Look who dropped by

Every so often this fellow drops by and this time Harv had a camera close by.

Blue Herons are often seen in our area and it is fun to watch their antics.

This fellow seemed to have his mind on something but we have seen one try to get to the other side of the fence without flying over.

First he pulled his neck down so that his beak sat on his chest and then he bent his “knees” (do herons have knees?) until his feathers touched the ground.

Then, just like a duck, he waddled under the fence wire.  Once on the other side, up went his legs and up went his neck and he became heron height again.

 

They watch the creek intently and when they spot a fish or eel, they are lightning fast as they pounce and then fly away.

 

You can click on the picture to enlarge it – the herons have beautiful markings.  This fellow’s neck will seem to be blurry in the picture but that’s only because he has very fine, fluffy down feathers around his neck and the wind kept them in motion.

On the same day I laughed at a half dozen Mallard ducks - bottoms up in the creek and then on the driveway, a pair of Muscovy ducks looking very much like bald eagles from a distance.

It’s amazing what we can all see here in our corner of the Valley..

A Visit to the Prairies

Harv and I spent the past 2 weeks in the Prairies.  Our daughter, Chris had invited me to see a play “Welcome To Mitford” that was being performed at Bethany Bible College. (Where I attended many years ago and where each of our children also spent one or two years.)  I was excited to go – we hadn’t been at their place for at least half a year and it was time to make the effort and go.  Harv was able to schedule several meetings in Edmonton and near Regina which made the trip even more feasible.

We had a lovely drive over there – the weather was great and the roads clear.

Chris and I headed off to the play Saturday afternoon and had a lovely afternoon’s entertainment.

We got back from the play and headed out to a local farmer’s place where the boys were all riding dirtbikes.  After church on Sunday we headed back for more riding.  I took lots of pictures and will share a few on a subsequent post.

After a great weekend with warm and dry days, we woke up to 6 inches of snow on Monday morning

 

Of Course the grand boys were ecstatic and eager to walk to school.

At the end of the day, we drove by the school playground.  I wish I’d had my camera.  The schoolyard boasted a crowd of snowballs and snowmen of every size and shape – many much larger than the children who’d made them.

One afternoon, Chris and I headed to Hague where we spent a couple of hours in a great scrapbooking and quilting store.  Once again we had to  acknowledge how small the world really is.  The “Prairie Chick” who owned this store used to live a block from our home. Chris and I also spent a day shopping in Saskatoon,  something we love to do each time we’re together. 

There is always a lot of activity around their home.   Chris teaches preschool one morning a week and is on call as an EA at their local school. Dave always has a number of projects on the go which Harv was able to ehlp a bit with.

We watched the boys play hockey,

And then watched first Dave and then Chris play on their respective teams.

 

Harv got to watch the boys at their Karate lesson

and we celebrated Dave’s birthday with dinner out.

These were just a few of the activities we got to share as we spent this very special time with our family

Eating Cake

While at my Daughter’s last week I read a library book she had checked out called “Eat Cake” by Jeanne Ray.

It’s a novel about a woman living with aging parents, a teenaged daughter and a husband who’s just lost his job.  She finds her peace and security in the baking of cakes which plays a large part in helping her to cope with the crises that come her way.

I’d like to quote one of the paragraphs that struck me, however I don’t want to be guilty of pirating copyrighted material so I will try to paraphrase what Jeanne Ray said.

Basically she comments that Cakes have gotten a bad reputation and that those who can turn down a piece of cake seem to be more virtuous than those of us who accept the cake and enjoy it.  She goes on to say that the person who passed on the cake isn’t really a person with more discipline than the rest of us but is someone who has “lost touch with Joy”.  Afterall, we don’t eat the whole cake and one piece of cake never made anyone fat .  Cakes are served on happy days; birthdays, weddings, and baby showers – they are celebratory and they make you feel safe and that all is right with the world.

She says it much better than I do on Page 2 and 3 of the book.  But don’t you agree with the jist of it?

There is something wonderful about a beautifully baked cake.  This book is well worth a read.  I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

Otters

This post is a little late as these pictures were taken several weeks ago but I'd like to share them. We had alot of fun watching the otters in our creek. There were 4 of them and they were making quite a splash. Literally! Harv grabbed his camera and followed them up the creek a ways. They were hungry fellows, gobbling up eels by the mouthful. Who knew there were so many eels in our creek? There's always something happening down by the creek.