Walking on Mount Royal, 30 April 2011

This was the day Cassidy and I walked on Mount Royal and spread Jack's ashes, he was a wonderful and intelligent Whippet, we all loved that dog and remember him with fondness. 

The return of nature is exaggerated

A rabbit in our neighbour's yard

 

Wild turkeys have returned to this area

Somewhere on the West Island of Montreal beavers have returned and are bothering the local people with their behaviour, they are felling trees along the shore and the earth is being eroded there. It is not so much that nature is returning but that the natural habitat for wildlife is being invaded by people and the wildlife has nowhere to go but to live among us. It’s not so bad, food is plentiful, and the animals get used to eating what we discard. The other night, it was 4 a.m., our spotlight in the rear of the house went on and I saw a big fat raccoon walk by the basement window not three feet from where I was standing. Other visitors include skunks, rabbits, ground hogs, and many types of birds I rarely saw even five years ago; for instance, many cardinals, juncos, and other birds. I never saw any wildlife when I was growing up in this neighbourhood, on Oxford Avenue, that’s because only a few blocks away there were a few fields where animals and birds could still live. Or these animals that we didn’t see in the past are now among us, moved in from the surrounding countryside, because the off-island land is being developed. These fields that were in this neighbourhood are long gone, condos, apartment buildings, and duplexes were constructed there years ago. As another example, rue Norman (in Lachine, parallel to Highway 20) used to be wide-open fields, some of it formerly used for agriculture, now it’s an industrial zone and made up of garages, trucks, and various companies.

A ground hog with babies on the next street over

Walking to Meadowbrook Golf Course on 04 April 2025

 

The hidden trail on 22 March 2025

Canadian Cottage Garden, 15 March 2025

It's 10 C this morning, 15 March 2025; spring is here and winter has come to an end. This was a winter we are happy to see the end of, very cold, a lot of snow, and hard on all of us. Right now the garden doesn’t look like much, it's still winter, it's still covered with snow, but soon it will be green and full of flowers, birds will be at the bird bath, life will return to life.     

   

Walking to Meadowbrook Golf Course, 14 March 2025

This was a week ago. Fresh spring air, +3C, and the imminent arrival of the first day of spring. Birds singing.