Rain, rain...

All I had was my videocamera, and I did a screen capture of this poor old elm tree. It housed a flicker family last year. You can see the hole. The top fell off in a wind storm. I shall keep my eye on this hole. 

Friday, 10:00 a.m. – Another power outage. I'd neglected to charge the smartphone, too! duH. I phoned and they said it'd be back up by 11. It was up by 10:15. Whew! I was working out downstairs and everything went dark! What a storm. By 10:30 we'd had 27 mm rain. By the end of the day, we had nearly 30 mm of rain. Saturday, a skiff of snow. 

The goldfish pond is full. The water barrel is draining into it. 

Cinnamon wanted to sleep on the front porch. It wasn't that warm, in fact, damp and cold.

The back shows that all is not thawed yet. The eavestrough drains in the bushes, flowing from the underground pipes.  It is a clever system, for 30 years ago. We had a sudden warm spell. 

Watching the lightning map, I could see it moving east. We didn't get any of that, at least.

Weird outages. 

Then, us. 

At its peak, there were 14,746 without power in Ontario. Most were up by the end of the day.

Nearly 30 mm on the 26th.

In the backyard, the daffodils are starting to rise up! Spring is such a green and hopeful season.

March 23, Cinnamon got himself 📹another vole. I think it got away. He likes to bring them to the house. Nutmeg, AKA Killer, likes to eat them. There is a huge tunnel system in the garden beside the front porch. They didn't think that through.

Meantime, the porcupine  is finding food. If you choose to watch the video, you can see it nibbling on a small sapling. It is so gentle a critter.

 

March 26, the coyote had a visit  📹. 

 The frogpond continues to thaw. Cinnamon and I inspected it. Pond walkies  

 

Now, even you should watch this video, John! It's only 9 seconds long, the clip repeated in slow motion, for effect. No sooner did I hang up the filled bird feeder, but the chickadee launched itself at the feeder. Sometimes, they land on the feeder as I am coming around the corner from the garage, having filled it.

 

Then, 7:30 p.m., feral (?) Oregano was back in the pouring rain. Oregano Mar 26  

 

Zola, the doe with the broken leg, is still hanging in. JB fed her this morning, and she ate her fill. There were 4 deer this morning, including the young buck. Another five deer showed up. They are going to disperse into the forests, soon. She is putting more weight on the leg.

Our week begins this afternoon. The girls are back for virtual school for the week. They are hanging in with it. Since September. Their laundry is washed, I vacuumed, and washed the kitchen and bathroom floors. We are good to go. 

We are all looking forward to 'March Break,' which was deferred to April. Then I can switch from teaching support staff to Gramma, again. I ordered some craft materials, some for the girls. We'll make some things to send to their cousins in Vancouver. It won't arrive in time, we've a four day week this week and next, with Good Friday and Easter Monday being a holiday. 

 There were quite a few items on sale. It was $13.95 to have it delivered. Caitlin offered to pick the order up for me. Turns out, her store was out of a bunch of things, and they are mailing the rest to me for the $13.95 we were trying to save. One simply must laugh! 

Bird feeder action: Saturday's Critters

I like my 'fat head', and spent some time stuffing his holes with bird seed! It was worth it. The woodpecker practically ignored me.


The evening grosbeaks have been visiting every afternoon! The males have a golden eyebrow, and more colour.


The juvie cardinal has figured out the feeder, finally!


In the meantime, I was at the bird seed cans in the garage, and found a poor, trapped soul. The yard stick worked quite well. They don't eat much. I cannot begrudge them a feed seeds.


In the video, I just added some forest bird sounds, since I was indoors filming outside and someone was watching curling! "Hurry, hurry hard!"

Saturday's Critters #255

Tornados, Cardinals, Butch, and a hawk!

Regarding our two Ontario tornados, one was an F3, the other an F2. Publics schools are closed Monday, our grandies are happy about that! Our kids have the day off, as well. A bonus family day! Their power came back on after about 24 hours. Ours was off over Friday night.
There is still power off in many communities across southern Ontario.


Hydro Ottawa says that this morning, 3,570 customers remain without power. "Some still affected by outages are in Arlington Woods, where devastation was greatest. Our crews continue to work to restore power in this heavily damaged area." Many homes were flattened or rendered uninhabitable. You can read more Twitter info, and view photos, on my page, here.

Red asked if we had a warning, and we did. The winds picked up, and the trees were showing us something was afoot. It built up over the day. One guy, in Dunrobin, said he received a French language message 10 minutes prior. They knew it was coming all day. We were warned. The ting is it was sunny one minute, and then it hit.

We are avid weather watchers, and we knew something was coming. Eventually, we received some warnings both on the TV, and online.

back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Butch feels that the birds are really messy, and she's really happy about that!


The trailcams have captured critters! JB and his faithful helper.

In the front yard, a doe, a deer...
 

The cats and the birds have an understanding. Annie sits under the feeder, and the birds know to watch for her! Hooper and Daisy aren't all that interested. They are all more keen on the chipmunk, who thinks he's more clever.


On of the issues feeding birds, are the raptors who prey on them.  I heard, and saw, two things banging into the window. I was sitting in my chair and saw a mourning dove, chased by a hawk. The mourning dove flew off. The hawk landed, a bit in shock. Annabelle found it between the step and the garden implement  cupboard. Hooper followed it. You can see it flying under the tree.


Hooper was discouraged from taking care of it, he did listen to me, and JB took him into the house. Annabelle had found it between the step and the storage cupboard.


I tried to pick it up, but it flew away. Hooper followed it down the hill in the front yard. Then, as JB and I were ready to capture it in a towel, put it into a box, and take it to our local rehab, it flew across the highway into the forest. WHEW!

In the meantime, as a male cardinal was at the feeder, another bird was being noisy in the tree. It is surmised that this is a juvenile cardinal, and daddy is feeding it. A late brood. The sound was a hoot. On his walk, JB found a dead female cardinal. I wonder if it was from the same family.

Busy days

We haven't left the house in a couple of days. Every morning begins with cats meds: We maketh progress . Then, collecting up the firewood from the dead elms. My back isn't too, too bad, but tricky finding the newly cut wood under the snow. There was 7.5 cm of snowfall. Prior to this, I ventured down to the dock.

Here is a summer vs. winter photo. You can see where the deer walked beside the dock.


It had melted some, there were snow fleas about.


Walkies, without my faithful companion. Daisy is improving, but not enough for walkies.

Now, the snow blankets the land, hugging it, keeping it at an even temperature. There are food fights around the feeders! Can you see the house reflected in the big gold ball?

Everyday, I check the trailcams. One day, Dec. 20th,  it was a bust! It's been the usual suspects, doe, a deer, a female deer.

I changed the batteries. Neglected to insert them firmly!!!

At the end of the day, hubby did one last driveway snow blow. We rested.