Early in the spring of 2020, Karen and I became good friends. Together we picked wild leeks and blackberries on Manitoulin. But the most fun we had was during our four-day cycling adventure in August. Karen is trustworthy, helpful and a good friend.

Leo and Margaret celebrating the grand opening of Neda’s Sweet Grass pharmacy in M’Chigeeng First Nation. Leo had an herb table out on display and some really good cedar tea for all those who stopped by.

We have lived with bats for 20 years. Siding bats we call them, as they find shelter in the uneven gaps in the wood siding that covers our house. These little brown bats are seasonal visitors who provide a service to us by eating flying insects (over 1000 insects in one hour). They are agile flyers and you can see them swooping by with Dracula-like magic in the night. We use screens on our windows and don’t live quite as porous a life as Gary Snyder describes: “...at night the bats dash around the rooms, in and out of the open skylights, swoop down past your cheek and go out an open sliding door.” Occasionally, someone will warn us that bats carry disease but that has never concerned us as the bats are living in their natural habitat and are not stressed. The little brown bat can live up to 40 years. They lived here before we did. You could call our house their summer house.

In the spirit of Muniz’s Documentary film “Waste Land” I took a walk collecting trash from the ditch for about 1/2 km fronting our place on Manitoulin Island. We are surrounded by water and the ditch along the highway flows into Lake Huron where whitefish are caught and served in local restaurants.

Inspired by a 4e group hike on the oak savannah north of Lake Wolsey. After the hike, we met up at the Gore Bay airport to reflect on the experience and make a few drawings. Mine developed into this painting.

A tradition starts young. Shore lunch is not fast food. You take a boat, go out on a lake, catch a fish, bring it back to the shore, build a fire and cook it up, and there you go: shore lunch!

A couple of leaves from local trees.