Fern Turtles (just because)

I don’t have much to blog about this week. I’ve been spending my days out of the office, at the courthouse for jury selection. Jury selection is either exhaustingly dull, as you wait, and wait, and continue to wait; or it is exhaustingly stressful as you sit through some pretty serious situations, within inches of accused criminals, wondering if your name will be picked for the jury. Either way, it can suck the creativity out of you. I take the jury process seriously and so I cannot regale you with all the interesting stories from my week, but I can tell you I’ve seen the inside of a few different courtrooms this week, and the justice system is interesting.

What is not interesting is the progress I have to demonstrate on my blog. I’m in the bad spot of having one beading, and three knitting projects on the go simultaneously. This means that none of the projects are nearing completion, and so none of the projects are worthy for some blog show and tell.

As I sat through some waiting today, I pondered what I could post about. I thought about telling you all about Fern, but now that summer is over, that seems like old news. So, after some (likely too brief) thought, I decided to share some pictures of turtles from Fern. Fern Resort has a resident turtle that lives under the boat dock and makes a brief appearance just often enough to get everyone talking. It is a big turtle (about 50 cm in diameter) and I’ve personally spotted it twice – once a few years back, and once just moments after our arrival this summer. The result of the brief glimpse of the turtle is that now I must walk slowly along the boat dock at every opportunity to see the turtle again.

I didn’t see the big turtle again on our last trip, but for the first time, I did get to see many other smaller turtles. I love seeing them sun themselves on a lily pad, or rock, and found it fascinating to see how they watched us approached and decided when they needed to retreat back into the water to hide.

I’ve never noticed these turtles on past trips. My theory is that in past years the turtles have lived mainly in the forest, where there is some nice swampland. 2012 saw a very dry summer and so the swamp shown below, in a 2011 photo, was completely dried up this year. I’m guessing that the turtles that would normally make their homes in this swamp had to move on and get themselves over to the lake this year, increasing the number of lake turtles for us to spot.

Next year, I’d love to get close enough to get a picture of the mink that we’ve seen quick glimpses of in the past.

 

Bonus Fern photo

The moon at Fern was spectacular this year. Here is a shot of the moon taken from our deck one evening.

 

 

Ferntastic Ceramics

Last week we spent a week at one of our favourite places on earth, Fern Resort. I’d say it is THE favourite place, but that would make my Disney buds gasp, and that would make me realize that I do have at least two favourite places on earth.) Fern is wonderful and a great place to relax or keep busy. They have an incredible activity schedule with something to do at every turn.


On Tuesday morning, Creative Café came in and let us paint some ceramics. It was a fun way to spend a couple of hours and in the end I had a plate to take home.

I decided to make a plate suitable for serving Christmas food. The first step was to select a nicely shaped plate.

Then we got down to work and did some painting. This was a great time to chat with the other painters and learn a thing or two about the Fern regulars. I learned the following:

·         “The sisters” aren’t sisters, and the one that came to ceramics is a very talented artist

·         “The friendly woman whose husband uses a walker” is very nice and has a very nice daughter

·         I am known as “the woman with the husband who reads”

This is my plate after painting.

This is my plate after clear glazing and firing.

I love my plate and it is a great memory of another Ferntastic summer vacation.


P.S.  I did plan to provide my blog readers with a full blown trip report, but then we arrived at Fern and I realized I just wanted to kick back and relax, and had no interest in making trip notes and taking a thorough set of pictures.

If you want to know what Fern is like, maybe I’ll do a post or two with random thoughts from Fern that will give you a glimpse into this little slice of fun-filled paradise.

Summer Vacation Socks

We are just back from our annual trip to Fern Resort. I took the Summer Vacation yarn with me and made good progress on a pair of socks. I’ve finished the first sock and have a good start on the second sock.

I will miss sitting on our deck and looking out over the water while I knit the time away.