Thornton Pages

I'm sure someone will surprise me one day and add something. Then again, Lois hasn't even touched her site since March 9th or something.

There's nothing to fear, folks!

So that picture gets a little hard on the eyes after a while don't you think? It might be nice if someone posted something. Just a thought.

Just wondering how the calendar at the side will change when I make an entry.

Isn't that exciting? Too bad no one is using this thing. Sigh.

Porn. I guess I should put up some porn.

In case you didn't know, we almost lost Pigdump.com this week. Really. See for yourself:

Click

Anyway, why would you find out here since none of you ever visit. Sigh. maybe I should put pornography up here afterall!

Heh heh

This is the alley at the side of the building I work in. But don't worry...all the crap and the grafitti was put there by a film company. Disney, as a matter of fact. So all the garbage is pretty. And it doesn't smell.

This is what the alley looked like the very next day:

Don't know whether they'll clean off the graffiti they put up...

Just beat my high score. What's your high score?

Well, after being attacked by 3 wasps when I was hanging the bird feeder out, I figured it was time to take action. (Man, those things hurt! Got a sting right on the tip of my nose! Ended up looking like Jimmy Durante!) Mum and Dad brought over some wasp-killer stuff so I put about 5 layers of clothes on, sealed myself in a hood and the bug jacket, wore the extra-think rubber gloves, tucked my pants in my socks...you get the picture.

So I went out on the porch, stood on a chair, aimed and...nothing. The can had spray in it, but the mechanism must have been broken or stuck. Tried and tried, out on the deck as the loons were singing in the background (no, the irony was not lost on me) but nothing. So I stood there like an idiot, my nose still aching from the sting, my arm which took the other 2 bites also aching. Then I went inside and had another glass of wine. Sigh.

I didn't go to the cottage this weekend because "they" said it was going to rain all day both days. Grrr. It's beautiful today! So to make me happy, I'm posting a couple of pics I took last weekend. Early morning mist, then 2 hours later.

Beauty, eh?

This little gem had disappeared from the internet, but I found it and brought it back to Thornton Pages. Ain't I a stinker? Just click the picture or here and if you have Flash on your computer and your sound turned up, you will start to giggle.

This is a little guy I saw last weekend feeding in my bay. He's a BuffleHead and he's on his way north. A real cutie. I couldn't get closer cuz he'd fly away so you might not see just how cute he is.

Maybe they'll stick around a bit this year...seem to be seeing things I don't normally see, but then again it is migration season.

I was trying to quietly get a shot of the heron so still on the dock, but instead he must have heard me and took off. Still looks pretty cool though!

And I woke up around 6 or so and this was my view. It happens a lot, but I don't think I'll ever get sick of it.

My morning paddle earlier this week:

Beauty, eh?

I know, my camera isn't a telphoto, but here are a couple of shots I took last week when the moon was full and was eclipsed by the earth's shadow. One clean pic, one wobbly pic:

I guess you had to be there. But it was beauty, eh?

Cool eh?

Many, many thanks to Kathy and Howard for all the help. And to Mum and Dad for delivering it! I'll pay you soon!

My first snowman of the year!

Yes, he's kind of a sad little fellow isn't he?

And then overnight, the lake froze...

Cool, eh?

First, there was tons of snow. My loud little red friend had to dig for the seeds:

And then there was rain. Lots of it. There were actually ripples of water on the ice. It was like a lake on the ice on a lake:

I could hardly wait until it froze over and I could skate...which is just what I did this morning! I know it's hard to see exactly, but this was terrific ice that I skated on this morning! There were places where a bit of water would break through so I stayed to the outside of the clear areas. Makes my piddly little rink look...well...piddly!

Some highlights of my recent trip to Ottawa (just click on the thumbnails to see the bigger pictures):

Skating the canal	Andrew doing Mick
Chris gives Kelly her present	Kelly's house
Abbey for Hannah

I saw a heron and a robin today! Sorry, I have no pictures. But it MUST be spring...finally!

That is all.

...I think it was a wild turkey. I only saw it briefly the other day. But today, when I looked out onto the lake, I saw some bird walking across it. I got my binoculars and saw that it was a turkey!

Yup, just strolling right across the lake! I know it's hard to see, but I tried to take pics to show you how silly it is!

I took a couple of little Quicktime videos too just to show how fast he motored across the lake...but I'll show 'em to you in person cuz they're small yet huge (file size!)

(By the way, Barb added comments to the Abbey Road entry, so make sure you takle a look...)

No bears yet, but they've been seen around other lakes. When this last bag of seeds runs out, that's it!

Some lovely gold and purple finches have been hanging out:

And the other day there must have been a big fly hatch in the lake because these swallows were dancing on the surface all day!

If you want to see a little movie of them, I put it here:

Swallow dance

It's a 2Meg file so it takes a little while to load.

My wood guy/tree guy came by today and helped get rid of some pesky silver birch that were about to be trouble for the power line.

I have more firewood now!! And kindling!

Just before the long weekend, you could have sworn it was fall instead of spring with the light red in the trees highlighted by the early morning sun.

And a bunny...

Hippity-hop, hippity-hop.

On Sunday night, I had a huge thunderstorm. the power stayed on alright and the TV antenna didn't blow down...but I noticed this the next morning:

More firewood for me! Here's a close-up of the break:

And a baby bunny:

This was after Louis had chased it out from behind a wood pile. It seemed stunned but unhurt. I gave it some spinach...it didn't eat it, but it's gone away out of harm's way, I hope!

Louis has been looking for cool places, the poor guy. He's really been suffering. He loves the tall cool grass beside my deck the most...as long as it's not sunny there!

Yes, it's stinking hot up here too!

And I thought this day would be the hottest:

Pigdump archive.

Oh it was tasty good! Look at how happy we were!

If anyone is logging into Thorntonpages to add a story or picture or something, don't be alarmed. There's a new "interface" to do the publishing. It all works the same way, but it's just neater and prettier. If you have any trouble, just email me or call me and I'll help.

You know early in the summer all the little nits and noggies that swarm around the night light? They always end up in my sink. Then they go away in the hot months. But now they're back. And this one was really green!

Poor little guy got tipped over on his back:

...so I helped him out and put him outside. I know, what a suck!

Look what I found in my record collection...

Never Said I Love You.

I know it's a big file, but save it to your computer so you can hear it again (right-click I think).

I took a picture of the leaves across the lake every morning for a couple of weeks:

If you click on this picture, you can see it bigger and scroll left right, right left, left right, right left to see the daily changes.

My neighbour took this picture unbeknownst to me. It was such a perfect evening for my last canoe ride of the year.

I had 4 of these (1 female) around my deck today. Cool. They're like super-sized goldfinches with natty yellow sunglasses.

...a rink?

With the rain, it's hard to tell.

This was early this morning...

Then some scenes in my backyard...

Louis so much wanted to go out...

...but decided to watch the birds and squirrels from inside:

And now I better start shovelling!

Shovelled a ton of snow to clear paths to wood and propane tank in the backyard:

And of course did the deck:

which left a pile of heavy snow almost as high as that tree in front of my cottage!

At least I didn't have to shovel rain!

Howard took some awesome pics when we were snowshoeing this weekend. We went on the marsh in behind my cottage:

...my February experiences. First the trip to Portugal (click on the photo to see more photos):

...then, the record-breaking snowfall in Muskoka (click on the photo to see more photos):

Which one do you think I liked better? Anyone?

Like I said, a free dinner at rebecca's for those that help (Mum and Dad already started stacking!)

Anyone?

This must have been 1993 or 1994...I was still in my old apartment on the Danforth (I moved to High Park in summer 1995.)

A little messy in places....
(And look at the difference in Chris here and below in "Chris at War!"

Go vote for it.