Mother's Day 2011 card

My parents and I visited Point Pelee National Park on April 29th. They are keen birdwatchers (or "birders", as goes the lingo) and Point Pelee is the hottest of hotspots to catch birds migrating back to Canada in the springtime. It's an oddly shaped triangular peninsula that stabs into Lake Erie and is the southernmost point of Canada.

It really is an amazing spot, stuffed full of all manner of plants and animals -- it's a remarkably biodiverse place and even boasts an indigenous cactus! There's a gigantic marshland area with a boardwalk and that's where we encountered Old Man of the Marsh.

We were on our way back to the car to start the five hour drive home; we'd left the house at 4am, arrived around 9am, and were leaving the park for the day and for dinner. I glanced over the side of the boardwalk and caught a glimpse of this monstruous, ancient-looking turtle sunning itself just under the surface of the water. From head to tail it was 2+ feet long and had moss growing on it. All turtle look kind of old, but when something's got plants growing on it, well...

Are there pictures? Of course there are. And here's one:


Who knows if it's a male or female, or how old it actually is, or if it even has a name. But he's the Old Man of the Marsh to me. And now he is starring in my Mother's Day card!