Photo of the day, August 30, 2008

taken while having lunch on the patio at Othello's in Stratford

The life of Riley....

....or at least of a cat at Watson's Bazaar in Stratford. There are 4 store cats and they sleep and roam where ever they darned well please - including on the front counter. You've got to love store owners who let sleeping cats lie.

Stratford is a 35-40 minute drive from Woodstock.

Laura's garden

The small roundish blur on the bottom of the photo above is a sparrow,flying away after just having had it's fill at the feeder.


We were in Ottawa this weekend for Geoff's brother, Stephen's 50th birthday celebration. True to form, Geoff spent the evening taking candid people shots and I concentrated on the garden.

What a difference a week makes

Last Friday was our co-worker, Heather's, last day before leaving us to wait for the arrival of her twin girls. As you can see from her beaming smile, she was ready to put her feet up and nest. The babies were due to arrive in early October. Twin A, as she was known at the time, had a different idea and by early Sunday morning, Heather was in the Neo-natal unit at North Bay Hospital. North Bay was the nearest available neo-natal bed but the irony is that's where Heather and her husband Jason hail from originally.

By 11:30 am Wednesday morning, Morgan Claire and Grace Elizabeth Prescott had made their grand entrance into the world. Weighing in at 3 lbs and 2lbs. 8oz they are apparently doing well for their petit size. I think we're all encouraged by the fact that our co-worker Aren was 3lbs at birth!

At the office we are all bemoaning the fact that Heather and the wee bairns are so far away from us. But then again, we just want to get to the business of being aunties.

Congratulations to Heather and Jay, it couldn't have happened to a nicer pair.

latest on the chicks

The babies and Mom seem quite content to hang out in our tree. I think they're still at the "you want me to do what?!" phase of their flying lessons.

I've taken advantage of their absence from the ivy geranium and watered it along with my other container plants this evening.

...and a partridge in a pear tree

Well, a pair of Mourning Dove chicks to be exact. I stepped outside tonight to take a peek around to see if the babies were still close by and found the two of them side by side in the tree on our front lawn. They were sitting tight to each other as the did in the nest for the past couple of weeks.

Empty Nest Syndrome

Last I night when we arrived home from work I checked on the dove nest in our hanging basket - just as I did one of the chicks fledged and flew to a tree across the street. Here are views of the remaining chick moments later.


This morning when we left at 7:30, Mama was back on the nest taking care of business. By the time we got home this evening, the remaining chick had fledged as well. Here's our empty nest.

A Red Hat Anniversary

l-r Deborah, me, Marilyn and Inge - August 17, 2005 photo by Carole Tremblay


Three years ago today four friends celebrated the fact they were all turning 50.


Our connections have various origins - Deborah and I are cousins, Marilyn and Inge have been penpals since 1971, and Marilyn and I have been friends since Grade 8. The get-together at Paul and Marilyn's in Beresford, New Brunswick was Marilyn's brainchild. We were all born in 1955 with birthdays in May, July, August and November. So Deborah drove from Newfoundland, Inge flew from Germany and I flew from Ontario and we had a memorable, wonderful week together.


We chose Wednesday, August 17th as the day to celebrate our birthdays together. We had our portraits taken by Carole Tremblay, ate ice cream (only) for lunch, had a birthday tea party - with Deborah's Cherry Cake and loot bags and treats, a proper dinner out in the evening and a bonfire on the beach to end off the day. The day Deborah, Inge and I had arrived Marilyn presented each of us with our Red Hats, pins, scarves and books and we are now a virtual Red Hat Society. The 17th of each month we email each other to touch base.


When we parted at the end of the week we decided we'd meet again to celebrate our 60th birthdays. Since then, Inge wisely suggested that we shouldn't wait that long - why wait that long to have more fun. So, we're planning to get together in Newfoundland (thanks Deborah!) in 2010 to mark our 55th birthdays.


In the meantime, here are a few more photos to celebrate our friendship. Happy Anniversary girls!

Photo of the day, August 16, 2008

Summer afternoon - Summer afternoon... the two most beautiful words in the English language.
- Henry James

A bee hovering above the butterfly bush in the Secret Garden. Softened by shooting through the screen in the diningroom window.

Leaping Deere Legends

Geoff writes about endless interesting things and today I tagged along while he visited Leaping Deere Legends for a piece he's writing. The site , owned by Don and Julie Budd and family, includes a museum, corn maze, mini golf and much more and makes for a great day in the country.


Geoff trying to catch the action of the pig race.

New chick photo

The chicks appear to have doubled in size since we discovered them on Saturday. Their eyes are open, they seem to be healthy and their feather development is coming along nicely.

Nest update

We haven't seen the dove chicks since we discovered they'd hatched on Saturday morning. Tonight I took a chance and lifted the hanging basket down from the hook - and Papa dove didn't budge. I sat the basket on a small table on the veranda and took 3 photos before putting it back on the hook. He stared me straight in the eye but didn't give me even a peek of the babies. Here are two of the shots of him on the nest.

today in the neighbourhood

Our chipper little pal was back and forth at the feeders all day.

from a garden at the corner of Hatch and Victoria
a busy bee
best friends, Geoff and Nitrous

Photo of the day, August 9, 2008

Trinity United Church, Ingersoll, Ontario

a moment of brightness just before the heavens opened with a vengance

We have newborns!!

Geoff and I went to the Farmer's Market this morning to have a browse around, buy blueberries etc. It's always fun to see who is out and about. We chatted with Sue Hilborn of Red Barn Berries and Geoff visited with his friend Ruth Skillings. Just as we arrived home again we noticed both June and Ward (Cleaver) leaving the nest. This seemed out of character so I quickly lifted the hanging basket down and was thrilled to discover two sleeping newborn chicks. We have no way of knowing when they were born but, as we haven't noticed any feeding activity yet, I suspect they were born in the past 24 hours.

From market..
and from one of the feeders in our Secret Garden. This hungry guy has been visiting constantly the past few days.

my 08/08/08

I know the big news today is the opening of the summer Olympics in Beijing - and I'm sure I'll watch many of the events over the span of the Games. However, we are eagerly awaiting the first glimpse of our Mourning Dove chicks. When I took this photo of the Mama and Papa switch over on the nest, we had no idea of the status of the eggs. So shortly after I took this photo we left for the Oxford Drive-In to see Hancock.

It was a beautiful evening for a movie under the stars and moon.

A two hawk day

Driving to and from the office in London I saw two hawks on each leg of the journey. In fact, I think it was the same two hawks going and coming. One in a tree on the north side of Oxford Street in London, just west of Crumlin Road and the other on a farm just west and north of the Oxford Drive-in.

above - the Oxford Street Red-Tailed Hawk, this one was in this tree at 8:50 am and again at 1:35 pm

the Drive-in neighbourhood Red-Tailed Hawk, this one was on a hydro pole this morning and this afternoon it was on a hydro pole two away from where it was this morning. As I pulled on to the shoulder of the road to take a photo it flew well in from the road and landed on this bale of wheat stalks.

Photo of the day, August 2, 2008

Statue of William Shakespeare on the grounds of the Fesitval Theatre, Stratford, Ontario

a favorite place

One of my favorite places in Oxford County is Mildred Batho's kitchen in Eastwood. As you can see, it is also a favorite place of Sophie one of the petit cats on the farm. Sophie shares resident cat duties with Wilma and Woody when she's not dozing on the couch in the kitchen.

Mildred has lived on this farm since her marriage to her husband Herb in the early sixties. They raised their two children, Marie and Keith here. Herb and his beloved dog Sam both passed away earlier this year but I'm convinced that they are still patroling the fields making sure all is well.
For some time now the fields have been rented and this year's crop is wheat.


A couple of summers ago Herb got it in to his head that he wanted the barn painted - worth every penny I think.