Our church was all a buzz yesterday morning because the Anglican Diocese of Niagara chose a new leader — the Reverend Canon Susan Bell, who will become the first woman to serve as a diocesan bishop since its founding in 1875. Later this week one of our political parties, The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, will be electing a new provincial party leader, 3 of the candidates are women. Results are due March 10th. Then we go to the provincial polls on June 7th. Let the games begin & may the odds always be in our favour ... I'll say no more for now.
Spring is trying very hard to install itself in this part of the world. Robins are making appearances on lawns, the skunks are waking up & quite sleepy, which makes them easily startled & spraying all the time. This creature, which is an invader & not native to our region, but has adapted quite quickly, walked out in front of our car Sunday afternoon without a back glance or excuse me. Oppusums or possums - they have been nicked name the Pandas of the North. Not sure why, I think possums are quite ugly.
Also waking up & all about the yard are my little friends, the chipmunks; they are very hungry.
Near the river that runs through our little village, the ice is once again breaking up & open water can be seen; the Canada Geese are all staking out the perfect nesting spot, so there's lots of wing flapping & squawking going on.
One of my latest card creations was a congratulations card to one of our students at the clinic - after 4 years of university & 18 months of "trade" schooling, she is done & ready to pay back all her student loans. She has asked to be kept on until at least end of April. I am only too happy to keep her with us, she is such a treasure, a good worker & very reliable.
Last week I had the very pleasant & unexpected surprise to see that the tulips in my planters were sprouting up so I daily leave the garage door open for them to get some much needed sunshine. It is still too cold to leave them out at night plus this week the forecast is for snow ... lots of heavy wet snow. These are some of my Canada 150 tulips from last year's celebrations. Yeah!
We didn't watch the Oscars & we saw only one of the movies nominated. We saw The Darkest Hour.
You really think Spring may be on its way when you see the garden starting to come alive and the animals returning - thank goodness, this Winter seems to be going on forever!
ReplyDeleteIt's been a rough winter everywhere & I for one will be so glad to be able to go outside without boots, coat, hat, scarf, mittens etc.
DeleteA few warm days last week had our daffodils poking through the grounds. Now they are covered with a thick blanket of snow. They always seem to survive, however. I'm ready for spring, but I think it will be a few weeks yet before there's any steady improvement in the weather! I love the quote at the top of your post this morning, and your card is lovely and surely was appreciated by the student in your clinic. I haven't seen any of the winners in the Oscars, but The Darkest Hour is showing at our neighborhood cinema this week, and I hope to see it. (We didn't watch the ceremony either.)
ReplyDeleteI've not had any tulips or daffodils showing any signs of life in the garden yet, usually we have to get through March first so I am going to appreciate the early (hopefully)blooms in the planters.
DeleteBulbs popping up is always such a welcome sight! You seem to have a lot of animals appearing in your garden, surely a sign of Spring on its way?
ReplyDeleteWe do live in a rural part of the area & have a lot of open farm land along with conservation areas - it's wonderful & mostly a pleasure to see the wildlife - I saw 5 grazing deer on my way to the card workshop.
DeleteWe have possums, but they're native here. They may be ugly, but they serve a needed purpose here. Invasive species are a problem, though. We love watching the chipmunks scampering around :) The geese are aggressive here when nesting. Scary! I don't have tulips, but I love seeing them in the public gardens. Beautiful, aren't they!
ReplyDeleteOh yes the Canada Goose can be darn right vicious when protecting the nest, they scare everyone. I think the possums are somewhat welcomed because they eat the mice & snakes (non poisonous)but possums get into the horse grains & hay & their scat is deadly if ingested, to the horses.
DeleteFunny - Dad said only today that he had spent some comical minutes watching the Canada geese walking over the ice to the nearest hole, then getting stroppy when they reached a thin bit and fell in unexpectedly! Ooh - you've never mentioned skunks before. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteOh we have skunks a plenty in the area, they are native to the area, mostly nocturnal, they eat grubs, worms & insects so early spring they dig up lawns making quite a mess - thankfully our few in the neighbourhood seem to prefer the fields to lawns & use only as a thoroughfare. Pleased to hear that you are sleeping better.
DeleteIt's wonderful to see Spring waking up. My sister has mentioned about the terrible skunk smell! In New Zealand possums are definitely seen as a pest and great measures are taken to try and control numbers.
ReplyDeleteOh yes the odour of skunks can bring tears to your eyes & it lingers for a long time. You do not want your dog to mess with a skunk because it takes professional cleaning to get that smell out, plus if the skunks sprays in the eyes, it carries the risk of blindness.
DeleteI love to read about your wildlife - always sounds so exotic compared to our possum-, skunk- and chipmunk-free world. Though reading about them in the Comments makes me realise they are a mixed blessing!
ReplyDeleteAlways nice to have you drop by Alexa. I like reading on the UK blogs about all the different birds there are or the differences between birds we call by the same name such as the Robin.
DeleteWe are still covered in thick snow and have snowbanks that are higher than I am (which isn't saying much I guess since I am under 5')
ReplyDeleteI have never seen a possum here!