Time is flying by..and so do my birds

16 days...the countdown continues to Wil's departure.  He has one week left of work and then he will be off for a week and a half working on my "please do this before you leave" honey do list.  Although, he has enjoyed his boss and some of the things that he has done in Quebec but I know he will not miss the getting up at 5am and driving for an hour and we will love the extra money in our bank account that we will save by him not making that drive.  Then he will leave on the 19th to drive across country to British Columbia to report to ship.  He still hasn't heard for sure where he is going or when he is leaving but the rumors are leaning towards Libya.  We shall see.

It looks like spring may have finally arrived in Ontario and I am itching to get outside.  I have several projects that I am ready to work on.  I have a garden area that I am going to edge with rock from our property.  We have lots of it, so yesterday I started harvesting rocks.  They are all over our property, we found them as we cleared last year.  It makes it impossible to use the lawn tractor on much of our property..so I figured last year that many people pay for rock...we should use it.  So I have an area that was going to be a flower garden and I thought I will outline it with the rock from our property, but as I dug for rocks yesterday I started thinking about an actual rock/crevice garden.  It would be lower maintenance for now but still be pretty.  I haven't totally decided yet but that is how I am leaning.  Then, Wil bought me a large raised cedar plantar that I am going to put in the back yard so that as I am at my kitchen window I can look out at it.  That will be my flower/herb garden.  I want to grow some fresh herbs and lots of flowers.  I have argued with myself about putting it where I can see it but really no one else will be able to see it, but it isn't like we have a ton of visitors so if I am going to put the work in, I want to be able to see it from the house.  Yesterday I planted some seeds so that when the plantar is ready I will have some plants to use.  I planted a bunch of pansies and some sunflowers.  The sunflowers won't go in the plantar but we have a lot of sun so I will have to find a nice spot for those.



3 Blue Jays at one of my feeders plus there is seed on the ground

 From my front window, I am enjoying watching my birds.  I have 2 bird feeders and I am really enjoying seeing what birds use it.  We have a lot of Blue Jays and they are the most spectacularly colorful birds.  They are beautiful.  I have also seen red-winged blackbirds, juncos, a cardinal, a  mourning dove, evening grosbeaks, grackles, sparrows and plenty of crows.  It is so fun to watch the different ways they feed the different ways they fly and how they interact.  I am hoping that many of them will nest in our cedars and we will have babies too.  When I let the dogs out or go outside for other things, I love listening to the different songs so now I will have to work on figuring out which call goes with which birds.  I hope to add at least one more feeder and a bird bath this year.  I just looked out and have my first squirrel...oh well, I am an equal opportunity feeder, I guess.  He is just eating what I put on the ground.



Pretty Cardinal


We don't have much planned for the next couple weeks, just getting loose ends tied up before Wil leaves,  We do have some of Wil's friends from Montreal coming next weekend so that will be fun.  Then we want to try to see a couple people before Wil leaves but time is getting short so we will see what happens.  Then I am on my own.

The girls are doing well, they are going to be attending a youth rally in Ottawa right before Easter.  Easter is a big holiday here so the girls have Friday and Monday off that weekend.  I don't have anything planned since Wil is going to be gone by then but I am planning an Easter Egg hunt for the girls....OUTSIDE!  We have 2 acres...should be fun!  Then it is on to planning my moms visit in May and the trip to Ohio in July.  I need to find a dog sitter for my trips, I don't want to have to kennel 2 dogs and a cat.  I still am looking for tickets to Colorado, they are pricey and I am on the fence as to just buying or waiting a bit.  I will focus on searching this next week.

That's all for now.  My love to all.