The other night I said out loud, to no one in particular. You are a very cute platypus.  To which Mary Anne replied.  What platypus?  I said, “the one hanging on my laptop”.  She looked at me, perplexed and said: That is a parrot. Look at the beak.  “Oh, well the feet – they look like a platypus”.  Either way – parrot or platypus.  It is still hangin’ on my laptop and there it will stay. So here we go from Parrot or Platypus to PORCUPINES AND PONIES…

The place I call home is…Black Lake and it is north of Sioux Narrows. Some of the lakes that surround our waters include Mac Lake, Bug Lake, and Lost Lake. And, the dirt roads take you to much loved places: jumping off points for adventures of all sorts. 

This natural corridor, a winding, scenic stretch of waterways, islands, peninsulas and more… we call this place the Township of Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls.  Dotting the landscape are fly-in fishing camps, outposts, working mines, logging operations, mills, brewhouses, specialty shoppes and so, much more.  If you have always called rural and remote northwestern ON – your home: you have a lived experience that is curated by the great outdoors.  Your ancestors may have been loggers or miners or fishing guides.  Did they work on the steamships that carried passengers and cargo up from the mid-west to destinations on Lake of the Woods?  Were your aunts and cousins, cooks and cleaners – seasonal workers who came to be summertime friends as holidaymakers came to stay and play, right here on the eastern shores of Lake of the Woods? Are your family camps down old logging roads, standing as sentinels in the timber of tall pines? 

When you are canoeing, camping or cooking over an open fire, do you ever wonder – who is watching?  Who else walks with us?  Well, porcupines and ponies…of course. 

This episode is inspired by wild things and for those who know me, that is truly where my heart lies.  And, I wish to give a shout-out to Possums & Allsorts who kindly and generously gave me permission to share one of their poems on this episode. You can find “Possums & Allsorts” on Facebook.