TOM THOMSON CANOE

IS DONE. And I did not even have to take out the chain saw – just got in there and cleaned away some of the broken branches 🙂 . I cannot say it was a fun or easy piece to punch – it required so much concentration and such an array of threads that I had to organize and spread out on an Ikea tray so that once I had punched a few loops in one colour I could switch to the next value or colour and on and on. But I am happy with it (and even happier that it is done) and now need to figure out if I am going to mount it to a wonderful antique box or frame it. I like functional art so the box is really tempting… that way I can store some fun treasures inside the box and enjoy my Tom at the same time…

And now for some tales from the forest – or tails!!! We have been having a wonderful summer – yes hot and humid some days but living on the lake makes that bearable. On those miserable days we work hard on outdoor projects (which Gord is getting rather fed up with as every morning there is a new project added to his list!) and then rush down to the boat and out in the lake for a swim. We discovered a wonderful spot that noone else seems to know about – fern covered cliffs falling into really deep water so I can swim along the shoreline to my hearts content. Have spent a few wonderful days there with our company(ies). Anyway, I digress. One day as we were sitting on the dock momma mink and I think a more grown up baby (mom was black, the other was brown) came loping along the shoreline. Gord starts making this squeaky noise with his mouth and fingers and up pops momma in a frenzy looking around, trying to find the source of the squeaks which sounded very much like a baby mink. Gord continued to squeak and all of a sudden plunk – mom dives into the water and starts swimming towards the dock! Yikes – nothing like a frenzied mother mink who thinks her baby is in danger. I jump up and yell – Gord – she’s coming for us!!!! and run up the stairs leaving Gord on the dock to face the mom on his own. Well, once the squeaking stopped mom was no longer interested and headed back to her companion and on their way they went.

Another day, Diane and I were sitting on the porch punching away when I heard bang, bang, pause, bang, bang, bang. Thinking something was wrong with the boat, I headed to the top of the stairs – boat was fine but I heard Bang, bang again and looked down the stairs to the dock and holy cow – a turtle was banging her way down the stairs. She would reach a landing and the banging would stop and then back down the stairs – bang, bang. Welllllll, we have about 25 steps to the lake and all that banging could not be good for her body or brain so I yelled at her to STOP and ran down the stairs, picked her up and carried her to the water and let her go. Not sure how happy she was as she piddled on me – was that in gratitude – she has been up from the lake at least 6 times this summer digging holes in our driveway and living in our pond. Hopefully, she has not banged her way down the stairs every time she returned to the lake.

So the animals have been entertaining us again this summer. I am sure there will be more close encounters that will provide us with a chuckle.