The winter that would never end!

     “It was such a spring day as breathes into a man an ineffable yearning, a painful sweetness, a longing that makes him stand motionless, looking at the leaves or grass, and fling out his arms to embrace he knows not what.” 

~ John Forsythe

      Today as I type this post, I am once again quietly plagued, with yet another slowly developing sinus infection. Only on one side of course, the side I sleep on. Drats! 

This winter may never end, at least that's what most folks around these parts are thinking.

Currently, there is a thunder storm brewing outside, complete with visiting monsoon rains and rather large balls of hail.

Just two days ago, all of the accumulated winter snowfall on the ground finally thawed. Well almost. 

As today's weather forecast heads into the 25C range, the report for Saturday isn't wrong, but feels like it should be, with snow arriving again and temperatures spiraling back down to 1C. 

This has been the longest winter I've ever experienced in my whole life, not a bad thing, just l-o-n-g! 

Though, I am a snow-loving woman, I'm not totally sorry to see the snow disappear to expose the dead looking bush and bramble on our back property, for I have been enjoying observations of returning robins attempting to dig through the snow to the solid core beneath in search of nourishment. 

 

Oddly enough, even in extreme weather conditions, life in nature rotates with the seasons.

While local coyotes howl on the warmer spring nights, the horses must be fetched from recently thawed outdoor paddocks, with their softened (temporary) mud caked hooves. Much to everyone's dismay at the barn, this creamy muck adds great effort to their tacking up details, specifically having to ensure a proper cleaning, brushing and scrubbing of horse's feet, legs and tails, before any riding pleasures can commence. 

It's definitely been an odd year to say the least. 

This week, while the snow was "still" thawed, I threw in the towel and had my husband and daughter remove the spigets and sap-filled buckets hanging from our trees. 

I'm done with the boiling and stove top monitoring duties. It's time to roll up our sleeves and get outdoors, in a much different way. 

We have but a month on our open window timeline, at best, until the thick of bug season begins anew again, so enough of winter, let us begin clearing up our forest floor, and pathways out back before we turn into half eaten insect-pricked-pin-cushions. 

The broken branches now exposed since winter's frozen thaw, and those additional ones from last week's severe ice storm dearly require our attention. Many hands do make work light..

The incredible amounts of road salt and sand brought home this year from our vehicle's winter tires, has our garage and driveway begging for a good pressure washing. 

Our work efforts on our doorways' indoor carpets will have a slight reprieve, from the daily, sometimes twice daily vacuum sessions necessary these past weeks, from sand also entering on the bottom of our footwear. I've never seen so much of the stuff! Honestly!

All is well though with the changing of yet another season. After enjoying the winter sun's daily teasing, the freezing nights and continued snowy days seems to offer another story. Some want to ask about the obvious; "Are you really sure spring has sprung?"

Another sudden round of colds and flus has hit the entire area it seems, a concern as they always tend to be in our home.  

For me, cold or warm, I have a growing and grand desire to continue focusing on obtaining more fresh air, even if just having doors open wide (brrrrr) for a time. I'm wanting to begin placing outdoor furniture back on the decks (now that the snow left this week), and hoping to very soon take my daily cup of tea out on the back steps (think COLD butt!). 

I'm dreaming of the simplest of pleasures to begin again, just the ability to enjoy witnessing springtime buds aplenty, hearing the singsong of birds while nesting, and hoping to spot returning familiar little critters in our forest and meadow out yonder.  

Since spring has sprung, or is arriving so late here, there are yet so many things to look forward to observing, and enjoying ahead. And with spring, all things new and beautiful await our wintery weathered souls. Everything will begin feeling clean and fresh again, time will slow down just a little with the longer days allowing for respites before bed because the sun still shines, and everyone will once more begin migrating out of doors just because...

In light of all the good and evil happening in our world this past month, there is a pressing need to keep up the faith, for there is so much lately to ponder, much to continue offering prayer for, and still - so much to be thankful for. 

There is comfort and joy, and then very quickly, there is indescribable sadness that often lacks understanding.

Life is indeed very fragile... Everyday is an absolute gift... please remember to live it well my friends.

  

“Life is fragile and temporary. 

 The faces of today quickly become the faces of the past. 

 Sorrow, pain, and anger... it all fades- except love.  

Love is forever and there after, even when we've fallen to our graves.” 

~ Lee Argus

Living on the edge of a beautiful forest

Living on the edge of the Boreal forest; 

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly! 

There are endless discoveries, those which provide a sense of undeniable beauty, those hiding within the denseness of a darkened forest, no matter what season.

Truly, there is such a thing as fast becoming in a state of awe, just while momentarily standing quietly in the carved forest trails, witnessing the breathtaking 100 feet plus trees who have been breathing oxygenated life into our area for many years.

As you've seen glimpses of our gorgeous forest which surrounds and consumes a few acres of our property, those in our recent autumn posts, how about the long overdue glimpse of what it resembled shortly before all the late spring and summer foliage appeared?

It's a thing of wonder to capture the abundance of change each new month brings, with so much scenic vistas all bound up in four distinct seasons within any given year, and to watch the life forming and living within, fully dependent on its environment. 

 Ontario's white trilliums, our provincial flower, 

explodes on our forest floor in spring! 

Gorgeous!

As winter disappears, and spring arrives shortly after the great thaw of all things snowy white, truly it's really spellbinding, to witness just how much thick foliage grows, closing a window to the more wide open spaces for pathway visibility out there. 

I very much enjoy sitting a while and taking in moments of forest loving sessions, peeking "through" the forest, wondering what's happening out there today, who might come to call, or whom we might not wish to call actually. There is such peace residing in the boundaries of nature, and great solace in also knowing "what" resides there within those clusters of the Boreal forest out yonder.

Last week while walking the trails with my hubby, a rather large white tailed deer bounded off, leaving both of us in awe. Maybe he was the deer who had visited me briefly one weekend morning, the one I ran for the camera only to find him gone, and the one my kids teased me incessantly about for weeks to come. I have news for them; "He's real kids! Even your father saw him this time!". (grinning) 

Our entire family worked hard this year, rebuilding and forging new trails and tending to their continued path clearing growths as we are able. 

Until a few folks came over and enjoyed these same trails with ATV riding aplenty, there was only one timing when we wondered if we would lose these new forged trails for good, like the last time we attempted such a thing the year before. Here's what they looked like after a one week trip west, at least what we returned to. (Sad face inserted here) Soon, and after several redneck rowdy ATV riding sessions, all was well again, and continues to be to date. Yay!

These Autumn days continue to offer us some pretty spectacular scenes of beauty, but just a few months back, here are the real photos of what remains "within" those more dense scenes surrounding out trails, the nasty mounds we never got to on the grand list of desired and hoped for forest clearing. 

There will indeed be more clearing and more work next spring to rid our forest floor of the clutter which remains there, for now. Foliage has grown over these mounds, hiding them for now, so they no longer bother us. In summer however, these types of mound messes can provide forest fire issues, so next year we're hoping to have them tended to and eventually forever gone.

The thick and lush forest foliage allows us to know its spring clearing timing. That is, after the mushy snow sinking, and before the dense, bug infested door slamming. 

During our summer and fall seasons, we no longer dwell on spring chores, rather we can simply meander within the trails, admiring everything anew awaiting us there each time we set foot out back. 

Meanwhile, those grounds are so much better than they were before we did our damage last spring. 

We'll keep plugging along, mostly making every attempt to grab our shoes, and get out there to walk our one kilometer plus trails daily. We have big plans for this area of our property, well, someday for sure. 

This winter we will tap some dozen tall maple trees in the hope of our own maple syrup, but also, we've decided a lovely "studio" getaway would be just perfect for my hubby and I to get away and work on our many future creative projects, he with his art easel standing near window, and for me, well the sky is the limit on that one. 

With four very distinct seasons, here's four of the same views of our back property, photos all snapped from the back deck of our home looking out to the forest where our trails await our explorations, and never ending adventures. 

(So which photo below is your favorite season?)

Our forest in four seasons;

 

Spring

Summer 

during our worst drought

 Autumn 

in its full color splendor

Winter 

in its snowy white beauty.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little seasonal tour of our forest property. It is such a privelege to live here, in a glorious and most beautiful residential setting. I will never take for granted this property, something my hubby and I would have begged for so long ago when all of our children lived at home. It was a dream of ours to end up on a larger piece of property....someday. 

I suppose, this really is our "someday". 

Thank you God! 

In spring, these are some of the things on our property

One of the many resident downy woodpeckers, but this one was pecking away at a lovely hemlocks nearer to our home. 

I am so disappointed to realize this tree died over the winter, one of the ones I used to hang up our hammock last summer. boohoo... We figured all that soil pushed up against it when the house was built, had a lasting effect to smother it to this sickly end. 

At least we still have 41 of these particular trees about the property, but really...STILL! I liked this one! boohoo..

There's nothing like a crystal blue sky, and blossoms exploding on every tree, bush and flowering item around our property. 

Yes, we can certainly "smell" spring coming...

Creatures are flocking to our property for a springtime visit once more, everything from small animals, and many types of insects too. 

I especially don't enjoy the hoards of black flies circulating about me on a forest clearing day. There's nothing like a few landing on my warm glistening arms while working a gas device with both arms.

We have several of these - black cherry trees, apparently quite rare and in great demand.

There's something about the onset of spring, new growth, new life and the prospect of a sunny bright day when rising from a deep night's slumber.

Our temporary resident watched us for a week's span of time, from high above his perch up in one of our trees. 

I had to try and figure out just "what it was" at first, and the only way to accomplish that was to use the zoom on my camera or the binoculars. 

I knew they were around our area, just not seen one on our property yet. Until now... But, alas perhaps we scared him away with all the racket we've been making, because he's vanished from our sights. 

Dozens of these butterflies are floating about right now. 

They seem to love our dandelions, the ones I worked real hard on in my attempt to thin them out, while using a corn gluten feed supposedly rich enough to kill them. Ha! They are still here! And in huge abundance. 

The blessing offset has been the beauty and simple pleasure of watching the dozens of butterflies all over the place. 

Here is Mr. Porcupine once more, and just take a look at his claws! 

Yikes! I sure wouldn't want to meet up with him on a forest night walk.  Not that I would walk back there on those trails at night of course...

Well that's about it for today. I hope you've enjoyed my little tidbits here, about our life amongst the Boreal Forest surrounding our property out back. 

I love carrying my camera around with me, in the hope of discovering daily treasures of seasonal changes, especially the simple, and little things most folks wouldn't even pay any attention to. 

Happy Spring! 

Spring forest clearing continues...

Spring has sprung, and along with the change of seasons, the open window for clearing the forest floor continues. 

And so, we work.... and we work hard!

Tools for our outdoor goals have varied, and helpers have been many.

Even our dogs have been anxious to partake in the forest ventures, well, they have really taken to meandering about in our newly carved trails.

New to us this year has been the incredible introduction to this piece of equipment above. It's a hedge trimmer on a gas weedeater wand and just perfect for feeling like a farmer with a sharp scythe.

My many thanks to a local friend who lent it to us to try it out, and wow, does it ever pull down brambles and small trees well. I am now pricing one out, the perfect item for us to use in our forest, mostly for keeping control over the new bramble growth over the seasons.

He even created an open window around his busy work on-call schedule to assist in carrying many of the hundreds of trees we had to cut down to create a safe forest this year, free from dangers of forest fires and dense thickness to keep trees growing properly. 

 

This pile above was one of two, that grew and grew! 

What a blessing it was for a new soon-to-be neighbor, who offered to include them all in his tree chipping the following week. After carting an entire pile over to his property, it was a huge surprise to come home after mass the next day, only to find out he had driven his tractor over and pushed the other huge pile over for us. 

What great neighbors already! 

 

Everyone pitched in, even the girls who were forest floor wood gatherers for the continuous burning bonfire for many days in a row. 

When our weary and aching bodies wouldn't, no - couldn't move one more step, we would sit next to the fire in our chairs and enjoy the rest of the day and the sunset ahead. 

 

 Our firestarter, wood gatherer upon occasion, and main general keeper of the flames. 

Another special piece of equipment went to work trimming those smaller trees creating that dense forest setting. 

Everyone tried it out. No one really liked it though. It was too noisy and not strong enough to cut trees above about an inch or so in thickness. Too much work...

She likes this wheelbarrow, her friend for many a day. 

This is how we assist our children in their goals, creating jobs from mom and dad for their own monetary goals. Hers was having to purchase all new horse riding show clothing. 

How dare she grow so much. :) 

Aside from growing out of all her clothing pieces, she was even surprised to find her "snug" size 5 summer riding boots required a much larger size - a 7.5 much larger boot! She's the same size as some of her older sisters in footwear now.

Clearing out more trail clutter. 

All are looking so much better now, despite the last of the tree cutting piles, and other assorted forest yanking downed trees we've been removing. 

 

 A scene from the end of one day. Yes, even the wheelbarrow allows for a resting spot.

 

My favorite spot at the end of the day when all stops and we just sit and smile over our accomplishments, you know, the ones only we can see because there is yet so much more to complete.