I am more than the sum of hummingbird parts

The subject line is a suggestion for a good country song, I guess. Go on. I dare you to write the first verse.

Geez, I tried to be original but that's an Oriole sitting on a hummingbird, now that I look .... well, actually it was all along; not just because I took a look.

There were two Orioles present but this guy was waiting on his mate to get out of the birdbath. You can't see it but the towel is just off to the side.

Yes, we apparently could put up a sign: "Welcome to the Flock Inn". As opposed to ... oh, never mind.

Canadian topic: no weather in sight except the very hot, humid and cloudless variety. I guess keeping the birdbath topped up is a necessity, you know, except for the lake just five minutes up the road. Where I saw fish jumping on Thursday afternoon. Uh-oh, this is turning random which makes for a very good time to hunt for the proper label for below and stop typing now.

One should never continue typing with a case of the sillies and sudden randomness looming. Actually, those are generally the most entertaining of posts but I have to go somewhere to do something. Isn't the outer world just plain irritating sometimes.

Spring.... the time for far too many nature shots

Yes, it's the highly-anticipated Canadian topic again and as you can see from some of the curled leaves we need rain. The thing worth noting (to me, anyhow) is that although those are apple blossoms, they were - as so many of us are - ahead of their time. "So what", you may comment and you're perfectly welcome to comment exactly that.

This coming weekend is the weekend where folks who make a day of it sign up with tour companies to visit the dozens of orchards in our area to see apple blossoms. Boy, I hope they like gazing at plain green leaves and dozens and dozens of dry, baked fields with only a hint of green things struggling to grow for the farmers. There's a saying that "there are no atheists in foxholes" and I'm guessing likewise out here there is a lot of praying going on for rain.

This might be the time to mention the fact it's currently 33 C with nary a cloud in the sky in any direction and seriously? Look at the date.

The dogs' walk this afternoon will definitely lead us to the lake at the top of the road.....you know, if I can get the dogs to take a little walk that is.

And now we have the bird with less expensive taste

Yep, another humingbird. Hey, it's a novelty for me so it's probably something you'll be putting up with off and on.

Or we could ignore the bird and do something truly Canadian; we could talk about the weather. Oh let"s.

Spring lasted about ten minutes this year. I was still wearing layers at night, when walking the pups, only a little more than a week ago but today made a point of driving the car with the better air-conditioning because I was picking up a few groceries. Note the date. There was a severe heat warning in effect at the Centre of the Universe...you know, where I used to live....this afternoon. Note the date. I feel lousy for the dogs though as they were used to going in the house from their walks, each promptly finding a vent with the a/c blasting up to cool their bellies. The a/c in this house consists of opening all doors and windows for the cross-ventilation.
My apologies to the person reading this who has no cross-ventilation. I am NOT smirking. Honest. Maybe a little.

Ah, well, we'll all get used to it. What else is there to do, really.

And here I sat for another minute visualizing the dogs, trying to cool down, stuck to the window-screens like the toys you see stuck on car windows... um, yeh. I should go now.

And maybe tomorrow a flower. Hey, now there's something for you to live for.

Hey look where I live

Well I don't live in the clouds exactly - though sometimes my brain wanders there.

Yeh, I know what you're thinking. Stop it.


Today you get a lovely sunset. Two days ago you'd have seen a photo of two white-tails - you know, had I gotten off my butt and walked the dogs at night with the spousal unit.


I've just come back from town and I have to say: rush-hour is going to definitely be different here. I was stuck behind a tractor for half a mile.

And now to typical Canadian blather, the weather. We were keeping our fingers tightly crossed - (individually "we" were, that is - hard to do together) - the couple of days leading up to moving as the weather channel kept telling us we were going to be moving in a downpour ... er, down pour? Hmm, down-pour *shrug*


We are now into day 23 with no rain and that means that the grass isn't even greener over the septic tank. And if you don't get that sentence, geez you're younger than you look. Whoever you are out there, reading.

Rain

We had quite the rainfall yesterday. Probably at least 35 mm, and since it fell steadily over the night rather than in one massive downpour it might have even had a chance to sink in a bit. That's good. It's been really dry here.

Typical Alberta, though. We've been waiting for rain, but when it finally comes it's in July. Likely too late for most of the crops that needed it. Between the late spring and the lack of timely rain, I'd expect that food prices may be looking pretty scary in the next year.

Consider yourself warned, folks.

I was awake for too much of last night (I've buggered up my neck again -- yes, again -- and it was hard to find a comfortable position to sleep in), but at least I had the rain to listen to. I like the sound of rain. I especially like the sound of rain on canvas. One of my weirder things, I suppose, but there's a reason for it. The sound of rain on canvas reminds me of the tent trailer we had when I was a kid. I know that my parents weren't too thrilled at the thought of rain on the tent trailer, but since I wasn't the one who had to worry about leaks I thought that rain was fun. I have very vivid memories of lying back in one of the tent-wing beds and just listening to the sound the rain made as it bounced off of the fabric over my head. As long as it wasn't a violent storm the rain was incredibly relaxing, and to this day whenever I hear the sound of rain on a tarp or an awning or a tent, it's too easy for me to be taken back to comfortable feeling of that old Bonair trailer.

Hey, maybe that's what I need to get past this whole stupid insomnia thing. Maybe I should just string a tarp up on my balcony and sleep outside in the rain...

Or maybe not. With my luck I'd probably end up sleeping with the pigeons.

Hey, did I mention my surprising lack of balcony pigeons this year? It's been fantastic. I didn't know why I wasn't dealing with the usual crap machine menace until recently, but I was certainly thankful for it. Now I'm even more thankful for it, because it turns out that my lack of pigeons has a lot to do with the fact that there are peregrine falcons nesting on the hotel near my apartment building. Yay falcons. You can have all the pigeons you want as far as I'm concerned. I'm not a Bert.

Anyway, I think that's all I've got. Possibly more rain in the next few days, they say, so maybe we'll finally be damp enough for a while. I know some of my two fans are thinking that I'm all wet at the best of times, but I'm doing my best to ignore the hecklers.

Catch you later, folks.

Did I mention how silly it was? ~OR~ from the sublime (yesterday's photo) to the ridiculous

In response to yesterday's addition to the blog, Mother Nature has seen to it that I am made to feel profoundly humbled, so yes folks, just because one lives in denial does not mean winter will just pass you by. The first photo









shows the reason why this second photo depicts what "the girls" and I will doing for the most part today. Well, one of us should really dust and tidy a bit. And it doesn't look like it will be a dog up and all excited swiping at the furniture with wags of the tail, does it.






And can I tell you just how many times Blogger made me take a run at this damn post to get the photos to upload and for the page to refresh. Oy.

Oh and in case anyone is keeping score as to the number of days Dee is going to be docked for taking time off here, let's all be fair as it's STILL minus gawdawful in her part of the country. Word has it she may not show herself 'til Groundhog Day.

Happy .. something or the other - your choice

It's the First of July which means it's a holiday for those who blather here.

Note how very carefully I avoided adding an almost called-for cliche of The Frozen North as being the "here".

I assure you most emphatically the Alberta office would beg to differ with the frozen part - even with it being a joke.

So today all you get is the pretty leaves for She Who Must At Times Be Jollied Along and raindrops for me because, well, I like raindrops. SWMATBJA is wading through humidity and haze and just plain damn hot temps so jolly her along we shall!

Or something.

Just think of the raindrops. The cool, raindrops. Become one with the raindrops. Beeee the raindrops.

And if that doesn't work, well you can always take a Nyquil and sleep through the rain forest conditions.

Oh and yes, the caption. Happy Canada Day - and I won't even spoil the sentiment with a comment on why I think that's a lame name for the occasion.

I was such a dweeb

I was on my way - where else - to the park with the dogs the other day and spotted a critter much like the one to the left on the paved easement between the streets. Rather than have him trampled, I picked him up and moved him off to a grassy happyland.

Then kicked my butt for not taking a photo first because he was completely extended and the shell was squarely in the centre. Ah, yes, a great nature shot ... if you like slugs.

Anyyyyyway, this little dude lives in our backyard I guess, as I found him climbing on the wheelbarrow. It will be interesting to see what sort of work he intends doing with that.

I guess it will take quite a long time to see the results.

Of course, the joke about the critter back on the easement: geez, lady, it took me 18 days to get this far.

And yes, it was obvious someone was going to say it and since it's too humid to blather on about anything else - oh wait, I just talked about the weather! - you get the photo, the post and the punchline delivered all in one tidy package.

Oh I do carry on about the weather, don't I

Carrying on about the weather is pointless, ergo a good topic for a blathering blog.

This photo was going to be cropped for these purposes but then you, the lucky viewer, wouldn't have gotten the full impact of just how hard the snow was blowing past me/us.

Look toward the black dog and you can see the actual direction of the snow; it appears as striations on her fur.

And you wonder why the Toronto portion of this outfit sometimes goes vewy, vewy qwiet. We're not out huntin' wabbits; we're trying to stave off homicidal tendencies.

And the dogs? They love this weather and turn into door-stops in the spring.

I'd like to take this opportunity to share something with you....

... I'd like to but for your sake and sanity, I won't. It would be a weather rant and really, do you want to hear about that? I didn't think so.

Suffice to say that the reason you haven't seen or heard from Toronto is because we are snowed in or b) frozen- rained (is so a phrase) in.

As an aside, this may be the only time I've been reigned in. Anyyyyway ...


Enjoy the cat. And me. Caught sleeping by the Smudgelette who sadly was given a very fancy camera for Christmas which she uses in abundance.

It's not really a face plant on my part; I'm just hidden behind the cat's bum and you can't see me clearly.
You know, come to think of it, I don't think I've had occasion to use that phrase before.

Going to go shovel the driveway now. Again. I told winter I give up already so I just don't know why it keeps throwing its weight around.

For all you digital photographers out there ....

.... you may consider this a template to calibrate the white balance on your camera.

You may consider it that. I consider it a nuisance as it's all we are currently seeing in my little corner of the world. That's right, folks. The snow-banks are still that high that when one (especially this one who is five foot one and three-quarters thank-you-very-much) walks down any street and looks left or right this is the sum total of the landscape.

And guess what. Yes. It's snowing.

On the upside - because one must always look for the upside (or kill something in the midst of a winter like this) the dogs are happy as pigs .... no, no ... happy as dogs in snow.

This is where I stop typing so I won't discuss that there is more danger trying to walk in a park with three-foot snow drifts which hide a solid two-inch layer of ice than there is danger in some foreign countries. Well there is ... it's my back in question you know.

So, yeh. Stop typing already.

Okay, I think I will.

And then I'll sit back and admire all the italics used in this post. Next time, maybe I'll learn another trick. I am trainable, it appears.

Later that same week ....

Flash ahead to the next day - yes, I'll agree there's not much real flashing to go just one day ahead.

This is clouds gone, a lovely scene of snow on trees and pristine conditions on the ground.

Ah, yes, happiness abounds as the pups are thrilled with burying their snouts in newly-fallen snow and pushing sticks around to chase them.

Yes, I do have dogs that amuse themselves quite well but also get along with others. Better than I ever have with people ... but that's another blog quite entirely.

Looks lovely, doesn't it. And with the sun out, it's alllllmost bearable.

Have I been whining lately? Well, you're in luck you know. If all you do is mock, laugh and point you'll - er, we'll - have an extra day of this whining and pictorial display of the reason for said complaining. There's an extra day in this month.

You lucky, reader, you.

The photo that might have been

This would have been a lovely picture of a male Cardinal alighting - you know, had the lens been able to figure out it should focus on the bird rather than the snow on the screen and window through which this was shot.

The weather channel got it right, as you can see.

I guess some *cough*Alberta*office* would toss snowballs in my direction but it IS pretty out there today.

Why she would throw things at me, of course, may be due to the fact it is still minus 27 where she lives, works and plays. I'm guessing the fact that Alberta has been in a deep deep-freeze for daaaaays can make a person a tad cranky. I can say without hesitation that the lack of sunlight is doing a fair job on yours truly also.

But ... there are still the birds to watch, the dogs to play with as they lose their minds in snow drifts, playing hard enough that even the coldest of the cold crack a smile.

Good grief. I must be aging. Isn't finding an up side to all things a sign of getting older? Shut up. I did not say "old".



Now where did I leave the zimmer ....

Pointless weather-induced post

Yep, this is from the Toronto office again.

This is from the Toronto office during a storm.

Apparently tomorrow our fungus will be further snow- and ice-covered.

On the up side, that means the temperatures will be on the rise. It's been too damn cold to snow up 'til now you see.

The photo is for the Alberta office. Pattern, odd things photographed ... yep, right up her alley.

Today you get a pair

Tomorrow, a full house?

I have several shots of these two on my flash card, you know, in case you want to avoid the blog for a couple of days. Ah, but you know you couldn't even if you wanted to; you're just so hooked.

Leave me to my delusions. The voices and I are very content lately.

So .... it's minus a hundred out where the Alberta office is, I understand. I've been in touch to let her know it's five degrees and pouring rain as I type this. It's remarkable how unimpressed a person can be about a little detail like that.


I hear that our weather is taking a wee bit of a turn tomorrow though which will make it minus 25 by dinnertime.

Believing up until now that the Alberta office was a good witch who used her powers for the benefit of all, I'm now not so sure.

Enjoy the photo. It's like our weather is about to be ... for the birds.