….and capturing all these wonderful shots with my zoom lens
Yesterday was a wonderfully sunny day and I was hoping the the turtles would be out, sun bathing on the logs in the pond. I wasn’t disappointed.
After I left the turtles I came across a few more critters.
….not as big as in years past but open non the less
In the past College Royal has attracted up to 30 000 visitors but in the last two years it was mostly virtual and this year it was limited to staff, students and family members. It was much smaller in size but we enjoyed our two days of exploring the campus, speaking to the exhibitors, learning new things, watching the dog show and walking through the barns.
If you had any doubts as to the what the University of Guelph is all about, College Royal highlighted the agricultural, veterinary and animal and food sciences. As a graduate of U of G I can tell you that there is much more to this university, i.e., Family and Child Studies, The Arts, Biomedical studies, Business and Economics, Athletics, Human Kinetics, etc.. Hopefully in future years College Royal will be back to hosting more clubs, more of the arts, fashion shows and will have more hands on activities and bring back the milkshakes.
…thanks to Cee for hosting CMMC https://ceenphotography.com/2022/03/16/cmmc-march-pick-a-topic-from-my-photo-2/
If you click on the link you will see the photo that Cee is referring to. It has horses, the colours green, brown and tan, summer, trees and two subjects. Here’s what I found in my archive of photos.
Horse
….sorry that I’m a day late
It’s no secret that my husband is not a fan of squirrels but he isn’t completely heartless. Back in October of last year he heard this strange noise coming from the outside of the house. It was heart wrenching to hear because it was clearly an animal in distress. He quickly ascertained that the noise was coming from the downspout. Somehow a squirrel had managed to get stuck.
Kevin quickly removed the bend in the spout and lo and behold a tail popped out. There was no doubt that it was a squirrel but even after removing the extra bit of downspout the little fellow was still stuck. I suggested that he get some gloves on and gently pull on the tail. Unfortunately in doing so the tip of the tail came off. We knew that we couldn’t leave him like that so Kevin grabbed the tail higher up and pulled again. This time he was able to free the squirrel. You never saw a squirrel move so fast.
Over the next few months we’ve kept our eyes out for Stubby (Kevin even named this squirrel) and we knew he was okay when we saw him around the bird feeder. I’m glad to report that the tip of the tail is growing back.
In honour of Squirrel Appreciation Day, Kevin has painted a picture of Stubby.
…away from the bird feeder
When we had the big snow storm and over 50cm came down our back deck was impossible to walk on and I couldn’t make my way to the bird feeder so I put seed on a plate and placed it on top of the snow as far away from the door as my arms would reach. I was hoping that the birds would see it and fly onto the plate. In fact, it was the grey squirrel who found the plate first and with some difficulty made his way over the deep snow and had quite the feast.
…I’ve been MIA for the last two days dealing with a very sick Frances
Frances was our beloved dog for over 14 years. It was just a few days ago that I announced that she turned 15 and little did I know that 5 days later she would be gone. It is never easy to have to make the decision to put down an animal. We both knew that the time would come when we would probably have to make that decision. Apparently very few dogs die naturally.
My husband always said that Frances was his dog but we had a special bond of our own. When I came home from work she would always greet me at the door and even in retirement she would come to me for walks. She loved going to the cottage with me, when Kevin couldn’t and she quickly learned that I had a soft touch when it came to doling out treats. Kevin always gave her liver treats before he retired for the evening but as soon as he went upstairs she would start on me. She knew she could break me down if she was persistent enough and she was persistent.
A couple of weeks ago I ran into a neighbour who was out walking her second dog. Her first dog had passed away a couple of years ago. Frances and Pichou were puppy friends. She was amazed that Frances was still with us and she declared that Frances was the last of the six or seven puppies that hung around together in the summer of 2007.
Every time we have a dog, my husband firmly announces that there will be no more dogs when the present one goes but this time he started thinking about the next dog he wants to own. This time I’m the one that says no more dogs (for now anyway). I was hoping that travel would be in the cards for us and having a dog just complicates that. It will seem odd though not having a dog in the house. We’ve had dogs for the last 38 years. Who do you think will win this argument?
….I’ve been away for a few days and this scheduled post didn’t appear on Tuesday (my fault)
…the day before our first big snowfall
Birds and squirrels must know when they need to stock up on their food intake. It was a crazy day at the bird feeder and between the birds and the tree rats (my husband’s name for squirrels) the feeder and seeds around the feeder quickly disappeared.
The same bird feeder the next day.
….thanks to Jude for hosting the Life in Colour Challenge https://traveltalk.me.uk/2021/11/07/life-in-colour-32/
Black or grey are technically not colours and the challenge is not to post black and white photos but objects that are black or grey in a colourful world.
….thanks to Terri from Second Wind Leisure for hosting Sunday Stills https://secondwindleisure.com/2021/11/07/sunday-stills-fur-tastic-paws-and-birds-of-a-feather/
With the time change Frances’ schedule is all out of whack today. When she started to cry at 4:00 this afternoon I couldn’t figure out why and then I realized that her internal clock was telling her it was dinner time. I decided to distract her a bit and I took her for a walk for as long and far as she would let me. As she approaches 15 years of age her walks are getting shorter all the time.
My favourite photos of birds
Mama Cormier 