Sandhill Cranes

It's the time of year when we watch for Sandhill Cranes, returning from their long migration and pairing off to nest.  We took the back road home from physio and watched for them where we've seen them before.  And sharp-eyed Mrs. F.G. spotted two of them!  All of these photos are by Mrs. F.G. since she was on the same side of the car as the cranes, but I did the editing, which included a lot of cropping.

This turned out to be our best photo, a single crane stretching its neck high.  We were a long way from them!

I don't know how Mrs. F.G. spots them but here they are, meandering among the Red Osier Dogwood near a large swampy wetland.  Can you spot them both?  They're masters of disguise!

Now they're a little more obvious.  When they're among tall vegetation, unless they have their head up, they are exceedingly difficult to spot!

Now they've come out into the open, making them much easier to spot.

And on they go heads down, searching for more food.  We were gratified to have spotted this pair.

First Ride of the Year

Last Thursday it began to get actually warmish, and I got out for the first ride of the year.  Just up and down our own street a couple of times, but it was enough to break my six month winter hibernation.  I thoroughly enjoyed getting a little fresh air.

Not much has changed on the street, but I was pleased to see two homes had yellow and blue ribbons out front, in solidarity with Ukraine.  Good idea.

And yesterday I rode further afield, my easiest local walk without going downtown, and found these big sunflowers tied to a tree.  Sunflowers are the flower of Ukraine.

I trust the weather this week will get warmish again after our colder weekend (even a touch of white Sunday), and I'll be able to get out and head still further afield.  Unfortunately the weather forecast is for more colder days starting Saturday.  It's April!

Marauding Wildlife in the Garden!

Rabbits don't have a very good reputation with Mrs. F.G.  Our first summer here they nested under the shed, and once that was blocked off, the next year they nested among the Hostas in the oldest corner of the garden.  I thought it was neat having such furry critters nearby, but I've lost all my arguments to the Head Gardener.

Any sympathy Mrs. F.G. had ended two years ago when a rabbit chewed through the bottom stems of two 8 foot high Clematis, covered in beautiful blooms!  They didn't eat the leaves or anything, just killed the plants by cutting them off at ground level!  I think that was when Mrs. F.G. declared war!

So imagine my surprise when I pulled up to the living room window, looked down below me, and saw a large apparently healthy rabbit sitting there!  In fact it looked to be nestled right down as if it had spent the night there.

I don't know if it was my movements in the window, but soon the rabbit started to move a little.  This is clearly a rabbit that survived the winter, (and survived the fox family we had nearby last year).

It actually turned around and looked toward me.  Mrs. F.G.'s comment was 'those foxes didn't do their job last year!'  It will be interesting to see where this marauding piece of bones and fur chooses to nest, and what damage it does to the garden plants.  We may be having fun this summer!

Spring has Arrived - the Dwarf Iris is in Bloom

Both at our last home and here the brilliant blue Dwarf Iris is the first flower to bloom.  And it opened its petals magically yesterday morning, all 6 plants.  I can feel the joy just looking at them.

Mrs. F.G. saw them first.  She always pokes her nose out the front door to see if the world has changed in the mornings, and she immediately noticed these had bloomed.  She hurried in to ask for my phone and got these two pictures.

The when I was headed out for lunch I snapped two more pictures.  I just can't imagine a more beautiful blue.  Spring is definitely here now.

I suspect I'm going to have more photos to share now, so I'm going to switch to posting-when-I-have-photos-available for the spring, summer and fall months.  Hope spring has arrived where you are too!

  

I Think Spring Has Sprung!!

 A mere week ago today almost the street sweeper came down the street!  The street sweeper is now my sign of spring, ahead of the Robins, which arrive about the same time.   You have no idea what a big difference the street sweeper makes for a power wheelchair user.  Winter's grit is the worst!                                                                                 

My favourite sign of spring, and it's loud so I can tell when it's coming.

There were even three squirrels playing on the grass.

But then winter came back with a light coating of ice which melted quickly.  Looked rather pretty while it was here, and it wasn't enough to bother the roads.

But then winter returned again, this time with real blowing snow for a moment or two.

Then the sun came out and all the snow soon melted.  I'm not going to bother you with pictures, but it went through this cycle three times in the week while I've been recovering from pneumonia - snow to bare ground, back again, and so on, after all it's the first week of April here.

The Daffodils out front got snowed on three times, strengthening them for their spring bloom.

Then the snow went again and the Robins were hopping around.  We have a pair who look like they will nest nearby.

And here we are today.

But it's the forecast that matters, highs of up to 17°C in the coming week and only one night that goes down as low as freezing.  There's even some sunshine in the forecast!  Of course we'll still get the odd bit of snow, but temperatures are warming up, flowers are showing above the dirt, and that means spring is here.  I might even get out for a ride!!

Pills, Pills and More Pills!

With the addition of the antibiotics I'm taking, my pill regime has got complicated enough to tax my simple mind!  It sometimes seems like my life revolves around taking pills.

In normal circumstances I take 20 pills a day, of 10 different kinds (8 of those are pain pills).  I'm well organized and place all my weekly pills out in two pill containers so I can follow a regular routine of pill taking; otherwise I'd get hopelessly confused.  The regular routine works well.

But the pneumonia has added the antibiotics and two puffers, and neither are on the same schedule as my regular pills.  One is a mid-afternoon pill, but should be taken with food.  The kink in my regular schedule just seems to challenge my brain.

All this being said, I'm rapidly getting better and feel like I'll be back to normal soon.

Nice sun here, but still cold.

PS  Thank you for all your kind comments yesterday, and let me add that I did have a Covid test and it was negative.  Pneumonia is a high risk for paraplegics, since the loss of trunk muscle control makes breathing and coughing more difficult.  I actually have a cough-assist machine which I use several; times a day which really helps.  One major U.S. study showed that for older populations, pneumonia was the leading cause of death among paraplegics, so I have reason to be careful!

Pneumonia!

Yes, I've got pneumonia.

It started on Sunday with 10 hours of violent vomitting, not the usual start for pneumonia.  I kept trying to think of something I had eaten that would cause a 24 hour stomach bug.

By Monday I was recovered from that, but I was very lethargic and developing a cough with a distinct rattle.  By Wed, we headed for emerg, and after a long wait including two chest x-rays, I got the diagnosis and was put on antibiotics,

I'm taking it easy, and will get back to posting when I have something interesting to say!