Action in the water

Two families of Canada Geese with their babies. They like going up on the hill by the lake, but not too far from the water. Tawny likes chasing the geese, but the momma and papa keep a good watch so the always make it into the water with their babies before Tawny can reach them.

I've been trying to get an action shot of Tawny just entering the water and making a big splash. I haven't quite got it - it's quite hard to do that! This one is a fraction of a second early - she's just pushed off with her back legs to make a big jump for the Kong which has landed in the water a little bit ahead of her.

And this photo is a bit late. But it does show the amazing wake that she creates.

And this one is only marginally late. You can see how Tawny tilts her head up so she keeps her nose out of the water as she sinks down, just before she gets her forward momentum going.

"Oh, I'm so tired. I'm just going to stand here a moment with my eyes closed."

Tadpole Hunting

This blog entry is a guest entry by Taz!

Tadpoles - the objective. Oh they are so much fun!!!

Hunting tadpoles requires extreme skill and concentration. And it's a lot of fun too! Did I mention that already?

Then a giant leap of faith, hoping that the tadpole doesn't see your shadow or movement and swim away.

The pounce!

Missed again!

But you have to get the water off, so a good shake helps get all the water off your head.

Tawny loves the Kong. This one developed a hole in it and still floated, but you had to squeeze the water out of it every throw or else it would sink, which it has now done... :( If you look just above her ear on the right side of the photo you can see one of those pesky deer flies!

Lilacs and a chipmunk

May 15 - a closeup of our neighbour's beautiful lilacs - a wonderful sight when you are going down the road.

May 16 - the little chipmunk that lives in the rocks by the sun deck. This is the critter that Taz always wants to catch when he runs out the door when we let him out.

Enjoying the water

It was a beautiful day to be outside!

And even better if you can levitate over the water... :)

Look up, for good things come from the sky, and not just rain...

Oh look! A Kong!!!! I must catch it NOW!

Meanwhile, tadpoles everywhere are petrified at the merest sign of the shadow of Taz the Hunter!!!

When you play in the water, you have to shake yourself off afterwards.

And shake.

And shake.

And shake again!!

Don't laugh at me - you would get funny grimaces on your face if you shake vigorously like I do!

After shaking like that, any good dog is exhausted.

But 15 seconds later, Tawny is all ready to go again!!

A while later, after being dried off, Tawny looks fluffy, but really tired.

Enjoying the outdoors

This is a close up of the flowers on the Purple Sandcherry. The dark red foliage is really stunning.

This is a crab apple tree. Yesterday it was covered, yes COVERED, in blossoms, but they seem to have fallen off today.

Here is Tawny, enjoying a visit to the salad bar. It's really funny to watch Tawny and Taz when we take them out in the afternoon because the very very first thing they do is to head for the tall grass and start chowing down.

Tawny says there are two major positive things about swimming. #1. it's a lot of fun. #2. her hair gets dampened down so she looks like she still has her slim girlish figure! :)

I saw this dragonfly when we were down by the water, it was clinging onto the leg of the bench that I was sitting on. I thought that perhaps it had just hatched (is that the proper word to use?) from its cocoon and its wing was curled over because it was drying out. After having a chance to zoom in on the photo and look at it more carefully, I think this dragonfly is missing the companion to the curled-over wing from the other side. This is too bad, because dragonflies eat a lot of mosquitoes and other annoying insects. We like dragonflies.

Cathcup

May 10, 2010
Some beautiful tulips that have escaped being eaten by the deer!

May 7, 2010
The colts from the horses down the road. Sometimes they are playing - chasing each other around the filed - as we go by. It really is like a postcard everywhere you look.

May 8, 2010
It was quite cool when we werw walking the dogs on Sunday (May 8th). Sure enough, we walked through a bit of hail - see the white spoks on Taz's back.

Berbere Chicken and Peanut Butter Fudge (Yum!)

Berbere Chicken - seasoning mix from Thyme after Thyme (Edmonton). I forgot to take photos during the preparation process. It was quite simple for this. I cut up some chicken breast, drizzled it with olive oil, and then shook the Berbere seasoning mix over the chicken pieces. I left the seasoning off a few pieces (at the bottom center of photo) in case the spices were too hot for Freda.

The ingredients for the Peanut Butter Fudge.

Heat the milk, butter and sugar over medium heat, and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes.

Add the peanut butter, and mix well. Then add the marshmalllow, and mix well.

I poured the fudge into a cookie tray. I really should have put it into a cake pan because the fudge was too thin. It was Yum-O though!

Goldfinches!

 
Wonderful goldfinches! We were very happy to see more goldfinches today, as we only saw two of them last week. There are six goldfinches in this photo, five male and a single lonely female. We are hoping to see more of them in the coming days. I think the record number of goldfinches that I managed to capture in one photo last year was over 20 of the little birds.

We have seen blue jays around here every now and then. I saw three of them this afternoon, and was getting the camera ready to take a photo of one when Tawny ran over and scared off all the birds. Silly doggy! I will keep trying to get a photo of a blue jay for you.

Bird photos

 
Birds: American Goldfinch
 
Birds: Canada Geese
 
Dove
 
Starling
 
Downy woodpecker (left) and young Red Wing Blackbird (right)
 
Preparing to mix up a batch of my all natural plant killer (or non-selective herbicide, if you want to go all chemical on me). 2 cups of salt mixed with one gallon of vinegar in a plant sprayer.

A nice day!

 
Photo after we completed cleaning up the front garden, and Freda planted some flowers too.
 
Action shot of Taz hunting for tadpoles.