power

We have been loosing power over the last few days. The first time was during the Monday evening showing of the Bachelorette. So I missed half of it. Then a few more on Tuesday (for those trucks ran into power lines). And One this morning. Hopefully, it has sorted itself out now.

Tomorrow they are shutting down our water treatment plant to look for a leak so we are to conserve water.

I woke up this morning at 4am. Drank a Pepsi around 6pm so I could function until now. I'm sure it will catch up with me soon.lol.

Still all squishing in the nest

The birds this morning.

There was also a baby grackle in the front yard who sat in my bush for a for hours.

Happy Birthday Mom

Many moons ago a very special lady was born- my mom!

Today we had a special day at Rustle, but she was too far away to come. We did our alpha weekend. It was a lot of fun getting to know everyone better. We watched some videos and met in our small groups and did some prayer. Christine even accepted prayer, which was very good. Very tired now though.

James is at a Voyageurs tournament this weekend. Next weekend he has many conflicting activities in different cities, so we will see how that goes.

The front yard has baby squirrels. 3 black , 1 grey that I have counted (It is hard unless you see them all at the same time)

 When they tried to hide from me, they "hid" on the side of the tree that was on my side, they were supposed to be on the opposite side, I think.

 In the back yard the baby birds are growing!

turn over

Yesterday was a very long day as we tried to make decisions in Rustle's best interest. That was difficult.

Today I was back in the office but having been off since Thursday meant a lot to catch up on. Woke up at 5:30am due to the early sun!

I have to pick up some small rain shoes for days when I don't need big boots and also for travelling to Ottawa in case of rain there. I'll be there from June 3-7. Very excited about the trip.

royal wedding

When I woke up on Saturday I switched on the royal wedding live stream and there was the most beautiful cello music. I learned after that the cellist was only 18 years old. A very promising future for him!

I watched the recession (as that is where it was when I woke up) but after went back and watched other bits. The sermon was very good.

Sunday we had 2 services due to Pentecost Sunday. Both very good.

Today I have been working around the house. The baby birds are starting to poke their heads over the edge of the nest. I mowed the lawn again. It was much drier and not as long so it went much better than last time.

I went to Loblaws that I thought would be busy but it wasn't too busy in the aisles. However, they only had a few cashes open so it took some time to check out.

They had bone in skinless chicken breasts on sale so I picked up a package. If they have skin on I normally put them in the slow cooker, so I had to get a recipe for these ones that I will try tonight.

Ingredients

2 lbs bone-in, skinless chicken breasts

1 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. dried basil

Salt and pepper

1/4 tsp. cayenne powder

1/4 cup olive oil

Assorted mixed veggies 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat.
2. Rub some olive oil onto chicken breasts and season with salt and pepper. Toss veggies in remaining oil and season with salt and pepper. Place chicken onto pan and arrange veggies around chicken. Sprinkle entire pan with garlic powder, basil, and cayenne. Place into oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until chicken reaches 160F (depends on the thickness of your chicken breasts.)
3. Serve along with rice.

Will try to get some cleaning done before I start the dinner.

baby birds

backyard drama

I heard a lot of grackles making noise and it was coming closer to the window and then I heard a thump and I ran to the back porch and there was a crow on the back porch close to the nest. I flew (not literally) out the back door (that I had not used for weeks because of fearing to scare the robins) and scared off the crow from the back porch. Then the grackles took over and chased it farther away. I assume the grackles were defending their own nests and not the robins nest but it worked out. Just worried as now I know the crow knows where the nest is. Hopefully, I gave him a good scare.
Since the robins were already gone from the nest and I didn't know if the crow had got to the nest or not. I took a stool to peek in and saw that the babies had hatched and all was well. At least as well as it can be when you are blind and immobile. I took some pictures that I will download soon.
While in the backyard a hummingbird flew by my head (and I had seen the neighbours hummingbird feeder and thought he wouldn't get any!)
I also saw a large hawk flying high in the sky.
A beautiful day today.
Last night I tackled mowing the lawn and it was a very slow process, but it is done before the rain. It had grown very long so it was wet and heavy but I made it through. And though the robins were nowhere to be seen while I was mowing, they returned to the nest shortly after.

overgrown

I haven't seen any evidence of baby robins yet, nor anymore bunnies. While I mowed the front lawn on the weekend with 4 bags of clippings, I didn't do the back because of the unseen bunnies. The front now needs to be mowed again and the back is very overgrown. That will be a weekend task to tackle.
I am taking a long weekend. Friday is a PA day and I have also taken that as vacation. Tuesday I have taken off because we have a board retreat. A full day of Rustle planning! Then with alpha in the evening.

2 robins

2 robins built a nest on the back porch and have been sitting on it for a few weeks. I have been keeping the curtain they built it by closed but every now and then I peek at them. One of the robins doesn't care and one freaks out when I look out at them. It is funny to me that they react so differently. If they could have conversations with each other I wonder what they would say?

Also I have not seen the bunnies this week. That doesn't mean they aren't there, just means I haven't seen them,

urban hike

On Tuesday I took an urban hike.
Google suggested this path. I was worried that it would be too muddy. But when I got there it seemed fine. However after I got halfway it was quite muddy. Oak Street Garden.

New school construction

 I found I landed on a real urban trail

 Malaysian curry fried rice. With asparagus, which I had never cooked with before.

 Piri piri baked chicken with sweet mini peppers

 Chilaquiles

All good meals for the week!

spring is in the air

There seem to be all sorts of load motorcycles or cars cruising the streets revving up their spring. It is nice enough to sleep with the window open tonight so I guess I will be able to hear them all night!

Have a visit from Canadian Home Grocers tomorrow. I thought they might deliver monthly but from what I read online they deliver twice a year which wouldn't work as our freezer is not big enough. We'll see how it goes.

sweet 16

James is 16 today! Old enough to drive a car (if he had a license).

There was a power failure last night. At 5:38 all the electronics in the house beeped.

Yesterday at Rustle was more dramatic than usual as the police had to be called as someone was acting out violently. He ended up with a no trespass note.

All on a day that Todd the pastor had to go to seminary course in Toronto where he will have no email and no phone access. We do have an emergency number to call, let's hope we don't need to use it.

wind aftermath

On my walk today there were a lot of small branches down but nothing major. In other parts of the city powerlines, trees and traffic lights came down. The robin is still hunkered over the nest. I haven't seen the bunnies. It has been rainy. I did see a hawk this morning. I hope the bunnies are staying safe wherever they are!

windy

We had been under wind warning all day but when I left the office I thought it had missed us. But no, it has arrived and is very loud. The mama robin has hunkered down over her nest. There have been some squirrels around as the grackles seem to have pulled back. But I think they are hunkering down in the wind as well. Other than that it looks nice out!

Last night a dark UTV was hit when it went through a stop sign. I feel bad for the driver who hit it.
http://www.thewhig.com/2018/05/03/crash-between-pickup-and-atv-sends-one-to-hospital--kingston-police 

spring

There is a robin on a nest on my back porch. Likely only successful so far as the squirrels have been kept at bay by the nearby grackle nest.

It has been rainy so there were no bunnies in sight.

I worked a long day yesterday but the marks are in! A lot of wrap up work today.

urban bunnies

Daily mail photo that looks like my bunny:



Yesterday after James headed off to school, there was a large bunny on my back lawn. He didn't stay though- hopped across some other lawns.

When I got home from work, Peggy was delivering papers so I went to talk with her for a minute and I saw the bunny crossing the street. "Stay off the streets " I called after it!

Later in the evening there was a different bunny on the back lawn. I could tell it was different as there were some dark distinctive markings on her back. I watched for a bit then went downstairs to do laundry. As I was doing laundry- that window looks out over the back lawn so I peeked to see if I could see the bunny. I could, but I also saw things moving under my step. There were 5 baby bunnies! Total cuteness overload. They seemed able to jump up the wooden board that would have kept them penned in under the step.

It is raining now, so urban bunnies must not be happy.

Yesterday I managed to get all my marks in, just need to start compiling today. I thought that would be the most exciting thing to write about. Until the baby bunnies happened!