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+

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?