Critters and Lighthouses

Hmmm ... I had been attempting to update this space more frequently, but it has now been a week since I posted Happy Birthday wishes for my significant other. But what can you expect? It's been a pretty ordinary week with a return to cold weather after the unseasonably warm weather of the previous week. One tends to cocoon in such weather, and when one does venture outdoors, there's nothing much going on. Several times I have taken my camera with me but returned without firing a shot because it's rather bleak and forlorn between the winter snow and spring blossoming. Here's a somewhat unusual one from two weeks ago, however.

We had grabbed a coffee and sandwich from the Canadian Mecca, Tim Hortons, and taken it to the park. We ate in the car and watched the critter below for the whole time. S/He was busy feeding himself in this little overflow pond just beyond the riverbank. He was there when we arrived and there when we departed after lunch and a walk. For all I know s/he might still be there or would be except I suspect that the pond/puddle has dried up. I'm not sure what the critter is. It looks beaver-like, but I never saw a tail. Muskrat?

Since Nikki Dee's fifth birthday is coming up soon, we headed into Ottawa yesterday to try to find a gift. Three stores later, we gave up in sheer exhaustion. There was nothing that jumped out at us, plenty of items for the boy, but he's already had his birthday. Nikki Dee doesn't stick with any task for very long, including playing with toys, so I dunno. We should probably buy her her very own computer because she does like pbskids.org etc but ... naw.

As per usual I could rant and rave about sleep or lack of same. The past five nights have gone something like this: two nights of waking up for several hours in the middle of the night, followed by two nights of waking up very early after only five or six hours between the sheets, followed by last night in which I took many hours to fall asleep. This is getting ridiculous.

I have recently been re-visiting photos that I took two summers ago during our all-too-brief visit to Nova Scotia. The following set was taken of or around the Cape St Mary Lightstation, or Phare du cap Ste-Marie in Canada's other official language, near Forchu. We never made it to the famous Peggy's Cove, but our hosts guided us to this and another very fine lighthouse to make up for it, neither of which was over-crowded with tourists ... like us.