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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 th...
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Starling Clouds- Nature's Shape-Shifters

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  Since we moved into this home in the fall, one of the earliest memories here is of opening the back breezeway door to the loudest chorus of birds I have ever heard. It was like a swarm of thousands of bees, but at less of a buzzing sound and of the most pleasing tone and pitch I have ever heard. My father-in-law was helping us out with some renovations at the time and was just coming out of the house. So I stopped him and beckoned him to listen to the music coming from the back of the house. This was before he got his hearing aids and sadly he could not even hear one chirp! The birds noticed our presence and in an exodus accompanied by the rushing of hundreds of wings that sounded like one loud whisper, they rose simultaneously and with a whoosh were gone. Since we are in the throes of fall again and winter is approaching rather quickly, I have been conscious of our bird choruses many times over the last few weeks. They will swarm a cluster of trees and have their little chat wi...
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Doe, a Deer...

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 Living in a rural setting is relatively quiet and serene. Granted, the tourist traffic picks up for most of the warmer seasons. But now that the temperature is dropping continuously and the brilliant array of reds and oranges on the escarpment is gradually diminishing, our road has become significantly quieter. When our home was a pottery studio years before we came along, the owner also rented out a few rooms for Bed and Breakfast. When we purchased it, a little note remained in one of the rooms referring to our little house as The Potter's Cottage . Although we have changed the facade and the gardens significantly, I still feel as though I am puttering around in a cottage some days and life here is sometimes cottage-like. I often mention the wildlife and the surrounding vineyards as I sit in my office looking out the window and my deep appreciation is evident in my thoughts that I put on paper. But this morning brought a different aspect of wildlife to light.  It was late m...
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Thanksgiving Dining

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We are celebrating our eleventh Thanksgiving at our home today. We moved in late October in 2009. At that time, there was no access to the east side of the house where most of the property is although we changed that shortly after we moved in by taking out some windows and installing a sliding door and deck. It offers some of my favourite views - the escarpment in the distance, views of the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge and the serenity of endless vineyards dotted by the occassional home or barn. What's not to like? I have always loved paging through magazines or watching shows where they feature outside dining spaces across the world. They can be simple little cafe tables or long elegant rows clad in formal white table cloths featuring the most beautiful dishes and glassware! That type of setting speaks to me and I love arranging something similar for our dinner guests when the weather permits. A few years ago, my mother was off on holiday in Germany and my father was by himself for T...
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Moth in the Bed Sheets

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Growing up in a family of six kids, my mother would hang laundry out to dry as often as she could. This was of course a way to use less energy and save on utility bills with a large family. I remember bringing in towels that were so hard and crisp that they scraped your skin as you dried yourself on their abrasive texture. My brothers' jeans stood up on their own retaining the stiffness of human legs and the trademark indentation where the clothespins had secured them in place on the line. Our generation uses the dryer for convenience and ease. Out of the washer and into the dryer. Easy peasy! When we moved to our rural property, I insisted that I wanted a clothesline. My husband, who does nothing halfway, had custom metal posts made at his work that were approximately 20 feet high. These were cemented into the ground and a 75 foot clothesline was erected.  But that was not all. He built a platform for me to reach the line complete with stairs and railings on either side and a ...
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Jay Walkers

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 As I was driving down Concession 1 this week, I had to slam on my brakes at the last second as a few  Guinea Fowl crossed the road directly in front of me, oblivious to how close they came to grazing the eternal fields! It was mid morning and these three were off strolling about the countryside, without a care in the world. Maybe someone should remind them that Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away? Known for their infamous alarm call, I was surprised to note that they turned a blind eye to me as I tried to get a few photos on my phone before they quietly disappeared into the vineyard. Their beautifully speckled feathers shone in the sun and I could only admire them from afar. According to Wikipedia, the hens are larger than the males. These birds do not get along well with chickens. They are not chickens, as most people believe, but are in fact gamebirds. If you go online, there are so many stories about how Guinea Fowl do not like to be confined. They are also supposed to b...
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Potted Toads

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  Potted Toads This time of year brings straw-like grass that crackles and crunches as you walk over it.  The shrill call of the cicadas in the trees, dying vegetation in the gardens and the hot afternoon sun, all indicate that summer is coming to a gradual end. Labour Day weekend is here and school, as strange and unchartered as it will be, is resuming in days. I had just finished a walk around our property, something that soothes me, as I dead-headed a few plants, picked a few tomatoes that had ripened considerably throughout the day and watered anything that seems to be wilting. As I turned on the hose that extends from the pool area, I noted that there was a row of several flowerpots filled with dirt that I had never gotten around to filling with annuals. Something always seemed to get in the way of completing that simple task.  So after I watered the garden and my pop-up pumpkin patch, I lugged each pot individually to the edge of the forest and emptied the dirt ther...
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Bird Banger Alarm Clocks

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  Bird Banger Alarm Clocks My daughter and her friend were walking down the Heritage Trail on Concession 1 mid-afternoon last week, when her friend suddenly jumped out of her skin, covered her ears and yelled, "What was that?" My daughter had been chattering about something nonchalantly and had looked at her friend in puzzlement, until, a moment later,   the shots fired again and her friend ducked in sheer terror.  Sigh ... city slickers. What seemed to invoke fear and trembling in my daughter's friend, was of no significance to my daughter. This example clearly demonstrates how easily humans get used to something and how resilient children are. Our youngest was four when we moved into this house. Kilometres away from Inniskillin Wines and literally almost kitty-corner to a small cottage winery, hearing air cannons shooting off their warnings to the swarms of birds that like to raid the vines before the farmers get a chance to harvest the grapes at this time of ye...
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