Musings on a Small Life

Derry on the 21st, enjoying some rare sunshine. Happy Wednesday! Comments are off.

Thanks for the concern and good thoughts re: Nicki. It could have been one of those *shudder* house centipedes too; friends have told me they're quite toxic to cats (one of their cats ate one, became violently ill). Who knows. As long as it doesn't happen again, thank you very much! Anyway, happy quacky Friday! [As always, click to enlarge the snapshots for best viewing.] I was walking to the office from Tim Horton's this morning (they make nice London Fogs now, half the cost of Starbucks), saw 4 ducks on the grounds of St. Mary's Cathedral. Three males, one female. One of the males kept chasing off the other two males, protecting his mate. I wasn't able to get a clear shot of the pair, the only pic I got was a blurry one of them moving away, backs toward me. But I did get a couple of good shots of one or both of the other males, I can't remember now, can't tell them apart anyway. LOL. A few other quick snaps are below--FINALLY the tr...

Nicki had me in a real panic on Tuesday evening. Who, me? I won't go into the nitty gritty details, suffice to say that he was "off" for much of the evening and wasn't able to keep any food down (as I later discovered). Around 7 PM I found him lying flat on his side on the hall runner, conscious but not moving. I went into full panic mode, of course, rushed first to him (he followed my fingers with his eyes and his breathing was okay), then upstairs to throw some "real" clothes on so I could take him to the emergency vet. My first thought was a blockage from his kidney stones, with a dozen other scenarios running through my mind after that. Once upstairs, I found that he had thrown up everywhere, made a real mess, poor boy. When I raced back down, a short time later, Nicki was a bit perkier and got up, walked normally into the living room. *Whew* I had (have) slippery elm bark powder on hand, thank goodness, mixed a tiny bit with water an...

I caught this fellow yesterday, on someone's lawn. (Enlarge for best viewing.) Timing is everything! Peace.

It's our long Victoria Day weekend in Canada, the start of the summer tourist season. So what else would I be doing but this? Dear gods, I loathe painting. With every fibre of my being, and beyond any words in any human language. This is the spare room adjacent to the master bedroom, and it had been the bright greeny-yellow you can see in the snapshot above for a long time. I'm in the process of slowly repainting the house in a completely neutral shade ("bleached linen" by Behr), and so help me god, once I'm done, I'm never painting in this house again.  Last year I had done one of the back spare rooms plus part of the upper hallway. This year it was the room above, and as I'd bought 3 gallons, I have plenty leftover to do something else--either the guest room (but probably I won't) or the main level hall closet and hallway (I'm leaning to this). There was a time when I would paint and then have a beer, hard cider or glass of wi...

Some of the non-humans from last week's visit with Robin and Chuck.  :-) Another swan, elsewhere (not at the pond). This one didn't seem to have a mate. He certainly preened for us, though.   I can't remember the type of butterfly; snapped at Presqu'ile Park.  Curious doe, also at Presqu'ile.  Mourning doves on Robin's deck. They'd already had breakfast at one of her many feeders.  Miss Kitty, the stray Robin cares for. A cutie named Fudge, outside one of the thrift stores in Cobourg. I'm pretty sure I have a pic of him from last fall too.  Louie, the store cat at the Northumberland & District Humane Society Thrift Store, also in Cobourg. Penny, the resident cat at an antique store near Colborne. She came running up to us from way in the back, the first time we'd ever seen her move! (Maybe she had just done her business and was full of energy. Ha.) Anyway, that appeared to have been her energy spurt for the day, be...

I'd been away for a few days last week, visiting friends, and we lucked in at seeing two beautiful swans do their courtship ritual. (I assume it's a courtship ritual.) The pond is in a lovely residential area, with all the houses circling it, and the pond itself is a haven for wildlife. (It's the same pond at which I'd snapped water lily pics last summer.) There are 12 pics in this series; enlarge for clearest viewing. You'll see that the best snapshot is of the pair when their necks form the heart in pic #8. Amazing! I might not ever see that again, so it was a a privilege to witness it, and wonderful to capture them. I hope everyone is well; I'll stop by as soon as I can! Peace.