About Kawartha Lakes, ON

Fall Is In The Air - Lindsay Fall Fair - September 21 - 25, 2011

For those of you who missed the Uxbridge Fair you may want to check out the one in Lindsay this week. Of Course that is after you pay a visit to the Uxbridge Town Hall to see the FREE Art shows and Photography Exhibits that are taking Place as Part of the 2011 Celebration Of The Arts

To Learn More About Life and Living In Uxbridge, Ontario

A community where neighbours work together and get involved in their community.

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It wasn't quite the purple rain that Prince wrote and sung about, but it did rain throughout the day. I had to sneak away in the morning to show a property I have listed in Uxbridge to prospective buyers, but the rest of the day was uneventful, as partially due to the weather, we stayed indoors most of the day.

OK, uneventful for me! Alec visited the dentist last week and was told that he will be losing several (as many as six or seven in the very near future). I discussed Alec's desire to lose his "baby" teeth from the very day he turned six last year, the day he lost his first tooth. Tooth number two fell out last Sunday, and tooth number three fell out yesterday evening just before dinner. Alec went to sleep last night anticipating a visit from the tooth fairy.

I brought my camera, but not the charger, which is on a side table beside our kitchen table (it should be in a shoe box sized plastic container where I keep all my chargers, but I did not put it back after the last time I charged my camera). This leaves me without my primary image recording device, and I will have to resort to my back-up if I wish to take a picture this trip.

We had a hearty breakfast of fruit, french toast and pea-meal bacon (aka as "Canadian Bacon), a very light snack at lunch time, and had grilled Burgers with all the fixin's and a variety of salads for dinner.

This might be a first for us, ever! Two days at the cottage and we have not yet visited Kawartha Dairy in Bobcaygeon! It has cooled down significantly and no one was motivated enough to make the trip after dinner last night! Be assured, we will visit the dairy, its our tradition. I find their ice cream available in more and more locations, Costco in Canada now carries their ice cream. If you have never tried, consider purchasing one of their flavours next time you Kawartha Dairy Ice Cream them for sale.

Helen and my mother-in-law, Vi, both took advantage and had afternoon naps while I spent some time teaching Alec how to play a new board game "Kazink", from the makers of "Sequence". That combined with "Blokus", teaching Alec how to score select a hand and what to pass to the crib, how to score 15s and runs, and some basic strategy, Alec and I played two "open" games of crib (where the hands are analyzed one at a time, I let him decide what he would do and tell me why, and then, if there are better options, I explain them to him and tell them why, most of the time, this might be a better option. He found it hard to understand why, sometimes, when he makes the right play, he does not get rewarded... but then, don't we all have issues understanding, or accepting this at times ;-)

While playing various board and card games, I had Helen laughing like a little girl (which caused me to laugh uncontrollably - in a very "manly" way ;-) several times during the day. We have to make more time for this, we both enjoy playing card and board games too much not to...

All in all, it wasn't the day we had planned, but we made the best of it. It feels like we have been away for a while. The biggest difference I have noticed is the quiet. We have not had the radio on at all, and the TV only very infrequently. Perhaps there is a "takeaway" in this.

Sneaking away to the cottage

Blue-green Algae in Sturgeon Lake

Hope you all have a very happy Monday!

The confirmed presence of blue-green algae (Cyababaceria, aka "pond scum") in parts of Sturgeon Lake between Sturgeon Point and Bobcaygeon, has resulted in a advisory from the Haliburton, Kawartha and Pine Ridge Health Unit to avoid the use of water from the lake in affected areas for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing clothes and dishes and providing water to pets. People, dogs and other pets should be kept from entering and swimming in affected areas of Sturgeon Lake.

Ingesting this algae can lead to headaches, fever, diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and a host of other health problems. Contact with water contaminated with blue-green algae can result in skin rashes, swollen lips, eye irritation, ear ache, sore throat and other symptoms. If you have been in contact or ingested water containing blue-green algae and are exhibiting symptoms, seek immediate medical attention.

The consuming of fish or shellfish caught in areas containing blue-green algae is discouraged.

This explains why the cottage is so quiet... no jet skis on the lake... perhaps that is why there seemed to be less people when I arrived Saturday evening. We had intended to do some fishing, and perhaps to swim, but we will manage to find other activities to keep us (Alec) occupied.

Helen told me her uncle had told her about this before they came up earlier in the week, but it was "news" to me. She also told me about "killer amoeba" in warm lakes in the U.S. south. I had to look this up. I have never heard of anything like this, and perhaps this, too, is true...

If you are interested, these are four good links I found:
Third amoeba-related death this month in the U.S.
2007-Phoenix, Arizona - 6 Die from Brain eating Amoeba
Parent's Summer Nightmare - Killer Brain-eating Amoeba
Researcher's target killer amoeba

After being fairly to "very" busy most of the summer, I managed to sneak away from work after spending Saturday morning and early afternoon exploring some options with a couple hoping to move from their home in Brampton (now that their "nest" is empty), and find more of a "retreat" in a more rural area.

Helen, Alec and Vi (my mother-in-law) had left for our cottage earlier in the week, and had been wanting me to join them. I packed some clothes, left food and water for the cat, took my cell-phone, filled up Helen's car stopped by the office and picked up my laptop and camera, and drove the ~150 km to our cottage just off Sturgeon Lake.

The trip took a little longer than it normally does, Beeton was just clearing the road closed for their 125th Anniversary celebration, I had to detour through Bradford, which was holding their "Carrotfest" celebration of the carrot, and then another detour through Leaksdale around bridge construction.

I had decided to try to see what type of mileage we could achieve if we really tried... fyi, Helen's car EPA ratings were 8.5 l/100km city and 6.5l/100km highway.

The sky was overcast and there seemed to be a cold front passing, I was just managing to stay ahead of the rain. This allowed me to drive without the need for air conditioning, which helped me achieve a trip rating of 6.2l/100km (almost 46 mpg cdn). The best either of us have managed over 100 miles or more.

It started to rain soon after I arrived but that did not seem to dampen my son, Alec's enthusiasm about seeing me.

I brought some texts I intend to read, and am teaching Alec how to play Blokus (a board game I would recommend to anyone), Chess and the very basics of Cribbage. After playing hundreds of hours of war with Alec in the last two years (and not wanting to get into the intricacies of Holdem' yet), I felt it was time Alec learned a new card game ;-)

I will have to admit that I am not nearly as fond of cottaging as is my wife and mother-in-law (they have been coming here for ~ fifty years now), but it seems much quieter this visit. The fact that we have a very limited television package, and that the phone just isn't ringing (OK, my cell-phone still is), might have something to do with it.

After dinner, Helen mentioned to me that I already seemed to be de-stressing compared to how I have been since early July. The views, the lake and the simplicity of the cottage will do that.

I am looking forward to spending a few days doing nothing but R&R, reading, and enjoying some of the regular haunts we visit when we are here. I will try to do as little work as possible, but will log on to stay current.

Hope you all had a good weekend and will have a great week =)