Lobster Shorts lifestyle, The Great Outdoors

Apple Trees and Smores

This weekend the forecast called for storms. Instead there was sunshine and warm weather.

Saturday started with a dog walk, coffee, and a bagel at the local cafe. My spouse and I ended up spending most of Saturday doing yard work. The lawn was mowed for the first time and the garden was weeded. It was so nice to have it done and it looked so much better. We went to the local greenhouse to get some veggie plants. I know you’re supposed to wait until after the May long weekend, but we were too excited. While we were there I saw a tree that grew my favourite flavor of apple.

Honeycrisp! I bought that tree instantly. I love love love those apples. We got into the parking lot and it hit me…. How are we going to get this tree into the car?

Well, we did! I ended up sitting behind my spouse and we put the tree into the front seat and loaded the trunk up with the veggie plants. The tree made it home with all branches intact and we promptly planted it. We collected a lot of fallen branches from the yard and put them in the fire pit, and later that night we had the season’s first smores.

We bought Dandies Marshmallows from Healthy Planet and used Celebration cookies. They come with the chocolate, so it’s seriously easy smores with all the perfect amounts. They were so freaking good. We had smores and watched the bats fly overhead. I still plan on putting a bat box up somewhere, but I have no idea if they’ll use it. I went to bed around 8:30 that evening. I was wiped out.

Sunday I tried to make friends with the chipmunk in our yard bribing him with peanuts. He came as close as an inch away, but he was not there yet. By the end of Summer, I hope to have him eating out of my hand. I toss him some peanuts whenever I see him, so he is starting to pop out when he hears us.

Late afternoon we went on the first kayak trip of the season. I saw turtles! I haven’t seen a single turtle since I moved here and this weekend I saw at least 10 of them; painted and snapping turtles. There were some fish in the water that I had never seen before either. They looked like a suckerfish and had light and dark brown bands running down their body. I think they might have been northern hog suckerfish. They looked very similar anyway. It was fun and I think I will enjoy swimming there on a hot summer day.

We finished the weekend off with sunburns and a beer. The thunderstorms held off and I’m hoping to fall asleep to the sound of rain and thunder.

Lobster Shorts The Great Outdoors

Hamsters With Wings

I like birds, but I love chickadees. They are my favourite bird and there are tons of them here in Ontario. They are cute, tiny, and they will likely land on your hand for seeds, especially if you go somewhere they are used to being fed (This photo was taken at Wild Wood in Stratford. Laurel Creek in Waterloo and Macgregor Park in Port Elgin, are also great places to feed chickadees).

This cute little one and its buddy landed on my hand in under two minutes. Every time we were about to walk away it would come back for more. They followed us until we got to a thicker section of the woods and we would stop and hold out more seeds (they always picked the peanuts).

I will remember to bring seeds with me on all my nature walks (I stuffed them into a pocket I never use). I might meet some cute forest creatures along the way.

Lobster Shorts lifestyle

When Shopping Local Is Awesome

FEBRUARY 2021 CHEESE OF THE MONTH

St Marys is small, but it has some shopping gems. One of these gems is the local cheese shop The Towne and Country Cheese Shop of St. Marys. They are a lunch deli and cheese shop that offers gluten free and vegetarian options (I’m unsure if they have vegan options). They now offer something magical and wonderful… Cheese of the month!

The cheese is only available for pick up and you wont be able to find anything out about it online (There is no information on their website, I only found out about it because it was listed in the local paper). The flavours in this month’s box were Wensleydale Creamery Yorkshire Wensleydale Pineapple, Smoked Chipotle, Ford Farm Cheesemakers Wensleydale With Raspberry and White Chocolate Curls, and Coombe Castle Chocolot cheese.

Every month you will get 3-4 different kinds of cheese totaling about 1.5lbs of cheese. They packaged it up beautifully for a boutique experience that was a delight to unbox. The cheese comes with pairing and serving suggestions and information about the cheese. I love love love that there was a heart shaped cheese for the month of Valentine’s Day (there were more flavours of the heart shaped cheese, at the shop).

I’m excited to try new and interesting cheeses each month and plan on staying signed up for awhile.

Lobster Shorts happy mail, The Great Outdoors

Wildwood and Surprises In The Mail October 12/2020

It was such a beautiful weekend! The sun was shinning and the weather was beautiful. I went hiking through the woods at Wildwood Conservation Area. It’s such a pretty walk there. The trail does a loop to make it 24km long. I only went 10km this time. I love walking here.

There’s lots of interesting things to see and the trails are easy to walk on.

To make the weekend even more wonderful, this unexpected package was waiting for me in my mail box. It was from my friend in England. She sent me this adorable hot water bottle.

How perfect for the weather! I’m always cold, this is going to so helpful. I have the sweetest friends ❤

Lobster Shorts The Great Outdoors

I Made A Geocache!

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I made a geocache this weekend. I wanted to put it in the mini library I set up at my home, but there was another geocache too close by and the site wouldn’t permit it. Instead, the geocache was placed in a log, on a trail nearby, in a waterproof container. I wanted it nearby so I could randomly add more local gift cards, when I felt like it.

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I put a log book and pen inside (Dollarama was a great source for mini pens and notebooks) , as well as a gift card from the local sweet shop. I put some Halloween stickers and a few mini balls of yarn. I want to put bubbles in there (I still might!), but I was warned they will inevitable spill. My geocache box is wooden and I’d never get the bubble solution out of it.

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The cache was published about an hour ago and I can’t wait for the First To Find! For more information on geocaching, please click here.

Lobster Shorts The Great Outdoors

Carp Cam!

I briefly gave the new Akaso camera a try, underwater in the Owen Sound harbor. The water is so clear there! This quick clip was taken by my boyfriend. The fish were huge. I am really happy with the camera. I didn’t have the microphone on the last time, you can hear sound through the underwater case (I previously mentioned you couldn’t, in another post). I can’t wait to try it out more.