So it is the May long weekend and vehicle after vehicle is streaming out of the hamlet. That is why I chose to stick around here. It is going to be a quiet weekend with all the neighbors gone. That doesn't mean that there will be no camping. It just means that it will be done in the backyard.

I purchased a new tent and have been impatiently waiting to try it out. The old one was fine but I couldn't stand up in it. It also held only the camp cot; no room for a chair or small table in case I had to hibernate inside due to rain. 

The new tent is amazing. My biggest camp cot fits in it comfortably and there is still room for a chair and small table. My gravity lounger would fit inside!

I tried everything out this morning for a little siesta that turned out to be two hours. There's just something special about sleeping in a tent with the fresh air blowing through the 'windows'.

I started working in the yard and got all the backyard flower beds weeded and the garden beds dug up before that nap. After the nap is when the clouds moved in and made everything wet. No more digging, mowing or anything else so I put on the raincoat and boots and headed to the trails.


I hadn't been to the Biodiversity Trail for a few days so that was the destination. I wanted to see if the swans became parents. There was no sign of young ones but the mom/pop were swimming around in the pond.

I watched this pair nest last year. They had four cygnets. This year I watched them construct their nest and am still waiting for hatching day to see how many babes they will have. The male was doing a great job of fending off any birds that got too close to their nest. I arrived at the pond just as a ruckus was happening. It was swan vs goose. That peaceful papa swan turned hostile when the goose came too close.

Dark clouds were coming from the west and the raindrops began to fall again so I made my way back to the parking lot. The birds serenaded me all the way. The leaves are opening and the trails are now lined with a thick green coat.

I got home after that refreshing jaunt in the woods and looked up some info on the trumpeter swans and learned something new today. I didn't know that the female was called a 'pen' and the male was called a 'cob'. 

I plan on having a bonfire this evening in celebration of the long weekend. The logs are split and piled high. My coffee is brewing and I'm bundling up in my camping gear to hunker down for the first 'camping' evening of the season.