Lake Muskoka fall colours

More Thanksgiving memories from a visit to the cottage

The Canadian Thanksgiving holiday came a little later this year but the foliage "up north" from Toronto (about a 2 hour drive) was still beautiful as ever. Our family dinner was atypical (Korean pork bone soup and sushi) but delicious! I had no luck with the fishing but with these colours, I couldn't really complain:

A typical lake Muskoka autumn morning

Muskoka fall colours on display as I walked the cottage road on a sunny day

Lake Muskoka fall colours on the same cottage road on a cloudy day

Lake Muskoka sunset with the fall colours and still water, close up.

Lake Muskoka with its fall colours, sunset and still water make a lovely reflection.

Muskoka fall colours  with birches and  maples 

Lake Muskoka's fall colours and still water

Lake Muskoka's mossy rock and Christmas ferns 

Muskoka moss covered rock and Christmas ferns

Another moss covered rock or abstracted forest-covered island? 

Moss covered tree root flares

More inspiration for those moss lovers out there!

Enjoying the Muskoka fall colours down this cottage road
(note: don't try this in June, the mosquitos and black flies will make this almost impossible) 

My reward for slaving away all spring and summer!

Big hugs to my sister and brother-in-law for making more memories!

By Paul Jung, author of "garden muses: a Toronto gardening blog"

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A non-gardening Lake Muskoka weekend

What does this post have to do with Toronto gardening? 

Not much but this gardener needed some serious rest and relaxation after working almost non-stop this spring. Now, many of you readers would likely prefer sticking a hot poker in your eye over the finer sport of angling. That's ok, we all have different interests besides plants and gardens. My wife is a golf PHREAK and knows better to ask me to join her over 18 holes. Not that I hate golf but inevitably I would hold up play by trying to identify this tree or that shrub.

So it was with great anticipation that we left Toronto this past weekend to my sister and brother-in-law's cottage near Gravenhurst, ON for a few days. Here are some pictures taken at dawn (you can enjoy them without being tormented by the mosquitoes!):

A typical beautiful Muskoka summer morning

My favourite fishing spot just to the right, shh!

You can compare the summer pictures near the dock to the autumn colours here in a previous post titled "Down by the Muskoka lakeside"


I caught a few smallmouth bass (all catch and release until the end of the month for this area) but the bite wasn't really on since they (the fish) are in spawning mode and not interested in feeding.

Here's a small...smallmouth bass fooled somehow by a plastic worm:

Don't worry, he/she was released immediately afterwards!

Thanks for indulging me by reading this non-gardening post. I've been so busy since April that the last thing I want to post about is a garden!

Just kidding.....







By Paul Jung, author of "garden muses: a Toronto gardening blog"Google Google Find us on Google+ Find us on Google+

Down by the Muskoka lakeside

Another beautiful Canadian Thanksgiving at the Lake Muskoka cottage

A crisp fall morning walk is rewarded by this view

Autumn has descended all too quickly for us in southern Ontario and while our summer annuals (those that haven't been chucked out for mums and kale) on on their last legs, the fall colours of our native deciduous trees and shrubs are peaking. Here are some reminders why I love our four seasons taken over our Thanksgiving weekend visit to my sister and my brother-in-law's cottage near Gravenhurst, ON:

Windy and cool but no water skiers to disrupt the peace

Vibrant orange autumn maple and sumac leaves

Isn't it amazing how the chlorophyll is drawn out randomly?

A final reminder of a wonderful season

By Paul Jung, author of "garden muses: a Toronto gardening blog"Google Google Find us on Google+ Find us on Google+

Many reasons to give thanks in Lake Muskoka

Lake Muskoka's beautiful fall colours

What a difference a week makes when it comes to the weather! Last weekend was Thanksgiving holiday in Canada and my family visited my sister and her family at their new cottage near Gravenhurst, Ontario which is about a 2 hour drive from Toronto. The weather was incredible! Sunny and remarkably warm (25 degrees Celsius or into the 70s F.)  The leaves were also changing colours so I had to show some pics Linda took.

Sunrise calm

Fishing on a mirror

There was absolutely no wind at sunrise as these pictures show. I'm an avid fisherman and took every opportunity to wet my line. You might even think I photoshopped myself into this picture but the lake surface was truly a mirror. It was pure bliss to have a coffee on the dock and meditate in silence. No jet skis, bugs, or party revellers; rather the only fireworks were the maples and oaks lining the shore.

Tri-colour beech, in a way

With the sky a pristine blue, we often looked overhead to really appreciate the changing colour of the trees. I think this is a cool shot showing three different colours in the same beech tree's canopy. 

Nature always surprises me with its random beauty although one could argue that the tree is simply withdrawing as much energy as possible from its leaves before they fall. 

What we perceive as beautiful colours of crimson, gold, violet, magenta, etc., are strictly unintended byproducts of the tree's evolution. But who really cares when you see such beauty?