From my all time favourite book.
"The Indians call
September Benasee Jewan, the Moon When the Birds Fly Away. For all of us here
in the north, man and beast, it is time to get ready for winter.
"The days are clear and often warm, but as soon as the sun goes down the air chills quickly, and in the morning likely as not the lake is covered with a frosting of mist. Generally we have quick flurries of snow before the month is over. The seeds of plants and the wild grain are dead ripe now and the mice, squirrels, and chipmunks are making the most of the harvest and filling their caches with food to keep them alive when the snow is deep and food is hard to come by.
"The days are clear and often warm, but as soon as the sun goes down the air chills quickly, and in the morning likely as not the lake is covered with a frosting of mist. Generally we have quick flurries of snow before the month is over. The seeds of plants and the wild grain are dead ripe now and the mice, squirrels, and chipmunks are making the most of the harvest and filling their caches with food to keep them alive when the snow is deep and food is hard to come by.
"About this time you notice that the deer are shedding their reddish summer hair and the darker “blue” coat that will carry them through winter begins to come in. Now the spots on the fawns disappear. Most of the furbearing animals look pretty ragged, what with losing their summer fur and getting ready to put on their winter overcoats."
Rowlands, John J.. Cache Lake Country: Or, Life in the North
Woods (p. 190 et seq).
Countryman Press. Kindle Edition.
It's suggested that Rowlands was living in Algonquin when he wrote this, hardly any further north than here but further west. I've certainly noticed the "blue" coat on many of the deer, and the raggedy appearance; I must look out for a photo opportunity, they're certainly tame enough!
Friday, 14th September.
We slept very late this morning, how we shall miss an open window and silence, but nevertheless we made really good progress in firstly adding a layer of gloss to the whole of the front of the cabin and then carrying on "pre-fabricating" panels for the porch.
We have it down pat now; assemble the window box, check that the window pane fits it! Then we add adjacent 3 x 2's and build on from there!
There's quite a lot of "interesting" work to come over the weekend; we have to design and assemble the roof!
But it was a long and delightfully warm day and so, at about 7.15, we decided to treat ourselves to supper at la Gare in Labelle; just this once (otherwise it was tinned three bean salad - a certain lack of planning and enthusiasm for cooking here!)
Stopped off at the post on the way home; much of rural - and some Suburban - Canada's post is dealt with like this.
It's suggested that Rowlands was living in Algonquin when he wrote this, hardly any further north than here but further west. I've certainly noticed the "blue" coat on many of the deer, and the raggedy appearance; I must look out for a photo opportunity, they're certainly tame enough!
Friday, 14th September.
We slept very late this morning, how we shall miss an open window and silence, but nevertheless we made really good progress in firstly adding a layer of gloss to the whole of the front of the cabin and then carrying on "pre-fabricating" panels for the porch.
We have it down pat now; assemble the window box, check that the window pane fits it! Then we add adjacent 3 x 2's and build on from there!
There's quite a lot of "interesting" work to come over the weekend; we have to design and assemble the roof!
But it was a long and delightfully warm day and so, at about 7.15, we decided to treat ourselves to supper at la Gare in Labelle; just this once (otherwise it was tinned three bean salad - a certain lack of planning and enthusiasm for cooking here!)
Stopped off at the post on the way home; much of rural - and some Suburban - Canada's post is dealt with like this.
look at those deer! Delightful. I can't even imagine the work in putting on another coat of gloss on all those logs....
ReplyDeleteOh, it's not so bad, takes about an hour between us. :-)
ReplyDelete