In the Middle of the Night

The phone rang for Richard in the middle of the night, or at least 11:30 p.m. which seemed almost like the middle of the night, saying there was a fire in Hawkesbury and he should get over there quickly.

I decided to join him as he shot some photos for his newspaper and I watched from the sidelines.

Others watched from the sidelines as well and one fellow even had an extra large double double Tim Hortons with him.

In the end, at nearly 20 to 1 a.m., we decided we were so hyped up that we'd head over to Tim's ourselves and have a cup of decaf tea.
Sadly, we found out later, that two seniors perished in the fire. To read more click on this link: https://www.facebook.com/LeCarillonTribuneExpress

BBQ Roast Beef

An unplanned power outage lasting 5 hours last weekend meant my roast beef dinner with potatoes and garden asparagus turned into a barbecue affair...

...with terrific results. Next time I do a prime rib, I'm heading back to the barbecue!

Things Are Just Ducky

Over at Knatolee's World, my namesake duck, Ronna-duck is having her ducklings!

Can you have ducklings? Okay, so Ronna-duck's ducklings are hatching. My grandbaby ducklings.

On the weekend there was only one baby out of its shell.

A little cutie for sure. Very soft and fuzzy!

Gordon and Natalie, keepers of all things duck-like were pretty tickled with the new arrival as well. Keep 'em coming Ronna-duck!

Happy 50th Anniversary Cake

I made this cake for a little celebration that took place at the annual general meeting of the Glengarry Historical Society last week. The GHS turned 50!

Here are president of the society, Allan Macdonell and Karen Davison Wood, chair of the Glengarry Pioneer Museum, posing in front of the cake.

Butterfly Days

There seem to be more butterflies than usual this year. And they seem to be here earlier too.

 Yesterday I saw my first monarch and then a eastern tiger swallowtail on my lilacs.

I just love the quality of the light in these photos. They scream spring!

More butterflies. Over at Natalie's house, I happened upon a black swallowtail. It's already been an amazing year for butterflies and it's still early.
A few days ago I posted about not knowing which butterflies were which and my brother-in-law John sent me this website. Check it out! Worth re-posting: http://littlebrownjobbies.blogspot.ca/2011/02/butterflies-of-southern-ontario.html

Glengarry School Days

 I made a cake for the launch of the 50th anniversary of the Glengarry Pioneer Museum.

 It was also the dedication of the recently relocated Big Beaver one-room schoolhouse.

The cake was a fondant replica of the green and white schoolhouse complete with students...

...and a buttercream grass lawn.

Flora Chisholm, one of the original students of the Big Beaver schoolhouse during the 1930s and '40s, looked at the cake and the little faces looking out the windows and said, "Which one is me?"

I'm not sure but perhaps one of these students is Flora?

To kick off the 50th anniversary celebration, famed humourist and journalist Charles Gordon was invited to speak. Here he is with me and the cake, making the first cut.

Charles Gordon is the grandson of Rev. Dr. Charles Gordon whose pen name was Ralph Connor.

Ralph Connor was the best-selling author of some 40 novels in the early part of the last century whose titles included Glengarry School Days and The Man From Glengarry.

Up the Glens!

What's That on My Mop?

My string mop was leaning up outside the house to dry (for about a week now!) and from the corner of my eye I noticed something moving.

 Sure enough, it was a butterfly, sunning its wings in the morning sun.

It took me many tries to get a good photo with is wings fully opened. Isn't it a beauty?
I looked it up and it might be a Satyr Comma (Polygonia satyrus ). Anyone out there know their butterfly i.d.? Help!***
***Thanks to John S. from Ottawa who dropped me a line and it seems that the little guy  is an Eastern Comma. To see a great site of difficult to identify butterflies, go here:
http://littlebrownjobbies.blogspot.ca/2011/02/butterflies-of-southern-ontario.html
Thanks John!!

Cuteness Alert!

Over at the Dunvegan Post Office, the resident robins have been at it again and have already produced their first brood.

In Alexandria, my friend Scott found four abandoned baby squirrels so he and his landlady provided them with some food and a warm place to curl up in.

Back here in Dunvegan, my chippies have returned for another season of hilarity and peanut grabbing.

Yes, it's a slippery slope and I'm tampering with nature, but who can resist that face? I can't! And all my cats are of the indoor variety, so it's chippy heaven out here.

Patiently Waiting

These two doggies had an eye out for their master to make sure that he/she was returning soon. Such concentration!

Cat at the Country Depot

 This lovely tabby works at the local Country Depot shop. They sell seeds...

 ... and cat food, dog food and horse food too, likely.

 He's very friendly, greeting everyone who comes through the door.

Unfortunately, he's up for adoption because although he likes people, he doesn't like Bootsy, the cat who first lived and worked at the shop.

The owners of the shop are wonderful people who go out of their way to feed and save homeless cats. My kinda people!

Portable Catnip

I have so much catnip running wild in the garden that I gave Richard a nice hunk but couldn't find anything to put it in. So, I found the outer shell of a squash that was sitting in my compost pile all winter. It was the perfect vessel to transport the catnip. And totally organic!

TV Dinners

I came across this posting on Pinterest last week and it really piqued my interest! As kids, when my parents were working (they had an ad agency in our house, starting in the mid-'60s), from time-to-time, they had to hit the road to see clients, so we kids got to eat TV dinners. Ya-hoo! But we never had Banquet brand; we always had Swanson TV Dinners.

Yup, just like this. I remember that turquoise logo. But ours always had some sort of apple-like dessert.

More like this. But we rarely got the fried chicken dinner. Generally, it was sliced turkey with gravy (I loved that) or...

...more likely this one. The Salisbury Steak Dinner. But wait! Ours never had soup.
That would have been really high end.

Now this is more like it! (Although I don't remember that fancy-shmancy cobbler.)

Babies!

Robins are nesting in the cedar hedge at the back of the house. I was dying to see those blue eggs, so I stuck my camera into the cedars and did a fast walk-by and kept clicking. Oh. My. Gawd. No eggs but babies! And it looks like this little feller thought the camera was his mum and he wanted some vittles!

Bar Mitzvah Cake

 My friend Cynthia's son was celebrating his bar-mitzvah last Saturday and she asked me to do a cake for his party. Jonah loves zebras.

I did a zebra cake outside as well as zebra inside (chocolate and white striped cake), topped with a little edible fondant zebra complete with a yarmulke and tallis.