I wasn’t feeling too well not so long ago, we still had to go out – one of us needed to burn off some energy.
Eventually we managed to go a little further afield, and Scout was even happier than her normal state of happy!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
That’s the idea when xc skiing, isn’t it? Kick and glide! Yup, we got out for our first xc skiing trip this winter. Our first time on skis for many years, and, just like riding a bike, it’s perfectly possible to fall off.
Not that either of us did, but only because we were sensible enough to stop when we found ourselves tiring. I’m often told I’m tiring…
Muscle memory, or the memory of once having leg muscles went some way towards keeping us on track. We went to the flattest part of the Plains of Abraham to test ourselves. It wasn’t too much of a trial, the morning being bright, the sky shining blue, and the sun bouncing off brilliant white snow. A crisp and sharp winter morning where it feels so good to be alive.
On brilliant, I’m happy to share that I invented a new “kick and glide” technique that isn’t in any of the instruction manuals or guides to xc skiing. It involved a complicated and (un)coordinated set of movements likely missing both a kick and a glide, and yet it still somehow propelled me forward. Remarkable!
I suspect the gradual lowering of my centre of gravity in recent years, certainly those years since our last ski trip, coupled with a possibly stylish and rakish into-the-wind lean (mostly the first stage of the ever present possibility of a fall – never happened) was what provoked gasps of amazement from our fellow skiers. I think they were gasps, might have been curses, but I couldn’t be too sure, as I didn’t dare break my concentration…
Anyway, having survived this first outing, and managing almost an hour of high speed circuits, we’re looking forward to getting out there again soon. We might even take on a gentle downhill or two, and then see how we do on the uphill parts! Kick and glide, huff and puff, and how about coffee and cake after?
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
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