sunday birdies

Good Sunday Morning. Our dreary sky has turned sunny since taking these photos.
Yet it's so much fun, in the dreariness, to wake up to these birds.

the Robin on the chimney

like a sentry

a robin run to the other side

on the cabin eave overlooking the missing shed

always alert

checking the sky

a robin head tilt

a robin stretch

Then I saw two other robins land in the grass below

one following the other like a baby wanting to be fed

Then the follower turned and seemed to be quite like an adult

a female perhaps

In the little Harelson apple tree this teeny goldfinch

at least it looks like a goldfinch

but it seems so much smaller than the goldfinches I was familiar with in Muskoka

about the size of an apple leaf

that's small!

The American Goldfinch is listed as "small" at 11–14 cm (4.3–5.5 in) long

which I guess makes sense when the tail is included,

but that flitting bit of yellow in the back yard seems so wee

This is one of a breeding pair that is nesting in our back hedge

I'm so happy that they are eating bugs in our apple tree

Muji in repose

Wally is planting some shade plants on the front lawn,

and I will carry on stripping wallpaper in the "new" studio.

Thanks for dropping in. It's sweet to share these days with you.

blessings

last saturday in april

Good Morning! It's a cool rainy morning and the world has gone Emerald! Are we in Ireland?

No, but it sure is good to see again. Top of the Marnin' to ye!

Wally and I set off on Saturday afternoon for Greenwood, land of my favourite health food store and found ourselves in search of the mythical chainsaw blade file.

The skies were unusually creepy

I don't know what it is about living so close to the ocean

Maybe it's just normal to have multiple cloud layers going every which way

but it always unnerves and fascinates me

The farmland was greening up

crops were coming up

a succession of barns and out buildings

the three siloed farm I've shown you before

a fabulous brush heap from clearing the fields that looks very much like a hobbit house

Most of my shots were blurry on this low light day from a moving car, but I particularly liked this one of a rolling country road

Just before we got off the highway at Kingston, the land turned to scrub,

with a wild beauty all its own

Little houses like this are not unusual out here

When we got to Canadian Tire, one of Canada's oldest hardware and automotive suppliers,

I left Wally to go search for his chainsaw file

while I enjoyed myself photographing this chocolate and caramel wonder

I've always been attracted to this vintage of automobile

which appears to be from 1947 from my research

The Grill of these cars are definitely animation fodder

the nameplate and the figure of Mercury are better than jewellery to me

Even the locking mechanism, key in, is a deco delight

I went in to search for Wally.  He couldn't find his file until we realized the place for it was empty so we carried on to Canada's other hardware store, Home Hardware, where Wally found the long slender "round not triangular" file he needed. We picked up our order at Valley Natural Foods and headed off down the slow road home.

It was a beautiful evening but it wasn't til we got to the top of Prospect Avenue in a quiet cul de sac of newer houses that we came into this magnificent evening light. Look carefully and you can see the robin that I didn't know was there until it sang as I took a picture of these trees.

Wonderful warbling

but it got shy as I approached

I turned and immediately behind me was this glorious view

With this lovely elm holding the highlighted clouds like a mantle. Spectacular!

Deeper into the quiet neighbourhood, the hill began to descend giving a view to the south I couldn't quite capture

As we came down the hill into the older neighbourhood we came upon this 1940's sweetheart

I had to capture this view of  Cape Blomidon, the headland that caps off the North Mountain, and marks the turn into the Minas Basin from the Bay of Fundy. You can see what a steep slope this Prospect Avenue takes as the end of it takes us almost down to sea level.  These are the kind of hills that have turned us off from bike riding.

We take the next street over to a familiar mid century modern house we've always admired.

and then it's home to the SSE view beyond Forget-Me-Not Cabin dressed in her new roof.

The amazingly strong garbage collectors took away our heavy bags of old shingles on Monday morning that Wally says will be used for repaving roads- amazing. Amazing that they took them and amazing that they can be recycled. I'm so grateful.

I've been neglecting my artwork so I'll try to have something to share next time.

til then

peace in our hearts

spring birding

Here I am, intrepid bird photographer that I am with my pocket sized Sony Cybershot, with some more fuzzy pictures from my bathroom window.

I spent a long while trying to get this robin from behind the maples

It spent a long time with it's back to me once it spied an intruder in the valley

The raven has been back for 3 days in a row.

It spends its time rifling through the dead grass for things to eat.

After the rain last night, much needed, the valley is hazy with mist.

Other birds that seemed disturbed by the raven in their midst was this flicker.

The starling didn't seem perturbed at all, and with his back to the raven, ruffled its feathers

on the peak of Forget-Me-Not Cabin.

But this crow was very unhappy and dive bombed the raven who ruffled up so quickly that when I looked up from my camera, it was already back at breakfast.

The disassembled shed was taken away on Thursday evening just as Wally got home from work. Here he is bringing the doors to lay inside the shed roof that's looking a bit like a small barge.

What a fabulous trailer to hold a 9 feet wide shed roof! Thanks again Nick (in the grey t-shirt) for helping Wally drill through the rusted screws and take the old thing apart.

This is our last weekend to assemble whatever we want to get rid of for big pick up day. Wally must break up the old floor of the shed that is much rotted and I must pack up the last of the old roof shingles from the cabin. It's good energy to get rid of junk.

And with that April will be over. Time and our busy lives, not much different from the birds,

busy nesting, making meals, staying safe, ruffling nobody's feathers but our own,

and learning eventually not to do that to ourselves- that latter bit.

peaceful times