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Good Morning

It’s a cloudy morning here in cottage country, but the good news is it’s not all that cold. Which is fine with me as I am looking forward to some front porch sittin’ with my lovely wife.

That said that porch sittin’ part might be cut short a wee bit, if them black flies gets to roaming around. But speaking of them black flies I have noticed a lot of the birds are back that enjoys them for their meals, like the swallows, bluebirds, wrens and the stripped headed ones. And once it warms up some and the dragon flies wake up after their long winters nap, they will clean them up real quick.

But other than testing human’s sanity, and trying to carry you away piece by piece, and being a ready-made meal for the birds, they do have other uses. One would be that the black fly larvae are one of the main foods for brook trout and rainbow trout which in turn is great for us fishermen, as it keeps them fish nice an fat.

They also produce a large amount of waste, or what I would call fertilizer which feeds a lot of plants, especially the ones that grows in the water like water lilies.

Another thing that many doesn’t know is that they are great pollinators and without them there wouldn’t be many wild blueberries or wild flowers.

The old-timers used to say black flies build character. If that is true, Northern Ontario should be producing philosophers by the truckload. However… looking around these days, I can only assume some people stayed indoors.

Highway 522 has picked up traffic wise, which tells me folks aren’t staying home because of the high gas prices.

On another note I did manage to get my old rotavator running the other day and got my vegetable garden worked up. It’s a lot different from the rototiller’s of today, as it really chews and turns the soil over fine… instead of just scratching it up. Different beast entirely. I have to say I sure do enjoy the smell of fresh turned soil in the spring.

And once it warms up a wee bit more, my wife and I will get to planting our vegetables that we have been nursing for the past week or so. Nothing like fresh veggie salads all summer long. Not to forget them toasted tomato sandwiches. Damn making me hungry just thinking about them.

With that I am off for my morning bowl of organic oatmeal, not the kind you buy in most grocery stores though, but the kind that I order in special, no pesticides… or ingredients that I can’t even pronounce, or begin to figure out how to write. Some will know what I mean… those ‘good things’ we’re told are perfectly safe for us to eat, because the powers that be always have our best interests at heart… or so we’re told.

Until the next time: Keep your minds open and your stories alive. GW