Musings on a Small Life

The fall equinox is upon us this evening and I can't believe what a whirlwind 2018 is and continues to be. We've had a lot of work changes this year, as I mentioned in a post on August 30th, and while they've been what I feel are positive changes for our sub-unit (for the time being), they've also come with challenges, different expectations, and more work (and meetings!) for us all. Next week promises to be another crazy one, with a doctor's appointment on Monday afternoon, a 5:30 AM (!) train to Toronto with my boss on Tuesday for an all-day meeting (won't be home till 8 PM-ish), a dental appointment first thing on the Wednesday morning, and my dad and his wife arriving for several days on Thursday afternoon. Yikes! Nicki has his regular vet appointment (anal glands, etc.) first thing on Friday the 28th. I deliberately booked it for that time so I'd have Dad's rental car available, no waiting for a taxi to show up. As for the family ...

The "temptation," above, made a bold foray into the back space a couple of weekends ago, even with a certain kitty outside.  Derry kept his eye on him until he couldn't take it anymore. Unfortunately (from Derry's point of view), the squirrel scrambled to safety. Of course Derry had to go over and check things out afterward. We've not had any more close squirrel encounters in the past couple of weeks (that I know of!), but no doubt Derry (and Nicki too) lives in hope.  :-) Peace.

The winds of change blew through our office last Friday, taking with them the "big boss", who left the organization for greener pastures. Here's Nicki, expressing my thoughts: You just need to hold your paw up in a certain position, Nicki, then you have it complete! Peace. Comments are off for wordless Wednesday.  :-)

There's a new cat in our neighbourhood, one who hangs around the back of our fence all the time. Just a young one, from the looks of him, and you can see his collar and tags. I don't know who he belongs with, but he's out roaming all night. (He's by my fence in the evenings and often is there at 4 AM-ish too, when I get up and let the boys out.) He doesn't run too far anymore when I go out to talk to him, but he doesn't come close, either. Finn, below, who used to hang out with Carla (white cat that Nicki hates), is obsessed with the new guy. He follows him everywhere and will go right up to him, slowly, not fighting but not backing away, either. I don't know what Finn finds so fascinating about him! The little one seems unperturbed. Watchful, but mostly unconcerned by Finn's presence. Meanwhile, Carla, who also roams freely at all hours, does her own thing. She's not afraid of me (I don't think Carla is afraid of anything...

It's a hickory nut! I finally Googled, found this blog post about squirrels and hickory nuts: https://plantpostings.blogspot.com/2014/08/tree-following-nuts-nuts-everywhere.html And there's an awesome photo of a chipmunk with a huge hickory nut in its mouth on another web site, here (second photo): https://www.wiscontext.org/how-harvest-and-process-wisconsins-edible-tree-nuts Comments are off; I just wanted to do a quick bit of "research" and find out what the nut was. Peace.

NOT PhotoShopped, I wouldn't be able to! I spied this guy out by the library in the west end, as I was walking from our big box store centre over to the main mall. I took a few shots of him, but this was the only one that wasn't blurry. Cropped, because even at full zoom I was a bit far away. I don't know why this strikes me as so funny, I suppose just that it's a darn big nut* for that squirrel to carry! Peace. *I've subsequently Googled and found out that it's a hickory nut.