Bob managed to kill the rat that was hanging around and even got some good pics of the pheasant babies yesterday, but this morning I found one dead, cause unknown. It's a dangerous world.

Posted by lynda at 07:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We have been concerned about our Lady Amherst female, Cornelia, as she has spent most of the last three weeks in her brood box. Today we found out why she was so diligent. This morning she was anxiously cooing at two tiny chicks trotting around in the pen. There may be more in the brood box, but I haven't looked yet. What puzzles me is how she got the little ones down from the box to the ground, a distance of about five feet.

Posted by lynda at 07:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've been back from San Francisco almost a week and I'm very happy about it, in spite of garden chores I haven't caught up with yet. My trip met all business objectives but was frustrating because I started each stunningly beautiful day gazing at the harbour from my hotel room, then spending the rest of the day in conference rooms with the drapes closed. I got to the waterfront once at the end of a delightful walk the day before I left, but that was it. The garden is rampantly lush, thanks to all the rain, and I had a special treat this morning. I glanced over at my neighbour's front yard when I fetched the paper and saw a wild turkey nibbling the flowers.

Posted by lynda at 08:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm in San Francisco for the week and so far all I've seen is an evening view on the trip into the city from the airport. Today was spent in hotel meeting rooms and now I'm too exhausted to do more than look out on a wonderful view from the 33rd floor of this posh hotel. I can see the harbour, nicely wreathed in fog around the edges, and a bit of what might be the Golden Gate Bridge. As I was driven in last night, I thought about the last time I came here, about 27 years ago. Nothing is familiar now, but I remember coming by taxi from the airport to a hotel with my two boys, who had been angels on the plane. Noel was 7, Evan 3 1/2, and I was dismayed to find my feet swollen considerably during the flight, a situation probably aggravated by my pregnancy. The boys were sick that night, so we got little sleep, but we all recovered by the next day and had a trip to Sausalito before heading south to see other places. I wonder if either of them has any memory of that trip.

Posted by lynda at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of our first dates, way back when, was a canoe outing on the Credit River. Bob and I have been canoeing since, but not at all since we moved to our Owen Sound house. Until today. One of my urgent items to get done before I leave town next week was to reduce the number of cattails in the pond. We decided to try a different approach this year, because last year's squelching around in wellies and wetskins was really difficult. So Bob got the canoe down to the pond and piloted me here and there while I yanked cattails left and right. Very efficient, although the canoe had to be hosed down afterwards -- cattails come up pretty muddy. Now the lily pads and irises have room to spread out.

Posted by lynda at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm speechless now because my speech is done. I presented my piece on dealing with office clutter this afternoon to a receptive and appreciative audience at the Editors' Association of Canada's national conference. I was glad to be presenting after other sessions, because they were informative and diverting enough to keep me from getting too nervous before my turn. Several people came to me afterward to ask questions or thank me, saying how they planned to go home and try out some of my ideas -- that's the best thanks I could have hoped for. I have lots more to say on the subject -- yeah, you can't shut me up now. It will become fodder for my new site (in development, but live in an alpha version). And now I've got to work on a better version of my speech.

Posted by lynda at 06:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)