nature &whatnot || Remembering Fishers Glen

Every summer, I go to Oakville (near Toronto) to visit friends, including my bestie, Jennie. Last year, we spent a weekend at a friend's cottage in Fishers Glen, a little village on Lake Erie. Wiki officially refers to it as a "fishing community" on the page for the county in which it resides, so you know it must be pretty small, hahah.

It was absolutely gorgeous there, and I'm crossing my fingers that we spend some time there when I visit next month! Since I've been looking through the photos from the trip a lot lately, I thought I'd share them here. Some of these are on my Instagram already, but they're a year old so it's okay, right? ;) This was before I bought my camera, so some of these are cellphone pics, and some were taken by friends with phones/cameras. I'll try to keep up with the credits! The view from the cottage backyard. Are you not instantly jealous? There were tons of ladybugs on the beach! Since then, I've read articles that say large amounts of ladybugs washing up on beaches is somewhat common. Orange ladybug. Dead cicada. Not really sure why I didn't turn it over for a better look. Not the cottage we stayed in, I just liked the framing of this shot. The sand was purple in a few spots! I wonder why... Dead fish that I definitely almost stepped on before I noticed it, hahah (note the footprints lol).
I did a bit of beachcombing, mainly looking for beach glass. At one point, a dog ran up and wanted to play, hahah. The dog's owner was a few hundred feet downshore (upshore?). Photo by Andy. Photo by Andy. Honestly not sure what I was so happily perplexed about here lol.
Photo by Andy. Lookin' at rocks, no bigs.
Photo by Andy. Ian helped me look for beachglass- I think he found more than I did!
Photo by Heather. We found a fair amount! I didn't relish the idea of transporting it all in my carry-on, though, so I left a lot of it in a decorative glass at the cottage. L-R: Dan, Heather, Victoria, Andy, me. Accidentally overextended my elbow; I try not to do that in photos because it looks weird, hahah. We were all "Ian, climb the rock with us!" and he was all "Nah, that's cool."
Photo by Jennie. Me, Andy, Jennie.
Photo by Heather. Thought the effect was kinda neat ^^ That's a pretty tall cliff we're standing at the top of.
Photo by Andy. We played Sopio, which was new to me, and super fun! Wish I had some orange Aero bubbles right about now... Me and Ian chilling on the porch with everyone else.
Photo by Heather. This little guy was spotted on the porch several different times.
We went into Port Dover for a bit, which was a bigger beach town nearby. Digging through records with Heather.
Not sure who took this, but I found it on Heather's Facebook page. Jennie and me. The beach was nice, if crowded.
Photo by Andy. Victoria, Heather, me.
Photo by Andy. Me and Andy.
Not sure who took this, but it was with Andy's camera. Here I am, discretely making out with a jawbreaker the size of my fist.
Photo by Andy. And here I am, reading smut on my Kindle! What an attractive face ;)
Photo by Andy.
We stopped in a shop because I wanted to buy a hat (I had found the pink one at the cottage and borrowed it). There were a number of sun hats, but I was informed that a certain one suited me best, and I was inclined to agree as it reminded me a bit of a cowboy hat, hahah. Heather, Dan, me, Ian, Jennie (that's Victoria hiding behind Jennie).
Photo by Andy.
Fishers Glen was awesome, but I always have an amazing time on my trips up north. Jennie and I also ended up going to the zoo with a few other friends. Me, Karlee, Jennie, and Kiyara in the front.
Photo by Kiyara.
Seriously, look at these girls! I'm glad I'm finally at a point in my life where I'm comfortable with my own face/body, but damn if these three don't outshine the hell out of me in every picture, hahah.

I'll leave you with a (blurry) picture of me making another weird face, this time because we saw a moose. Photo by Karlee.
Aaaand some pictures Jen took recently of her newly-adopted Cornish Rex, Granola (Nola for short), who I am so excited to meet! Photos by Jennie.
I hope y'all have summer adventures you're looking forward to, too!
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nature &whatnot || Chisholm Trail

Josh and I went for a walk the other day. According to Kevin Hart, you have to be pretty fucking happy to just go out for a walk. What can I say, it was a nice day! Right away we saw a bunch of squirrels. Bouncing away when I approached. This little guy let me get pretty darn close! Eventually this one, too, fled, only to peek out at us from behind a tree! So cute~ Near one of the little bridges spanning Spring Creek was a tree that looked like it's been falling downhill very slowly over a number of years, hahah. It seems to have a pretty decent grip on another tree near it, so perhaps it's done falling, after all. It also has a pretty good grip on the ground, actually! hahah Down by the creek. He doesn't normally look this grumpy (; It's a pretty little creek... aside from all the trash. Maybe next time I'll bring a bag and a trash-poker (or whatever those are called, hahah). I nearly missed this little guy; Josh pointed it out to me. It looks like the back half of something, but beyond that I have no idea! I have never attempted to identify mummified animal carcasses before, to be quite honest. Josh finally dragged me away, and we continued on our walk. Josh and I agreed that these steps looked a little down. This stump was so big! All the other stumps around were painted bright pink, presumably for the city workers who mow the grass, but this one wasn't, because really, how could you miss it?? I wish I could have seen it when it was still a tree. There were mushrooms growing at the base! I seriously know basically nothing about mushrooms. I'm seriously not even going to attempt to identify it, because I have no clue! I would have collected one or two to take home for examination but I didn't have anything to carry them in. Maybe next time I'll be more prepared! You guys, this is someone's backyard. For reals. I am sooooooo jealous. I hope they didn't mind me taking pictures of the back of their house! hahah This was across from the yard. Looks like someone's been sliding down it! I wanted to try but Josh was like "no." and also I had nothing to slide on except my legging-clad butt, which would have hurt. This is the underside of one of the major streets the trail passes under. I have a secret to confess! A few days later, I went back with gloves and a jar and retrieved those mysterious back limbs near the leaning tree. They've been macerating for a while, and I am excited/nervous to attempt to reassemble/identify the critter! For all I know identification will be impossible with how much of the little guy was missing- plus, this is my first time trying anything like this, so I could easily fuck it up... Wish me luck!
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