All Living Things

Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace. ~ Albert Schweitzer

As the above quote might suggest, this blog post will feature some of the creatures I've encountered when out walking in the last little while. Despite their seemingly perpetual presence, there's an absence of dogs in these photos because I have enough of them to fill up their own post at some time.

What greater gift than the love of a cat. ~ Charles Dickens

Let's start with my little buddy, Oliver. He belongs to my neighbours Carol and her son, Evan but he's an occasional resident at my place when they are away. Zephyr is still at the stage where he hisses at Oliver from time to time but he allows him to lie down beside him, and is somewhat surprised to find that Oliver usually greets him with a quick nuzzle. Zeph has been a very different cat since my beautiful Skitty died in September. We both miss him intensely but Zephyr's whole personality has shifted from loner to clingy, and from quiet to excessively vocal. Even though he still treats Oliver like an intruder, I think his presence soothes him a little. It also irritates him when Oliver is in chase mode. He is a young cat, after all. Time will tell with these two.

I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn. ~ Henry David Thoreau

I was passing by this storefront when a sweet little song caught my attention. I looked up to see this little cutie watching me from its perch atop the letter 'M.'

Swamps where cedars grow and turtles wait on logs but not for anything in particular; fields bordered by crooked fences broken by years of standing still; orchards so old they have forgotten where the farmhouse is. In the north I have eaten my lunch in pastures rank with ferns and junipers, all under fair skies with a wind blowing. ~ E.B. White

This guy was sunning himself down by the lake, about a month ago. I am uncertain what type of turtle he is. I had a quick email discussion about it with Karen at Living in My Valley, who is a former Peterborough resident. We figured it might be a map turtle.

Cats are connoisseurs of comfort. ~ James Herriot

I've seen this sweetie on my walks before. He always offers up his belly for a rub and of course, I always oblige.

His idea was to pluck the genes from a red siskin - a relative of the canary from South America - insert them into an ordinary yellow canary and turn it red. ~ Tim Birkhead - The Red Canary: The Story of the First Genetically Engineered Animal.

This lovely songbird is the Red Canary. It was enjoying the fresh air and sunshine of the late spring day. It wasn't the least bit wary of me or my camera. I am not keen on the idea of birds in cages but I do have very fond memories of my childhood pet budgies. There must have been about four or five of them through the years - all of them blue and every one of them named Vicky. Yup, no score for originality but top points for tradition. ;)

Ant Prune was holding one of the squirrels in her hand. 'And once a day, we have ta clean their little private parts with a Q-tip, so they'll learn ta clean themselves.' That was a visual I didn't need. ~ Margaret Stohl

How cute is this little gem? It was a questionable "rescue." I'm not sure that he was in the best of hands (aside from the hand in the photo, which is my own), but he seemed healthy and active. And I learned that he commandeered his own release just a couple of days later.

Not much goes on in the mind of a squirrel. Huge portions of what is loosely termed "the squirrel brain" are given over to one thought: food. The average squirrel cogitation goes something like this: I wonder what there is to eat. ~ Kate DiCamillo

I hope he is still doing well.

"How do geese know when to fly to the sun? Who tells them the seasons? How do we, humans know when it is time to move on? As with the migrant birds, so surely with us, there is a voice within if only we would listen to it, that tells us certainly when to go forth into the unknown." ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

This was actually snapped back in my old haunts in Mississauga, in April, while I was walking around the neighbourhood lake.

The smallest feline is a masterpiece. ~ Leonardo da Vinci

A porch kitty watching the world wander past her door.

The greatest fear dogs know is the fear that you will not come back when you go out the door without them. ~ Stanley Coren

Okay, so one dog. I'm including this guy because he has no idea how big he is. I watched him standing by the water's edge, slowly creeping up to something. He was both curious and fearful, and the latter won out. His people had to take him away to recover from the scary monster he'd encountered. He continued to watch it nervously from a distance.

I'd kiss a frog even if there was no promise of a Prince Charming popping out of it. I love frogs. ~ Cameron Diaz

This handsome specimen was his fierce nemesis.

More photos coming up next time around.

In the Presence of Oddity

This is a scheduled post. Photos were taken over the past couple of months. I'm busy packing up a trailer and planning my move in a few days. I'll meet you over at the new place soon! 

I feel comfortable in the presence of oddity. Probably because I'm a little bit odd.

~ Martha Plimpton

This post is all about oddities - things that are out of place or our of their proper timeline.


My sister lives in Port Dover, Ontario and although it's pretty southern as far as the province goes, it's still significantly northern as far as palm trees go. And yet here's one of several which beautifies the beach view every year. We have very cold and snowy winters so they can't grow there naturally. This restaurant, Callahan's Beach House has borrowed and planted them every May and then dug them up again in late autumn so that they can continue their lives in greenhouses. In recent years, they have simply left them growing on the beach until icy weather does them in. Then they plant new ones the following spring.  Just imagine walking through the snow and seeing palm trees.





The Ridgetown is a 1905 Chicago-built freighter with an interesting history. She serves as a breakwater off the shore of Port Credit in Lake Ontario. You can read about how she got there, here.






I apologize for the extremely poor quality of this and the next image. It was taken through the windshield, while my son was driving, with nothing zoomier than a portrait lens. I thought my eyes deceived me and I'm still not sure how or why this "flying machine" was soaring across the highway, high in the sky.






This is the best I could do by enlarging and cropping. It still has me scratching my head.







This pirate ship is docked pretty close to our new place, on the opposite shore. If you look closely, you'll see that it's actually a boathouse and probably a bunkie or playhouse for the kids.







In fact, there's a little cutie peeking out from beside one of the pirates. The folks who designed and built this have no shortage of creativity.







This boot was climbing a ladder outside my office window, just beyond my computer monitor. Was I worried? Nah. It belonged to one of the roofers who was laying new shingles, in the hopes of making my house ready for sale. It's not every day you see a man on a ladder outside your window, so how could I not snap a quick shot?


 





Last but not least, we have this little out of place cutie. My neighbour, Caroline and I were walking along the park path when we saw some teenaged girls mildly distressed by something following them. We looked down to see this very young squirrel who was quite determined to chase after someone. I remembered the orphaned raccoon kits, Sugar and Spike, under my deck, and how they sought out human help when they were cold and hungry. We stopped, and the squirrel immediately turned its attention to us, first climbing Caroline's leg and then mine.

I picked it up and held it in the palm of one hand and rubbed her back and belly with the other. It was cold and desperate for food. She tried sucking the end of my finger. Another neighbour of ours, Nicky (who orchestrated the raccoon rescue along with her daughter, Sarah), would know how to care for her. When we got to Nicky's place, she readied a small carrier for her and headed off to the pet store to get her some squirrel specific formula. She estimated her age to be about five weeks.

Although Nicky wasn't entirely certain of the diagnosis, she believes this little thing was ill with squirrel pox - which developed over the next few days. She is a member of the Grey squirrel family (despite her black fur, she's still an Eastern Grey) and therefore has built up something of an immunity to the disease. She will likely survive it. But she will also always be a carrier and can never be released since it is quite deadly for our red squirrel population. I should learn more the next time I see Nicky and I'll be sure to fill you in.*


Despite her illness, this little cutie is very affectionate, energetic and bright. Thankfully she's in good hands. The hands in the picture belong to Caroline's husband Lloyd.

*And now, I do know more. We learned that what this sweetie had was a nasty but now-cured abscess and nothing more sinister than that. She's healthy, energetic, growing and full of mischief. She's also extremely affectionate according to Nicky. We went to visit her semi-recently and she was understandably a bit wary of us but in fine shape - she jumped up toward the ceiling to watch us.  



See for yourself.

More photos coming up soon.