Odds and Ends

My Autumn View

I just had to get outside this weekend and get a picture of our backyard Japanese Maple.  The one at the front is definitely not a spectacular looking one in the fall but the backyard one sure is.  I thought I better get out there or it would be like Sian said in her blog yesterday I would have missed it.  This is the view we get out of our bay window in the kitchen.

 
It's not quite as brilliant as it has been in some years past but I guess we'll put that down to a very dry summer.  None of the leaves anywhere in the area are as brilliant as other years.  Guess Mother Nature was having an off year.  :)

 

Raccoons

I promised Mel the other day that I'd tell our raccoon story as The Tomboy is interested in raccoons.

During the summer J noticed that the thing extending the downspout at the east side of our deck was not connected anymore and on a closer look it was obvious that something had been chewing at it and the boards blocking off that part of the underpart of the deck had been moved or should I say chewed through. Great! That could only mean one thing - something was underneath the deck. We were most definitely hoping it wasn't skunks and after that we hoped it wasn't raccoons.

As time passed there was no more evidence of anything being under the deck but still we didn't know for sure, that is until about 2 weeks ago. Now I've always been told that raccoons are nocturnal but one afternoon as we were sitting at the kitchen table I spotted a young raccoon out on the lawn (in broad daylight). When J went to look out the window he saw a huge one (the mother we assume) right by the deck steps and soon there was the mother and 3 little ones traipsing across the lawn in single file with mum in the lead to the fence on the other side of the yard where we lost sight of them. Great - Not! I mean who wants any animals taking up residence under their deck and they can be dangerous and carry disease.

While they were gone J quickly blocked off the entrance they'd made with a 5 gallon drum filled with water and some extra bricks we had from getting our interlocking done. We kept our fingers crossed that that would do the trick and for a couple of days we didn't see any evidence of them. That is until that Friday evening (broad daylight again) when we were out on the deck while J was barbequing burgers. We both froze when we saw the big (Momma) one sitting under one of our trees just staring at us. We were afraid to move in case she didn't take kindly to it. Pretty soon a smaller head peeked out from a different place than where we'd thought they'd been coming from and then another head. Both of them scampered over to the big one, climbed the tree and crossed over onto the fence and ran away on it for their nightly excursion. The third little one never did show up - guess something had happened to it.

This time J blocked both places off with the bricks and the water bucket and tried something else that someone at work had mentioned had worked at their place - I don't know what it was but I guess it did the trick. So far we haven't seen them around and what J had put in their way has not been disturbed. Keeping fingers crossed that I didn't just jinx things. :) So long as no evidence of them keeps up, come spring we'll have to make a more permanent deterrent to something getting under there.

Sorry there are no pictures - the cameras were all upstairs (now one is kept in the kitchen) and the time we were outside we didn't want to move in case she thought we were threatening her babies.

No Leaf Peeping This Year

It's been a weird fall so far this year.   Last week the trees were starting to turn, some way more than others.  They really weren't ready for "peeping" on Thanksgiving weekend and we were hoping to get some done this coming weekend (that's not going to happen now).  I did though manage to get a few shots of the ones either in our backyard or next door and it's a good thing I did.

We did manage to go for a top-down drive on Monday (Thanksgiving Day) to parts of our town we've never been to in all the 25 years we've lived here.

We found this nice tree-lined street while we were driving along and I had to get a picture but only had the point and shoot with us.  Next time I know - put the camera out the top and make sure it's the DSLR.  :)

But after the great long weekend the weather changed drastically - it's been windy and rainy which isn't at all good for autumn leaves.   It was so bad on Tuesday I walked into our kitchen which has windows on 3 sides of the eating area and could have sworn I was seeing a snowfall.  It was the little tiny leaves coming down off of our Shademaster Locust (the one in the top picture).   I thought oh I have to get a picture of this so grabbed the camera and went outside & of course it stopped.  :)  As soon as I went back inside it started up again of course.  I went back out and you guessed it stopped again.  This went on for a bit and this was the best I could get and that was with the camera in sport mode (I think that's what its called) with my finger held down on the button.  Sure doesn't look like much.  Guess I should have taken the time to change lenses. 

On Tuesday afternoon our deck looked like this with harldy any leaves on it.

 But after yesterday it was a totally different story.  In the 19 years the deck has been there it has never looked like this.

With a cold, rainy and very windy weekend forecast I don't think there is going to be much left for peeping this year.

September Morning

As I was sitting here earlier today I happened to glance out the window and saw a beautiful sky.   I can't see the actual sunrise from where we live but boy what it was doing to the sky was gorgeous.   Now - where to find the camera (J had taken the DSLR to work last weekend and I didn't know where he'd put it when he came home).   I found the little point and shoot and ran outside - picture this I'm out there in my housecoat trying to get a picture while not being seen.   Everytime I heard a car coming I'd rush back into the house - crazy lady in her housecoat with a camera.  :)  So what got me doing that - this.

 
  

Sunsets

It’s time for 10 on the 10th, something that Shimelle brought up at the end of her Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers class that I took this spring.  Be sure and check out Shimelle's and everyone else's 10 on the 10th blog posts here. 

As I was going through some of our digital pictures from the past year (sorting them into my highlights folders) I was struck by the sunset pictures we have and thought I'd share some of my favourite digital ones (we have some even better ones that are pre-digital that I really need to scan in).   These ones were taken on Lake Huron, the East Coast, the West Coast, the Caribbean the Baltic and even our backyard.  In our house taking sunset pictures is something we both love to do.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

Major Storm

We're in a tornado warning area.   Have lost power twice in 20 minutes.  Just got it back.   Rain like you wouldn't believe.  Can't even get it in pictures.  Lightening won't stop.  Have tornado "kit" ready to grab & run down to the basement if they tell us it's in our area.  Sending this before lose power again.

Swissair Flight 111

We decided to make a small detour when we left Peggys Cove after hearing about the Swissair Flight 111 Memorial being so close.  It sits out on a rocky, wildflower strewn piece of land that juts out into the sea just about a mile from Peggys Cove and the Peggys Cove lighthouse can be seen from the it.

 To get to the memorial you walk along a winding pathway between the rocks and wildflowers till you come upon the memorial.  It's very simple yet very moving to be there.

   
 
  
 
   
You know the whole time I was there I kept wondering about the 3 cuts in this portion of the monument.  It finally dawned on me today that it was Flight 111 and perhaps that is what the designer had in mind - the flight number.

We couldn't get a good picture of the 2 portions of the monument together from the ocean side as it would have meant walking out into the wildflowers and that was specifically requested not to be done as it is an environmentally fragile area. 
 

 
   
   

  
Views from the Memorial looking out towards the site.


While we walked back to the car we paid more attention to the wildflowers and lichen than we had on our to the Memorial.

   
 
 I was thinking when I saw these buttercups - I hadn't seen them in a long time and it seems I'm seeing them everywhere ever since.  :)

 

 

 

 


 


 

 

 

Early Evening Sunlight

As we sat out on the front porch Friday night I couldn't resist going in and grabbing the camera. I was really taken with the way the early evening sunlight lit up the west side of our Linden tree especially contrasted with the blue sky.