prepare the Purple Ness

Yesterday while thinking the day might be a wash,  the rain stopped and the sun peeked out between the clouds.  We rushed a quick supper and then it was onto the water.
Ended up to be a nice paddle.
Watched deer at the waters edge, a loon popped up not far from the canoe and then took a few pics of the osprey in her nest.  Looks like she has some young in there but they weren't peeking over the edge yet.  I will update with pictures when we get back home.

Into every vacation a little rain must fall

Well that was an invigorating day and a half of rain.   Instead of paddling #thepurplecanoe we spent yesterday in Brockville.  Nice town spread out along the water.  Had a nice late lunch at The Union Jack Pub, fish & chips for me and liver & onions for Liz, washed down with a Newcastle Brown Ale.
Came back to #CharlestonLkPP and enjoyed a full evening of rain, unfortunately indoors :-(

Campfires and kayaks

Yesterday, Friday, we went with our friends, Mark and Maureen, to Clearwater Kayak.  She purchased a new kayak, somewhat mahogany coloured.
In the evening she took it out on it's maiden voyage along with my wife, Liz, who was christening her new yellow kayak.
The water was flat and a successful paddle around the island was enjoyed - several deer at the water's edge, fish near the surface, an otter floating on it's back along with many birds were some of the sights accompanying the gorgeous sunset.
Topped off the evening with a campfire, some roasted hotdogs and a beverage.
A most enjoyable day.

It's great to be back!

#CharlestonLkPP 241

Tomorrow we roll

So looking forward to our camping trip to #CharlestonLkPP
I hear with any luck we may see some Northern Lights tomorrow night - fingers crossed.
Still going over the last minute packing then hopefully off to sleep.
It's going to be a long ride. See you all soon.

Preparations underway or as I like to say, crammin' it in

Here is a shot inside our hardtop this evening.  Everything seems to fit so far, what is strange though, is that we have a few extra items than we did last year but there seems to be more room available.  Either we are becoming better 'packers' or it is some sort of optical illusion (maybe a delusion...)
Tomorrow is supposed to be dry during the day so we will be able to button things up.  So looking forward to this camping trip to #CharlestonLkPP.  4 more sleeps but whose counting,

Looking skyward

One of the things we love about #CharlestonLkPP is observing the sky at night.  The air is significantly clearly than it is down here in Niagara.  This year as we gaze at the heavens, I will be thinking about little #philae and the amazing science behind the Rosetta mission.  Where is the comet now and what marvelous data will you be sending us to further our understanding of this great cosmos that we are a small part of?   So great to see you waking up!

A little preview

Here is a little slide show of a few things that keeps #thepurplecanoe coming back to #CharlestonLkPP - it just scatches the surface of things to see.

Lots to photograph

What's in a name?

The clouds were slowly rolling in after supper with the promise of overnight rain and thunderstorms. (who doesn't like a good thunderstorm).  We sat in the backyard within sight of #thepurplecanoe and soon the conversation was about our upcoming trip to #CharlestonLkPP, how quickly the time was approaching and how much we had to do in preparation.  A thought then crossed my mind - I do believe it is about time to give our dear purple canoe a name.  Something was sticking with me from a previous post in which I had used the word purpleness...  "How about purple ness" I asked.  "Sounds O,K,, as long as it's two words, purple and ness, n-e-s-s-" she responded.  I smiled. We were on the same page.  Seems to me thepurplecanoe just got it's name.

Load testing the new battery.

Today we are running our new #trollingmotor for the fist time to see how much time the battery will give us.  The motor has 30lb of thrust. Looks like we may be good for at least an hour.  Don't want to use it all the time but it is a nice fallback when I get tired.
The battery is a U1 sized AGM battery (universal) with a 35 Ah rating.
If you have any questions, just ask - did a lot of researching before purchasing.

Just doing a little day-dreaming.

#CharlestonLkPP  -  Soon enough #thepurplecanoe will be doing a little paddling here.

(the sooner the better of course!)