With the girls finally tucked into bed last night, Hunter and I were cooling off on the deck after the heat of the day (+33 in May!). It was a calm and peaceful evening until I spotted Ginger the Cat. She was out in the long grass up to no good as usual.
She had something; something small and fast. A frog, a toad, perhaps a June bug. It was comical to watch at first - flicking it up out of the grass, batting at seemingly thin air. Then, just as quickly, she lost interest and started to walk away, but it moved again, and back she came for round two. Then I heard it or I thought I heard it and it didn't sound like an amphibian or insect, it sounded like a baby bird. I ran down the deck stairs yelling at the cat to get away so by the time I got to the spot Ginger was long gone and I had to search in the long grass to find whatever it was. There was nothing there, must have been a bug after all I thought. Whew. The mosquitoes were voracious last night so I wanted to get inside fast - I was about to walk away when I saw it. A tiny green wing streched upwards, a little black eye, a long beak tucked way down in the long grass.
"Dammit!!" I yelled. "It's one of the hummingbirds!!". I have the utmost respect for these tiny migrants and feel absolutely horrible when one loses it's life because of us. Last summer, one died after flying into our window.
Hunter was watching me the whole time from the deck above. "Is it dead? Pick it up!"
Now I've done my share of dissections as a young zoology student, I've worked at a wildlife rehab centre where birds are brought in after hitting hydro lines, at a denning site where crows have left garter snakes to die after feasting only on their livers, I've helped move a dead and stinky bear, shot and left to rot by some poacher - I've seen wildlife death and destruction, but I couldn't pick up something that may or may not be dead and bleeding. I don't know why, I guess I am afraid of seeing something in pain and causing it more pain, all I know is I couldn't pick it up.
Hunter came down and looked. It was dead.
"It's alive" he said. It wasn't blinking, it wasn't breathing, it looked dead to me.
I went in search of something to put it in. When I came back out, Hunter was sitting crossed legged in the long grass looking at this tiny little bird lying on her side in his hand, the mosquitoes buzzing all around him. Here was this "big guy", a hunter as his pseudonym suggests, someone that could take down a deer or a moose, sitting like a little boy carefully holding this delicate little bird in his big hand, mindless of the mosquitoes attacking from all sides. It was a moment I won't forget.
"I think her wings may be broken, but if we leave her out here all night the bugs will get her". She wasn't moving, I didn't think she had long to live and I didn't want her to spend her last few moments being eaten by ants and other "cleaner uppers".
"Put her out of her misery" I said.
That little bird heard and understood what I said, I am convinced of it, for no sooner were the words out of my mouth did her wings come alive with a buzz that sounded like two bees and she zipped out of my husband's hand and up into the trees as fast as I've seen a hummingbird fly!!
What a moment! We just looked on in awe. A happy ending. Who knew that hummingbirds could play dead?
Strange isn't it? I, who worked at a wildlife rehabilitation centre, so quick to put something out of its misery, yet my husband, a hunter who can take an animal's life, wanting to do what he could to save this tiny little one.
To learn more about these tiny wonders, check out these sites:
http://www.hww.ca/hww2.asp?id=71
http://www.hummingbirds.net/
The View from my Hilltop
Just a funny face - May 19, 2010
Tuesday April 27, 2010
Life is busy! Between health issues, basement renovations, life with Baby Breeze - who now not only crawls but can walk pushing a bin or chair at 8 months- and Storm who just turned 4 years and has her first dance recital coming up (which means weekly practice, photo shoots, dress rehearsals, searching stores for leotards and makeup!!), yard and garden work, long-distance learning, not to mention daily household chores and trying to come up with 3 healthy meals a day, I am exhausted! I used to get sooo many things done in one day (before kids), now I have to pick and choose what I do while the baby sleeps - working on my blog right now is at the expense of organizing the hall closet or completing the setup of the office (now that we have walls and a floor). Every day I choose a project and focus on that - laundry, vacuuming, baking, organizing, picking up toys, (where did they all come from? I think some asexual reproduction is going on while I sleep), etc, etc, etc.We still do not have the full use of the basement which we so desperately need - we are awaiting our tile. Once the floor is in we will have much needed closet and storage space which means everything that's laid out in our rec room right now will be put away and we can start using it as a rec room! Hurray, it's only been 3 years! Then we need to focus on the bathrooms. Renovating this house has been one of the slowest processes, how can that be when the world is spinning so fast and everyone, including me, complains how hurried life has become?
Spring is in the air - March 24, 2010
We have had an amazing last few weeks here - an early spring that is especially sweet after the last two winters that seemed unending. The daffodils are poking through as are a few other perennials. We've been sitting on the deck for the last several weeks with temperatures of +5 C and up to +12 C of late! And what does that make me want to do? get out in the garden and spring clean the house. The spring air has bewitched me though and left me feeling stronger than I really am. Can I lift a couch with one hand and vacuum underneath it with the other? of course I can. NOT. It has been one week since I thought I could and even now I dropped the laundry basket like a hot potato after carrying it a few feet down the hall. Nothing like a sharp muscle spasm to remind me to take it easy and now I am back to scuttling about like a hermit crab.
What I wanted to do well over a week ago was post some photos of the garden as the first plants began to poke tentatively through the earth, a celebration of this early and long awaited spring (Baby Breeze's very first spring!) but my back didn't cooperate. Finally this morning I was able to take some pictures. Below are daffodils, irises and one lone poppy (thankfully I raked the day before I hurt myself but as you can see there is a lot more work that needs to be done). I intend to post photos of the garden as itchanges flourishes over the next few months (if it gets the TLC it needs). For a sneak peek of what's ahead see my post from Jan 19th below.
What I wanted to do well over a week ago was post some photos of the garden as the first plants began to poke tentatively through the earth, a celebration of this early and long awaited spring (Baby Breeze's very first spring!) but my back didn't cooperate. Finally this morning I was able to take some pictures. Below are daffodils, irises and one lone poppy (thankfully I raked the day before I hurt myself but as you can see there is a lot more work that needs to be done). I intend to post photos of the garden as it
The Month of Love - February 2010
February is considered Heart Month here by the Heart and Stroke Foundation, I never really thought too much about that until this year. Just before Valentine's Day my husband woke up with chest and (left) arm pain; he's only in his mid-30s.
Heart disease does run in his family - both his father and younger brother have had issues with their hearts, needless to say the warning bells were sounding loudly (or was that just my heart pounding?). He wanted to drive Storm to daycare before getting checked out at the hospital. Ummm, no way Jose, you go directly to the hospital now, do not pass go, do not collect $200! Unfortunately he had to drive himself there. Three hours later I reached him on his cell, he had had an EKG, blood work, and a few other tests. "I'll be home in half an hour" he said, "just waiting for the doc". Somehow I knew I wouldn't be seeing him in 30 minutes. Sure enough, the doc later told him he had had a "cardiac event" and would not let him leave the hospital to return the vehicle to me. We decided to wait until the next day before trying to find a way to get myself to the hospital. He spent the night in the ER and was transferred to one of the city hospitals the next morning for an angiogram. It was a restless night at home (and no doubt for him at the hospital too).
He called me the next morning to say the cardiologist informed him he could drive a truck through his arteries they were so clear. That was the good news, the bad news was the diagnosis of myocarditis - a infection of the heart muscle, most likely from a virus (but parasites and bacteria are also known culprits). He'd would spend the next 3 days in the ER. His heart had suffered some damage from the inflammation caused by his body's immune response to the virus whether this is permanent or not only time will tell. As the second day wore on so did my anxiety until at last I was able to reach someone to take me to the hospital to see him and pick up the vehicle. I told our friend just drop me off at the door (with the girls!) but thankfully he came in with me. No children under 12 allowed in the ER so he waited and watched the kids while I had a quick visit with Hunter. I had a few minutes with him before I had to run back to my children in the waiting room especially once Baby Breeze realized she was being left with someone she had never seen before! A few more back and forths and then, with a heavy heart, I left my husband in the ER to bring the girls home. One of the downsides of living away from family is having no one to back you up in a situation like this.
It has also put things in perspective for me. You can have all the plans in the world, for yourself, your family, your home, and then bam! a sucker punch out of the blue. Our biggest decisions of late have been focused on paint color and flooring type. Suddenly, I found myself thinking about the possibility of having to raise two little girls on my own - how? where? why?? I thought we were in control of our lives but we aren't, we are at the mercy of the unknown, and that scares me.
Heart disease does run in his family - both his father and younger brother have had issues with their hearts, needless to say the warning bells were sounding loudly (or was that just my heart pounding?). He wanted to drive Storm to daycare before getting checked out at the hospital. Ummm, no way Jose, you go directly to the hospital now, do not pass go, do not collect $200! Unfortunately he had to drive himself there. Three hours later I reached him on his cell, he had had an EKG, blood work, and a few other tests. "I'll be home in half an hour" he said, "just waiting for the doc". Somehow I knew I wouldn't be seeing him in 30 minutes. Sure enough, the doc later told him he had had a "cardiac event" and would not let him leave the hospital to return the vehicle to me. We decided to wait until the next day before trying to find a way to get myself to the hospital. He spent the night in the ER and was transferred to one of the city hospitals the next morning for an angiogram. It was a restless night at home (and no doubt for him at the hospital too).
He called me the next morning to say the cardiologist informed him he could drive a truck through his arteries they were so clear. That was the good news, the bad news was the diagnosis of myocarditis - a infection of the heart muscle, most likely from a virus (but parasites and bacteria are also known culprits). He'd would spend the next 3 days in the ER. His heart had suffered some damage from the inflammation caused by his body's immune response to the virus whether this is permanent or not only time will tell. As the second day wore on so did my anxiety until at last I was able to reach someone to take me to the hospital to see him and pick up the vehicle. I told our friend just drop me off at the door (with the girls!) but thankfully he came in with me. No children under 12 allowed in the ER so he waited and watched the kids while I had a quick visit with Hunter. I had a few minutes with him before I had to run back to my children in the waiting room especially once Baby Breeze realized she was being left with someone she had never seen before! A few more back and forths and then, with a heavy heart, I left my husband in the ER to bring the girls home. One of the downsides of living away from family is having no one to back you up in a situation like this.
It has also put things in perspective for me. You can have all the plans in the world, for yourself, your family, your home, and then bam! a sucker punch out of the blue. Our biggest decisions of late have been focused on paint color and flooring type. Suddenly, I found myself thinking about the possibility of having to raise two little girls on my own - how? where? why?? I thought we were in control of our lives but we aren't, we are at the mercy of the unknown, and that scares me.
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