GC and I were at the Stewart Park Music Festival in Perth yesterday, watching a flamenco dancer dance, when the second baby lovebird hatched.
My favourite thing at the music festival was a little girl in the audience who was wearing a tutu and cowboy boots and sucking her thumb. But the flamenco dancer, Ilse Gudino, was pretty good too. Check her out.
Meanwhile, a bird breeder in California was watching the second baby hatching on the webcam, and she told us later that Billie and Lester both helped the baby come out of his shell.
Photo: Piccolo, Banjo and two eggs
We’ve named the babies Piccolo and Banjo. I wouldn’t describe them as cute, exactly, but they’re kind of fascinating. I love watching the family dynamics – Billie’s a wonderful, attentive mother (which I totally expected) and Lester is a very involved modern father. He likes to feed the babies and fuss over them. This morning he had ants in his pants, so Billie kicked him out of the nest. He spun around the cage like a speed freak, chirping and doing somersaults and loop-de-loops and hanging upside down from the ceiling. At one point he even fell onto the floor.
There are two eggs left, so hopefully we’ll get to watch at least one of them hatch. If you want to join us, you can watch through the webcam, which is usually on all the time, except at night. The video quality varies from day to day and hour to hour, with the changing light conditions. It’s pretty dark inside the black nesting box, so it’s kind of hard to get a good look at the babies, even if you’re there in person, peering into the box.
Photo: Billie and her babies
Which reminds me. GC thinks the babies are yellow! They look pinkish to me. What do you think?
I’m having daydreams about moving to the country and setting up an aviary and raising macaws and parrotlets and lovebirds and gouldian finches. And miniature farm animals.
By the way, when we were out in Perth yesterday for the music festival, we went to Janie H. Knits for the first time ever. What a lovely, lovely knitting shop, just like Carmen promised. Everything there is extraordinary, from the yarn to the tools to the people to the setting. And just a stone’s throw from Janie’s shop is a miniature animal farm!
We’re going back next weekend because Janie H. Knits is having a BIG SALE. So big she had to rent the legion for it!
101 Yarns You’ve Always Wanted.
BIG SALE
at the Perth Legion, 26 Beckwith Street, Perth, Ontario
July 24 & 25, 9:15 to 4:30
I didn’t buy much because I want to save my pennies for the BIG SALE. But I couldn’t resist this mug.
We think our first baby lovebird has hatched! We haven’t had a good look yet, since Billie is in the nesting box with it, but we can only see three eggs now, and GC saw something else moving. We assume it’s a baby lovebird.
I have to go out this morning for a workshop, so I might not get to see it for awhile. But you can watch here if you want. GC’s going to try to improve the picture quality when he gets back from walking the dog.
I’m so excited! I feel like knitting something tiny!
Update: We’ve seen it, it’s a baby lovebird and it’s bright pink – it’s a GIRL!
Remember the novel I wrote in 18 days last November, as part of National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo)? Remember how all I could blog about all month was how crappy my novel was?
The thing about writing a novel that fast is that there’s no time for editing or even reading what you’ve already written. You just keep pounding out the words and reminding yourself that Nanowrimo is all about quantity, not quality. As soon as I hit 50,000 words, I was just so relieved to have it over with, I couldn’t bear to look at it again. So it languished – unread, unedited, untouched – on my hard drive for eight months.
June 30th was the deadline for submitting our manuscripts to CreateSpace.com for a single free published copy of our books. GC and I waited til the last minute, then we scrambled to get them submitted by midnight. We had to choose covers, upload author photos, write back-cover blurbs, and create PDFs of the text formatted for paperback books.
Our novels arrived on Monday. Mine is 176 pages long.
I read it for the very first time this week.
I was so surprised. I’d forgotten almost everything about my novel. It wasn’t nearly as cringe-worthy as I thought it would be. Sure, it had its faults, including some gaping holes in the plot, but on the whole I thought it was pretty good. I actually liked reading it. I loved some of my characters, especially the ones based on real people. I laughed out loud in a few places. And I was very impressed that I wrote it in just 18 days.
I’m feeling inspired now to write something else!
*I chose that title so that if anybody saw it on my bookshelf, they wouldn’t be tempted to pick it up.
GC is fun to travel with. He’s not a driven driver – he’s open to detours and adventures and he welcomes any opportunity to get out of the car and do something else for a bit, just to keep himself awake. I suspect he is afflicted with a touch of narcolepsy. That’s the one where you fall asleep without much warning. (I’m spelling this out because sometimes I mix up the words narcolepsy and necrophilia, which GC doesn’t have.)
Photo: World's Smallest Book Shop
The first thing we stopped for was The World’s Smallest Book Shop. It’s on Monck Road, between Bancroft and Minden. It’s a little shack on the side of the road, and its signs are bigger than it is. In fact, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest the owner’s sign-making hobby has spiraled out of control.
Photo: When Sign Makers Go Bad
It’s a self-serve bookshop. All the books cost $3. You just pick your books, put your money in the box, and leave a note saying which books you bought. I bought one by David Attenborough called Life. GC bought a first edition of Rosemary’s Baby.
Photo: Shoe Tree
Not long after we got back on the road, we almost missed something. I caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye. We had to turn around and go back to check it out. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing! It was fantastic! It was a Shoe Forest. I think it started out as a Shoe Tree, and expanded over the years to become a forest. People have even started nailing shoes to trees on the other side of the road now. If you’re looking for it, it’s near Minden.
Photo: Shoe Forest
Side Trips
Photo: Stephen Leacock's House
At the Mariposa Folk Festival, all the stages were in Tudhope Park except for one. The Acoustic Stage was a 15-minute walk away, on the lawn of the Stephen Leacock Museum. We wandered over there on Sunday afternoon to check out Elliot BROOD. After the concert we decided we might as well visit the museum, since we were already there. It was WAY better than I expected. It was Leacock’s house, filled with Leacock’s stuff. And there were no guards or staff or anything. You can just wander about, exploring his house, rummaging through his stuff.
Photo: Stephen Leacock's Desk
Photo: Leacock's tub
Photo: Leacock's stuff
After that we went for lunch at the restaurant next door (Swanmore Terrace), which was a lovely change from festival food. We got to sit on real chairs on a patio overlooking the lake, and we had good coffee and homemade potato soup and salad and pie. (Somehow it ended up costing us $67 once all the taxes and tips were in, but it was almost worth it.)
Photo: Alligator
Then we started walking back to the festival, and what to our wondrous eyes should appear but The Lost World Reptile Store! We crossed four lanes of traffic to get to it, and it was totally worth it. We saw snakes and lizards and an alligator.
On the way back to Ottawa we stopped again at the World’s Smallest Book Shop (in search of a first edition Leacock), as well as a fudge shop, a combination used/new book store in Bancroft, and a roadside raspberry stand in Renfrew.
GC and I just got back home yesterday after spending a few days at the 50th Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia.
Here are some of the things we saw:
Ian and Sylvia singing Four Strong Winds together.
Bram (of Sharon, Lois and Bram) being rude. He was hosting the workshop, but walked off stage when it was Deep Dark Woods’ turn to perform. Also? He and Sharon hogged the stage, doing two songs for every one of their guests’ songs.
Gordon Lightfoot no longer has what it takes to sing for 10,000 people. He might still do well in more intimate settings, but he doesn’t have much power behind his voice anymore.
Oscar Brand – who is 90 years old now – still has it. He’s charming and witty and his mind is still sharp. He’s a bit wobbly on his feet though. (As am I.) He’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest running radio show hosted by the same host – 65 years and counting. And Oscar the Grouch was named after him, even though he’s not at all grouchy.
Ianspotting, a hot reggae band from Kingston, Ontario (not Jamaica) was my favourite musical discovery of the festival.
The Elliot BROOD Band was a lot of fun. Instead of drums, their drummer used a suitcase, a briefcase and a guitar case.
The special mystery guest performer was two members of Blue Rodeo, including Jim Cuddy.
Photo: Our tent (thanks Deb!)
We slept at the Burl’s Creek campground because it was cheap ($30 per camper for the full festival) and because they provided shuttles back and forth between the festival and the campground, which were about 20km apart. It wasn’t a great campground, but it was adequate.
There was a wild blackberry bush on our site, which was pretty wonderful. We were a long walk away from the “comfort station” where, for $5 you could take a shower. Or you could brush your teeth for free and use a flush toilet instead of a porta-potty. I love the little luxuries of life. On the first morning, GC went to the front gate and asked for directions to the comfort station. He came back and said “Okay, here’s what we have to do. We follow the path til we get to the rusty boat. Then we turn right and cut through a cluster of trailers and we’ll see a barn in the distance. Go past the barn to the farmhouse, and knock on the door. The woman there will draw us a map to the comfort station.”
Photo: Peacock, goat and kid
I thought he was serious at first. There actually was a rusty boat and trailers and a barn and a farmhouse, but the comfort station was right next door to the farmhouse. I loved our morning excursions to the comfort station because there was a little zoo on the way. There were all these pens with exotic chickens in them. And there was a mother goat and two kids. And a peacock. And a field with a mother sheep and a baby white sheep and a baby black sheep who loved having his head scratched.
I came up with a brilliant idea. I could buy an acre or two of land and start a farm. I’d only acquire miniature animals, like miniature llamas and miniature sheep and miniature reindeer and so on. It would be much cheaper than a regular farm, because the animals wouldn’t need much space or food. I’d build a tiny little barn and a little wee chicken coop. I’d keep Duncan, of course. He’d be the biggest animal on the farm. I told GC about my brilliant idea and asked him if he’d like to come live on the farm with me. He said he would, if I had room for him.
Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the world’s smallest book shop, the shoe forest, the Stephen Leacock Museum and the alligator.
Photo: 7-foot Painted Guitars
Photo: Our bed inside the tent
Photo: Woodland Pepsi Machine at the campground
Photo: Elliot BROOD drummer, Stephen Pitkin
Photo: Oscar Brand, with his wife Karen and Josh White, Jr.
Photo: The Porta-Potty Attendant, who inspected each potty for cleanliness before grandly opening the door for its next user.
Photo: Ian and Sylvia on the big screen, singing Four Strong Winds
It’s too hot to think, so I’m just sharing a few videos I’ve seen lately. I hope you like them.
This one’s short and spectacular:
This one is a quick clip of 100 people, in order of age, from one to 100.
The giggling quadruplets have been around for awhile, but I still love them.
This one’s been around for awhile too (a couple of you sent it to me last year). If you’re still looking for ways to cool your cats down during the heat wave, look no further.
We’re all surviving the heat wave over here, despite the fact that neither house has air conditioning and both houses are crazy hot. On the bright side, I can’t tell anymore when I’m having a hot flash. And at least the car has AC, so when we’re between houses we’re blissful.
CBC Radio was asking listeners to call in their favourite beat-the-heat tips a couple of days ago, and my
favourite was the woman who said she paid her kid 50 cents to fan her. Sadly, our kids are in their twenties and would probably charge us 50 bucks.
Sometimes, when we can’t stand the heat anymore, we take our lawn chairs and go chill in the frozen food aisle of Loblaws. If they give us a hard time about loitering, we buy popsicles, thereby transforming ourselves into paid customers once again.
I’m kidding. But we do go to Loblaws and buy popsicles. And we do go to Chapters and chill.
But we can’t hang out and chill all the time. There are things that still need to be done. Push-ups, for example. Miss VIcky tweeted about doing 170 push-ups one day, so I followed up with her and learned about the hundred push-ups program. GC and I did the initial test three weeks ago. He could do eight push-ups and I could do (cough, cough) two. Since then I’ve worked my way up to 22.
Another thing that couldn’t wait til after the heat wave was pitching the tent. My sister lent us a tent, which we’re taking to the Mariposa Music Festival this weekend. I’m used to little pup tents. This tent is bigger than some of the apartments I’ve lived in. It’s got bay windows and cup holders and a remote control light.
Anyway, last night we finally got around to setting it up to make sure we wouldn’t find ourselves flummoxed at the campground. It took us over an hour, and the sweat was stinging my eyes, but we did it. We went inside the tent for a few minutes once it was set up, and it was even hotter in there, if you can imagine. The outside air felt almost cool when we emerged. Then we spent another half hour dismantling it and trying to make it fit in the bag.
I feel bad for the pets who get virtually no relief from the heat. They don’t go in the car, and they don’t go to Loblaws and Chapters. Duncan hasn’t even slept with me the last few nights, which is highly unusual. He hasn’t even shown up for bedtime stories, which he normally loves. Instead, he’s been sleeping alone, spread-eagled on the living room floor. He comes up once or twice during the night to check on me, but only stays a minute or two.
Logan, the golden retriever, has been spending a lot of time on the cool tile floor of GC’s laundry room in the basement.
Lester and Billie spend their days and nights cooped up in the little nesting box, sitting on their eggs, which we worry are going to cook. Sometimes they come out and plunge their heads into the water dish. Both birds have been very quiet the last couple of days.
Speaking of the eggs, I noticed something interesting yesterday on the webcam, while Billie was out of the nest. I think I can see a faint image of Jesus Christ’s face in one of the eggs. GC thinks it looks more like Conway Twitty. What do you think?
I stumbled across this guy on Facebook – he commented on a comment of mine, and when I clicked on his name, this is what popped up. (He lives in Toronto, in case any of you are interested.)
I am 5’11”, with short curly black hair, and brown eyes. I am of mixed culture, by that I mean I am half French Canadian (though I do not speak French), a quarter Scottish, and a quarter Jamaican single male…and I am still a virgin at 33, I prefer telling the truth, because the truth gets you everywhere, and lying gets you nowhere. I whole-heartedly believe in sex before marriage…someone who is a virgin by choice — which I am not — would not believe in this. Yes, I admit I want to have sex, but I want to go out with the woman for a while before something like that happens…to see if we’re going to be good for each other. Also, you should not judge a book by it’s cover, just because I am still a virgin does not mean I do not know what to do! I am looking for a single woman between the ages of 18 – 32 years of age who has ABSOLUTELY no exotic body — eyebrow, nose, lip, tongue, nipple, belly button, etc, and 2 other unmentionable places — piercings. I am very outgoing and looking for the same, if you want to get to know me more, then please feel free to contact me. I’ve been asking girls out since I was 10 and I have been using personal ads since I was 18, that is 14 years of writing these…and in that time I still have yet to get a response (add all those years together and I have been turned down by girls for 23 years in a row); when writing a personal ad I tell the truth, I will never lie — like other people do, I could name a lot of my friends, but am not going to — on a personal ad ever. So, if you want to get to know me, then you’ll have to contact me.
It’s been a freaky couple of weeks around here, what with earthquakes and riots and Mayor Larry and registered letters and lovebirds laying eggs. So freaky, in fact, that I completely forgot to talk about the Queen’s visit.
I had a meeting on Thursday morning at Billings Bridge, and it was my intention to go see the Queen unveil the Oscar Peterson statue afterward. I don’t know why. The Queen’s just kind of trippy in an anachronistic sort of way. I saw her once before – just caught a glimpse of her in her motorcade – and it was one of those essentially meaningless moments which I never forgot. So I thought I’d treat myself to another such moment.
On my way to meet the Queen I came upon an Indian store, and outside the window, on the sidewalk, was a basket full of stuff. And on the basket was a sign that said “$15 for entire contents of basket including basket.”
So I rifled through it, and it had all kinds of cool stuff in it. Three journals! Journals! And one of them is a really good one that I’ve contemplated buying many times before but never did because I couldn’t afford to spend $25 on a journal. The other two journals are pretty nice too. And there’s a traveling Buddhist altar, and eight perfumes, and incense burners and incense holders and a bracelet and a few other things.
So I picked up the basket, took it into the store and paid $15 for it. Then I continued on my way. But I soon realized that the basket was a bit too heavy and awkward for lugging around on a Queen-meeting excursion.
On Wednesday GC and I attended a demonstration outside the police station, to show our support for the democratic rights of freedom of assembly and free speech. Also: to show our concern about how Harper, McGuinty and the police mishandled the protest in Toronto.
Personally, I find it utterly contemptible that Toronto’s police chief lied to the media and citizens about the temporary law granting the police sweeping new powers during the protest, thereby effectively giving itself even more power than it legitimately had. And why didn’t Premier Dalton McGuinty step forward and correct the lie, when it was widely reported in the media?
The protest at the Ottawa police station was peaceful and orderly, and was observed by a handful of cops, including one on the roof with the video camera.
We stayed up late that night, formatting our Nanowrimo novels for publication – the offer of a free published copy of the book expired at midnight, Pacific Time. We’d been procrastinating since November about this, but we got our novels submitted at the very last minute.
The next day – Canada Day – we bused downtown for a bit but couldn’t seem to muster up much energy. We drifted over to the Jazz Festival, and then hung out at the magazine store on Elgin. We almost went to the Museum of Nature, but kept waffling and changing course. We had to get back to GC’s place before dark, because The Dog is petrified of fireworks, so we wanted to be holding his paw when they occurred. But I think he ended up sleeping through it; I know I did.
In other news: Our love-struck lovebirds, Billie and Lester, laid their fourth egg on Canada Day! The webcam is still broadcasting live during the days. There might still be another egg or two to come. We’re expecting the hatching to commence on or about the 14th of July.
We’re a little uncertain of our role in all this. Apparently we’re supposed to take the babies from the parents when the youngest is about 10 days old, and start hand-raising them ourselves. This involves setting up a heated brooder and hand-feeding them every four hours and talking to them and kissing their little bald heads. The reason for this is that they will be much tamer and more desirable as pets because they’ll have established early bonds with human beings.
But we keep thinking about how traumatic and devastating this would be for Billie and Lester. They’re so protective of the eggs already, and they haven’t even hatched yet. It just seems so wrong to steal their babies ten days after they hatch.
On the other hand, from what I understand, once the babies are about six weeks old, Billie and Lester won’t want them around anymore anyway. So we’d just be taking them a few weeks early. And they’ll be better pets because of it, which is important too, considering they’re going to spend the rest of their lives being someone’s pets.
What do you think? (If you’re reading this in a feed reader or email, you’ll need to come over to knitnut.net to vote.)
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