Yesterday was the first day in ages that we relaxed on the dock. The ever present clouds were great to watch.

And the ever present wind kept kicking up the waves.

With all the rain we've had in July, almost every day, you'd think we'd have seen a few more rainbows than this one, but you also need some sunshine for rainbows, and we've had very little of that. Hopefully July will come in August.

Here we are in between rain storms at the Brock Zeman Trout Lake Shaker. The tent and tarps held up well.

Brock Zeman

Blair Hogan

Just a pickin' and a grinnin'.

Doc Bain tries out the temporary rain tarp in advance of the Trout Lake Shaker.

The burn barrel has a rival burn unit, a section of gas pipeline, and boy, is it a good burner.

Tents and tarps all ready for folks and weather.

Here comes the storm and rains - it was a pretty wild one for about an hour, then it was a lot of rain.

Mendo popped in for a quick beer, then got caught in the middle of the lake as the storm crashed through the area, still wondering if he made it home OK.

Last night's Trout Lake Shaker was a howling success. Here Brock and Blair belt another one out indoors as we had to resort to Plan C. Plan A was aborted somewhere last month when we realized summer was taking a vacation and the monsoons were moving in. Plan B, well anyone can have a Plan B, but how many have Plan Cs that work?

Sunny went off like a howitzer at 4 o'clock this morning. After a lot of barking and searching with the flashlight, we finally found the culprits. Sunny was very pleased with herself, but we had to shut her in to let the little rascals escape.

Marsha's gardens are usually spectacular, as this clump of bergamont shows, and they also require lots of watering, hours in fact, everyday, except for this summer of rain. Now if only we could "sun" the gardens when it's too wet and cloudy the way we water them when it's dry, we'd be all set.

"Stranded" in the middle of the Rideau River in Ottawa.

While I was in Ottawa this weekend I went for a bike ride with my good buddy, Wolf. Here is a shot of the "curtain" as the Rideau River empties into the Ottawa River between the Parliament Buildings and the Prime Minister's residence.

This is the end of the lake where we went fishing on Wed. evening. Calm waters make for nice reflections.

I like reflection photos like this.

This sure looks like a summer time photo on the water - too bad about the non-summer like weather we've been having.

Ah, pickerel time!

On Wednesday a few of us went golfing in Mattawa, then we went to a friend's cottage for some pickerel fishing. While catching fish, more photos later, I took a lot of cloud photos including this one with the "eye of God" looking at us.

In the center is some kind of old fort, situated in the middle of Lake Erie as it starts to empty into the Niagara River at Fort Erie. Anyone know the name of this or its history?

Crystal Beach on Lake Erie - This used to be a fave place years ago to "whoop it up" in the summer. It had an amusement park on the water that was the Wonderland of its time, and it attracted visitors and big name entertainers from all over.

Here are some of the posters from the past with some of the big name entertainers that performed at Crystal Beach.

The rides had the same disclaimers for riders as they do now.

Crystal Beach is now a small lakeside town that only attracts beach goers and US summer visitors. It's in a pretty recession hit area of the outer Niagara region.

Whew, we finished the stone paver work. Now it's time for "trimming" it up and cleanup. It was 2 weeks of hard work, but we're real happy with our efforts. Now it's on to the next project.

Sunny has been a little distraught of late. I think she will be really glad when we finally finish with the stone paving. Today should be the final day unless the cleanup takes longer than suspected.

Marsha captured the laying of the final stone paver yesterday evening. It was a bit of hard work moving, cutting, and laying those suckers. It's nice to have them down. Now it's compacting the area and putting on the final jointing sand layer, then, of course, site clean up and finishing.

Sunny wears the "white hat" on the stone paver project. Here she is in her favourite viewing position.

Here's the progress on laying the stone pavers as of yesterday morning. We hope to get them all down by the end of today.

We have excavated our entrance way to install stone pavers.

We removed a couple of steps so we have the slope away from the house so water can drain away.

The boom truck delivering the pavers.

The stone dust is down and compacted ready to receive sand and pavers.

Getting ready to stone the walkway and patio.

After a day of laying paver stones, we relaxed with a few beverages in the evening and watched the clouds roll by across the lake.

Canada Day, eh! That was last week, where we celebrated on the cabin porch with Molson Canadian and Canadian music. There have been few days this past week where the flag has been fluttering without being soaked by our monsoon weather. Hopefully, summer will soon replace spring.

Marsha's kayak as seen through my brother's new monster lens.

The Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls is pretty spectacular. It must be one of the natural wonders of the world.

The Maid of the Mist, number ??, is a pretty good place to be on a scorching hot day.

This is a view looking down the Niagara River to where it tumbles down the falls.

The barge in the middle of the river is hung up on the rocks in front of the little island before the falls. I wonder if it will ever get free and sail on down over the falls. That would be awesome to see.