Toronto the good.

This is the backyard of Iain's brother's place in Toronto. They have a mini-park - just beautiful! We spent most of the weekend just relaxing here.
They have several Rose of Sharon bushes, in lovely bloom.

Enjoying the summer

Ahh, summer. Would that everyone could have only good things happen. I know a few people right now going through very difficult times: serious illness and loss of loved ones. I've been there too, as just about everyone has, and this whole week brings sad memories for my family. Life isn't all about the sad stuff, though; that's just what happens in between all the good stuff. Gotta keep the glass half-full.

Kids fishing off the dock last weekend:

Monarchs a-comin'

Not that I really have time to do this, but just a quick note: last weekend, Iain and I went in search of Monarch Butterfly caterpillars (inspired by Wendy), knowing we had lots of milkweed on our cottage road, and voila! Not the quality of Wendy's pics, but it was nice to see so many of them thriving.

Binocular repair

News flash: I just discovered that I know how to collimate binoculars! Last fall I got a cheap pair of Bushnell (made in China - *sigh*) binocs as a promo gift at work. We didn't look at them until this spring, when we tried them in the back yard. Iain complained that he couldn't get the images to line up, and I had the same problem, so I was getting ready to chuck them in the next yard sale. But then I did a google for out-of-focus binoculars, and found that they can go out of collimation and are still fixable. The fixes looked intimidating (involving research and purchasing books), but one fellow said he took his apart and played with it, so I thought "what the heck"and took off both the lenses. I couldn't see anything to adjust, but then had the bright idea of switching sides, just in case someone at the factory in China had a left-from-right perception deficit, and VOILA! Now they work perfectly. I highly recommend trying this if you have a similar problem (or hit them with a rubber mallet until they go into alignment, another recommended repair method).

Baby Painted Turtle

Isn't this little guy adorable? Iain spotted him on the road, between our two lakes.

There's video at the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmL4UkhRhzg