Visitors of every kind

We've had a number of visitors of all kinds over the past several days and Casa Kim and Cats. It was a long weekend here in most provinces in Canada, and I took Tuesday as a vacation day as well.

This cutie greeted me as I was coming home from errands on Saturday:

He was very affectionate, looked young to me, no cojones that I could see, had nice, soft fur--presumably someone's cat. He cuddled for quite a while before I told him I had to get the groceries inside and put away.  :-)

Then, for several nights (Friday night through Monday night) we had this little one as a guest at our "Bird Bed and Breakfast":

He was tucked up there, above the back step, on the adjoining side of my unit. I have no idea why he settled down here for several nights (I had to use my flash to get this pic), but by 6:20 AM or so every morning he was gone. He wasn't there this morning.

I first noticed him because early Saturday morning Derry was sitting on the back step, looking up at that spot and meowing. That and the ruckus from another bird (parent?) in the trees alerted me. Once I spied him, I snapped a couple of pics then shut the back light off so he wouldn't be blinded. I don't recall ever having a bird sleep there for even one night, let alone four.

Of course we've had lots of squirrel visitors! Two or three from this spring's crop are always on the fence, in the garden, in the plant pots, etc. They're cute, but they are "tree rats," and oh, do they scold us (me, the boys) when we're in the back space and they want to come in.

 

Then, as I mentioned in my previous post, Robin and Chuck came up on Sunday for a visit -- so lovely to see them again! Chuck kindly did some tree-branch lopping for me, cutting off the branches that were hanging over the fence. He made short work of it and I certainly appreciated it! When we get ice storms in the winter the branches hang very heavily on the fence and I'm always concerned about damage to the sheeting, so try to mitigate that as much as possible.

We did manage a bit of fun too, we toured the Murney Tower Museum, a spot I hadn't been to in some years, not since I last went with Dad. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tower has three levels, the most interesting of which being the lower one that branches off seemingly endlessly into the defensive "wings". I took quite a few pics, but most of them are only so-so. Apparently 25 soldiers could live there, on the "main" level. Ugh, what a life. One of the posted signs listed their daily food rations--I should have thought to take a snapshot of that. A pound of meat topped the list, as did bread. No veggies or fruit, of course, though they were allowed to grow their own (but didn't at this location, if I recall correctly).

We certainly take for granted the "easy" lives most of us in the west have now, by comparison. (Physically easier, with access to decent shelter, food, healthcare, etc.) 

After the visit to the tower we walked around a bit outside. The K-Town Triathalon was on that day too, and we could see some competitors running in that leg of the race.

Then we stopped by the Gaskin Lion, which is in the same park, and I cajoled (badgered) Robin and Chuck into climbing up to pose. Pics posted with permission!

 

You just can't go to the park without sitting on the lion.  :-)

We walked down the block after that, admiring peoples' gardens and the old houses, before returning to the car and heading home.

 

 My favourite of the old homes on that block.

 

 

 

 

So it was a lovely visitor-filled extra-long weekend...squirrel scoldings excepted. I actually had the best four days off work since May. I was extremely (work) stressed during my July vacation week, and other than the two days spent in Brighton visiting Robin and Chuck, didn't have fun then. This time my days were stress-free, relaxing, fun, with good company, ample time for errands, even lots of time for reading and a bit of napping. I could keep this going! LOL.

I hope everyone has a good rest-of-week and that you get some down time too, especially if you're really stressed at the moment.

Peace.