Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Morning Coffee At Steve’s Country #3.
Good morning to everyone! I do hope you are feeling well and having a sunny day thus far! Please help yourself to some coffee, sit back and relax for a bit. You know, it’s not necessary for the sun to shine in order to have a sunny day. Even on cloudy days the sun still shines brightly. But sometimes we just have to look beyond the clouds to see the sun. And with that sunshine we can go out with a smile on our face. It’s another milder morning here, with a temp of 18F (-8C) and mostly cloudy. The blue jays are busy getting peanuts. There is only 6 of them this morning, getting less all the time. I also saw 2 chickadees and a redpoll. Not exactly a busy morning.
Perhaps it’s the mild winter we are having so far that is keeping the birds away. Though that was never a problem before. I know that when walking down to the river this year I never saw many chickadees or nuthatches. So that could mean numbers are down for those birds. I’m wondering if perhaps a hawk has decided to hang around this winter. That can happen in mild years. And they can really clean up the smaller birds. There are times when the small birds suddenly disappear for awhile. That means a predator in the area. But it could be a shrike as well. But they don’t go after blue jays since jays fight back, and they are the same size. And the jays will chase the shrike from their area which helps the small birds. A hawk is a different matter, they are bad for all the birds.
A deer must have been killed by a train. The last couple of days there has been quite a few ravens flying around, plus at least a couple bald eagles. There is one eagle sitting at the top of a large spruce tree right now. I would try for a picture but there are too many branches in the way from a large birch tree out here. And it’s in a rather awkward location to get any closer to it. Oh, there it flies now, going back down for more food I guess. I hope it wasn’t Major. Today we have a couple different winter bird pics to share, a female redpoll sitting in the snow looking for seeds, and a goldfinch wearing it’s winter feathers. In summer this bird is bright yellow. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
20/20 Investigations, Inc. The Wilderness Staircase. Chapter 1.
Hmm, it’s been kind of a dry time for cases lately. The only thing we have had was finding the neighbors pet hamster who escaped out the back door one day. That only took the cats 10 minutes. Oh well, I’m sure something will come along any time now. There’s the mail now! Meow, meow?=Any real mail today? “Yes, looks like we might have a case too,” I told them. Meow?=What kind of letter? “It’s a real one, typed on nice business paper, see?”, as I showed them. Meow,meow.=Good, say yes, we go pack. Off they went into the bedroom. “At least the intro page is typed on business paper anyway,” I said to myself. Poke, poke, two little heads show up in the bedroom door. Meow,meow?=What you mean, first page typed, what about other pages?
I must learn not to think out loud like that, their hearing is amazing. “Um, well, the other 2 pages are handwritten, but very nicely and still on business paper,” I explained. Meow.=That mean business with money problems. Meow, meow.=Yep, say no, we go unpack. We go through this every time. “But they paid half up front, plus travel expenses and we get to stay in a nice hotel,” I explained further. Poke, poke, those two little heads are back. Out they come. Meow.=Nice hotel mean lot of people, so it noisy place, probably don’t like cats. Meow, meow.=I agree. “But we will be the only people at the hotel, it’s, um, sort of a seasonal type hotel. And it’s in a wilderness setting so there should be lots of mice,” I said trying to make it sound as good as possible.
Meow.=Oh, wild mice, they’re the good kind. Meow, meow.=Hmm, okay, that sound better, say yes to case, we go pack. Well, here we are, on the plane, heading to our destination. Now is a good time to explain things more completely to the cats. “Okay you 2, here’s the whole deal,” I began to say. Meow, meow?=What you mean, whole deal? You keeping things from us? “No, no, that’s not it, but it always takes so long to accept a case, I wanted to speed things up a bit. And I knew you would want to take this case anyway,” I said. Meow.=Okay, out with the details. “Um, right, these people, David and Diane, bought some wilderness property for a resort they are now building. While looking around the property they discovered an old staircase, way at the far side of the property. It went up this high hill which was very hard to climb and at the top they discovered a large abandoned hotel.
It was very old and had no way into the place except walking through the forest. They want us to explore it and find out why it was there. Meow!=Old hotel building should have lots of mice! This going to be fun case. Meow, meow!=Not fun case! Old abandoned hotel full of ghosts, not mice! Why you not say this? Turn plane around, we go back home now! “Um, we can’t turn the plane around Muffin,” I said. Meow,meow.=Then we catch another plane when we land and go home right away! No ghosts! Meow.=It okay Muffin, I here to protect you. Muffin looks at Mr. Cat and puts her head down a little. Meow, meow.=Okay, I trust you, we continue with case. But we better not see ghosts! “There are no ghosts Muffin,” I said, “and how come you didn’t say you trust me?” She gives me a hug. Meow,meow.=Of course I trust you too. But no more holding back details of case! “Right, no more,” I promised, “I don’t know anymore right now anyway.”
David and Diane picked us up at the airport and on the way back to their home we were given more details. “We bought the property very cheap,” said David, “then we found out why.” “Yes,” said Diane, “there is a legend about that old hotel, it was built about 300 years ago by a wealthy lady who wanted to be alone. She lived to be over 100 and is said to continue living there today. And she goes around scaring everyone away.” The cats ears were straight up listening to this news. “Now all our workers have left due to strange things happening,” said David, “and part of the legend says that terrible things happen to anyone who buys this land and goes into that old hotel. We went in to explore it but strange noises scared us out quickly and that’s when things began to happen.” Meow, meow!=That it, we turn back now and go home! Meow.=Maybe that good idea. “Sorry you 2, but we are staying, this sounds interesting,” I said to them quietly, “and stop sighing so much.”
To Be Continued.
Picture of Mr. Cat kindly supplied by his human, Nina.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
