Canada....

When most people in Europe hear I am from Canada, they immediately think of trees and bears. I don't really blame them, Canada really does promote itself through its nature over here. If I ever see anything about Canada on TV or in a magazine, there is a bear next to a tree, sometime holding a hockeystick while eating maple syrup. I hope to address all of these in this post.

I thought I could perpetuate some stereotypes by showing that my sister lives right next to a bunch of trees. This is Scanlon lake conservation area, just down the road from her place. I had more than my share of blackfly bites, another crucial part of the Canadian experience.

First off, we headed into the park, where as you can see, there are many trees. There are many very thin bears hiding behind these. As locals, the bears did not give us any trouble.
Covering the ground here are many many many trillium plants, that is the official flower of Ontario.Here is my sister walking along with Claire, they are playing some sort of clapping game.Adam was put to work at times, pulling the two little people in a wagon as my Mum walked along with them. I particularly like how unhappy Adam looks in this photo, like it is a major major labour he is undertaking. He insisted on pulling the wagon, so I don't know why he looks so grumpy in this moment.
At the first clearing in the park, there was of course a Maple Syrup making place. For those of you who have never seen this, you knock taps in to the maple trees and hang a bucket on the tap, collecting the sap. Then you go and boil all the sap in these giant tubs.Liam took a moment to pick up a giant rock, which he called an Easter Egg and carried around for the next 3 days. Sometimes he gets some strange ideas in his head.
Here are the two boys taking a little break from the action.
Then we had enough and went back home.But there was someone already waiting for us there.... Ah Canada, so many surprises.