One of the Reasons for a Conservation Easement The Black Rat Snake needs old forest and space to live. It is one of the reasons we placed a conservation easement on our cottage land. This one was on a road near to our cottage. As you can see, it was healthy (unsquished), just needed to be moved off the road. The main reason for our trip to Ontario was to celebrate the completion of a Natural Heritage Conservation Easement on our Bulls Eye Lake property. It has been 9 years since we talked about it. The brunt of the work on our side was carried by Nancy. The organizations that helped us through the process also did a lot of work. One part was to catalogue the species present on the land. They came up with a list of over 450 species! We took the opportunity to visit relatives and friends. We visited with Lisa's brother Robin and his family. We missed all of the great nieces and nephews. The last of them had left the day before for a canoe camping trip - their first! Lisa's nephew Collin took us through the Caravaggio exhibit at the National Art Gallery. It's quite a treat having ones own art guide. We also met Collin's partner Anne and got the take on credit card interest rates from the government policy side. It's more complex than one thinks.  Dinner at Lesley's Ref: 2011_0641It turns out that several of the people I knew at Queen's University live in Ottawa. We stayed with Ian and Bubba, a very large, very fluffy cat. Lesley had us and the group over for a delicious dinner - scrumptious peach in filo appetizers, pasta in artichoke sauce, chick pea and fennel (? my memory is fading, but it was good) salad, fruit tart by Helen. We got a tour of Lesley's jewelry shop afterwards. All the tools I used in metal working shop in high school, but much smaller and needing more finesse. I learned about silver solders that melt at different temperatures so that one can construct a multipart item without having it fall apart as one adds the next assembly. I did mention that finesse and control are needed. Lesley's cat is almost a spitting image of Smoke, the cat we baby sit when we are lucky.  Dinner at Eric and Louise's Ref: 2011_0663We spent one night at Eric and Louise's. I took Eric's bike out for a ride and came across the Wild Turkey flock. There were at least 15 of them. I also saw Field Sparrows, Tree Swallows, Common Yellowthroat, and a Sharp-shinned Hawk. We came home with some of Eric's glass work. You can see some of it on the dinner table being used as candle holders.  The Group Ref: 2011_0750Since none of us wanted to cook a dinner on the night we arrived at Bulls Eye Lake, Nancy arranged dinner at a very nice restaurant in Sydenham, Desert Lake Gardens and Mill St Cafe. Much of their produce comes from their gardens. They handled all of the various food intolerances and supplied us with lovely food in a relaxed, friendly environment. © 2011. All images are copyrighted by Alan Covington. You may use these images for personal or educational purposes without restriction. Please let me know if you do at covingta@cuug.ab.ca. For information about using these images commercially, please contact Alan at covingta@cuug.ab.ca. | ||||||||||