The View from my Hilltop
The Garden - July 26, 2010
Back when the perennials were just poking their heads through the soil, I vowed to nurture my garden and make good on that vow by posting photos throughout the season (see March 24/2010 post for photos). Hah. Here is the first photo since then and well, at least the plants are bigger than they were then, that's about all I can say. No time to nurture!
Waterlife - July 12, 2010
Did you watch the documentary "Waterlife" last week on the National Geographic channel?
It was eye opening to say the least. Beautiful, chilling and sad all at the same time. Here's just one example of what I learned watching it:
"You fill your prescription at the pharmacy. The pharmacist says 'be sure you don't take it with any of these 10 things'. But those 10 things are ALL in the water".
If you missed it, I really urge you to check out the award winning website - stunning!
http://waterlife.nfb.ca/
For additional information about the documentary, visit:
http://www.ourwaterlife.com/about.html
You'll never look at a glass or bottle of water the same way again.
It was eye opening to say the least. Beautiful, chilling and sad all at the same time. Here's just one example of what I learned watching it:
"You fill your prescription at the pharmacy. The pharmacist says 'be sure you don't take it with any of these 10 things'. But those 10 things are ALL in the water".
If you missed it, I really urge you to check out the award winning website - stunning!
http://waterlife.nfb.ca/
For additional information about the documentary, visit:
http://www.ourwaterlife.com/about.html
You'll never look at a glass or bottle of water the same way again.
Earthquake - June 23, 2010
I just felt my first real earthquake and did not like it one bit (we felt one once before in our first house just to the west of us but it was more of a noise like a truck than anything else)! Typing away here online in my kitchen with baby Breeze finally asleep and what the hell, everything starts rumbling and shaking and it is not stopping! I started to panick - just that out of control feeling of not knowing what is happening was awful. We've had some structural issues with the house and I thought "it's finally happening, the house is falling down". I ran down the hall where the baby was sound asleep, grabbed her, grabbed the phone, ran outside and called my husband. I was hyperventilating and crying like never NEVER before. I felt panicked. You know you are truly alive when you feel like that. My husband calmly told me it was an earthquake and he felt it in the city too. Once I calmed down and I went back inside all I found was one photo tipped over and two pictures on the wall slightly askew. What in God's name was it like for those poor people in Haiti, or Chile, or China? This minor 5.5 quake scared me at my core, what would it be like to experience the devastation those people lived through? I couldn't imagine.
Moths a plenty - June 4, 2010
Having left an exterior light on last night, we woke to find an array of moths resting on the wall of the house this morning:
Beautiful Luna Moth, above.
I still need to identify this rather large moth, above.
Moths are amazing at camoflauge.
Wildlife Death and Disaster - May 27, 2010
Speaking of wildlife death and disaster (see post below from yesterday), the very next night after the hummingbird adventure, Hunter was outside cutting the grass along the roadside when he unfortunately ran over this snake. The picture is blurry but it is the only one I have that doesn't show the grossness of the aftermath (snake vs. lawnmower blade), except for the close up below, which we used to help us identify it:
"Python" came to mind as soon as I saw it and it turns out that it is a constrictor, the only constricting snake in this area - an eastern milk snake. Very saddened that we only got to see it after we'd killed it.
We're now up to having seen four snake species in our neighbourhood: garter, northern watersnake (Hunter found it on the road, it had been hit by a car but still alive, he moved it to safety and only found out after that it is the most aggressive of our snakes - last time I go for a dip in the local lake!), and the tiny redbelly snake.
A Surprise Ending - May 26, 2010
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/
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/
Just a funny face - May 19, 2010
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