5C's Que Pasa

Early Saturday we both saw what we at first thought was a fish flopping along the top of the water. Colin who has better eyes realized that it was a bird.  I realized that it was in distress.  We both ran out.

It was totally worn out. Colin tried to scoop it out of the water but it kept flopping away.

He finally picked it up with his hand. We think it was a swallow that either was a baby or had been attacked over the lake.

And placed it next to the hedge. Certainly looks like a baby to us.  Perhaps it took its first flight and fell into the lake. We took turns keeping and eye on it.  A male blackbird came along and tried to coax it out and away from the hedge, perhaps in order to kill it.

Eventually our rescue bird disappeared and we went for a walk and to check out our garden. I am cutting kale here before the big storm. You can see how large our two zucchini plants are getting in the bottom left. We also added some marigolds.  The peas to my left are growing nicely. We also sprayed for the flea beetle.

Colin saw some bird activity once we got back and went to check it out as it might have been our baby bird in distress.  Turns out we had a snake.

Our first two strawberries. Note the hole in the one on the right. It wasn’t until we got home that I noticed a pill bug within the berry.  The strawberries were delicious.

Oh my. A lovely cedar waxwing which we only fleetingly get to see. The base of the tail is exactly that colour. It was definitely stunned and sitting next to our hedge. I kept an eye on it and then a blackbird approached. The cedar waxwing panicked and flew into the house.  I jumped up and yelled at the blackbird. Of course I woke Colin up and he went out to check. It was now hiding under the BBQ table.

Colin went to the front ( lakeside, but we call that the front ) of the house and found a second cedar waxwing sitting stunned.  It must have hit a window as well.  It was much smaller that the first one.

Colin crawled under the house to bring out our dog pens in order to make a safe place for the birds to recover in. He caught the bird under the BBQ and got it into the pen but it flew out between the bars and out over the lake. I just want to say that we never have more than one or two birds hit the windows each year. If this becomes an issue we plan to place ribbons on the windows.

As Colin went to catch the second smaller one, it suddenly flew up ( good sign ) into our tree.  It sat there for the longest time before eventually flying away.  Of course we once again kept watch for other birds. Gosh who can be bored during this Covid stay at home time.  We have so much nature to capture our attention.

I had made a goulash in the crock pot for dinner and as I added a bit of cooked pasta I also put in a few cups of our home grown kale. It looked nice in the mix but it did not change the taste.  More good veggies for us.

The week ahead does not look promising. Such low highs each day, not to mention the night lows. Our garden needs heat to grow.

Once the rain slowed Colin decided to check why the one rain chain was blocked.

There was quite a bit of leaf debris within a few of the individual baskets.

He had to get some different tools to get it all out. I think that both the upper and lower roof need to have a screen of some sort covering the tube that connects from the eave to the rain chain on both levels. That will likely prevent any further debris blockage.  Another item to add to the to do list.

I would say that this was enough to cause the blockage.

A great sight at the end of today. They look so very tiny and new with all that yellow fluff.

So very glad that a good friend suggested that I end my day this way.

I saw my first quail family this season and it was Friday in the gardens. Papa was staying high up watching for danger as Mama led the kids thru the succulent parts of the gardens.

We had purchased a fillet of  wild salmon at Costco the other day and it was time to christen the new BBQ. We left all of our tablecloths in Mexico so I used the only plastic one I had to protect the new white 2′ X 4 ‘ table that we picked up at Canadian Tire. We saved another $27.99 as it was on sale. Lovely surprise. The BBQ is just a tiny bit deeper that the table we used here with the Weber so we needed a new one.

As Colin was setting up he noticed some movement out of the corner of his eye. It was this baby blackbird hopping across the patio.

He was going to try and move it out of danger ( eagles, osprey, etc. ).  Not sure but I think the baby thought that Colin was going to feed him or maybe it was going to bite him 🙂

Colin had called me out to see the baby and as he was reaching for the baby I heard some noise and there above our heads were hopefully Mama and Papa.

So Colin went back to the BBQ and our dinner prep.  This poor tyke was exhausted and could not move nor even stand up.  What long legs and huge feet.  By the time we were done cooking he had disappeared with this family.

There is some talk that we might be able to have a yard sale here in the park come July.

I almost forgot about our May calendar photo. Hard to believe that we were in Rome at this time last year.  So glad that we made it a six week trip.  Who knows what the future might be?

We both love the new grill. So much space. The cedar plank fits with room to spare.  Colin really likes how the heat is distributed evenly.

Everything was cooked to perfection. The fish was moist and evenly heated, the potatoes ( Yukon Gold ) were perfectly cooked as was the asparagus.  All we needed to add was the Caesar salad. A wonderful way to end Friday.

So true, especially the past few days.

Kalamalka Lake and Woods Lake.

Someone is going camping this weekend.

Love the truck.

A wonderful drive to Vernon.

Our next infestation?

I have not tried this but if someone does please let me know if it works. We don’t have shaving cream in the house.

Sadly the beans that were up have been mostly destroyed. Colin is keeping an eye on them and even spraying twice per day to protect the new seeds about to pop up out of the soil.

Today, after my walk, I planted my second area of Swiss chard and also a second row of carrots.  As you can see on the left, the kale is ready to eat.

The rain over the past few days has been good for the zucchini. We were so surprised to see flowers today. This is the first time we have planted zucchini and we even grew our two plants from seeds.

Can you see that red strawberry? I can hardly wait to taste it. Another first.

Even the cucumbers have flowers. Looks like we will be eating well this summer and fall.

A surprise to me to find this on the camera. Colin gets up earlier than me and saw these two families out for a morning swim today.  The first set of goslings are much smaller than those on the left.

I was sorry to have missed them. We used to see all kinds of water babies but not this year.

Hmmm.

So very sad to see this many deaths in the US.

Colin this morning.

Colin later this afternoon.  Difficult to get colour correct in different lighting.

Before. Had it not been for Covid, it would have been cut the first week of April. I did take off at least three inches over the winter.

After.  He will see how this works for him over the next eight weeks and then it may be revised or not.

You can see how very long my bangs were, almost down to my nose. The colour is all wrong and you can see a good deal of black closer to my scalp.

Much better but now I think it is too blond although this is my normal colour. I think I might need a few low lights next time.

Darker and long.

My after shot. There are three colours in there. I think once I wash it and am outside in natural light it will look more normal.

I felt like I was in Disneyland winding through the gates lining up for a ride. The guard gets to stand in the shade under the white canopy.  I assume it also keeps rain off of him. The line moved very quickly.