Nature Friday - A Miracle - with FFF

Using this image we will join Aunty Yam's FFF.

The rules are to write something about an image of our own. 

While the world turns in a unique way,

2 daffodils grow at the base of my tree.

The give me hope, that we will be ok,

as after 7 years underground they have returned, 

bright and yellow and full of life. 

Just like how we can emerge from our own isolation. 

The first fall we lived in our house, back when I thought I might like gardening (I do not), I planted some bulbs. I don't think they have ever come up. However, this year, 2 daffodils showed up at the base of a tree. It feels like a sign from the universe that things will be ok!

Speaking of nature, it seems Mother Nature really wants us to stay inside. The black flies are the worst they have been. In 2 minutes of not moving, there can be 50 swarming around one person. Nothing, I repeat nothing seems to keep them away. If anyone has ideas, please let us know because our outside time is limited due to their biting! (They hurt for such little things).

Thanks to Rosy and the Boyz for hosting this. 

Copy Cat

The Man's preferred way to sleep is wrapped in a cocoon with his head covered. He often covers Hailey up while she is napping beside him.

Apparently she couldn't get the hang of last Thursday, and she put herself in her own cocoon. 

Some days, it is just hard to face the world! 

Wordless Wednesday - Joy

Unfair - by Lee

Dear Pals,

We have been getting an unusual amount of shipments to our house since the Man and Lady are trying to avoid going out around plague carrying people (as Lady affectionately calls them) and because until recently most stores were closed. 

Not that long ago, we were outside when one of these deliveries came.

I was with the Lady and she brought me in.

Phod was with the Man and he got to stay out and social distance from the delivery person.

I don't think that was fair. Because the parcel was left at the side of the house, I didn't even get to see the delivery person.

An upset with the unfairness,

Hailey Bug

Mischief Monday - Fraidy Cats

This is my 80lbs, 9 or so year old German Shepherd Mix freaking out. 

He is trying to crawl onto my lap while I was creating my nieces's birthday story. 

He was so stressed he drooled all over me. 

He never use to be fearful, but thanks to Hailey he has become almost as fearful as she has. He just is less destructive about it.

What caused all this fear?

On Saturday we left the house in a car for about 30 minutes. Literally as we were pulling in (we were able to open the garage door, but not close it), the power went out. It was out for about 10 minutes. Later in the day, the power flickered and was out for maybe one minute. This picture was taken during that time.

The power going out is the scariest thing ever for Phod.

Earlier in the week, when the Man and I were both on calls, our carbon monoxide detector decided to tell the whole world it was at the end of its life. The beeping caused Phod to be scared in his passive way and Lee to start digging things off the shelf, digging me. I excused myself from my meeting and put the device outside so they couldn't hear it until we had time to deal with it. Once they couldn't hear it, they settled.

I am wondering if they will both need anti-anxiety meds when we re-enter the real world!

Nature Friday - Random Items From A Walk

Thanks to Rosy and the Boyz for hosting Nature Friday. 

Here are some random pictures from our evening walks.

Because you all loved Where's the fox, here is a Where's the deer?

Our road is a dead end. Many evenings on our walks that way we disturb a kettle of turkey vultures. It is fun to watch them fly in the sky.

As mentioned, we finally got down to the beach. On the path was this fish skull. That is one scary fish. Has Lady thinking twice about going swimming this summer!

Hope you enjoyed our random things! 

My Lake - By Phod

Dear friends,

If you stopped by on Tuesday you saw me standing in my lake. It is open! There is no more ice on it. It is a safe place to go because it is a private beach. Only 4 houses can even use it. One never does, and one rarely does, meaning there are only 2 households there regularly. Socially distancing could happen if our next door neighbours are there. The beach is about 40 feet long. 

They weren't there on the long weekend. The lake is still fairly cold and they hadn't put their boat in yet. We also went in the evening. 

As we went down to check it out, Man said I wasn't going in the lake. I showed him and waded in. I would have loved a swim, but the peeps say it is too cold yet. Really I don't think they wanted a wet dog in the house.  I am sure if I use sad eyes and play the I am getting old card (more about that another day), the Lady will give in. She is a softy for her Phody Boy!

I am just excited the lake is open and it seems like the peeps will be around a lot to take me!

Phody the water dog!

Wordless Wednesday - My Happy Boy

Tongue Out Tuesday

Mischief Monday - A Terrible Day - by Lee

Happy Victoria Day to our Canadian Friends!

We hope you are enjoying the finally it is nice out weather!

We had the most terrible day on Saturday.

First, the peeps put me on my tie out and then went where I couldn't see them. I had to bark and carry on.

Then they moved me to where I could watch and there were 3 loud booms. Lady thought gun fire (it may be turkey season), the Man thought fireworks, but whatever it was, it was very scary and I pulled and pulled to go inside. It wasn't even noon. Lady said I was pulling so much she couldn't get my tie out off. I was very stressed for a while after, although fortunately there were no more booms. (I am still not on my prozac).

After the first boom

Then around 2, our power went out for 10 minutes. Phod is very scared of the power being out. He tried to hide.

Apparently this is a safe spot

It was all rather dramatic and our peeps actually changed their plans and went for a drive to nowhere the next day (they are trying to make sure the cars each get run once a week and since Man only goes out once a week for supplies, they joy ride in the other). They didn't think they should leave us when we were sooooooo worked up. (We did fine when they left us for an hour on Sunday. We did act like we do when they pick us up at the kennel when they got home though).

That was our terrible day!

Nature Friday - Neighbours by Phod

Spring is here, so our neighbours are back! The other day, I didn't get to play ball at lunch because one came over for lunch! Man also didn't like that I was jumping up and scratching the screen as I welcomed her over! 

She was alone in the yard, but we are sure others were around too! We see 4-7 of them often. 

On our evening walks recently by a cottage down the road we have spotted Ms. Fox. Lady has been traveling with a better camera the last week or so, but Ms Fox has become elusive. This is the best picture she has gotten so far. Can you spot her?

Thanks to Rosy and the Boyz for hosting this hop!

Tunnel Time!

The Man brought out the tunnel recently and some of us had fun playing in it. For others, it was more traumatic!

Lee: Go in and come out and get a cookie

Phod: I can walk around to get the cookies.

Lee: Came out the side Man wants, got a cookie

Phod: I am sitting near my Lady and the tunnel, can I have a cookie?

Phod: The openings are all gone, I think I should still get a cookie. 

Phod: Going over the tunnel gets you a cookie, right?

Phod: The Man is trying to make me go in, I don't like cookies that much!

Phod: Hailey's a show off.
Lee: I went through, I get the cookie

Wordless Wednesday - Non-Cooperative Selfie

Week 9 - A Covid Update

It has been a while since we gave an update of life here in a pandemic, so we thought we would.

We have entered week 9. The number of cases around us remains low. The number in our province is high, mostly because Montreal is Canada's epic-centre and is a mess. 

In week 9, we have the biggest openings in the province (outside of Montreal, Montreal is being treated as a completely separate place). The schools re-opened yesterday. Sending your child is completely voluntary. It appears less than 20% of the kids in our area are returning. Parks have opened to walk through. Some construction has restarted. More stores with curb-side pick up can open. The boarders to everywhere but Ottawa (where Lady would work if work was a thing) are reopening.  We are seeing the first phases of reopening and we will see how it goes!

The Man has been told he won't be going back to the office anytime soon. He is able to work from home and will get to continue to do that. He misses seeing people and the separation between work and home, but is overall ok.

The Lady has no idea when she will go back to work and what that may look like when she can. Social distancing is not a thing for most of her client work. She really is in no hurry. She enjoys this new world. The only thing she doesn't love is that now everything is on screens, so she is making sure to have 4 full awakening hours per day without any screen time. So depending on how her day plays out with fake work or f-work as she calls it, sometimes we don't get to blogs.

We continue to have a great routine which includes a special breakfast on Sunday. Usually the Man makes pancakes or waffles but last Sunday he made French Toast. 

Supervising

Waiting

Breakfast

So in summary, we are all good and safe and Lady says the adjustment back to the real world will be much harder than the one into quarantine for us. It is good that it is going to be a slow one!

Hope you are all safe and doing ok!

Mischief Monday - A Nighttime Visitor by Phod

Dear pals, 

I was really tired the other day and it was all because of this tree. 

This tree stands outside our bedroom window. About 1:50 am, Lee and I heard something outside and we barked and carried on. As a guard dog, this is an important duty. The Man, got up, turned on the light and saw nothing. He told us we scared it away and to go back to bed.

But we didn't scare it away and for the next about hour and a half every 10-15 minutes we would start barking again.  Our peeps said a lot of HBO words.

Finally around 3:15 am, the Lady heard a growling sound. She and the Man had a conversation that sounded something like:

Lady: "Do you hear that?"

Man: "Yes, I don't know what it is."

Lady: "I think it is an angry racoon."

Man: "I don't know what it is."

Lady: "I think it is a racoon."

The Man decided to go check it out. He threw on some clothes and went onto the deck with a flashlight. The conversation went like like: "Why are you doing this?" angry growls "Get off my property."  Turns out there was a very angry racoon in the tree.  Lady and Man deduce that every time he tried to come down, we heard him and barked, which scared him back up. 

Lady and Man decided to turn the fan on, hoping that would block some of the sound out. It appears it did because after about 3:30 am there was no more barking and in the morning the racoon was gone.

I was very tired the next day as all that guarding is very hard work!

Your pal, Phod, the great guarder of his Lady and Man

Nature Friday

Thanks to Rosy and the Boyz for hosting this. This was taken in our yard, standing in our driveway.

Phod and The Poop

On the weekend, Man went to give the Phod some pets and discovered something dried onto his head near his ear and by his collar.

An inspection discovered it was poop!

A sample of it under his ear.

Lady then had the pleasure of spending the next 15 minutes brushing and wiping and washing it out of his fur. The Man thought he should have a full bath, but Lady said no as that is a huge ordeal. (Phod is terrified of baths and it ends with everyone and everything in the bathroom getting wet!) She did threaten him with one next time.

After it was over, Phod sulked by the front door. Lady is sure he won't remember how much he disliked this in the future so he won't do it again.

It was worth it

Wordless Wednesday - Wait Up!

We Have A Winner!

We are happy to report that on Sunday May 3rd, the last of our snow melted. Our yard is now snow free for the first time since early November 2019. We had snow for 6 months! 

We are not going to mention that there is snow in the forecast over the next week. We are sure that snow won't last long.

As excited as we are to completely snow free, we are as excited to announce the winner.

The Island Cats!

 The Island Cats had the closest day, with May 5th. Congratulations!

Please email our Lady at leeandphodATbellDOTnet so we can arrange your prize.

Thanks all for playing! We really enjoy hosting this every year. 

Spring is finally here!

May the 4th Be With You!

Someone is refusing to participate

I am your wise Yoda!

No fair, Lee got here first and picked the better headset. Lee is closer to Leia

Nature Friday - Do We Still Have Snow?

Thanks to Rosy and the Boyz for hosting Nature Friday.

Lady has been spending a lot of time in her office watching the bird feeders because she doesn't have a lot of work to do.

This is from yesterday.

Here Spider squirrel and one of the Red John's find a way to share. 

But you didn't all stop by to see the squirrels we are not allowed to hunt. You want to know if all the snow is gone.

The good news is, the snow in the front yard finally all left last Friday.

The not good news, there are still pockets in the back. Here is the biggest.

Lady is very hopeful with the rain and warmer temperatures that it doesn't last another week. 

Next week our guess is the Island Cats on May 5. Will they be closest without going over?