THANKSGIVING 2015: THANKS MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY YOU'RE FULL

The year turns. The days shorten. The leaves change colour. The wind comes thin and cold with promises of snow on its back. The geese begin to fly south. And some of them fall out of the sky and land in ovens and we stuff them with bread and cranberries

OK, mostly its turkeys and they don't really fly but you get my point. Thanksgiving is here and for us, that means Thanksgiving on Nares Inlet

And for the girls, it's holiday time too of course. This was Panda's second trip up to Springhaven Lodge and it's fair to say that she is fitting in just fine

We've discovered how much she enjoys the water but she's a little bush baby too. She loves going off and exploring and proving that old girls still know how to do some rock traversing.

Terra, of course, is a Springhaven pro and although she also loves the bush, there is nothing better than hunting frisbees on the beach

Back on the human front, the family gathered for the annual Thanksgiving tradition of boating out to an island to enjoy food, games and the environment. The day was sunny and warm but the wind was up and Dennis determined it was too risky to go out to the open bay. Instead we invaded, I mean, visited a public paddle tennis court built on it own rocky little island

A bit of food (OK more than a bit) a bit of game playing, a bit of beer (OK more than a bit) then it was time to go back to the lodge, more food lay ahead in the form of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Yeh, I'm gonna need a nap

Play the video but keep the sound down, I'm still napping

Thanksgiving on Georgian Bay 2015 from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

THANKS TO GIVE, GIVEN TO THANKS

What were you thankful for this past weekend, this past Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada

Were you thankful for the holiday itself? It's a day off and there is turkey. Seriously, do we need to search for something better than that?

Do you use this holiday, here in Canada an extension of the harvest tradition, as an opportunity to reflect, perhaps on this past year or even years previous, thinking of the benefits from that time or perhaps you even pause to thank to be alive, to breathe, to just be here ... Well if you're thankful for being here and eating turkey then you and I are on the same page

Actually this year, this Thanksgiving, I did not eat turkey. Don't worry, I intend to make up for that shortly. So I actually did do a bit of interspection but being me, it really extended to just that day, that moment, that occasion

Yeh, I'm thankful for Thanksgiving.


I was thankful for being in Pointe Au Baril Ontario at Nares Inlet, thankful for the water and the sky and the ancient powerful rocks and the trees twisted and shaped by the wind

I was thankful for a crazy border collie who looks upon the north as her own personal playground and why not, it's the world's largest dog park, not to mention the world's largest water bowl

I was also thankful for family and friends and a sunny day on a rock island in the middle of the day where no one had anything better to do than eat, play together and enjoy a warm autumn day

What are you thankful for

MISS TERRA GOES COTTAGING

Life is hard, we all need a break.

An escape from the stress and routine of our daily lives. Here in Canada there is a long standing tradition of taking advantage of the wilderness that often lays close to our door, offering us some sense of tranquility and even peace, shedding our drudgery for sunlight and water and the wind in the evergreens.

Yeh, life is hard, especially for Miss Terra, so much stress that is derived from so many decisions that need to be made, like: Which bed should I take a nap on, or which stuffie needs to be tossed around the house and which ball (the orange and blue one or the blue and orange one) should I drop in somebody's life .. Damn, the pressure. A girl needs to escape it and get up to Springhaven Lodge on the Georgian Bay and let the wind flow through her fur and the water splash across her whiskers

Miss Terra is, of course, from a very high and rarified society. Much like the blue bloods (or more accurately wannabe blue bloods) who lounge in the million dollar mansions that command the islands which dot the Bay, this border collie concerns herself with the most erudite of social activities

Such as, Olympic javelin:

Or a rousing game of tennis:

A highly charged soccer match:

The new hybrid sport of soccer and water polo called Water Polo or in the vernacular: I'm gonna drown this soccer ball

And one must always make time for a rousing game of: Find the amphibian

One, of course, can not over concern oneself with all this physical activity, that would simply be boorish. One must take some time to be still and enjoy all of nature's bounty ...

... or one could simply obsess over one's frisbee, border collie style

And if you have concluded that the sole purpose of this post was to post more pics and videos of Terra playing up north .. well .. the proper blue blood response to that would have to be ... duh

NARES INLET REFLECTIONS

Clouds scud across a partially opaque sky

Wind sways reeds that look like quills, trying to write upon that sky

Water is gently ruffled by the wind that pushes the clouds and the reeds, reflecting the sky that moves the water

Nares Inlet, Georgian Bay, Ontario

Sun breaks through the clouds, the light caught in tiny glittering barbs on the crenelated surface of the moving water. Beneath the clear surface of the water the sand is rippled, as if a material reflection of the water's movement

Water and wind marks the land as well as the water. The bay ebbs and flows, leaving its mark on the sand, an organic tattoo that is not permanent, that will change and fade with the next rain or hard high gust of wind

We can use the water, enjoy it, benefit from it, take food from it, make a living from it but we can never really control it. Dams and levees burst, docks get swamped, boats sink. Even when we try to outwit the weather, eventually, it will take possession

There is so much here, even when it's quiet, especially when it seems empty and you hear the wind and the birds and the sussurus of the water. So much to see. So much upon which to reflect

LET'S GO FROGGIN!

Yee-haw and howdy neighbours and welcome to another episode of Outdoor Life's latest attempt to make a TV show with absolutely no budget ... Let's Go Froggin!

This week we is gonna profile a champion frogger from south of the border .. well not the Mexican border, nor even the Mason Dixon Line .. but Nares Inlet is south of the 60th Parallel so it's still South, pardners, yee haw!

(Yes this entire post will continue in this vein so you are fair warned)

This here little lady is called Terra and she is a self taught frogger.

Legend has it that Miss Terra was out explorin the wild swamps of Springhaven Lodge when she put her paw down on a hank of grass and out pops a frog! So excited was this little lady that she instantly knew that froggin was the sport for her!

With a combination of resolve, fast paws and natural talent .. well, ok, maybe not so much talent but resolve and fast paws, this rookie dove in to the ancient art of froggin, that bein, scarin you up some little green amphibious type varmits. We call it froggin, but his here border collie may call it herding frogs

Although a rookie, our little lady came well prepared; when she was havin a hard time rustlin up them pesky frogs, she brought in her own personal trainers and her own personal imported frogs. That's a city frogger fer ya, brung her own darn entourage ... not that it seemed to help her much

Although new to the sport of froggin, Terra did demonstrate some mighty slick techniques. She was quite fond of the "SOS" technique, which involved tapping her paws staccato-like hoping to draw out the critters.

When that didn't work, she resorted to the Submarine technique, using her face periscope-like to try to find her prey

I can't say that she were real successful but you gotta give her the A for effort. Mebbe herdin frogs is different from catchin frogs; I don't really know how them foreigners do things.

Here for your viewin pleasure is an expert from what I'm sure will be an award winning episode of Let's Go Froggin, so enjoy, have fun and go froggin!

THE COLOURS OF THANKSGIVING

A pink sky at sunset, red leaves twisting in air, water sparkling blues as the sun hits it, ancient rock rippled with colour from ages of transition; this is autumn on the Georgian Bay.

For our annual Thanksgiving sojourn to Nares Inlet, Collette and I were able to squeeze in an extra day for the visit. That meant more time for the family and more time for me to explore the bush with my intrepid explorer and amateur (very amateur) animal tracker Miss Terra. They say dogs have a limited perceived colour spectrum, well so do I but we were still able to enjoy the fall colours

There are many critters in the bush around Springhaven Lodge and if you are patient and quiet you may be able to entice one of them to come right up to you ... or just have her daddy bring her into your cabin.

We had excellent weather over all. At one point Terra and I got caught in a brief rain and sleet storm; I'm not sure she even noticed. With the inlet right outside our door and many bogs and culverts along on the road, she spent very little of the weekend actually dry. All worth it of course when you can wake up, step out onto your porch and see the inlet, still as dark glass and wreathed with early morning mist.

A big part of this weekend is always gathering together as many people as possible (this year it was over 50) loading them into boats and going out to a rock island in the Georgian Bay to nosh, have a few beers, explore and play a silly game just for the fun of it. So many people and so many boats, one wonders if it showed up and was flagged on certain NSA satellite feeds. One wonders what the analysts made of this floating shoe box .. what we all like to call the house boat

Once we moored on the island I demonstrated my enthusiasm for the upcoming Aquaman movie by doing an impression of the aquatic superhero ... well, something similar. No need to dwell on that, let's move on

Ahem

It was a cool yet sunny day and the infamous north offshore wind was fairly sedate, making it a perfect idea to crack a few beers, share some food, tell some tales and explore this island that is like the expression of Canadian Shield machismo, thrust up as it is from the cold deep waters of the Bay

All in all a good day and a great weekend but it's always nice to fold up the plastic tables, load up the boats and head home. By the end, even Terra was tired, and that is always saying something.

So while she's napping and I'm wringing out my jeans, enjoy the video.