Lisa's Blog

Last Saturday we went up to the Cape George Lighthouse (probably my favourite spot in Nova Scotia) and we saw whales again!

The whales were way out in the water, and while we could see them really clearly with the binoculars, our good new camera had its limits. Here is the best one:

It was a hot muggy day and oddly enough a fog started to roll in!

I love photographing gnarly old dead trees.

A lobster fisherman was out checking his traps.

On the way back to town (actually on the way back to Cribbon's wharf where we had fresh fish and chips) Jeff spotted a kingfisher on the hydro line! I am not familiar with kingfishers at all - in fact I don't know if I've ever consciously seen one. Here it is:

Jeff explained that they will hover above water and dive down for fish. And that is exactly what it did! I couldn't believe how this bird could hover is one spot, and then it dropped like a boulder into the water! I wasn't fast enough to take a picture of the large splash but here are a couple of it hovering:

While I was snapping photos of the kingfisher, a heron flew over!

It tried to perch on the top of a tree.

It couldn't get comfy though, so it settled down on the next tall tree nearby:

I love Canada Day! Reminds me of all the good Canada Day's growing up in Atwood.

This afternoon Jeff and I decided we want to find a beach to walk along and look for treasures. We picked the beach in Tor Bay that is over towards Canso.

It was only 13 at the beach and misty and rainy. We took the boardwalk out to the beach area and rolled up our pant legs and walked in the Atlantic Ocean - only up to about our ankles though - it was chilly!

The waves were big and strong. Sorry, no pictures, didn't want to get the camera all wet.

We did see a bald eagle on the other side of our lake on the way home. He/she was perched on top of a dead ol' tree, back towards the lake, drying out his/her wings. We took some pictures and then it took off over the lake.

I'm sure you had a really good reason for trying to pass that pulp truck this morning, in the rain, in a no-passing zone, on a curve, when you couldn't see through the spray off the pulp truck's tires.

And I'm sure you weren't expecting to see the whites of my eyes coming through that spray.

I don't know why you think you get the right to take my life in your hands. From the smell of your brakes, I gather you were able to pull back behind the truck by taking a few months off your brake pads. But what if you had been a few more metres forward? Were you going to volunteer yourself for that 15 foot drop off the shoulder? Or would that have been my present? Because I was just about to yank my wheel in that direction.

Maybe tomorrow you can wake up a bit earlier and leave 5 minutes earlier so you don't have to be in such a hurry.

Here is our chipmunk friend. He stuffs his cheeks until they practically rest on the ground while he's sucking up more seeds!

I was up at 5:30 this morning because I was getting eaten alive.. but what I don't know. I didn't hear a mosquito but they seemed like mosquito bites. Could have been from no-see'ums. Those little itty bitty bugs pack an itchy wallop when they bite me.

I came downstairs and watched a chipmunk and 3 red squirrels. Momma squirrel started chattering and wouldn't stop! I wonder what she was saying. Here are a few of her:

We have 2 hummingbird feeders now - the traditional hanging variety, and the small type that sticks with a suction cup to a window (like Uncle Joe has in PEI).

We have 2 kinds of hummingbirds and at least 2 of each. Tonight 2 ruby throated hummingbirds were chasing each other around for hours. They are noisy and vicious. Grandma and Joe said they'd never heard a hummingbird - other than the brrrrrr of their wings - and thought I was crazy. But hummingbirds are quite chatty - and vicious when they are fighting with each other!

Here are some pictures:

I'm off to PEI for the weekend, solo, to visit Uncle Joe and Grand Stock.

I'll be heading over on the ferry after work today.

I hope Jeff and all the pets and plants and fish will be able to cope for 3 days without me (and vice versa!)

We dreamed about a vegetable garden all winter and we actually made it happen!

We believe there used to be a garden of some sort on the south side of our house so we brought it back to life. Well. First death. Now life.

We painstakingly hoed all the vegetation (grass, dandelions, parsley, and daisies) off and then framed in an area about 12x10 feet. I thought that would be huge for a garden!!

We bought 10 bags of top soil and 10 bags of sheep manure to improve the soil. That barely covered the area so we went back and bought 15 more bags of each.

Today we spontaneously stopped by the greenhouse in town. Everyone has been telling us we "aren't allowed" to plant any vegetables until after the first full moon in June. Well, there were other people buying vegetables today, and I will be away next weekend, so we dove in and bought a few started plants.

Jeff busied himself with wrapping the garden with chicken wire (after all, it would be a shame to plant a vegetable garden just to allow the deer and bunnies to snack in it).

Once we started reading the tags on the plants we realized our garden is WAY WAY WAY too small! Most of the plants said they had to be planted 36 inches apart, OR MORE! Good grief! We couldn't even plant all the plants that we had. So that huge mental list of vegetables that we planned to grow was for naught - but there is always next year - (or next month after a frost kills off these ones). So what did we plant? As row of herbs - oregano, chives, rosemary. 2 kinds of green pepper, jalapeno, 2 kinds of tomatos, PLUS cherry tomatos, 2 squash plants, cucumbers, and 2 kinds of lettuce. Looks like we'll be having salsa and a side salad this year

Because they are so far apart, and some of these little starter plants barely had roots, we popped two shoots in one hole a few times.

We've been looking for the perfect bird bath since we lived in the Sault and we finally found one earlier this spring that was perfect!

Today Jeff noticed the first bath party was going on outside!