Expedition Canada

Damp Squib Thu Oct 28th Nick and I settled down to watch the F1Q My son, pictured right, says I talk to much about the weather.  Because he's now a Canadian citizen he seems to have forgotten that Brits like to talk about the weather; but advice headed.  Suffice it to say it has been damp, but hardly explosive. Nick was over on the Coast this weekend but as he was 'out Friday night' was quite happy to watch the F1 Qualifying with me on Saturday afternoon.  It was clearly quite riveting - we both slept through it.  Sunday morning we'd just finished breakfast when a visitor popped by.  We have no idea how it got in, unless when Fred got up to let Jack out at dark o'clock it slipped into the mud room unnoticed.  After about 5 minutes flying up to all the open doors it headed off out.  Big fella, but not sure what type of bat it was. After the excitement of the breakfast visitor and with Fred immersed in final house removals and  furniture shipping li...

Odorous Wood Thu July 29th I've remarked in the past about how clean the Coast's beaches are, though this morning Jack sniffed out some unusual flotsam. He has taken to chewing on mussel and other shells on the seashore, though this morning his attention was taken by something flapping around on the shore.  A crab, I thought.  A bat it turned out.  Rather bedraggled, probably as a result of an accidental water landing.  I started to gather it up when it showed its teeth, spread its wings, and flapped about a bit.  Mindful a bat bite may not be good for your health, I searched around for something to gather it up. Fellow Brit Alan, who has an extremely large but very gentle Rhodesian Ridgeback, ambled over.  I hauled the dog back, Jack already having lost interest and Alan was as surprised as I had been to see our beach-bat. Coaxed onto the side of Jack's retractable lead case the bat was gentle lowered into some secluded and shaded beach-side vegetatio...