Positively Wild!

It has positively been a while since my last blog entry.  I have been really busy wrapping up the school year, and preparing my flower beds for summer!  I have been doing some art, and can't wait to show you when I finally have time to finish it.  In just a few more days I will be free to be me and be able to get back on my art and photography track!  Here is a glimpse of what I was doing last week with my grade six students!  I was camping in Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan.  I guess June is Saskatchewan month!  We had three glorious days and two very chilly nights to explore.  

After this amazing campfire, roasting hots dogs, chowing down on S'mores and singing crazy campfire songs, we headed for the giant sky telescope in the light pollution free reserve and were able to see beautiful Saturn and its rings, part of our galaxy of stars and the International Space Station zoom by!  It was positively wild!  We were up so late, by the time we got back to camp, it was after 12:00am!  We didn't get to bed until 1:30.  We sat and waited for the kids to settle and listen to some kids struggle from being away from their parents for the first time!   

The day had been full of wild adventure!  Horseback riding, paddle boating, rock climbing, and mini golfing!  I luckily was able to go horseback riding through the magnificent hills, where we were treated to the flitting and flirting of numerous Yellow Swallowtail butterflies dancing!  It was so peaceful and exciting.  It was some of the kids'first time riding ever!

The horse closest to you is the horse I rode.  His name is T.C.  It was hard getting good pictures on his back, but I did manage to get a few non-blurry shots.  My camera kept whacking me in my back when we decided to "treat" the kids to a faster little trot.  A teacher's time to get a little revenge on the students who don't know how to ride horses that well and for giving us a hard time when we request that they work hard and get their work done.  Heeeheee hee.  That's my evil laugh!  Just kidding.  Or am I?

On our walk back to camp, things became very exciting!  I finally was privileged to experience a visit of TWO MOOSE, a mother and her calf!  The kids were so quiet, that I was able to change lenses and stop and get some great close-ups of the mother!!

 

                                             Baby in the distance!

Below, in the next picture, the mother moose, the cow, is as cool as a cucumber! I was a bit concerned with how she might react with all of us standing and watching with her baby fairly close, things could have gone wild, but she wasn't bothered at all about our presence.  Phew!

Isn't she a beauty?  I have never been so close to a moose before!  It has always been my dream to be able to see a moose in the hills, and what a dream come true!

What a face.  How about those lips?

The next day, my group went mini golfing and paddle boating.  Instead paddle boating, I was fortunate to supervise the students while kayaking!  Yup, I got to try kayaking for the first time!  I am now hooked and am looking into buying one with my birthday money!  I turned 45 on Father's Day,  what a special gift I received, to be able to celebrate my birthday with my wonderful dad once again!

Anyways, I digress,  kayaking was so peaceful, even with kids laughing and calling for help around me.  It was so nice to a be "alone" in the kayak and having total control over my own destiny and destination.  The grebes were swimming closely, a muskrat said hello, and the Canadian Geese and their goslings were enjoying the day too!  

I was told that the grebes transport the babies on their backs, including the fathers' backs.  The owner of the boating business shared with me a story of a father grebe taking the strongest baby upon his back and when the baby got a bit stronger, "booted" him off, while the mother who took care of the weaker baby, so lovingly waited until her baby was almost her size before she "booted" the baby off!  Patient mother, impatient father!

By the third day, we were all pooped out!  Some of us had walked up and down the hills and trails so many times, that our feet and legs were killing us!  I blew a hole in my running shoes!  

We ended up having great weather, no storms, and only a few drops of rain.  The  nights were quite cool, you may know the kind of cool...wear socks, a hoodie with your hood tied up tight, mittens on, long pants, an extra blanket, and don't dare move once you finally figure out how to zip up your sleeping bag, kind of cold!  

On this last day we promised to take those that wanted to canoe to the lake and the rest to the beach.  The ones who originally wanted to play at the beach all voted to stay at camp to avoid having to walk down to the lake and over the hilly paths for what seemed like the millionth time.  Another teacher and I chose to be the leaders for canoeing.  What fun!  I haven't canoed since I was in high school and received my canoeing 1 badge.  It was difficult to paddle with two children who never had paddled before, and couldn't synchronize their strokes.  I had to try and steer us out of the weeds a few times!

We sure had stiff legs and sore feet and very tired bodies, but the days and nights were positively wild with great adventure!  It took a lot of naps and a weekend to recover!  Yawn!  June is so tiring, but exciting too!  It will be so refreshing once holidays start.  

Sorry I haven't been able to keep up with all of your blogs, I have been busy and our internet  has been down for most of the month.  Good news though, our provider has moved our tower, has given us a new receiver and has given us a promise of the internet being seven times faster and free for the next month!

Yippee!  Boy, it sure feels good to be back blogging.

I have more to share, but it will have to wait for another day!  I have school work to do and sleep to catch up on.  Talk to you soon!