The Land

We have spent the weekend at 'The Land' - a small piece of forest on Charleston Lake in Ontario which Sue and Paul have owned for many years and on which they have erected a small bedroom plus screened 'bug house' for



sitting in. I don't think there are any facilities yet - you do what the bears do. The rigours of winter have also separated the bedroom from the bughouse - somehow ground movement has shifted one about a foot from the other!

We stayed in rather more comfortable surroundings - the log house that is the permanent residence of their neighbours Carol and Duane Dillman who we visited many years ago when the children were small and so was the log house. Their now extended house is built on rock and is rather more stable' has a lovely position among the trees and is surrounded by gambolling charming chipmunks. It was also good to see their son Jeffrey - he stayed a couple of weeks with us in Cambridge some years ago.

By very happy coincidence Saturday was Duane's 72nd birthday and we all went off to celebrate at a restaurant overlooking the St Laurence - this is the 1,000 island area, you can see New York State just across the river which is however full of tiny islands, actually over 2,000 of them. We spent the rest of the time taking a short walk in the adjoining Charleston Lake Provincial Park (sighting of a hairy woodpecker), walking the dogs Winnie and Rufus, and consuming enormous amounts of food at a BBQ attended by their friends Sue and Rick.

By the way we discovered the whereabouts of Leonard -performing at the nearby town of Kingston.

Brian

Not only did we see a Hairy Woodpecker but also a very large, green and brown frog in the Provincial Park. On the way to the restaurant we saw three Turkey vultures, one was ripping something apart on the side of the road and the other two were watching intently from a nearby fence. They are really big and a mixture of black and tan with a red wattle on their heads.

We also stopped on the way to make the acquaintance of a beautiful foal who was only a few days old and while waiting for our dinner to arrive we saw several eagles, one swooping to catch a fish and numbers of herons flapping of to their heron home.

At Duane and Carol's house we saw a Humming bird, no bigger than a big hornet taking sugar water from their Humming bird feeder on several occasions and also watched a Robin feeding it four young in their nest, built in the glass lampshade of one of the lights on the porch. What a weekend for wild life!!

Tess