You think YOUR kids grow fast...!

I was compiling videos of the robin babies, but before I could get the movies up, the darn things grew up so fast they flew the coop in two weeks! It's all ancient history now, but I wanted to share some pictures.


They went from this.....

to this......

and so on....

Then, things were just getting too crowded and one flew out of the cuckoo's nest to a nearby tree.

The next day, the other two worked up courage to follow.

And now I can spot them and hear them in the trees as they call to Mom and Dad who still faithfully deliver worms and bugs to their little ones.

I miss all the action outside the front door. Even my family (who mocks me for my bird watching) clambored from the dinner table to watch when someone shouted that a baby was about to fly from the nest! The robin parents were actually quite respectful of us and we never had to use another door because of them. Mom even came back to clean the nest after all the babies were gone! Now there's a great Mom!!

I am beginning to see the babies on the ground accompanying their parents as they begin to search for worms all by themselves....without those little mouths always looking for a handout!

So what will I do without baby birds to watch? Well, here's a couple of pictures I took outside of my bedroom window  the same day the robin babies left. I received this lovely birdhouse for Christmas and there are definitely chickadee babies in there! Harder to view but we'll see......

The videos are below for your viewing pleasure. I have many more which I may share at a later date.

Warning! Contains graphic scenes which may disturb! If you're queasy about worms, get over it. But if you really can't stand dirty diapers, you'll shudder at 'clean up'.

The first video is of Mom and Dad when the babies were 6 days old....

One happy family from Beebalm on Vimeo.
The babies in the next video are now 10 days old. It's hard not to fall asleep while waiting for Mom or Dad to come...but when they do arrive....it's a fast awakening! Thanks for the worms Mom...now here's our gift to you - help yourself....

Any time Mom....we're waiting.... from Beebalm on Vimeo.
Things are getting crowded in the nest. It's okay when they're sleeping. But when one moves....everyone else has to shift! Can't you just picture what these siblings are muttering to each other?  Notice the change in 10 days from a mass of flesh to flapping feathered wings! Somebody's gotta leave soon!

Tight Quarters from Beebalm on Vimeo.

Ducks Unlimited

Early this evening I was filming the robin activity on the front porch. I am planning on updating and sharing the pictures and videos I've been taking of them, but haven't had too much time to compile anything.......although here is one picture from today as an update of how the babies look now. They are rapidly growing, eyes are open, and fuzz is appearing.


During a camera session, I was not prepared for what I turned my head and saw out the front door.

There, waddling right down the middle of this bird-lover's road was a mother duck and 8 baby ducklings following her in a row. I froze and thought I was seeing things as they disappeared behind our parked car. Sure enough, they appeared on the other side and continued their trek down the cul-de-sac. I wrestled my camera off the tripod, threw on my shoes, and scurried after them down the street.
Now you need to understand I live in a city. Yes, we have a river, but I live no where near it. This is the first time I've seen a duck in a place where there are no bodies of water, other than backyard ponds and pools. Where on earth does this Mother plan to raise her babies in our neighbourhood....which is shared with plenty of dogs and cats? Apparently a neighbour had caught sight of Mom and babies on the cover of their swimming pool.

I truly hope they will be okay. You know me by now. I'm thinking up ways to make my property attractive to ducks so I can have plenty of photo shots of them growing up in the neighbourhood. Can't keep them in the back yard with the dog. Could set something up in the front side yard, away from the protective robins. I've asked my husband if we can flood the front yard and make it into a marsh. He said okay..........but I don't think he meant it.

Here's some more pictures. I hope to see them again for more shots!

A face only a mother could love

I'm sure some of you bird lovers are wondering about those 3 robin's eggs. Sure enough, I received text messages of congratulations in my hotel room from family back home informing me I was a proud Gramma of two. Two so far had hatched on Thursday. When I arrived home Friday, all three were alive and well.

Here's a series of daily pictures of the babies starting with Friday.

And finally, today (Tuesday)

Now it's hard to imagine in that (dare I say) ugly mass of flesh that there is anything alive or responsive. But when Mom or Dad arrive with a worm dangling overhead.....

Like stepping on the garbage can lever....up come those lifeless looking little heads!                           

And why not with such delicious offerings!! Yum!

I'm amazed at the dedication of Mom and Dad. I mean, I remember being a new Mom and the exhaustion I felt from no sleep and always tending to the baby (singular)....letting your own needs take a back seat to the baby's needs. But honestly.....I didn't have to do nearly as much as this young couple! They spend the entire day from dawn until dusk searching earnestly for food and bringing it back to the nest, while watching at all times for danger and fending it off. Poor innocent sparrows or finches who might want a drink nearby - they get dived at and told in no uncertain terms to get lost. Thankfully, so far these parents are leaving the humans alone to come and go as we please!

I hope to post some videos of the feedings before too long. It should get interesting as these babies rapidly grow and become more visible and vocal. I've read that often the weakest of three is left to fend for itself while the two strongest are nurtured and taught to survive. I'll have a hard time watching that if it happens, but I've promised myself I will not rescue an abandoned robin baby - let nature take its course. A robin who doesn't learn to survive in the wild, but lives out its days in a cage in a house with worm feedings would not be a good thing!                                                                                     

Here today, gone tomorrow

I've been steeped in "Robin 101" this past week.  I remarked to a neighbour that a robin built a nest by our front door and she said that the sooner we get rid of it the better. I didn't have the nerve to tell her that not only would I not get rid of it...I have excitedly set up a tripod permanently by the front door to capture the moments. I consider it a privilege to watch nature up close in action, even if it becomes a bit of a nuisance. How often except by webcam do you get to view this kind of activity up close? (See the robin building her nest in the previous post here)

I've had to rely on the internet to try to figure out this bird. I had no idea about the nesting habits of robins and I was perplexed by this new porch guest.  Why would this bird spend a full day and a half - I'm talking no breaks or lunches - to build a nest, and then leave it? We kept watching and she wasn't coming back. My husband said maybe it was a 'decoy' to throw off the enemies, and the real nest was elsewhere. I couldn't believe she'd work that hard on a decoy.

Finally, she was spotted for a short time around noon on the nest....but gone again, not to return until the next day at noon for an hour or so.  ??????

I began to read some wonderful stories on the internet from others who have watched robin nesting - oddly enough from ridiculous vantage points. One was built on top of a front porch light...another in the drip pan of a barbecue (barbecued omelette anyone?)...and yet another just under an open deck umbrella...(that woman had to put the umbrella down because of high winds, so she put the nest in their basement until the next day....and you think I'M crazy!)

But the most curious thing I learned was that the robin will lay one egg per day and then leave. She will return the next day to drop another egg, and so on, until she is finished and then she finally stays to sit on them so they will hatch around the same time. I also learned that the easiest way to check out what's in the nest is to place a mirror over it to clearly see the eggs when Momma is off for a worm and a drink. Of course I had to drag out a chair and stand on it to get a camera shot.

Sure enough.....day one.....one egg.

Day two...another.






 

Day three....a third.









 
And finally four eggs.

Yesterday, however, I noticed Momma eating something in the nest. The fourth egg had been fragile and must have broken, so she cleaned up the nest, and now there are three. And so we wait.

Apparently, the eggs are kept warm for about two weeks before they hatch, and then the fledglings take about two weeks to grow before they leave the nest. I am scheduled to be away for a couple of nights next week for work related training and I'm hoping I don't miss any of the hatching process.

The final points of interest I learned was that the robin will return to the same nest again for a second brood in the same season....and that they will return to the same location the next year and fix up the old dwelling if it's still there, or else rebuild. I don't recall any requests from Momma for a permit.

 

Momma is very patient with all the people activity at the front door. Just when you think she is going to stay there while you enter or leave, she quickly exits the nest and returns shortly after. I'm sure she appreciates the stretch of the wings and a quick worm from the garden, drink from the concrete bird bath, and back to settle down on the eggs. Dad is trying to ward off the pesky blue jays who are making their presence known trying to raid nests in the neighbourhood.

This morning when I peeked out the door first thing, I caught Dad putting some food into Momma's mouth. That was the first I'd seen him at the nest and it was so cool to see the support between the two to get these babies hatched and ready to face the world.

Most of us live busy lives....coming and going and not even noticing what's happening all around us in nature. Yes, we sit up and notice when a volcano erupts and disrupts our flight plans, or get disturbed at the ecological crisis as a result of a serious oil spill in an ocean. Birds, insects, butterflies are all indicators of the health of our environment. When we can learn a little of what their world is like, it helps us appreciate the balance, beauty, and necessity of the creatures with whom we share this earth.

Take some time from the rush and check out what you can see outside your front door. It might surprise you what you've been missing.

If you come visit, use the back door

I made you all a couple of little amateur video clips for your viewing pleasure one of which is accompanied by music that will lull you to sleep and make you think you're watching a nature show. Don't worry, I didn't narrate. Check them out at the end of the blog post.

We have a new porch guest that I assume will be taking up residence soon. This lovely lady literally spent more than 12 hours Monday working on her nest right outside our front door, and was back at it finishing up the next morning. She went shopping for materials in my gardens all day long, and brought mud along to hold it all together. I always leave some prime nesting materials around when I clean up in spring, instead of throwing it all out. ("Ooooh, that would be great for lining a nest - I need to leave some of that out! The chickadees can gather up our dog's fur, so I'll spread that around"....etc).

It was so cool last year to watch the cardinals' nest outside the bedroom and to hold hours-old baby cardinals in my hand. It was phenomenal to watch baby blue jays learning to fly in the backyard last summer and enjoy a brief moment of a baby sitting next to me on the swing. I am sure it is those same two blue jay siblings that still stick together and come around to the same tree even now. So this year will be a new experience with a momma robin right beside the door we always use and by the porch lights that are always on. Unfortunately, knowing what I've heard about robins, our lives might be in danger!

I exaggerate....but I don't relish me, my family, or guests being dive-bombed when we're coming and going. So I'll warn everyone I know about momma robin if you value your head...steer clear!....mmmmm.....except for those pesky sales people that come a-knocking. No....I've got my tripod set up inside the door to film the baby robins....but I just might get some great comedic shots of sales people running from our house. This could be all good.

Here's what Dad was doing while Mom was working her little heart out. Why DO Dads seem to have more fun?
(The Picasa 'embed' feature does not seem to be working for the videos. You will be linked to my albums instead of viewing directly here - sorry)

Here's Momma. Stay tuned for the eggs and babies!

Not to be sneezed at

Have you been sneezing a lot these last few weeks? Itchy, watery eyes? Miserable?

Welcome to the world of the allergy sufferer. These past few weeks in this part of Canada,  spring has sprung very early and even some who have not had allergies before are suddenly reacting to the pollen in the air.

I've had springtime allergies for years but the symptoms have lessened over time so that I don't suffer for long anymore. But I learned something on Facebook about relief from nasal congestion in general.

Yes, Facebook. It can be inciteful sometimes to read responses to people's status postings - when they are telling their world that they don't feel well - an advice column, you might say. It was there that I learned about the neti pot (Thank you Robin!).
I had never heard of a neti pot and Robin even provided a web link. I will always try something once if someone recommends something they have found to work. I was intrigued because I am a tea lover, and Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge) illustrates with a picture of a lovely ceramic 'teapot'.

So I decided I needed to get a neti pot to try for myself.

Now I knew that I couldn't expect too much in the way of style, being as I was purchasing the neti pot at Shoppers Drug Mart in the pharmacy department. Fine bone china was unlikely to be found within the cardboard box, nor did I expect to find ceramic. I guess I just thought it would at least be pretty.....maybe even elegant.

Mmmmmm. No. Not elegant.

Not even close to elegant.

But if you think that's not pretty, wait until you try it! The instructions really should state to use it in private where no one can watch. This device is, after all, a nasal irrigation system.

Now I have always hated the feeling of sucking in water through the nose when swimming, so when I was all ready to pour the solution from the neti pot through my nasal passage, I was gripped with a fear of drowning. The instructions said not to be alarmed if the solution also came out of the mouth (sound tasty?), so I was pretty sure if you have one nostril taking in fluid, the second one draining the fluid, and your mouth also exuding fluid (let snot call this fluid anything but fluid).....I'm pretty sure you can't breathe. I was pleasantly surprised I did not require any emergency assistance, and very stunned that there is actually an opening between both nostril passages to allow fluid to flow in one and out the other. Who knew?

Amazing the connection between nose, mouth and throat. It reminds me of an event that happened many years ago that I still laugh about....sort of. We went on a holiday to Florida with relatives and while there, visited with some aunts (unrelated to me). One of these aunts was very pretty and proper -  lovely hair, obviously wore the finest of makeup, jewellery, clothing........but she was wearing pantyhose under her shorts - did I say we were in the hot, humid state of Florida? [I was somewhat fixated with the pantyhose -never seen that done. Perhaps because it was prior to spray-on tan products.]

Anyways, my husband decided it would be absolutely hilarious to take the cellophane wrapper from the candy he just ate....roll it up into a long 'stick'...and........ quickly.insert it up my nostril. (Isn't that just hilarious?????) I was impressed. Please kids, do not try this at home. Let me tell you, the nostril is a very sensitive piece of apparatus. When it itches in your sinus cavities, you can't scratch there. And when something scratchy hits the sinus cavities, your eye waters uncontrollably. Then everyone thinks that you're crying as you are bent over, clasping your face and dabbing your eyes.

Problem was, in addition to this incessant, horrible irritation in the sinus cavity, the 'pantyhose aunt' was trying to figure out what was wrong and how to help me. The more she spoke, the more I keeled over in laughter while 'crying', clutching my face and desperately wanting to sneeze away the irritation. She believed from what she had gathered from the others, that the wrapper had gone up my nose and come out my eye. She wouldn't drop it. The more she was concerned about the wrapper having come out my eye, the closer I came to collapsing in exhaustion from laughing. The others egged her on by assuring her that yes, it had come out my eye. Poor woman. She mustn't have passed biology in school. I could never be that stupid.

Although....I guess I just confessed that I thought a neti pot could drown me.

I wonder if pantyhose under shorts could be stylish?

I wouldn't have written it like that

If I had been Zechariah, I wouldn't have written it like that.

Zechariah was a prophet guy who wrote what we now call...ironically....the book of Zechariah in the Bible. Five hundred years before Jesus appeared on the scene in Bethlehem, Zechariah wrote....

"Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey - even on a donkey's colt."

A donkey's colt??   A king??    Come on now. Let's have a king ride in on a white stallion. He's the hero. The king that saves the day!

Fast forward 500 years. Jesus is travelling towards Jerusalem and he sends two on ahead into a little village and tells them that they will find a donkey's colt there that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. And no...he hadn't text messaged ahead to see if the beast of burden might be there waiting. In fact the owners of the colt were a little unnerved at these two untying their donkey.....but they let them have their animal when these two repeated what Jesus had told them to say.

Crowds were always following Jesus. Who would have known that the entire city of Jerusalem would be stirred on this one particular day that he visited....riding on a donkey's colt. The reaction to him was amazing. Treated him like a king.

How very different the next days ahead would be. Sitting on the colt and approaching the city of Jerusalem, Jesus wept.

Many more prophecies were yet to be fulfilled, written long before Zechariah. It was an incredibly difficult road ahead for Jesus.

I wouldn't have written it this way.

Turns out though....the whole Book's a best seller...and the ending is priceless!

Let's not leave Haiti on their own .....ever

I love my country of Canada.

I'm proud of our immediate and continued response to Haiti and their needs.

Our response has brought Canadian people together for a common goal....a very worthy one.

Good can come in the midst of tragedy.... cities and countries can rise from ashes when people care enough.

Let's not stop here. Let's keep giving.....to Haiti....and to other impoverished countries who need us.

If you think you're not rich, think again....and give what you have. It will come back to you as surely as the waves come crashing in to the shore...and then you can give again.

Starry eyed

I stood in my backyard tonight and looked up into the clear night sky. The crescent moon was shining brilliantly - illuminating what little snow remains. The stars seemed motionless, forever in the same sky I had watched in my childhood. Constellations I have long since forgotten the names of - learned at a much younger age. As a child, I wondered how gravity could hold us all together without falling off the surface of the earth....and why the stars wouldn't just randomly float anywhere instead of in predictable constellations that we could search and find the same pictures over ions of time.

As a lover looks with fondness into the eyes of the one they love, so when I gaze at stars I see the One whom I love more with each passing day.

There are times in our lives when we are faced head on with the reality of our own mortality. Our time here is brief. But far more real to me is that the One who holds the stars in place..... holds me. That's far more amazing than gravity.

What are you waiting for?

What are you waiting for and wanting to happen this year? I hope you want to start the New Year empty handed.

"We're waiting here

Waiting for you, God

With our hopes and fears

We come empty hands held out......"

Box of Chocolates

My annual Christmastime post....recalling a story that stays fresh in my memories.

He lived across the street from us, sometimes peering out from behind the curtain of his window, sometimes observing the neighbourhood activity from the front porch. Stan kept to himself – not unfriendly, but nevertheless aloof. He was elderly and He lived alone. No cars ever seemed to enter his driveway.

As Christmas was nearing, my husband and I took some Christmas goodies to Stan’s next-door neighbour – an elderly lady whom we hadn’t seen since the weather turned cold. She was overjoyed at our visit. We learned she was nursing her brother who was sick, “dying of cancer”, she whispered, as if to not let him hear from the next room where he lay in a bed. She spoke of deep faith in God and how He gives strength to the weary.

She also spoke of Stan and how she prayed for him. I felt uplifted and thankful she knew the Christ whose birth we celebrated. We could not know as we left her home that in a few short years I would stand by her hospital bed as she would die of the same disease as her brother.

The week grew busier as Christmas approached, but I could not glance at Stan’s house without feeling we must visit him as well. Christmas Eve arrived, and as this was a year b.k. (before kids), we did not have the same bustling activity that we have known since then. Though the fire was cozy, and home was comfortable, we bundled up and made the trek across the street.

There was a dim light in the window and the sound of the television from behind the door. The shuffle of slippered feet followed the doorbell. Stan opened the door and his face lit up as he looked at his young neighbours standing with goodies in hand, wanting to visit him on Christmas Eve. He welcomed us almost with disbelief.

I do not remember if his home had any Christmas decorations or gifts, but I do recall how sad I felt that Stan wore a shirt and tie, dressed up as if expecting company but no one had come. He told us he had a grown son, but the two of them had not spoken in years. The bitterness was evident in Stan’s voice as he abruptly stated his son 'does not come home for Christmas'. He talked and we listened as time slipped by. He thanked us with tears in his eyes as we left, and how thankful we were that we had crossed the street to see him, and perhaps given him the only gift he would receive for Christmas. A short time out of our life had meant the world to him. Stan did not live to see another Christmas.......

Years later, I still think of Stan especially on Christmas Eve. Travelling with our children to Grandma and Grandpa's house that’s always filled with laughter, food, and gifts, Stan has become my reminder. As we drive down city streets, my eyes wander to windows which are darkened, lit only by the flickering light of a television. I wonder what heartaches lie in that household, and if someone sits alone at Christmas and throughout the year, wishing someone would bring some light, some hope, into their world.
Stan reminds me that I’m as busy as the town of Bethlehem was, when a Saviour quietly arrived on the scene… too busy doing nothing of importance to notice the only thing that matters. Christ was so willing to step into our world in spite of an unfathomable sacrifice on his part. Yet shamefully, I am often too busy to step outside my world into someone else’s, even though the sacrifice is miniscule and the reward so rich.

.........We heard a faint knock on our door the Christmas morning after we visited Stan. There stood Stan shivering in the cold, almost breathless, cheeks red, and eyes glistening. He stretched out his withered, trembling hands to offer us a box of chocolates which he had obviously bought that morning at the variety store down the block. “Merry Christmas”, he said, clasping our hands. “God bless you. Thank you so much!”.

A simple box of chocolates….but Stan could not know that years later his gift to us has been of more infinite worth than any others we have received!

Broken gifts

Do you remember looking for the gifts under the tree that had your name on them...wondering what lay beneath the wrapping paper? What an awful Christmas that was when I opened all my gifts beforehand and carefully retaped them shut. Christmas morning held no excitement or anticipation - total letdown. I never did it again.

I have a vivid memory of a gift I received for Christmas as a child. This one gift, even as I describe it, sounds archaic compared to the electronic gadgets kids get these days. You have to understand.....I grew up in the dark ages.

I guess you would call it a calculator or an adding device - not electronic, but not an abacus either. It was red, with white knobs along the top representing the 'ones, tens, hundreds, etc. You would push down on the knobs to make the numbers change up or down. Really exciting stuff. Actually.....I have no idea why you would want to do that?! Well...I thought it was cool at the time. I've googled it and found nothing so it must be extinct now....buried with the dinosaurs.

One of my dear brothers picked up my precious gift on that Christmas day to inspect it. Then he decided that playing with it wasn't good enough. He had to KNOW how it worked. I don't recall whether he asked me if he could, but before I knew it, he had my wonderful calculator pried open, inspecting the guts of it and trying to figure out the mechanics of it. Problem is......he couldn't get it back together properly. I remember being very sad that the gift I had received was now hopelessly broken - on purpose!  My brother went on at a later age to design airplane wings (real ones), so I guess he got better at understanding the mechanics of stuff. (Explains why he's somewhat anxious on planes, especially when he sits by the window with a clear view of  the wing).

There'll be lots of broken gifts on Christmas day....and disappointed kids and adults whose toys have shattered or quit either the day they are opened or shortly thereafter. Obviously, the giver of the gift doesn't plan for it to be broken.......

Well....except for one gift that was given once.

As far as I'm aware, it was the only invaluable gift carefully planned and thought out ridiculously far in advance and knowingly given in order to be broken....shattered to pieces.....wrecked beyond recognition.

Strange, that while lovingly giving and receiving temporary stuff....so many of us pay little attention to that priceless Gift.....even though the Gift has our name on it......and the holiday we are celebrating has His name in it.

Night blindness

While I was doing some Christmas shopping I noticed something little I had wanted for a long time. So I bought it for my husband to put in my Christmas stocking - just in case he was at a loss of what to put in there.

But then, as a woman is entitled to do, I changed my mind and decided to use this thing right away.

It's an eye mask to wear while sleeping, (contrary to appliances, such as hairblowers that come with the caution - "do not use while sleeping").

Apparently, you get a much more restful sleep if you are in complete darkness. Well, I need to see my alarm clock at times so I can't do away with that....and we have an old dog whose eyes are getting cloudy who has to have some light in order to move about at night or else she whimpers and whines in fear of taking a step. And the bedroom door needs to stay open for her....but we have a night-hawk of a son so there is always some light shining up the stairs. Yah, I've been in search of a good night's sleep.

This mask is quite amazing. It is soft, and providing you don't tighten the strap to the point of a migraine, it's very comfortable. It doesn't let even the slightest ray of light in. I'd like to know why these things weren't around back in the day when we'd play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey as kids. We would always have to use a winter scarf, tied tight enough to pull your hair. The adult would ask, "Can you see anything?", and you would fib (gasp!) and say you couldn't see a thing. Meanwhile, you could clearly see your feet below, and if you were sly you could point your chin to the ceiling and find that donkey's behind, even after having been spun around until you were dizzy.

This has been a great purchase - and I'm sure I'm quite the sight on the nights I remember to wear my bucktooth nightguard (which is seldom), and my face all shined up with coconut oil.

My only fear is that I am going to be deeply dreaming and suddenly awakened by the alarm or other noise, and I am going to forget I am wearing a mask. I may go through a few moments of terror of being in complete darkness, unable to find the clock or the light switch and believe I've gone completely blind. I'm fully expecting to have a dream about that soon.

Nonetheless, I love my eye mask. It's a keeper. Only wish I could wear it at work as a shield from the florescent lights.....but that would never work. I'd need earplugs there too if I was going to catch any sleep at all.

I didn't mean to - honest!

I killed the ugly fish - the one in my last post. And I really didn't mean to.

I mean I would never have gotten the aquarium going again and added 5 new little fish to keep him company and pond plants to make him feel at home if I hadn't cared. He stayed to himself and didn't seem to like the fish food so I bought some gucky frozen larvae stuff and plants for him to try. Hunger must have kicked in and in a day or two he was eating at the top with the rest of the fish and getting along swimmingly with them all.

I knew that you musn't overfeed goldfish. But they are deceptive little creatures. When you sprinkle that food in, they act like they are practically dying of hunger and they keep ravenously eating. Unfortunately, they eat themselves to death.

The smallest fish died first. Then another pretty orange and black one went belly up. By then it was too late. Ugly fish wasn't looking too well.

So I killed the three of them with kindness.....flushed away.  And now there are three who are fed precious little. But I will ignore their pleas of starvation.

I figure ugly fish survived the pond for just one purpose. To remind me during the approaching holiday season when tempting food will abound everywhere.....that I mustn't over indulge and eat everything around me....or I too will be flush with regret.

RIP ugly Fish

Tragedy at Lake. Two killed, one missing and presumed drowned. But...who the heck are YOU??

Can a fish drown?

I dunno. But our fishies met tragedy this summer while they were on vacation.

About three years ago we bought a mixture of five little 40 cent feeder fish of various colourings and put them in our tiny little pond which is too shallow to overwinter fish. There's not enough room below the ice to support any water or oxygen for them.

Only two of these little creatures managed to survive and grew quite large. When the cold weather approached, I didn't have the heart to just let them freeze to death so I bought a 50 dollar aquarium for the 80 cent fishies and we kept them indoors for two winters. If you want to see what life was like for them in the aquarium, click here to watch a video of their activities (Note - I didn't choose the music in the video - my son happened to be 'jamming' in the background when I was filming). It will also explain why I called them "Chase" and "Chasee", both females. Each year they would wait expectantly all winter for the warm weather when they could finally go on vacation to the lake (we never let them know it was just a pond).

This past summer was a tragic one. My husband went to step outside on the morning of our anniversary, and there was an icky orangey mess on the porch right in front of the door. The only way we knew it was a fish was by the tail that was distinguishable. Raccoon? Cat? Not sure. But it was sad after all our efforts to keep the fish alive. It was Chasee. Tragic.

Chase looked so very lonely in the pond and would simply stay out of sight without swimming much. So off I went to the store to spend more money buy another fish about the same size so that Chase would not be alone. Bigger fish are $3.99....not 40 cents but price was no object.

What a beauty I picked. I thought it best to get another female. This fish had some white markings on the orange body and reminded me of a Creamsicle.

Chase began to chase Creamsicle right away and soon they were inseparable.

Well, as fate would have it, there was another upset to the pond in spite of our best efforts to secure it from wildlife, and Creamsicle was found on the front sidewalk one morning. The prospects weren't good to revive her. Obviously whatever animal did this did not really want fish for breakfast. Poor Chase. Alone again...naturally.  But tragically, not long after that, Chase just simply vanished without a trace. Drowned? Did she jump? This was a vacation gone completely wrong.

Now I will admit I was a little giddy sad as I cleaned up the aquarium and put it away, knowing I wouldn't be maintaining it this winter.

Yesterday, my husband did his ritual clean-out of the pond which tends to be the recipient of  leaves and debris. He usually sucks all the water out each year with a shop vac and covers the pond to keep out snow and ice. I was in the backyard sunning myself and listening to a robin on a most unusual warm weather day in mid November. He called me over with a little flower pot in his hand and said, "Look at this!!".

I looked. Dirty black sludge and slime. Mmhmm.

"No LOOK!", he insisted.

I peered into the pot again. Dirty black sludge and slime.

"It's a fish!"

Uh huh.

I continued to stare at the mess. Then the slime moved. Freaky.

I couldn't see how this moving, slimy thing was a fish, but when it was taken and put into a nearby birdbath....sure enough....it was a small black fish. Sooooo. Either this thing had survived in that pond for several years, avoiding ice and freezing and shop vac sucking....or it was a product of the conception of two female fish....or perhaps Creamsicle laid some eggs before leaving this earth?

Isn't she just so....so.....ugly worth keeping? 

Alas Hooray! I get to dig out the aquarium again for Mystery or Lucky or whatever we shall call this blackish/grey fish who eluded us in the dark waters of the lake. We will need to be rearranging the house a little to accomodate this tiny guest and I guess I'll be paying a visit to the pet store to spend more money get a few more fish rather than have one solitary sole soul in the tank.

You know, I never really liked fish. But it's amazing when you watch them swim for a few years you actually get attached to them think of more than just Omega 3's or the health benefits of eating them. More than just slime. More than just a lot of work to provide a morsel for a cat, raccoon, or heron. So much more.

Stay tuned for more exciting videos of the lives of fish...coming soon to a blog near you. Bet you can hardly wait.

Is there a better country?

I hate war. Who doesn't?

We could argue the politics...the morality....the horrors of war. My heart nearly stopped as I watched the 'shock and awe' of the Iraq war - knowing behind each blast were families of innocent people being wiped out in a moment of time and the infrastructure of their country destroyed. Was anything worth that cost?

War is so much different now than it was in the days of the First and Second World Wars. We do not always know where the enemy is - there is not necessarily an obvious battlefield.

All of the politics aside, on this November 11th Remembrance Day, I have paused to reflect on our Canadian soldiers and the sacrifices they have given, and continue to give. I may pause for a moment on this day, but those who have lost family military members must vividly remember every day...every hour.

Canada now has a thoughtful way to help us remember on more than just Remembrance Day. If a Canadian soldier falls, rather than being buried overseas as in the past, they are escorted home to travel along the Highway of Heroes in Ontario. Traffic on the busy highway is slowed as motorists consumed in their own busy lives are suddenly faced with a stark reminder that their freedom was bought by one such as this who is now carried past them - whose voice has now been silenced, yet their lives speak volumes. Crowds of Canadians with Canadian flags stand for hours in all kinds of weather on overpasses along that highway to silently salute the soldier as he or she passes beneath each bridge....each one honoured for their ultimate sacrifice. I wish that we have seen the last of those motorcades.

Our country of Canada is not one that has faced invasion or needed to defend itself. Rather, it chooses to go to places of unrest in the world.....fighting if necessary....but trying to rebuild, befriend and assist people in need whose countries have been ravaged by war and ruthless oppression. We have lost too many in the quest to do so.

We are a country of peace and freedom.  And we go with the mission of restoring peace and freedom in other nations.

Whether our troops should be away from home or not.....

they are.....

and today we salute these heroes and support them in their efforts.

New song

One evening about a month or so ago, I came into my living room and sat down to read. I could hear my son's guitar-playing emanating from the basement. It was quite loud, but not the rock music he reserves for the band he plays in.

(Too often his best music is reserved for the wee hours of the morning when I'm often asleep, though sometimes I have the good fortune to hear it.)

I can't even describe what I was hearing. He had blended various strains of his creation together using his computer, and I felt suspended in time as I sat mesmerized....listening. I felt tears welling in my eyes because there was something intensely moving and inspirational in what I was hearing. It was like it lifted me into worship though there were not even any words being sung. I breathed a prayer of gratitude for the gift and a hope for it to bless others.

Just then my son's girlfriend arrived, said hello, and was about to make her way downstairs to see Jordan. I motioned to her instead to sit down for a moment and just listen. She sat down for only a moment before tears began to well in her eyes as well. She voiced exactly what I had just been thinking - that there was something inspirational in the music that Jordan was creating, and it moves her to worship as well. For a few minutes we sat silently teary-eyed and in awe of what we were hearing.

Today our son is 21 years old. I cried throughout his entire baby dedication ceremony on a Sunday Christmas Day in 1988. And now he's got me misty-eyed again....

Love you Jordan. Happy Birthday.

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth....and He'll keep giving you a beautiful NEW song.