Bathing Ducks

I did not even check the temperature this morning when Chester and I went on our walk.  I didn’t even check it when we got home and now around noon it is 27C with a predicted high of 33C and possible thunderstorms to follow.  It was very pleasant for our morning walk, so I am guessing it was about 20C under a sunny sky with just a slight breeze.  We saw a Mallard Duck family having their morning bath and a sparrow that I think is a Savannah Sparrow – but these little guys are so hard to know for sure.

I didn’t get any more done on my livingroom yesterday and I’ve heard that the Assiniboine Park Zoo now has a butterfly garden, so I expect one of my next weekend days will be spent there.  They also have a new bird flight show that I will have to take in.  I’ll make sure I have my camera batteries all charged up for those 2 new features. 

Mallards Bathing July 16

Mallards Bathing July 16

Mallards Bathing July 16

The ducks seems to be enjoying themselves and paid no attention to Chester and I standing there watching them.

Savannah Sparros July 16

I’m not 100% sure of any of my sparrow IDs, but I think that might be what this guy is.

After my exercise class today, followed by the big breakfast at The Red Top, I came home to water my flowers.  I felt like a bad flower mom when I saw how wilted the poor little things were.  I seldom come or go from the front door and hadn’t realized how dry everything was.  My impatience are what I see when I go out to get the mail and for some reason they were looking very good.  But everything is watered now and hopefully they will recover from my neglect.

Today on Africam, we have seen Rhinos, Elephants, Giraffes, Zebras, Nyala, Waterbuck and more.  Click here to see today’s pictures.

Back to Normal (whatever that is)

I did not even check the temperature when Chester and I took our walk along the Red River this morning.  Now (around noon) it is 21C with 94% humidity and drizzling.  It was drizzling when we walked too.   It is supposed to get up to 25C by this afternoon.

We couldn’t find any beavers today, but did find one small Wood Duck family.  It was just the mom and 2 almost grown babies.

Wood Ducks

No relaxing for mom as she stands guard.

When heading out for breakfast after my workout at the Y, a large truck in front of me suddenly slammed on the brakes and came to a screeching halt in the middle of the road.  I couldn’t see in front of it, so I slammed on my brakes too.  Just then we could see a Mallard Duck and her tiny babies crossing the road and heading for the river.  That truck would have killed the whole family if the driver hadn’t done that.  The family had to get across the other direction too, but the first car coming towards them also braked quickly and I saw them all scramble up the curb on the river side of the street. 

Yesterday, I was playing with the settings on my camera and found a sketch mode.  Of course I had to try that out and took a couple of pictures of Chester in the yard.

Chester July 8 sketch

Chester July 8 sketch

On Africam today, we have seen Giraffe, Wildebeest, Duiker, Baboons, Zebra, Elephants and much more.  Click here to see today’s pictures.

Zip Lining Adventure

Wow – what a rush!  I knew I was going to love zip-lining and I really did.

Yesterday, my daughter Angela and I went to Hi-Wire Zipline Adventures and had a wonderful time.  We were warned about the long hike up the hill after the first zip, and it was hard, especially because it was 29C and humid – but we survived the walk and the zips.    The scenery up there was beautiful and worth the trip even without the zips – but the zips were fantastic.  I could do that again anytime.  If it is this hot the next trip, I just might pay the extra $5. for a ride up that first long hike though.  It was 800 meters and a very steep climb

I realized afterwards that I didn’t get a picture of the 3 dogs that did the whole course on foot, plus several extra miles racing around while we were up in the hills.  They must all be fairly young dogs to keep that up 4 times every day and I couldn’t help but think about how much Dakota would have loved doing that in her younger days.  Chester also would love that and would probably even love it now, but with the vet saying to limit his walking distance, I wouldn’t want to take the chance with him.  I cam home with 1 wood tick on me, so I can imagine how many the dogs would bring home.

The only problem I have with Hi-Wire is that their web page says “This is a 2 hour adventure to last a lifetime.“, but is is 1 hour.  There were only 7 people in our group, which would have sped it up a bit – but only by a few minutes as the actual zips are less than 1 minute each.  The group before us were also back in 1 hour, so I’m not sure why they say its a 2 hour adventure.  It was great and I loved it and will certainly do it again, but you go there thinking that you will be on the course for 2 hours and it is only 1/2 that time, you leave feeling that you missed something.  Next time I’ll know that it is for one hour.

Angela

View from Above

View from Above

I have 3 short videos of the zip lining and have been trying to find a movie maker that will combine them into one.  Windows Movie Maker that I used to use, does not do MPEG files and that is what this camera makes.  I have downloaded and tried several trial versions of programs and not one of them works.    One of them said it would do up to 5 minutes, but is partially combined 2 of these into a big 16 seconds – so that was pretty useless.  All 3 of them are only a few seconds each and its such a nuisance to have to open 3 of them, but that is what you’re going to have to do if you want to see them unfortunately.

Could Summer Really be Here?

What a nice day!  Chester and I didn’t walk along the Red River until after my exercise class at the Y followed by breakfast and I didn’t check the temperature at that time.  I think it was about 9C when I left for class though.  Now around noon, it is 22C under a sunny sky with very little wind.    They are predicting 26C on Tuesday – but I’ll believe that when I see it.

I started the walk off by taking pictures of my iris as now the tall ones are almost all blooming at once.

Iris June 11

Iris June 11

Iris June 11

They are so pretty – but they last such a short time.

Then while walking along the river, we found a Mallard and her 9 babies.

Mallards June 11

Duckling Stragglers

ducklings (still not all together)

Mallards June 11 (almost got them all in this one - but just the beak of #9)

Finally - got them all!

They have now put scaffolding back up at the block across the street, which I assume means that they really are going to be working on it again.  I don’t know if its been sold and it is another company doing the work or if the ones who were working on it before finally got their act together and got moving again, but it has been well over a year since all work stopped.  The best thing right now is that they cut the grass/weeds which were over a foot tall. 

On Africam today we have seen Elephants, Giraffes, Kudu, Zebras and more.  Click here to see today’s pictures with all the sightings for the day so far.

Red River May 14th

Apparently we have the sun shining today.     I wasn’t sure what the bright shiny object in the sky was, so I asked on Facebook and some of the people recognized it as being the sun.  We don’t usually go this long without the sun, so I really wasn’t sure after all this time.  And to top it off, the temperature has risen from 2C this morning to 14C in the early afternoon.

After my exercise class at the Y this morning, followed by a huge breakfast at the Red Top and the Chester walk along the Red River, I did some yard work – including planting some impatience in a pot on my front step.

On our walk, we saw Wood Ducks (3 pairs), some Spotted Sandpipers, a crow and several swallows (that moved way too fast for me to get a picture of).  My tulips are blooming and my rose is coming back too. 

Wood Duck pair May 14th

Wood Duck pairs May 14th

I didn’t even see the one hen until I looked at the picture a 2nd time.

Spotted Sandpipers May 14th

Tulips May 14th

Bunny damaged raspberry bush

It looks like the bunnies has a little snack on one of my raspberry bushes over the winter.  I focused on the wrong branch, but you can see what I mean.

Bunny damaged raspberry bush

But – they are tough bushes and this is the top of the stem above. 

Almost forgot the Crow

Click here to see what has been happening at Africam today. 

Strong Kids

The YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg has started the Strong Kids Campaign for the year.  It started off yesterday with a cycle day.  Right from 6am until closing, we had at least 2 people riding stationary bikes in our front lobby after giving a donation or collecting sponsors (or both).

Click here to see the video from City TV about the campaign.  Luckily, I managed to avoid the cameras 

The South Y was a very busy place yesterday with people coming and going all day – some of them to exercise on their own, some of them to take classes for themselves or to take their children to classes and some of them to cheer on the bike riders or to ride themselves.  The campaign will continue with other fund raising activities so drop by any of the branches to help the Y help the kids – both here and in Mexico.  If you hear some of the stories from our Mexican Y, you will understand the need there.

The weather yesterday wasn’t bad – temperature hovered in the low minus teens up to about -8C, but this morning it is -20C with a nasty wind giving a wind chill of -35C.  It is March 1st and I woke up to fresh snow on the ground.  My policy is to never shovel after the end of February until next winter begins – so this snow is just going to have to sit there until it melts.  It is only if we have a storm that I will bring out the shovel again.   I believe this wind qualifies as March coming in like a lion – so hopefully it will begin to improve significantly so it can go out like a lamb. 

Chester and I had a short walk due to the cold wind today and didn’t make it to the river (where the wind can almost knock us off our feet).  By walking down the lanes and sidewalks, we were protected somewhat from the breezes.

Things are busy on the cameras at Africam these days.  As I was watching this morning, a small herd of breeding elephants passed by at Elephant Plains followed by some zebras.  You can see all of today’s pictures here.

Elephant at EP

Zebras at EP

Triathlon Decision

It is a bitterly cold morning here – coldest day of the winter so far.  At 7:00 am it was -35C.  That isn’t counting the wind and there is a wind.

Decision day on the triathlon has arrived and the decision is ‘NO’.  I do enjoy riding my bike to work in the summer, but I can take my time to enjoy the scenery.  I always allow myself more time than I need to get there so do not have to rush.  An hour (or longer) race around a track just does not appeal to me.  I don’t have anything to prove to myself or anyone else, or any desire to accomplish something like this or the time or desire to train for it.   I’m not sure if Sarah will see my response here or if I will have to break it to her on Sunday when we work together again.  Sorry Sarah.  This will be one less thing to write about in my book, although I could always write about thinking about it.  

By noon the temperature had warmed to -30C, with the same wind – even though they still are not giving the windchill values today.  They say it should warm up to -24C by the afternoon, but I’m not holding my breath.

The picture(s) of the day are (of course) from Africam.   A Cape Buffalo soaking in the water at Elephant Plains and a Zebra with a Kudu behind him at Tembe.

Cape Buffalo at EP

Zebra and Kudu at TE

January 18th

Oh – its a chilly one this morning.   Starting the day off at -33C but it is supposed to get up to a high of -24 by afternoon.  There probably won’t be any snow falling today, since it is too cold for that now.

One of the girls at work (Sarah) has decided that she wants to do a triathlon this spring.  She does not want to do it alone (although she will be doing all three herself) so she wants to form a team or two to do this with her.  Since I ride my bicycle to work in the summer, Sarah figures I should do the biking part of it.  I’m not sure I will go along with this – but I am thinking about it.  I just checked my route from home to the Y on google maps and it is 3.2 km, which usually takes me anywhere from 10 – 14 minutes depending on the wind and if I hit a red light.  The triathlon will be 15 km of biking  – so almost 5x my regular distance.

Now – back when I was a child    I used to spend a good portion of my days in the summer on my bicycle.  A friend and I would often hop on our bikes and ride to Assiniboine Park, which according to google maps is 8.6 km away from home. It might have been a bit shorter since google won’t let me take the route we used to go and I’m not even sure if the pedestrian bridge that we used to take over the river is still there.  After getting there we would walk around the zoo or play in the playground and then head back home on our bikes.  I have no idea how long the ride took – but it was summer and we had all day.  We were never in a hurry.

I still haven’t decided if I will let Sarah talk me into the triathlon or not – but I’m not saying no yet – although I’ve already said no to Sarah a couple of times already.  She is very stubborn – but so am I. 

On Africam yesterday we were lucky enough to see a black rhino.  We see the white rhino regularly – but the black ones are endangered and rare to see.  It was on the Tembe cam where we are amazed by the variety of animals that can been seen together.  Unfortunately the cam was buffering and freezing quite a bit while this animal was in front of us and I was unable to get any really good pictures, but I am getting to the point where I can hopefully be able to tell the white from the black rhino.  And – no, you can not tell by the colour, since they are both grey/brown.  You can see the pictures that were taken yesterday here.

For my picture of the day, I went back to last summer’s vacation in the Banff/Jasper area.  Just a view of the mountains – beautiful.

Mountains

Have a great day!

January 3rd

New Years Resolutions!!!  Don’t you just love them?

The answer for me is NO!  I work in a fitness facility and what better new years resolution could there be other than to get fit?  I know that most of the people who came in today or phoned today will not get fit.  Many of them will pay the money to join up and never come back again, until they decide to cancel the membership next month because they don’t have time to use the facility.  Some will exercise hard for a few days and be so sore that they will stop coming and also end up canceling next month.  Many will decide after a couple of days that it is much too busy there and just stop coming until they see the next month’s charge on their credit card and they will come by to cancel also.  Some of these people won’t actually cancel for several months because they fully intend to exercise tomorrow, but eventually they too will realize that the payments keep coming out whether they use their membership or not.

All day today the phone kept ringing and people kept coming in – they came in groups and they came on their own, but usually ended up in a line of people  – all wanting either information, to try it out for the day or to just get their membership.  Some of the existing members came to work out today – but most will disappear for January because they have been through this before.  The entire facility is almost wall to wall people and it is very difficult to get your turn on a treadmill, elliptical or weight machines.  They know that by the end of January it will have started to slow down again and by mid February, things will be back to normal.  Out of the hundreds who will start their membership in January, there may be 5% who will actually follow through and stay with the program.

Tomorrow should be better because many people will be back at work after having today off in lieu of New Years Day.

Maybe next year I should take all of January off work.  I know – I could spend the month in Africa!!!

The weather this morning was a chilly -26C, but luckily there was little or no wind in the morning.  Right now it is -18 C, but with a wind it feels like -28.  It is only supposed to go down to -22C tonight, so that is much better.

I am sure glad I have the cams at Africam to watch to relax and unwind.  Last night we had a hippo in the Nkorho waterhole for a few hours.  He had a wonderful snooze 

 

Hippo at NK

Hippo at NK

 

Hippo at NK

Thats all for today.  I’ll see you again tomorrow.

April 24th

An exciting wake up for me this morning.  I fed the dogs and sat down at the computer – opened the cams for Africam and within less than a minute, I was staring at a beautiful leopard at Elephant Plains!

Leopard

Leopard

If you want to see more of the leopard visit, Gerda was ready and videotaped him/her.  We are hoping to get an ID on this beautiful animal from the ranger at Elephant Plains soon.  You can see the video here. Thanks Gerda!

Then I went off to the Y for some exercise, followed by breakfast and some shopping and dog walking.  When I sat down and opened the cams this time, there was Roy, the hippo just behind the waterhole at Elephant Plains.

Roy, the hippo

Roy, the hippo

You can see the rest of the critters seen at Africam on Saturday here.

Since it’s been awhile between postings this week, I have a few pictures from around here to show you also.

Red River looking North April 20

Tulips Apr 20

Tree across river Apr 21

Wood Duck Apr 20

Tree across River Apr 23

You can see that the tree is no longer surrounded by water.

Tulips Apr 23

I see there has been a bit of nibbling being done on the leaves.  Someone has been hungry – I wonder who?

the probable culprit

He seems innocent enough here, but I suspect he is the hungry tulip eater.

wildlife along the river Apr 24

Dakota has been scaring me on our walks.  She isn’t falling as much, but both her back legs seem to give out on her often.  If only she didn’t tire herself out before we even leave the yard by running around with excitement.  Our walk is very short and very slow, with her getting to sniff as much as she wants too, but just around the block is a little too much now.  She still wants to go back out when I’m taking Chester though and has to be told she has to stay.  Chester, meanwhile doesn’t get anywhere near as long or as fast a walk (run) as he would like to have.  I take him several blocks, but at a fast walk (for me) instead of a run and he is still raring to go when we return.