Let's get it on!

This morning I heard "coo coo coo," quite instently and continuously. "Coo coo coo"... . It was immediately recocognizable as a pigeon's sound. But why the ruckus? I looked out the window at my balcony and saw two pigeons. They were, um, hanging out. The one making all the noise was crouched in the corner, waving her wings a bit and cooing. She (for now I see it must be a she) was trying to get the other's attention. But he was walking around the balcony, undecided. He didn't fly away, but he didn't come too close either.

Then, he came closer for a bit. He walked away. He came back. He walked away. This went on for a while.

Finally, he made up his mind, and climbed on her. And I captured the private moment discretely from behind my curtain. Then, the cooing stopped, and they were gone.

Everyone needs a place to roost

Greg caught sight of a northern harrier in his backyard and snapped a few photos. Beautiful!

I moved to my new apartment last month. So far it's been great. Closer to work, downtown amenities, and a nice view. I was a bit stressed out for a while. Finally, I've unpacked almost everything. I'm just working on getting some shelving in and such to get really organized. We did put up some great IKEA units already, and now Greg is putting the last paint touches on some home made shelves for the locker. I've had people over several times, even.

At first, the only animal to visit me was a pigeon, who apparently wanted to become my personal pet. She was used to sitting in a little nook on my balcony. But she pooped too! I had to shoo her away. She kept coming back. So I attached a piece of plastic over the nook. She came back and flapped her wings against the plastic, until she realized she couldn't land. She learned after a while that she was not welcome any more. I felt a little bad, but not too much. There are plenty of other places for her.

What election? Let's talk about camping.

My internet connection wasn't working for a few days. That's why I didn't post anything in a while. That, and the other reasons I have. I've been very active. Really.

I've been scanning more old family photos for one thing, and t0uching them up. There are some great old photos of Mom, Dad, brother, me, all looking much younger, and in the case of my brother and me, smaller. We were so cute! I am reminded there was a time when kitchen chairs and car seats were covered in vinyl.

I've been on summer vacation too. Here is the story of my camping trip. Greg, his brother-in-law, niece, and I went canoe camping for a short trip in Algonquin Park. We canoed over an hour and did one portage into Allen lake. It was a real trip! There was no camp office in sight of our campsite, nor was there a water taxi going by every hour or so like there is on lake Opeongo. No, this was true Algonquin backcountry.

The weather was great -- dry, sunny and warm. Bugs were few. I slept like a baby each night, and half the day too. I truly relaxed! I had large elaborate dreams of authors and book launches. I dreamt I was making a movie.

Then, the scary thing happened. All by myself in the night I got up for a visit to the euphemistic bathroom. The moon was out, so a bit of light shone through the trees. I had my headlamp on too. But the forest was mostly dark. No sooner had I walked 20 feet from the tent when I heard a rustling noise a further 50 feet or so away (or 15 metres) .... and then it hissed at me! More movement through the brush. Was it walking toward me? It hissed again! I went back to the tent and asked Greg what that was. He woke up and asked me what I was on about. My own taxonomic run through the animal kingdom yielded (1) bear, (2) cougar, (3) raccoon. I settled on the last one. Greg, once coherent, agreed with me. By that time, the hissing animal sounded like it had moved off. I did my business and went back to bed and slept like a baby some more.



We saw a juvenile common merganser nice and close up. I wonder what it's doing today...