Huntsville, Ontario

August 4 – 12, 2022

The Land of Peace and Quiet

Patti and I met in September 1974. I was on a school trip to Ontario with nine other students. We were farmed out to various families. I stayed with the Tanner family. Patti and I kept in touch throughout the years, sending letters, then emails, Christmas cards, and school pictures of our kids. I always said I would visit one day. Covid made me see that that “someday” better be sooner rather than later. When I saw a seat sale to Toronto, I jumped on it. Off I went to see my old friend after 47 years. And it just happened to be her birthday!

Patti was as excited as me. She suggested that I take the shuttle bus from the Toronto Airport, rather than renting a car. The shuttle was faster and cheaper. She picked me up in front of the Westin Hotel in Huntsville. We recognized each other immediately. Granted, we were both older (that tends to happen in 45+ years) but she had the same smile that I remembered.

On the way to her house, we passed her Mom’s farm, where I had stayed as a teenager. I was surprised to find that the house that I remember being way out of town was practically IN town now. The small community had grown from about 3000 people to 18,000. As we drove along I was surprised at the number of new subdivisions and houses. My goodness, things certainly changed! Although the main street hadn’t changed that much, it was being dug up for new water and sewer lines, and I honestly didn’t remember any of it.

Patti wasn’t kidding when she told me I was going to the Land of Peace and Quiet. She and Richard live a few miles out of town in the middle of 75 acres of bush and forest. There was an aerial picture in their house that showed bush, bush, bush and in the middle – a house. The driveway seemed to be about a half kilometre long. It had a few curves. There was a yellow sign cautioning to watch out for turtles. There is a swamp near their house, which has turtles. (I didn’t see any.) Their house is huge! When I asked how many square feet it had, they both looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

My guest room was in the basement. It had two big beds, a fireplace, a massive bathroom, and my own walkout entrance. The first night, Patti and I stood outside and looked at the stars. They have no streetlights to diminish the brightness of them. I said I could just lay out on the grass at night and look at the stars. Patti suggested that was NOT a good idea, as they had bears and fishers roaming around. In fact, they had to keep their two cats indoors because the fishers would eat them. Alrighty then…. no laying on the grass at night for me!

The main floor consisted of a huge front entrance, with a door opposite to take one out to the back yard and a door to the right to take you into the 2-3 car garage where there was a staircase up to their office. To the left of the entrance, there was a hallway with 2 piece bathroom on the right and a walk-in shower on the left. They were converting the walk-in shower to something else. Then you entered the dining room. It had a huge table that sat 8-10 people. The basement stairs were off the dining room. To the right was the kitchen. It had a huge island in the middle. One could easily seat 12 people around it. There was a big picture window with a pinky-winky hydrangea outside where we released the butterflies. (More on the butterflies later). The kitchen had its own coffee station, away from the prep and cooking area. There were a couple of china cupboards as well. Carrying on from the kitchen area to the left, was the butterfly room. (I will get back to the butterfly farm later. There is a lot to tell and I want to keep it all together.) Looping to the left, once more, was the living room. It had a large sitting area, a fireplace and some extra space with bookshelves. Looping once more to the left was the staircase up and the dining room again.

In the garage, there was a workroom at the back for clean projects. Above that workroom was their office. The hummingbirds would flutter in front of the window and watch Patti work, or remind her that their feeder was empty. Off that office was the attic, stored with the usual assortment of attic stuff. Going through the attic, was an entrance to the bedrooms. I think there were 2 smaller bedrooms, but definitely a huge master bedroom, that took up half the upstairs, with a balcony that wrapped partially around the house. And a full bath. Kids would have a ball playing hide and seek in that house!

They also have two dogs, Lexie and Cindy Lou. Both of them are rescue dogs. Every morning I would emerge from the basement and both dogs would bark at me, tails wagging. Toward the end of the visit, they didn’t bark as much. Lexie took a liking to me. Patti said after she took me to the bus, at the end of my visit, Lexie was looking for me. And then there is Bob – the cat.

It rained most of the time I was there, which inhibited the amount we could see and do. However, that was perfect. We have known each other for years, but we finally got to know each other. We spent hours just chatting. It was perfect.

One day went to see a friend of hers who makes jams. Lynn Murden is the owner and cook of Yummies in a Jar. She sells jams, jellies, pepper jelly, mustard, and syrups. She has your typical jams with fruits and berries, but also some unique ones with liqueur. Apricot Amaretto, Cherries and Brandy, Scotch Marmalade, Cranberries with Port. I bought 3 small jars to bring home with me. Unfortunately, they were over 100 ml and the customs agent confiscated them from me, as I only had a carry-on bag. I am sure he had a yummy toast for his breakfast the next morning. Next time, I will bring smaller jars to transfer the jam into.

Then we went to visit Lindy Vardy who owns the Variegated Devas’ Nursery. She specializes in rare and unusual annuals and perennials. As a flower lover, I was in heaven taking pictures of all her flowers. Patti bought a couple of plants and as we were about to leave Lindy’s husband, John came along. We all started chatting and 2 hours later we headed home. It was a great visit and I look forward to seeing them again on a future trip.

Another day we went into Huntsville. Nothing looked familiar to me. But the street was all dug up for new water and sewer lines, so any street would have been unrecognizable. We went into a couple of shops where I bought a few blouses. I was in need of some new clothes. The stuff I had been wearing since the beginning of Covid was looking rather worse for wear. We got caught in a sudden cloud burst so ran into a coffee shop for a coffee and dessert while it passed.

A trip back to Huntsville would not have been complete if I did not go to see Rene (pronounced like Irene without the I sound), Patti’s Mom. She still lived in the same house, which seemed so much smaller than I remembered. She was happy to see me after 47 years. I thanked her for letting me stay there when I was just a teenager. It was a short, but meaningful visit.

On the last day, we went to the Muskoka Discovery Centre in Gravenhurst. They boast that they are “leaders in preserving, promoting and celebrating the culture and heritage of Canada’s Muskoka District.” It is not a large museum, but it did teach me a LOT about the area. Back in former times, people had to take a long arduous train ride to get to Muskoka. Some forward-thinking entrepreneurs decided to offer boat rides into the region. Patti’s former father-in-law was one of them. Some of the old-fashioned boats were on display in a water garage. They were so elegant! I could just imagine Kathrine Hepburn, with a white silk scarf flowing gracefully from her shoulder, lounging back in one of those beauties. The rosewood was polished to a glossy mirror-like sheen. The brass fittings glowed like fire. Classy, classy, classy! Patti said these boats were privately owned. They would show the boats off in the annual Vintage Boat Show. What!? They have a Vintage Boat Show!? I need to plan my next trip around that!

We walked along beside the wharf and past the cruise boats. Patti said she would arrange for us to go on a lake cruise the next time I visit. Huntsville is where the rich and famous have their so-called cabins. When a cabin costs upward of 12 million dollars, I don’t think it is really a cabin. They are completely hidden from the road. The only way to see them is from the lake. The current cruise is a nod back to former times of grandiose water travel.

Further along the wharf, we stopped at Blue Willow Tea Shop and had high tea. Fancy!

The last evening we went to their restaurant – 3 Guys and a Stove. It is in, what appears to be, an old house. While I had to fill in my Covid details, Richard walked in like – well, like he owned the place. We sat out on the deck. Due to Covid spacing regulations, they also added a patio area along the creek. It was very nice. I had salmon and it was delicious. I would rate the restaurant as a fine dining establishment.

The first thing I wanted to see was her butterfly farm. The Butterfly Room was quite large, bigger than most living rooms. On two tables in the middle of the room were two screened cages. Both were full of vases holding milkweed that were crawling with caterpillars! My crash course butterfly education was about to begin!

There was a mat covering each cage. Caterpillars like to build their chrysalis under something. There were dozens of them hanging from the ceiling of the cages.

A few milkweeds had chrysalis or caterpillars hanging in a J shape. I helped Patti lift one cage and set it aside. Then we began to pluck the caterpillars off the milkweed and onto a plastic tray that had some milkweed plants laying on it. I was afraid to squish the caterpillars, but Patti said they were a lot tougher than I thought and to just hold them firmly and pluck them off the leaf. They felt slightly fuzzy and firm. I had to pull quite hard to get them to let go of the leaf.

Over a two to five-week laying period, a female monarch will lay 300-500 eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves, secreting a small amount of glue to affix each egg to the leaf. Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed, so the milkweed plant provides both and food and shelter to the caterpillar. Milkweed is poisonous to humans, animals and butterfly predators. The caterpillar and adult butterfly retain the poison in their bodies. They are brightly coloured as a warning “Eat me and die!”

The eggs hatch about four days after being laid and eats its eggshell before starting on the milkweed. It is an eating and shitting machine. The caterpillar baby is smaller than a grain of rice.

It only pauses to shed its skin (like a snake) which it will do 5 times, (a larval stage is called an instar) growing almost 2000 times its original mass (about the size of my little finger). The shed skin is often eaten before the caterpillar goes back to eating more plant food. (It eats and shits! Period!) The larval stage lasts from nine to fourteen days under normal summer temperatures.

The fifth instar caterpillar will generally crawl away from the milkweed it was eating and find a place to form a chrysalis. They generally like a darker location, hence the mat covering the cage. They form a silk pad, stabs a stem into the pad (called a cremaster), then hangs upside down in a J shape before shedding its skin one last time.

It can hang there for hours, but when it starts it is fast, two minutes tops. It starts to shed its skin from the back of the “neck”.

It looks like fluorescent green goo coming out. It seems to crawl upwards, toward its bum; but in reality, it is shedding its skin and exposing the chrysalis.

The dead skin falls to the ground. The little caterpillar’s legs cause it to look like a dead spider.

It starts off looking lumpy and bumpy, but within a few minutes, it is smooth with a waxy finish.

A string of tiny gold dots form along the top with an arch of spaced gold dots gracing the bottom. These are breathing holes for the creature inside. They are so delicate and beautiful. They look like tiny Christmas decorations, about the size of the first knuckle of my baby finger.

It will remain this way for 8 to 15 days.

When the butterfly is ready to emerge, the chrysalis turns dark, almost black. Then the bright green chrysalis turns from waxy to clear plastic-looking. The black, orange and white wing patterns become visible through the clear bubble. In reality, it did not turn clear; the pigmentation on the wings only forms at the last moment.

I woke one morning with Patti telling me she had a chair, a magnifying glass and coffee ready for me in front of one of the cages. A butterfly was about to emerge at any moment. This particular one had hung from a milkweed branch and not the ceiling. I turned to say something to Richard and he said “Don’t look away. It happens FAST!” A few minutes later I saw a little crack form. I squealed with delight. Within a few seconds, the antenna and feet were pushing out from the chrysalis.

A few seconds more and the chrysalis fell to the ground, leaving a rather deformed looking monarch sitting on its twig.

The wings were about a quarter the size and its abdomen was huge.

I could see the abdomen pulsing like it was going to throw up. It was pumping fluid from its abdomen into its wings, to give them size and shape. With the magnifying glass, I could see the veins in the wings pulsing with the fluid as the wings got bigger and bigger.

Finally, it seemed satisfied with its 7-10 cm wingspan and merely pooped out the remaining blood-red fluid.

It takes several hours for the monarch to fan its wings, drying them, before it is ready to find nectar or a mate. We would leave them in a separate cage before releasing them onto the hydrangea outside the kitchen window. They weigh less than half a gram.

Patti kept a record of each one released and its sex. Males have a black dot on the lower part of their lower wing. Both sexes have brilliant orange wings with two rows of white spots on the black border. Females have a slightly thicker black border. The antenna are used for smelling. The full cycle of a butterfly is about 30 days. However, monarchs hatching in cooler spring temperatures take longer to develop. Summer adults can live for two to six weeks.

Butterflies that emerge after or about mid-August do not reproduce. Changes in temperature, day length, quality of milkweed and nectar sources tell the monarchs when it is time to migrate 3000 miles south to central Mexico. They travel as much as 100 miles a day, riding columns of rising warm air and taking advantage of strong wings to speed up their flight. Along the way, they find places with abundant nectar and shelter from harsh weather.

When they reach their Mexican destination in early November the monarchs congregate on oyamel fir trees on south-facing mountain slopes. The weather is cooler, there is adequate water and shelter to protect and sustain them through the winter. By conserving their energy, these winter monarchs can live up to nine months. In March, changes in weather and temperature tells this generation it is time to return to their northern breeding grounds. They lay eggs, nectar and breed as they migrate north. It is this spring (first) generation that returns to Ontario to start the cycle again, arriving in late April through May. Second and third-generation monarchs populate the Ontario breeding grounds throughout the summer. It is generally the fourth generation that migrates south. There is no generation that makes the entire journey.

Every morning we would remove the cages, transfer all the caterpillars to a tray with milkweed, remove the sticks left from the previous day’s milkweed, gather new milkweed, sweep the amazingly huge amount of poop from the cage, then transfer the caterpillars to their new milkweed leaves. It was a ritual that took about an hour with two of us working together. Patti gathered milkweed, I shovelled shit. LOL.

Then I would sit for hours with my magnifying glass and be enthralled by striped worms. It sounds boring, but it was anything but boring! I was transfixed. Patti laughed with delight that I had taken such a passionate interest in her passion. We grew closer because of it.

It was one of the best holidays I ever had. As Patti said, if she can’t be entertained or educated, it is a waste of time. I was both entertained and educated. The best part was I got to really know a friend who I have known for 47 years. Thank you, Patti!