Catch Up

Nasty cough, after Mike, Aimee and the kids left, laid me up for a couple of weeks. Thanks Avery, though Dave, who also got it, dubbed it Typhoid Maya. Then I had my surgery (Lumpectomy) and a week later started working at McMaster University, invigilating exams. Not much time for anything else but here are a few photos from the last month.

As the plants had started popping

and birds at the feeders,

I put out the birdbath and mother nature said.."too early".

A Killdeer, again, created a depression/nest in the driveway but that egg didn't last long

as this guy was hanging around.

He could smell the peanuts that I had put out.

"Hmmm, should I go up this pole,

or that one."

Choice made

Didn't work out so well.

Maybe from the tree.

Nope he couldn't reach from there either.

He hung around for about a week, driving Rasta crazy and I suspect he scored the Killdeer egg, but I haven't seen him for a while now.

The squirrels, on the other hand

have figured out how to get around the baffles

and they are also after the peanuts. Shortly after taking this photo he opened the top of the feeder so now I have a bungee cord holding it down. They are nursing babies at this point and I don't mind them getting some nourishment but not just sitting in the feeder emptying it out.

We have clouds of tiny bugs swarming like clouds of smoke but the swallows are back and feasting on them.

So far just one occupied birdhouse.

While working at Mac I was getting up so early

that I would see the fishing tugs leaving to smelt fish, as the sun was rising.

When Rick bought Spellbound, the paint on her name was wearing off. This photo is after one spray with Easy Off oven cleaner.

Another spray and we could still see the outline

but a soap and water wash and rubbing compound

and it was pretty well gone.

While Rick worked on that, I was up a ladder with a hairdryer and scraper taking the old burgee and vinyl lettering off the transom.

The outline is still there but I think it will fade over time.

A few weeks later, we put the new vinyl lettering on one side. It wasn't as easy as it looked in the UTube video, probably because it is still pretty cold. We will hope for a warmer day to put the other side on. Photo by Rick.

Guest Photographers:

Cigi about to embark on her first bike ride. She loved it. Photo by Chris.

Mike and Aimee's new deck with the privacy screen they built, new furniture and lights. Photo by Aimee as is the video below of the kids at swimming lessons.