Watching the Garden Grow

There is nothing like spring flowers to brighten up a yard.  This is the weekend when normally the annuals are placed out as we typically do not get frost after this.  I didn’t say we never get frost, but usually we do not get frost from now until fall.

It is raining though and much as I enjoy playing in the dirt, I don’t enjoy it in the rain – so we still just have the perennials.  I had planted pansies last year in the hopes they would come up again this year, but there doesn’t seem to be any.  I’m thinking that the newer, larger pansies are not as tolerant of winter and I had some beautiful large flowered pansies.  I will stick with the basic size if I get pansies again.  I know I used to have some that would come up every year for many years.

Last year the Forget Me Not flowers covered the whole flower bed – but this year they are just popping up in the lawn and are hardly in the flower bed.  My late blooming Tulip is almost open and the first Iris is now open.

May 18 Forget Me Not

May 19 Iris and Forget Me Not

May 18 Tulip

Iris May19

Chester and I had a shortened walk due to the rain and the Iris pictures were taken in the rain also.  Although we need the moisture, it is not supposed to rain during the day, especially on weekends and especially on long weekends.

The Goslings are Here

This pair of Canada Geese had way too many goslings for just one pair, but maybe they were gosling sitting while the moms went out for Mother’s Day.  I couldn’t get them all in one picture, but can count about 15 in one of these pictures – so there were certainly at least 25 here.   I was too busy taking pictures to stop and count at the time. They are sure adorable!

Canada Goose and Goslings

Canada Geese and Goslings

Goslings

These pictures were taken when I took a quick trip to the Assiniboine Park Zoo on the weekend on a beautiful sunny day.  These are wild geese, but they sure seem to like to visit and breed at the zoo.    I guess it is a perfect place for them – no predators.   I stood still and they walked right past me without any concern.

Stuff

Well – yesterday was the first day of registration for our summer programs at the Y.  I am writing this on the 7th – before I actually left for work, so hopefully I will have survived to be here when it shows up. 

Actually summer registration is a breeze compared to fall registration and this year people will be able to register online.

On yesterday’s walk along the Red River, Chester and I found several bunnies and one pair of Mallard Ducks.  The bunnies are mostly in people’s yards and I seldom take pictures in yards, other than my own.

We have the falcons or kestrels back in the neighbourhood and I’m hoping I’ll be able to get a good picture of one this year so I’ll know for sure what they are.  I found a pile of feathers in my yard a few days ago, so something caught a bird.  I don’t think Chester could catch a healthy bird and I don’t think he would pull the feathers off – so it may have been one of these birds – or even a crow that caught something.  I did see a crow with a bird that he had pulled the feathers off a week or so ago while walking.  He was too quick to get a picture of though.

It is raining out as we are heading out for our walk this morning.  Hopefully we will see some critters of some kind.

Here is yesterday’s Mallard Duck pair.

Mallards May 5

This is one of the nicer pictures I have of the female Mallard, but it was a cloudy and dull day for pictures.

Flowers are Growing

No sign of any actual flowers yet, but we’re finally getting weather almost as warm as it was in March – so they are growing again.  It is cooling off today unfortunately, and we may get some rain – so April hasn’t been a nice month with the weather.

I’m hoping we aren’t going to pay for the warm winter by having a cold summer.

Yesterday the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day though.  Bear in mind that I take the pictures one day, write this the next day and post it the following day – so today, yesterday and tomorrow are different from what you are experiencing at the time. 

Chester and I had our usual walk along the Red River and all we found yesterday was a Mallard Duck – that is why I’ve added some current pictures of the flowers coming up in my flower bed.

Day Lilies

The day lilies flowered very nicely last year and I am hoping to get the same from this this year.  Amazing to think how many years they spent in complete shade and hardly ever put out a flower.  Now that they get sunshine they are doing wonderful.

Tulips & Iris

I did clean the leaves out of the flower bed after taking these pictures. 

Tulips & Elephant Ear

Snow On The Mountain

I haven’t taken the leaves out of this area, but this will grow to cover them anyway.

Mallard Duck Apr 24

So far on Africam today, we have seen Elephant, Waterbuck, Blacksmith Lapwing, Grey Heron, Impala, Oxpecker, Terrapin, Zebra, Wildebeest, Baboon, Nyala, Helmeted Guinea Fowl, Brown-headed Kingfisher, Common Duiker, White-tailed Mongoose and lion (with cubs).  Click here to see all of the pictures from April 25th.

Chester

Chester has been on the newest medicine mix for a little over 4 weeks now and is still doing fine.  He did go 5 weeks one time after an increase in the meds before – so we’re not out of the woods yet, but I continue to be hopeful.  Every time he shakes his head though, I jump up to check on him, since that is how the seizures always start.

I have refined the pill process for him now too.  At first I was disguising the pills by putting them in wieners or cheese/peanut butter, but the meds have made him so hungry that he will just eat them without any additives.  I’ve just been putting the pills right into his food and he gobbles them up.  The only exception is the liquid one and for that I put a tiny piece of bread into his dish and let it absorb the liquid.

On Friday I gave him a bit of a haircut – trimmed around the ears and toes and then shortened his nails.  A bath had also been planned, but I didn’t figure there was much use doing that with it raining.  I didn’t wash my car either – which had also been on my list.

As promised (or at least mentioned) yesterday, here are the results of Chester’s photo shoot from Saturday.

Chester April 14

Chester April 14

Chester April 14

Chilly Spring Day

The last 2 mornings have been below zero, but the good news is that it is supposed to get warmer the next few day.  It will still be minus over night and in the mornings, but the day times should be nice.     It was -9C when Chester and I went for our walk.

I went out to take some pictures of my emerging greenery yesterday morning.  The first tulips up are looking a little sad, but I’m sure they will revive once again.

I haven’t found the time to get into the flower beds to clean up the old leaves and stuff, but that isn’t stopping them from coming up.

Tulips April 10

These are the late blooming tulips right outside my door.  I see the one on the right has been chomped off by a bunny.

Tulips and Elephant Ear April 10

These tulips are a little wilted – but not too bad.  The elephant ear is looking fine.

Tulips April 10

These tulips don’t look great, but I’m sure they will be fine once it warms up again.

Tulips and Iris April 10

Day Lilies April 10

Snow On Mountain Apr 10

On Africam so far today, we have seen Elephant, Nyala, Jackal, Wildebeest, Egyptian Geese, White-tail Mongoose, Impala, Terrapin, Giraffe, Waterbuck and Blacksmith Lapwing.  Click here to see all of today’s pictures.

European Vacation – Stefan Batory – Day 6

It was calm and clear this morning, but still quite cool.  Karen got up and came up, but didn’t even stay long enough for breakfast before she was back in the cabin again.

For a short time before lunch it warmed up enough that I could take my sweater off while in a sheltered spot in the sun.  It felt good.

I found Elizabeth today.  I had been asked by a guy a few days ago to look out for her.  I had actually talked to her yesterday also, but only found out her name today.  (I have no idea what this means.  I don’t know if I went back and reported to him that I had found her – or if I told her that he was looking for her – or if I just wrote this down and didn’t say anything to either of them.  I don’t even know who the guy was – LOL.)

Karen got up for a couple of hours and sat in Helga’s chair on the deck, but then returned to the cabin again.  Our steward has been really good to her – bringing her fruit, crackers and 7-up.  For some reason the lady in the next cabin is afraid of him though and she refused to let him in to close the porthole tonight.  I haven’t spent much time with him, but he visits Karen and she hasn’t had any problem with him.

Today’s picture is our waiter, in between 2 of the guys at our table.  I think that is Hank, the Dutch guy on the left and Paul the bearded professor on the right.

Hank, Waiter, Paul

Today is Saturday August 23rd, 1975 and we are sailing on the Atlantic Ocean.

European Vacation – Stefan Batory – Day 5

It was pretty calm this morning, but still cloudy and cold.  Karen finally got up for breakfast and for the first time in a few days, we had a full table for breakfast.

It didn’t stay that way for long and we were missing Karen and the Dutch guy for both lunch and supper.

It did warm up though and Helga and I sat outside for much of the afternoon.  We got a bit too much sun – but it felt good.

One guy at our table is a professor at Brandon University.  He is trying to bring a car back that has not been washed and the license and registration have both expired.  He offered to drive us home, but I think it would be safer to take the train or rent our own car.

I don’t think I took this picture today, but I’ll post an ice burg that was seen one day while on this ship.

Iceburg - Atlantic Ocean

Today was Friday August 22nd, 1975 and we’re on the Atlantic Ocean.

Spring on the Red River – March 24

Actually, I’ve been taking pictures the last 3 days, so we can see together the changes (if any) along the Red River.   When I started putting this together, I haven’t even looked at the pictures to see if the river is rising or not.  I don’t expect it will be anywhere close to flooding this year unless we get lot of rain.    There is no longer any ice floating along.

As well as the Red River, I also have a picture of Chester (of course) and some signs of spring in my flower bed. 

Chester March 22

March 22 Big Tree

March 23 Big Tree

The mist on the river on the 23rd makes it hard to see if the river level has changed or not.

March 24 Big Tree

Now we can see that it hasn’t really changed from the 23rd.

March 22 Red River South

This is about the most we’ve seen of the sun for the last few days.

March 23 Red River South

March 22 Red River North

March 23 Red River North

March 23 Red River North

I just loved the mist on the water, but in this picture, the 2 dots in the middle are a pair of Mallard Ducks and almost directly above them is a seagull.

March 23 Mallard

I wouldn’t have known from the earlier picture that the ducks were Mallards and I still wouldn’t have know without the zoom on the camera. 

March 24 Red River North

March 24 Iris and Tulip

March 24 Elephant Ear

This plant is really starting to spread now – I hope it will flower one year.  I’ve seen it flowering in other yards along my walk, but mine just grows.  It might need more sun than it gets in my yard.

March 24 Tulips and smaller Elephant Ear

March 24 more Tulips

I got a bit of yard cleanup done in the back yesterday and had planned on doing more today, but its been raining off and on so far this morning.

Chester is doing fine on his new meds, but it has only been a little over a week so far.  Keep your fingers crossed that we’ve got the right combo now.  I sure don’t want my daughter to have to deal with adjustments when I’m away.

So far on Africam today, we have seen Impala, Wildebeest, Zebra, Elephant, Saddle-Billed Stork, Waterbuck and Nyala.  Click here to see all of today’s pictures.

The stats for my blog tell me some of the search terms used to get to my page.  One of the ones day gave me a chuckle – it was ‘eat tour 1975′.

European Vacation – Rotterdam – Day 5

This is the longest we have stayed in any one place since we arrived in Europe.  Its too bad that Karen and I hadn’t arranged to keep the car for a bit longer so we could have explored more – but its not long now until our ship leaves and I guess we’ll be on it for even longer. 

It was raining this morning when we woke up so we’re a little afraid that we won’t see much of the sun before we leave.

We walked over to Central Station after breakfast and bought chocolate to take home with us.  After lunch at McDonalds ( I wonder if they still have Krokets there now – I had been hoping we would get them in Canada) we bought another puzzle to keep us occupied while we wait out the rain.  It didn’t work this time and I hardly looked at it.  We don’t have any rain gear with us and we’ve already got wet clothes from this morning, so we don’t want to go anywhere.

We walked across the street to a steakhouse for dinner tonight and it was great.  Its been a long time since I’ve had a really good steak and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Then we decided to go to another movie, but just missed the first showing and didn’t feel like hanging around for the second one.  Maybe we’ll go back tomorrow.

We just went to bed early.