Me and the 3 Bears...and Other Northern Tales

It is officially my second summer in The North and I am so excited that it’s here! The days are generally warm and sunny so there is no excuse not to get out and enjoy life. Of course we take the dogs for their daily walks, and lately we’ve been seeing signs that someone else is trodding the trail as well.

  
Signs of a bear’s presence always give me a little shiver, but I doubt that he (or she) would be out in the afternoon when we are, and would probably run away at the sound of me and the dogs anyway. Still, it makes me look into the woods ever so often and wonder about the odd black shadow or the snapping of a twig. So far, though, the sight or sound has only ever turned out to be one of the dogs. Phew.

This weekend my partner and I took the opportunity to go quadding to seek out any trails outside of town. We didn’t have much luck, but we did a lot of exploring, including dropping by the Zoo (a.k.a. the dump) to see if any of the bears were hanging out for the day.

 

We were not disappointed; in fact, I was a little unnerved to see two large heads pop up from amidst the scattered rubbish in front of us and then a smaller head to the side. The above picture shows the two adult bears; they are the black blobs in the middle there. The cub was not a newborn, but likely around one year old. He was curious about our presence and sauntered directly over to us. A few revs of an engine kept him from coming right to us and he wandered away a few metres.

I was vigilant in keeping an eye on the adults but they didn’t even seem to care about our presence, let alone that their cub was near enough to us that we could have snatched him up and driven wildly away. See, the bears are so used to people coming and going that they don’t consider us more than part of the scenery. While we were there a guy rolled in with a load of garbage, backed up the truck right beside the bears and got out to unload. Right there. Beside the bears. They didn’t even look at him, although one trudged away a little and plopped down to continue licking the pungent insides of a can of Folgers. Nothing’s going to keep a Northern Black Bear away from his morning coffee, I guess. 

 

In other news, for all of you who didn’t know, last Thursday the 21^st of June was National Aboriginal Day. This lil’ town whooped it up with events going on all day including dance and trapper competitions, a band, a community meal and a dance. I attended some of the festivities (including the meal, of course!) and was lucky enough to enjoy a brief pow-wow. The dancers were few but they were happy to be out in the sun for all to see. It’s a rare glimpse into what once was, especially at a time when tradition seems to be eroding at an alarming rate. People were laughing and having fun as a community, enjoying the beautiful outdoors. If only every day were Aboriginal Day. 

 

Of course since it’s summer we’ve been having some campfires in the backyard. As a follow-up to my last post, Reina’s birthday/Summer Solstice celebrations went very well. I made some treats for the occasion for Reina and her friends. We invited a bunch of people over to enjoy the campfire, and four of those folks happen to be the proud owners of Nanuq’s siblings. We therefore had not one, two, three or even four white doggies but FIVE running around the yard and driving Reina crazy (plus 1 black dog...that's 7 dogs in total, pure chaos!). They got to be such a nuisance that we threw them in the neighbour’s yard to run and frolic at will. Here’s a blurry pic of her looking miserable from the other side of the fence.

 

The pups all enjoyed the treats which conveniently made use of some excess parsley I had and some leftover carrots. I found the recipe online and cut them with my trusty bone-shaped cutters. You can find out how to make them here.

 

The best thing about this time of year is that the entire summer is yet to come!

I'm Back...and so is Summer!

Forgive me, reader, for I have sinned. I've been away. I've been delinquent. I've been having a few problems with blogspot. But it's solved now. I'm back. And it's summer time!!!!!!!

Today is the longest day of the year, and I'm going to make this a brief post so that I can go out and spend as much time in the sun as possible. To make things short and sweet, here's a recap of what has gone on since my last post, which in early April feels like AGES ago!

The snow melted and didn't return. Finally. It seemed like the battle might never be won, but the sun did overthrow winter. For now.

We took some vacation time and went back to Southern Ontario to visit family and friends. Crazy people that we are, we drove and took the dogs with us. Here's Nanuq reflecting on what he's gotten himself into in a hotel mirror.

Ontario in the Spring is a magical time. We took many long walks in the woods by the cottage, near Barrie. The trilliums were already fading but still looked spectacular. Unfortunately, the flowers were not the only populous force in the forest: wood ticks also abounded by the hundreds (thousands? millions?) and Reina caught more than her share. Yuck.

Nanuq didn't attract any ticks but he was enticed by the luring honks of the Canada Geese swimming by the cottage. He swam out pretty far and caught them off guard but didn't manage to catch one. Maybe next time!

Having a drink and cooling off at Ye Ol' Watering Hole, a.k.a. the Mud Pit. It is truly a dogs life, I think.

Speaking of dogs, this is a stray that was brought to our place. He was found on the side of the highway leading up to our Northern Town (we returned home earlier this month). We thought momentarily of keeping him, but three dogs does seem a little extreme so he's on his way to a shelter in Saskatoon. So cute!

 

Now on to a recipe. I often lament the fact that it's hard to have lovely fresh greens when we only go for groceries once every 2-3 weeks, and even then the choices at our grocery store are often less than appetizing. Browsing through some random food sites, I came across an idea for a great salad using guaranteed fresh greens. I know because I have them growing in my yard. Yep, you guessed it...Dandelion Salad! The recipe that inspired the above salad can be found by following this link. Because dandelion greens are bitter, the vinaigrette and accompanying ingredients need to be bold in flavour. Bacon and maple syrup helped here. Also if you have dogs, pick a spot in the yard where you never see them doing their business (or even better, harvest from somewhere other than your yard!) and wash thoroughly. Very thoroughly.

 

Lastly, some dessert to finish us off. As a heads up, if you ask someone with an upcoming birthday what kind of cake they like, make sure you are prepared for the answer! Luckily, I had a jar of cherries begging to be used in my pantry, so when "Black Forest Cake" was the answer, I was pleased. It was my first layered cake, and thanks to a great recipe from an oft-consulted site called Allrecipes, making it was a breeze. Check it out on this link. Follow the instructions and you'll have a great cake, guaranteed.

Aside from eating cake, what's fun about using a jar of sour cherries is finding a way to use the leftover syrup. I had a great drink at a restaurant in Saskatoon using sour cherry juice, whiskey and I'm not sure what else, so I tried to duplicate it. I failed, but did come up with something tasty anyway, a Cherry Brandy Cocktail. I mulled the leftover cherry juice on medium heat with honey, cloves, lemon peel and ginger. Then I poured it over ice with brandy. It was nice and refreshing and not too sweet. I think next time I'll be more daring with the ginger, or perhaps mix a bit of gingerale into the drink as well. The nice thing is that you can taste as you go and mull a cherry concoction that is perfect for you!

There you have it. A final nod to Reina, who is turning 1 today!

Happy Birthday and Happy Summer!