Canadensis

She's gonna go squirrly when she see this.

Emily and Eddie meet us for Christmas exchange of presents...Emily has no idea what is about to befall her.

Very large Cottonwood tree.

Partly cloudy with a chance of rain

Thinking the day would yield warmer temps and a bit of rain, we removed the frost blankets from the newly arrived annuals (tender)

One of the challenges of being in the middle of a large city, where garden and park space is rare, is to attract birds and butterflies. A rare Hummingbird Moth seems immune to the theory the inner city is not welcoming.

Cow moose with young calf

Hiking on a mild winter day

Didn't have to go far to find the bear that had been raiding the garbage

Jaxon and Bryce discover the joys of 'airing out' a cattail

Deb has been chomping at the bit to try snowshoeing. Here she gives it a try in the backyard during Saturday's snowstorm. I'm thinking it won't be so easy in three feet of snow.

Incredible piece of equipment removes tree stump....

Yesterday the tree removal company removed the stump. Well, not really removed. More like ground it up into little wood chips. Now that the stump is gone I can get going on landscaping that portion of the yard that hasn't seen sunlight in about 40 years.

We were at Grindstone Marsh Trail in Hamilton on the weekend. Despite the area being 5 minutes from both Burlington and Hamilton, it is renowned for an abundance of birds including lots of waterfowl which love the extensive waterways and forests. We took a small container of sunflower and safflower seeds which, as you can see, the birds really enjoyed. Of course, having Deb feed them truly added to the attraction.

From very tall and very much alive Eastern White Pine to firewood in less than two hours. Despite being a relatively healthy tree, it poised a threat to any building, car or utility line within a 75' radius. The ice storm three weeks ago caused 5 large branches to fall into two neighbouring yards. That was our cue to have the tree removed. A sad occasion but necessary.

Incredible how these two men worked as a team to bring this tree down in less that 2 hours. They cleaned up the back yard of all branches and as much of the saw dust as possible short of using a vacuum. The only complaint was from a man whose truck suffered from windblown sawdust which could easily be washed off.

Finding a Salamander in the woods at Santa’s campground

Waiting for the Algoma Transport. At dock is the Martin. Martin was a liberal finance minister in the Chrétien government. Martin owns Canada Steamship lines which owns this boat and many others. It was discovered that CSL flew flags of other countries in order to avoid Canada’s high taxes. Great example Mr. Martin.