Raven, Obi & Roger (L to R) in Maple Lake - August 2, 2010
Obi at Kawartha Dairy, Minden Ontario
We adopted Obi about 2 months ago. His caretaker did not know what breed he is. We are pretty sure that Obi is mixed and there have been many guesses with Boston terrier coming up frequently along with Schipperke, a much more rare breed that interestingly, his purebred “step-sister” Raven is. We adopted Raven 10 years ago after she’d been abandoned, we guess because her hip dysplasia rendered her worthless for breeding. Their loss, our gain. 
Raven & Obi at Kawartha Dairy, Minden Ontario
Raven, Obi & Roger at Kawartha Dairy
Kawartha Dairy ice cream is the best in cottage country. Fresh (versus grocery store bought) is best. There’s a Karwartha Dairy ice cream stand and store just outside of Minden Ontario on Hwy 35.
The weekend weather forecast for the Haliburton Highlands is the best so far this summer!
It’s truly gorgeous–sunny, clear, humidity is tolerable. And it’s going to be nice on Sunday, too! Can you believe it? I need to pinch myself ‘cos it’s been so long since Maple Lake has had an entire weekend that was this nice.
My weekender neighbours are quite fortunate since they just need to pack an overnight bag and in a snap they can be in paradise. Not quite as fortunate are folks like my immediate family who left today to return to the States. 
Turning quite serious, folks, we are all on the same page on global warming now, right? We acknowledge it; it is happening right now. We have used and abused our poor planet and it does not have to be reflected as “warming” in certain spots. Here in the Haliburton Highlands, it’s been really cold and wet until this week. Pay attention to the excessive precipitation, especially.
Maple Lake, to be frank, has given me an eye infection simply by using lake water to wash my face. I know this because I wear goggles in the lake as I am unable to see without my contact lenses. The waters of Maple Lake have spewed up all kinds of garbage this summer–literally all kinds of plastic, coke cans. I’ve not ever seen it like this and it makes me really sad.
I’m sure I’m not the first but I feel that the year-rounders, the permanent residents should move forward to protect the lakes of Haliburton County. Obviously, we cannot change how Mother Nature is behaving right now but we can change human behaviour. Impose restrictions to protect our lakes and all nature that depend on the ecosystem, as people haven’t shown willingness to “reign it in” on their own.
First, I would like to see the obvious pollutants removed from the Lake. I would like to see a ban on motorboats that leak gasoline into the lakes and nearly drown swimmers like me with their huge waves (not kidding– HUGE waves).
Truly, I hate the noise too, but it’s the pollution that is sickening me. The boats are getting more powerful, ridiculously fast, and burning petrol at a time when I thought we were supposed to be practicing conservation. Our lakes are what make this area the paradise that it is. And we are doing our damnedest to destroy paradise.
Please, Haliburton Highland year-rounders, restrict the use of motorboats to the weekend and otherwise allow all the the other nonpolluting boats free and unfettered any time. The beautiful sailboats, the rowboats, canoes, paddleboats—all of them wind/man-powered and not harmful to our dying lakes.
If we don’t start reigning in our excesses and our abuse of the lakes of Cottage Country there is no doubt in my mind that we shall lose them. Nothing would be sadder if our unquenchable need for “things” and need to have the biggest, fastest motorboats and personal motorized vehicles hastened the death of our lakes–leaving nothing left for anyone.
I can only hope that the fine people that live year-round on Maple Lake and in the Maple Lake area take action this winter and next summer to deal with the craziness that breaks out every weekend here with ridiculous amount of polluting watercraft on what was what was once a clean lake. It’s not just here but throughout Cottage Country.
Also, as related to a lesser pollution, what the heck is with the unrestricted use of fireworks on Maple Lake every single weekend? Hey, I LOVE fireworks. They can be really special–but every weekend?! WTH? My poor dog is terrified. She shakes and glues herself to her people.
Ban fireworks on Maple Lake except for Canada Day, period. Stop the insanity, please.
/end preachy rant
Here’s the rest of the weather. If you can, stay up an extra day as Monday will still be beautiful:
As for the bugs, it has warmed up, they like warm, there are lots of them. Stay in the lake and otherwise slather on your insect repellent of choice.
Have a great week!
I must say I’m running into the same roadblocks that I did last summer in getting some good snaps of Maple Lake–it is just so rainy and windy–at least in the afternoons and early evening-to-sunset when I’d like to take photographs. We would have had a few more to share but both spouse and I are using the new camera and we are not quite adept yet at making sure the settings have not been fudged with.Taking snaps of loons on the “portrait” setting just does not get a good result. Here are a few photos just the same. We went to the Haliburton campus of Fleming College for the Arts and toured the Sculpture Forest which is adjacent to it. It was the nicest day that we’ve had thus far weather-wise. We each had fun and spouse, who took pictures on our older camera, really got some nice shots. He’s not cooperating however with sorting through them and believe me, going through 1oo’s of snaps like I’ve just done isn’t the fun part of photo-taking. Cheers! Cyn
Stormy Weather
The weather here gave us a brief respite yesterday so we took advantage of it as you can see in the photos.
The fire we made was neato and we roasted marshmallows. Downside was finding that I’d been thoroughly bitten from hairline and on my scalp. Ick.
Supposedly, it shall turn HOT in a few days which seems sort of hard to fathom given that the temperatures are struggling to reach 70F. We’ll be here so we shall see. Fingers crossed.
