Hummingbird Moth

hummingbird moth on violas

it moved very fast, hard to get photos of it

I am slow

I love this photo

look at the pollen on it's ? tongue

(not sure what it is called)

busy little insect

Garden Beauties

azalea

columbine

crabapple blossoms

garlic

lilac

my mom, Ruth

Bridesmaid Earrings

I just completed my first custom order 

for freshwater pearl bridesmaid earrings, 

they are lovely!

all lined up ready to go

Black Bear

morning visitor

wandering through the yard

he has a bald spot on his bum

heading down Lakeview Drive

Spectacular Sunset

sunset this evening

Dried Morels

dried morels

a treat for this winter!

Evening Visitor

last years black bear cub cruised through our yard half an hour ago..

frequent visitors in our community

Jewelry, Jewelry, and More Jewelry

 Rosaline Pink Rhinestone Vintage Glass and Copper Hoop Earrings

Pink Purple Glass and Copper Earrings 

Green and Cream Swirled Glass and Copper Earrings 

Aqua Rectangle Enameled Copper and Silver Earrings

Aqua Blue Hollow Glass and Silver Earrings

Chocolate Brown and Navy Blue Freshwater Pearl and Copper Earrings

Pink Swirled Glass and Silver Necklace

Pale Peach Pearl, Czech Glass, Floral Brass Photo Locket Pendant and Copper Necklace

Denim Blue Sodalite, Mustard Moukaite and Dark Blue Black Freshwater Pearls and Sterling Silver Necklace

Taupe Trio Pearl and Silver Earrings

Creamsicle Pearl and Silver Earrings

Fuschia Pink Rhinestone Vintage Glass and Copper Hoop Earrings

Silver Grey, Navy Black Pearl and Silver Earrings

Circles Copper and Silver Earrings

Morel Hunting

pussy willows pollinating

very pretty

jack pine

the elusive morel

very hard to see amongst the brown leaves

two!

you have to get your "morel eyes" on

we found enough to have a morel risotto

yum!

hopefully with the rain today we will find more tomorrow

Garlic in the Garden

all of our garlic came up this year and it is doing really well, yum!

Owl Rapids, Aguasabon River

we drove up the mill road this afternoon, 

I don't think I had ever been to this spot before, 

Owl Rapids. 

Trailing Arbutus

we went for a drive, then a walk in the woods today. 

we discovered that the trailing arbutus is starting bloom. it is one of our favourite early spring wildflowers, and is smells so pretty!

Birch Syrup Experiment

Last week when we got home from 

our road trip, Mark started to tap some 

birch trees not too far from home. 

Tapping the spile into the hole he just drilled.

The birch sap was running, drip, drip, drip...

buckets almost overflowing with sap

this is the third time we have made 

birch syrup, but the first time we boiled

 it away from home in the birch woods

it was wonderful being outside for so 

many hours a day. we have read online 

that you shouldn't use galvanized or

 aluminum for sap gathering. we have these 

buckets leftover from when we lived near 

Bruce Mines and made maple syrup. I will have to do more 

research to see if this is true.

we started to boil the sap in my dads

 big cast iron pot over an open fire. 

after 2 days of this I had a major reaction

 to the smoke and sap fumes, my face swelled 

up like a balloon. scared us both.

Mark rigged up his old tin camping 

stove to boil sap on. it worked but

 was not as quick as the open fire.

slow laborious procedure boiling birch sap,

 140 litres of sap to 1 litre of syrup,

 lots of boiling down.

near the end, boiling hard

we brought it home to finish it off 

on the stove in the house. I didn't want

 to scorch it over the fire. we made over 2 litres, 

maybe 3, I haven't measured it yet. It reminds

 us of molasses, and does not taste anything

 like maple syrup, it isn't even similar,

 as it is a different tree.

it was a fun experiment!