Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Coffee On Wednesday. #14
Good morning to all of you on this fine, sunny Wednesday! Well, we are actually ending our summer with some fairly nice weather this year, not too hot but nice and warm. Except for yesterday which was cloudy and cool. We had a bit of rain overnight but not much. We really do not need rain right now anyway. It would be nice if our lake and river would drop back to normal levels before winter.
It is terrible to think about winter already, but it is not far away now. Well, it could be as much as 2 1/2 months away. Or just 1 1/2 months. The earliest I can remember winter beginning in the last 7 years would be October 9th. I think the biggest difference in our winters is the fact they last longer now, like going until the end of April, when it used to be the end of March.
Winters have gotten longer and colder over the last 22 years. Why am I talking about winter? I have no idea. It just happened. Must change that now. Maybe it is because I started my fall cleaning yesterday. It was a cool, cloudy day, just seemed right for fall cleaning. And I am sort of rearranging things too. Not in a big way exactly, but it will be enough to make things look different.
I like to change how things look in here now and then. Sometimes it is nice to have a bigger change and really move furniture around. Other times it is just the smaller things that get moved around. It is the smaller things that will be changed this autumn. But there will be a lot of smaller changes so it should look quite different in here once I am finished.
But when things get changed it also means that extra cleaning needs to be done too. That is why I have started my fall cleaning. I should probably take pictures as I go along. Unfortunately I did not take any pics yesterday. No “before” pics anyway. I can still take an “after” pic though I guess. I might even show the pictures. Although that might be scary.
A couple of my gulls have gone now, but 3 of them are still here. Sir Henry and Lady Patricia have left, they always are the first to leave and last to arrive in the spring. Perhaps they travel further than the others. I am showing some more recent, or at least fairly recent, pics of birds again today. The chickadees are out here right now.
They are one of the hardest birds to get pictures of for sure. They do not sit still. They are always moving around, even when they are eating a seed they have to move a lot to do it. I need to try and get more hummingbird pictures before they leave us. And they will be leaving soon. The end of summer is here. The flowers are dying, the insects are disappearing and the birds are leaving.
Summer. My favorite season. Fall can be nice, but there is much less activity in nature. Although my bird feeders can certainly be active. I wonder what the bird activity will be like this autumn? Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. Mystery of Avina. Chapter 17. Who?
“What do you think Chung?”, Baldwin asked. “I am not sure, he was without medication for a long time and given a medication that would help bring back that ‘nowhere’ disease,” Chung answered, “he needs more rest, but with Avina still out there, that will be impossible for him. He must go after her, or he will not rest.” “Yes, I agree,” said Baldwin, “but will that complicate matters?” “It very well could,” said Chung, “he must be watched carefully.”
Well, after a month of rehab I was finally cleared to go ‘home’, well, Baldwin’s home, since our chateau was completely destroyed. But Baldwin is having it totally rebuilt, the way it was. Fortunately we have lots of photos of the whole place. Plus there is a surprise coming for Kat and I as well, but Baldwin would not say what it was and there is one area outside with high walls that we are not allowed to see just yet.
Well, here I sit, trying to figure out our next move. So far Avina has killed Susan, Cassie, Bellamy and John. Benson lived but he may not be able to rejoin our active team membership, however, I am sure we can find things for him to do anyway. He has a lot of knowledge he can share with all of us for one thing. Jake has asked to join our team but his legs may never be the same again.
Right now he is in a wheelchair but remains very positive. His skills do not require him to come with us anyway, between Jake and Annelie they can help us a lot with those laptops of theirs. Everyone else is doing well now and Rock said he was definitely coming along on our next chase. Annelie and Krissy agreed with that. But where do we look for Avina? She could be anywhere is this world right now.
Annelie has been trying to find any information she can but came up with nothing so far. Now Jake has begun checking with his contacts to see if he can find any info that might help us. For now then we must sit and wait. As I was having my early morning coffee, before anyone else was awake, my phone rang. I did not recognize the number but answered anyway.
“Hey Steve, guess who?”, said the voice. I could not believe it at first, but it was John. “We thought for sure you were dead John,” I said, “how did you survive?” “I was at a side exit when you sounded the alarm to run so I got out quick,” he explained, “and I wanted everyone to think I was dead. It is amazing how much information a dead man can find.” I chuckled, maybe he was right.
“What did you find out?”, I asked. “Avina is in Argentina, planning something but I do not know what,” he began, “so I went there myself to see what I could find out. I made friends with one of her security guards, apparently he does not like her too much, and one night he was drunk and I was able to get a lot of info out of him.” He then told me all about the place she lives at right now and while he talked I drew out a rough sketch of the place.
The electric fence around the place is the toughest part but we should be able to dig under it. Then there are all the video cameras outside and inside, except in the basement since she thinks there is not way into the basement. But there is an old way in it seems and it should not be hard to find. And it is in a blind spot for the cameras too which will help us.
When everyone came for breakfast I told them what I had found out. “Are you sure about trusting John?”, asked Baldwin, “it may have been him that led you into that trap in Norway.” “Possibly, but I doubt it, the cats checked him out carefully and said he could be trusted,” I said, “and I believe him too.” “When do we go?”, asked Rock.
“Not so fast,” I said, “this time we will do things differently. Only some of us will go this time, we do not want to give Avina another chance to kill all of us at once. And again, it is strictly a volunteer job, if you do not want to go, it will not be held against you. This is not a regular PI case where everyone is required to join in.
The cats can only come if their human allows it, I know Muffin will be coming.” MC looks at Carine and Storm looks at Angel. They both smiled and said yes, they can go. So I have the 3 cats for sure. But everyone said yes to coming along, so I picked my team and we were off to Argentina that day.
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
