A Lot of Tails

So yes, except for one of the items in this post, they all have a common element - a tail.

A few weeks ago we were able to take a week off and head up to the Lodge for a week, first with some good friends of ours and then family joined us for the rest of the week.  Being up at the Lodge during the fall is completely different than during the summer.  The bugs are gone and we can actually hike in the trails in the bush, the colours are already started compared to home which is a couple hours south, and the crisper temperature mean the woodstove is on to warm the place up.  Evenings are inside with games and talks in the great room.

Our good friends Adam and Kerri have boys almost the same ages as ours, so we hiked all but one of the trails in the "back forty".  Coming back from the trails, the boys brought back tales for the moms (Ok, corny and a stretch!)

Crazy gang of hikers!  Adam and his boys with mine.

Some bright fungi on a log.

More fungi on a tree stump.

But, on our way back from one hike, we must have just scared off something eating a Garter Snake it had caught.  The kill must just have happened because even though it was half eaten, when touched, the tail would still constrict and grip your finger.  I really wonder what we scared off.  Too bad we didn't see it.  The boys were quite fascinated by it though.  (There is tail #2)

Half-eaten Garter Snake.

Throughout the week, I was also glad to get a number of  opportunities to get some nice pictures both around the grounds and on an outing to Bancroft one day.

In a canoe ride fishing on the lake with two of my boys, we were surprised by a big splash and soon spotted a beaver. We were close enough to shore to go back and get the camera in the fading afternoon light and followed him around to get quite close.

Beaver.

 A bad picture of the "splash and dive". (but tail #3!)

By the lodge, I got a couple other pictures of interest... One of a daring Red Squirrel which chewed into Holly's plastic container to get at some homemade Sweet-Marie bars, got it open and managed to get a way with a huge square.  Later, it was found licking off the spoon from one of our Apple Crisp desserts.

Red Squirrel finishing off our Apple Crisp.
(tail #4)

I saw only one butterfly the whole time up there, but it was one I hadn't seen before.

Morning Cloak Butterfly

Morning Cloak Butterfly -
missing its characteristic blue spots though.

This post is going to have to end here as I should be off to bed, it's getting long, and I obviously ran out of tails!

I'll post the rest of the pictures from this trip soon where I did my day trip out towards Bancroft.  The trip ended up going way longer than the couple hours I had planned as I kept bumping into more creatures...but I'm getting ahead of myself. :) And I won't torment you with more corny themes like "tails".