What a day! Elections, coughing, birding

Praise be: thanks to TLC, Rx. and taking it easy, I made it through the night without coughing! Thank you, all, for your kind words of comfort. I feel so useless, with much to do on the property to prepare for winter. This is the challenge when one is ill: accepting care, for there is giving in receiving.
Isabelle is home sick, too! We just had a Skype session, and she showed off her back of collected kleenex! She's really good about coughing into her elbow! She's been blowing her nose and watching movies, too!
About Time –excellent one, done by the Brits. Very thought provoking. His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think.

Daisy & I took a slow walk around the frog pond Monday. The Muskrat house is growing.
Daise likes to sit with me on our logs.

Lots of election news: Ontario votes Alberta had provincial elections, too

Yes, it was our 4-year fixed date for municipal elections. Now, municipal have the most impact on our lives, but Ottawa, for example, had a 39.9% voter turn out rate.

• Perth's mayor, our closest town, and his deputy mayor, was acclaimed.
• Smiths Falls, Carleton Place, several near-by towns have new mayors.
  
• Ottawa's mayor was re-elected. Yes, Jim Watson - who? Despite being a mayor of a big city, most of us are happy he doesn't make the news too much!
• Doug Ford didn't get elected mayor of Toronto. Unfortunately, Rob Ford was elected into his old seat as Councillor. He's taking chemo. We'll see what happens. 

Unofficial Results Our little county doesn't have a mayor. We have 2 councillors and a reeve. They didn't tell us where to vote, or how many we can vote for. It was one candidate for councillor who sent us information on voting. Seriously. Our tax dollars at work - or not.

Mind you what do we get for our taxes?

• You get up in the morning and brush your teeth with town/city water. (We're on a well.)
• You flush your toilet. (We're on septic.)
• You put out your garbage, recycling and compost. Yes, we have garbage and a moderate recycling program. Mind you, a lot of us have the room to compost and we have little garbage, the two of us. The landowner across the road dumps his construction dirt and rocks across the highway, on his land.
• You hop on the bus for work. We are 5 km from Perth and must drive, or take a $25 taxi ride. Still cheaper than a 2nd car! You get the picture.

Funerals abound

Today, I expect to watch TV coverage of our young soldier shot dead on Parliament hill last week. I'm sure it will be a moving experience. The feds expect are tabling a new bill to give more power to our CSIS. This will allow them to work internationally, like MI-6 and the CIA. Having been watching Homeland on DVD (excellent!), I shudder. This bill was deferred with the shooting, ironically. However, the two men who murdered our two soldiers last week seemed to have been motivated by politics, but no more than the TV shows and movies that motivate many.

The man who shot the 3 RCMP dead last June is being sentenced today in N.B. He spoke at his trial and he was remorseless, rambling on about various topics, revealing a lack of respect for authority, and the law. He played the 'it's not fair' card: not fair he has a rotten job, and no women in his life, as he embraced violence, and brought guns into his family home. I pity the parents of these men, whom I shall not name.

I turned off the news, waved as hubby went out to vote, and sat and fed the birds. Daisy decided to help. The blue jays were unfazed. The first photo was cool, Mr. Jay mid-hop! The Horse chestnut tree still has some leaves. I flung a peanut into the frog pond, just to see what the Jays would do. They didn't bite. I'll keep on with that experiment later!

The junco pick up the scattered seeds, avoiding the Blue jays altogether.
The Woodpeckers go at the feeder while I distract the Jays!
The Goldfinches have lost their brilliant yellow, and are ready for winter.