Snowy Speculations

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If I could paint, I would have tried to replicate the landscape very early this morning. Illuminated by the faintest hints of light and hours before sunrise, the cold, stark landscape lay completely still in its snowy blanket. Naked trees stood proudly and quietly against this backdrop, this palate of pure white an unforgiving place for any creature, big or small, to attempt to cross without drawing attention to its existence at this time. Even our ancient tire swing looked sleepy and droopy, suspended precariously close to the ground, as if the effort of hanging from a tree limb was too much for it. To the east, the only rays of light visible were the ones coming from the across the river, and even those seem hushed and muffled, like a child tired and murmuring not to wake them up just yet.  The young families down the road have gone all out with Christmas lights this year. Bright colours adorn the night skies and my neighbours even have a Christmas Cat and a Christmas Dinosaur that i
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Our Squirrel is an Addict

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Our Squirrel is an Addict

We don't have any street lights where we live. It does take some getting used to when you first move to a rural property. When it's dark, it's pitch-black. But on a clear night, the stars are absolutely phenomenal!  There are so many things in nature that happen under the cover of darkness.  A lot of animals are nocturnal and this is their time to feed and forage to their heart's content. My philosophy is that if I can't see them or hear them, I don't really care what happens out there.

My husband, who gets up quite early, always goes out and turns off the pool pump that we run all night long during the summer months. We have a solar blanket that is attached to a roller with longer straps. One morning he noticed that the centre strap holding the solar blanket in place was torn almost through. The solar blanket was new, as were the straps that have to be manually attached to both the reel and the blanket. So the tear wasn't from age or use. He told me about it later and I was as perplexed about it as he was.

As we were heading to the pool to sit and enjoy a glass of wine after a very busy day, we noticed a furry creature sitting behind the solar blanket roller. As soon as it saw us, it dashed away so quickly that we could hardly make out what it was. My husband thought it was a rabbit, but I thought it looked more like a squirrel.

A few days later, another strap was flapping in the wind when we got outside. Now we were really confused. That evening my husband glanced out the kitchen window and saw a grey squirrel who appeared to be licking the parging by the garage. This in itself was completely weird. The pieces began to fall into place. Our resident squirrel had a bit of a problem.

We started watching the solar blanket roller more closely than one would normally have to. Sure enough, in the next few weeks, a few more straps were off the reel and I had to put up with my husband's complaining about buying new straps and going through the whole process of re-attaching them.

At dusk shortly after that, we caught the culprit right in the act! The squirrel stood there gnawing away at yet another strap, completely enjoying this very strange past-time. The adhesive on the strap must have had something in it that was so appealing to this odd squirrel that he just couldn't stay away! What to do? We chased him away whenever we were home and the dogs were kept in the pool area as an extra deterrent. For several weeks, there were only three flimsy straps holding onto the solar blanket with admirable determination. We finally put them out of their misery and bought a new strap package which my husband reattached, all the while muttering some choice words about crazy squirrels.

Well I'm happy to report that we haven't had an issue with this squirrel since then. Sure, he is probably responsible for single handedly harvesting several trees of their annual English Walnut crop. And yes, he enjoys the bird feeder even more than the ones the feeder is intended for. But I think he's matured since last year. Perhaps he was a confused teenager then who had developed some addiction issues and got some help while he was hunkering down during the cold winter months. The pool has been open for about a month now. The straps are all still in place and we haven't witnessed any licking of any parging around the garage or the house. Let's see what this summer brings. Never a dull moment when you live in rural Niagara-on-the-lake!

Lolita Hale




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