There’s no better place to live than the Kawarthas

The Kawarths Lakes region is indeed a beautiful place to live.

A few weeks ago, the seemingly endless rain did not have me quite so enthusiastic, but look what it has done for our landscape; have you ever seen such an abundance of wildflowers and varying shades of plush green lawns? The superintendent at the Quarry Golf Club, Jeremy, tells me he has only had to water the fairways once this year (up until the beginning of August), and I even have grass beneath my trees for the first time in a decade! I love the smell it gives off as I mow it. If this is any indication of what September has in store, then its going to be one spectacularly colourful fall.

My daughter and I went canoeing on Chemong Lake and came within feet of a family of loons demonstrating their diving skills to their chick. We also saw a mallard duck sitting on her eggs in an abandoned, low-lying Osprey nest. We wondered how the ducklings, once hatched, were going to fare after fleeing the nest for the first time, since we could not see how they would be able to return to its eight-foot-high perch. But when my wife and I went paddling last week, they too were learning -- from Mama duck’s example – how to scurry along the surface of the lake in an attempt to take flight. They were not quite airborne yet, but it looked as though they would be by fall, and I’m no longer losing sleep over their fate.

Those who are not as fortunate to live here can still soak up the summer sights and enjoy wildlife encounters of their own while camping at Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park. That’s exactly what my two sons, five grandchildren (aged 8-17) and I spent four days

doing, traversing the lakes, fishing for our supper, and taking in the towering white pine vistas from the serene comfort of a gently swaying hammock.

Camping in the Kawarthas, or simply walking along the winding Trans-Canada Trail, beats any selfhelp book I’ve ever come across.

So does a boat ride with friends on one of our great lakes. We went up to Bobcaygeon for lunch the other day and it was a glorious time with a high blue ski above the navy blue waters.

There are so many wonderful things to do locally in the summer that others come to our region from afar to enjoy.

And when we’re looking for something cultural, we needn’t go far either. A 90-minute drive to Toronto provides the option of catching a ball game or a world-class museum or theatre outing. We hope to get out to 4th Line Theatre in August for a Winslow production. He has such a way of using humour and local history to convey worldly wisdom. His brilliance, and that of other local artists, is a treasure. The Canadian Canoe Museum, Peterborough Lift Lock, Lang Pioneer Village, and the Curve Lake Art Gallery are all treasure troves of local indigenous and settler history and culture.

But for me, the greatest gem is to be found in the beauty of our natural landscape. Every time my wife and I go walking through our neighborhood or on our Trans Canada Trail, we see something new. A new plant or a larger-than-usual rabbit. A neighbor who has taken great pride in their gardens or in posting a humorous sign or saying.

There are problems in our world and even right here at home but we are blessed to live, work and play in such a safe and serene place. If only we can notice it, there is beauty to behold at every turn. Let us cherish and protect it.