Day 7 – Today’s episode is named “Des tortues sur la buche” find out later what that means. It was also Mother’s Day in Canada! Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mother’s reading this.
Quick trip to the IGA Express to grab Mummy some Mother’s Day ice-cream. Not too many Mother’s Day items for sale only a few bouquets of flowers. The small stand was placed directly next to the Red Bull section, seems like the commercial side of Mother’s Day hasn’t come to Quebec.
Also if you forget your shopping bag someone from IGA will come over to you and furiously sticker the items you have paid for.
We already made a plan for today which was to visit the Alfred Kelly Nature Reserve, one because it was free, and two because it houses 80% of all the raptor birds in Quebec.
The peregrine falcon had lived in the cliffs for hundreds of years and most recently (last 50 years) had left. Only in the last couple of years had they returned in a conversation success story.
The entrance was interesting split into two paths, one hiking (snow shoeing in the winter) to the lake and the other filled with cyclists (mainly electric bikes). It seemed that this is definitely a place the locals visit and it’s the first car park that was rammed and felt like England!
We headed down the trail which was filled with boulders and tree roots, there was just so much to explore, vast areas of trees that had fallen down or rotted away.
Woodpecker had taken this tree. Mummy told us that woodpeckers have a cushion inside their skulls that softens the impact of head butting trees.
We arrived at the lake, which was stunning as its set right below the cliffs. Daddy read that the lake was man-made as there used to be a school in the grounds. As it’s man-made, it’s pretty smelly!
The boys spotted fish and pond skaters and a red-tailed squirrel.
We wanted hawks and falcons, but it seemed that it was too late in the day and too clear. The hawks like cloud coverage as they plan their attacks.
We waited and watched the cliffs, probably would have been better with binoculars but we watched. We did eventually see a large black bird circling the cliffs but none of us could see what it was or where it was heading.
We started to feel a little disappointed but it’s nature! We are not at the zoo and the birds are not brought out on chains to fly down and take a piece of frozen chicken breast.
Daddy mentioned to Mummy we needed some better blog content! Could Nate jump in the lake, could we see a hawk swoop down and grab a frog out of the lake?
We stood by the river bank and headed across the wooden footbridge and platform to continue our trail. As we crossed over the bridge there were a group of three men standing on the bridge.
We smiled at them, they smiled back. A few moments pass. “Il y a des tortues sur la bûche.” We carry on talking, we then hear…excuse me…excuse me…
“Il y a des tortues sur la bûche” which translates to…there are turtles on the log! What where…
They were all sitting in a line, seven turtles all catching a suntan. Not phased in the slightest that us humans could walk onto the log and get them. It almost looked staged.
We decided to give Mont Shaw a miss on the way back as Mummy seemed to be developing a cold. Daddy and the boys decided to play a French version of Red Light, Green Light using “Feu Rouge, Feu Vert”
We decided to focus on getting the best sticks on the way back while Mummy told a call from her brother Jack to discuss backpack sizes for his upcoming trip to Vietnam.
Overall, the weather today has improved about 200% no clouds, sunny and still crisp and cold. We want to get some of the best outdoor trips in while the weather is still good.
We headed back, the boys went on the deck and read their Kindles. We are so happy that Nate is starting to enjoy reading as much as Elliott. Nate has just finished Magic Finger by Roald Dahl and is loving it!
No plans for tomorrow yet, let’s see how Mummy feels in the morning! Bye :)
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