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Flicker Box

Every year, flickers drill a new hole into my family’s cottage. Every year, we fix the hole, and every year they move 1 foot on either side, and drill another. This year… we decided to take a different approach, and build a flicker nesting box! After a bunch of research online, I found some blueprints (I used a few sources and used bits and pieces from each). We built it, and installed it – here’s hoping we don’t find a new hole beside it this spring!

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Ocean City, 2014

It was an early start to the day, but with a 10+ hour drive ahead of us, leaving at 4am wasn’t too terrible!

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<3

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No idea what these things were, but they were coming in and out of their shells. We felt badly and put them back in the water, but the tide brought it back on the beach… so too bad weird creatures, it wasn’t meant to be.

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My view 90% of the week – I spent as much time on the beach as weather and sunburns allowed!

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The boardwalk and pier!

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H2Oi is a car show held in Ocean City every year – this year it featured 10x the normal amount of police, including mounted police and bike police… and one poor guy that looked exactly like Jonah Hill didn’t get any break from people shouting “JONAH!!!” at him alllll week.

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This is the small horseshoe crab we found, a bit bigger than the size of my hand.

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This horseshoe crab was HUGE! So big it could have been a helmet, but I wasn’t about to put it on my head!

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One morning there was a neat layer of black sand on top of the beach, wonder where it came from? Volcano?

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The view of the strip from the balcony on one side. Great place to watch the cars go by!

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Pano of the view from the beach on one side to the bay on the other!

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I pretty much lived by this chart all week! I was so hoping to find a shark tooth at low tide, but sadly we didn’t find one. It was a great time looking though!

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Tiny blue crab!

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Sand Crab!

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clouds

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The sunrise as we left… so beautiful!

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Québec City

Last weekend I got to attend a wedding in Québec City! The food was incredible, the sights were incredible, and the wedding was too!

This Eggs Benedict for example, looked so good that I took a picture of it! I never do that! It smelled so good that I didn’t even care when it turned out blurry, because I just wanted to eat it. Zero regrets. It was delicious. (This was at Les Trois Garçons)

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We ate at Cochon Dingue, recommended by the bride and groom – and for good reason! We also ate at Paillard, and foolishly didn’t think to bring any croissants home! The most amazing croissants I had though, were at the Château Frontenac brunch. I will never forget those.

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MAPLE CHOCOLATE!!! The market down at the Port was full of amazing chocolates, cheeses and fruit!

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We climbed about a million stairs, several times over, and went on a Ghost Tour as well. It totally balanced out all the food. I’m pretty sure I tried 4 different kinds of poutine in just 3 days…

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Odd….

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Stumpy the chipmunk

“Stumpy” is our overly-friendly local chipmunk up north. He’s got half a tail (hence his name) and personal boundary issues. He’s no stranger to taking the easiest path (across your shoulders, arm, lap, etc.) to seeds, and has even crawled up a leg or two!

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Happy Mother’s Day!

A little salt dough figurine has been hanging in our kitchen for as long as I can remember, so when her head broke off, I wanted to find a way to fix her. Unfortunately, the dough was just too old, and she was beyond repair, so I decided to use my skills as a needle felter to recreate her in felt!

It’s pretty amazing that these fluffy balls of wool can be stabbed into the shape of virtually anything!

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Here we go! I created the head, arms, body, dress, apron and hat. (The original figurine is in a baggie to keep all the broken pieces together)

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I started to attach all the pieces and used light yellow yarn for her hair.

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(a bit blurry, but progress!) Hands, sleeves, hair and shoes are done!

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Adding more detail…

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Face, freckles and glasses!

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The final product! I’m so excited to show my Mom on Mother’s Day!

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First trip to Algonquin for 2014!

Our first trip up this year, and wow, did we see a LOT of wildlife! It was a rainy, gross day; perfect for a drive through Algonquin Park. A couple of detours due to flooded roads, but we finally got up there!

We saw:
6 moose (1 calf, 5 bull)
20+ deer
3 beavers
1 muskrat
12+ wild turkeys
several assorted hawks/ospreys/birds

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Is it just me, or does he look unimpressed?haliburton-moose1

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Cheeeeeeese!haliburton-moose3b

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