Good morning to all whether it is morning or not where you are or when you are reading this and I see that most people read my ‘musings’ in the evening and Thursday is the most popular day to read which is quite interesting even though the evening reading would be expected it does make me wonder why Thursday is the most popular day but that’s the way it goes and I guess one day has to be more popular than the others so why not Thursday I suppose but still it does make me wonder.  Oh well.  Some warmer spring like weather has finally arrived today, it is beautifully sunny, somewhat breezy and the snow/ice is actually doing some real melting today.  The ice is about a foot thick outside my place so it may take a bit to melt.  But at least it is starting.  AND, Sir George has brought his mate with him now and with both those two big birds on my feeder there is not much room to move around and pick up food.  But they do it anyway.  AND, I got some pics, as you can see.

It’s kind of nice to see them both together like that, sharing the food and glucking to each other.  That is what it sounds like, gluck.  That is also how Sir George lets me know that he is out there waiting for breakfast.  Or lunch.  I still need to think of a name for Sir George’s mate.  Usually that is not hard for me to do, but it’s a little tougher this time for some reason.  I’m having a hard time thinking these days.  I think.  Sigh.  It’s also nice to hear the loons back, calling their mournful cry early each morning.  There is not much open water for them yet, but after today that will change somewhat.  The birds are late returning this year, but that is due to the unseasonably very cold weather we have been experiencing.  This has been my longest winter since coming to this town back in, well, a while ago.  I won’t say how long.  But it’s been a while.  Sigh.  Have had a different rock dove around lately.  He/she is a rather different color from any I have seen over the years.  And I have been keeping track of birds for…well, let’s just say, quite a while.  The header photo at the top of this blog shows the color very well.  Kind of nice to see something different once in a while.  Although some people would disagree, they don’t seem to like my birds, or other critters.  Odd.  But then, so am I.  Sigh.  There definitely must be something wrong with me.  I mean, strange things happen to me that never seem to happen to other people.  Like today.  The day started off okay, sunny, not too cold, went out for COFFEE with ________, then went down to the government office to do something that needed to be done.  That’s where the problems started.  I needed ID.  Which unfortunately I do not have much of.  One reason I was there today.  Needed to renew something.  Oddly, the problems didn’t come from where I thought they would.  It happened to be my birth certificate.  Which is as old as me.  Naturally.  It’s made of paper.  For those of you who do not know what that is, you will have to look it up.  Anyway, since it comes from a different province did not help the situation either.  Basically I kind of ceased to exist for a bit.  But the young lady at the office was very nice and helpful and patient.  After hours of being in this place, at least it felt like that, they asked if I had ever had a driver’s license in this province.  Of course, I just don’t have one now.  So they finally found my old info from my old license and that took care of the problem.  Finally.  I hope.  Now I also have a new ID card so this won’t be a problem in the future.  I hope.  One never knows when it concerns me.  Sigh.  The bears are back.  A mama and cub.  And she is quite big, considering this is spring, when she is thin.  The little critter is little.  This, of course, brings about my usual summer problem, keeping the garbage indoors so the bears don’t scatter things all over the yard.  Sigh.  Poor Muffin. She does not like bears at all.  Will be putting some new pics in my gallery soon.  If I remember.  Sigh.  Maybe next time I can start with some insulatoring stories again.  It’s that time of year.  Enjoy your week and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

Good morning everyone on this still frigid spring (though certainly not spring-like) day in the month of April and actually the second week of April when things should be warm and no snow with grass turning green and crocus’ starting to grow and maybe even blooming by this time and robins singing early in the morning as the sun begins to show itself above the horizon, eagles soaring overhead, with the little juncos chirping as they search under trees for their breakfast and, and…sigh.  That is not what is happening.  It is cold.  Still.  There is much snow.  Still.  And that snow is frozen as solid as ice.  Still.  The wind is cold.  Still.  Much of the ice on the lake had disappeared, the water was sparkling in the sun.  It is now frozen again.  Sigh.  Temps are way below normal.  Amazingly below normal.  Terribly below normal.  Cold too.  Sigh.  But it was to be expected.  We had a very early winter, and nine times out of ten that will mean a late spring.  And so it is.  BUT, Sir George returned this afternoon!  That, unfortunately poor, photo at the top of this blog, is Sir George.  He is a Herring gull.  Ring-billed gulls have been around for a while now, but this is the first Herring gull I have seen this spring.  These two gulls are almost twins, but the most notable difference is the size.  Herring gulls are much larger.  And Sir George seems to have grown over winter.  He is one big gull.  He called to me upon arrival so I went out with food for him and he immediately came down to the feeder and finished off that food  rather quickly.  He had been sitting on the roof as was his habit last summer.  Gulls don’t normally come to bird feeders so this is quite a treat.  I have fed gulls many times over the years but last year was the first time ever to have a gull on my bird feeder.  Sir George was a bit nervous with me standing outside but he will soon get used to that again.  And maybe this year I will be able to get a better photo of him.  I hope so.  Speaking of birds, my blue jay is calling, he wants peanuts.  There, he should be happy now.  The hard part sometimes is getting peanuts to the blue jays before the squirrels get to them.  Winter started with one squirrel around.  Now there are 5.  And 3 of them are males who spend most of their time chasing each other while the females come and eat the peanuts.

Poor critters.  It is quite amazing how they can chatter so much while eating a peanut.  Then they jump and roll and run with a peanut in their mouth.  One would think they would get indigestion.  Oh well.  Muffin certainly enjoys watching the squirrels.  Especially when they are fighting and chasing each other.  But right now she is doing something she enjoys even better.  Laying in her patch of sunshine.  I think she would enjoy Hawaii too.  I can just see her lying on that sand soaking up the sun!  Then running up the nearest palm tree to drop coconuts are unwary people walking past.  You don’t think so?  HA!  It’s amazing what she does sometimes.  I am certain she deliberately moves her water dish just so I will step in it.  They other day I had my supper ready, such as it is, and I put my coleslaw on the table.  I turned my back just momentarily and when I looked back there she was eating my coleslaw!  Hard to imagine.  So today I gave her some coleslaw of her own.  She was very happy.  So was I.  The other day I gave Muffin some food, kind of a normal event.  I put her dish on the floor and stood up, forgetting the cupboard door was open.  WHAM!  As I groaned while holding my head and moving around a bit, I managed to step right into Muffins food dish that I had just put on the floor.  This was not the dry food, but canned food variety.  SQUISH!  Rats, gnats and blueberry bats.  What a mess.  Now I had to change socks again.  Unfortunately I also stepped on the floor a couple times making more of a mess.  I was not impressed.  Neither was Muffin.  She just sat there looking at her flattened out food.  So I had to feed her first before dealing with my socks or the mess on the floor.  Why you ask?  Why not make her wait?  Without any protection on my feet?  I’m not that crazy!  Sigh.  The things that happen.  Hmm, the squirrels are fighting over the leftover peanuts again.  And I think it’s time for me to go again.  So I will say good bye again.  Until next time, enjoy your week, hopefully it will be warmer than mine, and God bless!  Oh, in case you are wondering, only Sir George and squirrel photos are mine.  But several others have allowed me to use their photos in my blog.  That way I can have some good photos which makes things look nicer!

Steve and Muffin.