Back to routine

I'm interupting the vacation posts, to get back to my regular routine. It's been just over a week since I arrived home, and it already feels much longer than that. We had decent weather for most of the week, then the snow fell on Thursday and as of this morning, we're back in the deep freeze. According to the weather network, it is currently -25C (-13F), with a wind chill of -37C (-35F). I can assure you it feels very cold out there, as I just returned from filling the bird feeder. 

Initially when I returned, the birds weren't coming to the feeder. Perhaps they had given up on me since my son didn't fill it while I was away. But by mid-week they were back in full force, along with the squirrels. There is also evidence the hare has been finding food under the feeder too.

On Thursday, the Hungarian partridges were back - all eight of them. I was happy to see they've made it through the winter thus far. I smile everytime I see them parading through the yard. As you can see they found some shelter under the bird bath and hunkered down for most of the afternoon.

The hare paid a visit on Friday evening. I was having a green salad for dinner, while it had its greens from the spruce tree as well. 

The groceries needed restocking - I did that early in the week, ran an errand for my daughter, and dropped in at the Dollar store. On Wednesday before stitch and chat I stopped at Costco to pick up cat food for D and paper towels and Mr. Clean for me. There were only two of us at the stitch and chat. We caught up on Christmas (we didn't meet the week between Christmas and New Years), my vacation, and other happenings in her life as well. 

I worked on a counted cross stitch project I'm making for D and Eli. It was a kit I found at Value Village and it's coming along nicely. At home, I use two lamps for lighting, but the library's overhead fluorescent lighting was perfect. I've been trying to do an hour or two a day, as I'd like to finish it before March...but it's more likely going to be May.

Curling is back after a short break, with the provincial women and men's events happening across the country. The winners of these events will be the provinces (and territories) respresentatives at the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts and the Brier (I can't recall who is the title sponsor as it has changed several times). I'm annoyed with our telcomm here in Saskatchewan as they are only televising one draw a day. I can watch the other two draws on You-tube. I'm starting to think that streaming services may be a better option than cable television.

And of course, I've been catching up with housework. As I predicted, the vacuum that I parked in the closet before I left did not move (I didn't expect it would). While C is pretty neat - there were no big messes to deal with - even with one cat the cat hair builds up. I'm pretty sure I picked up another cat based on the amount of fur in the canister.

Speaking of cats, while I was away, D found a young kitten (about 9 months old) living in her garage. We're not entirely sure how long she was in there, but she had a bit of frost bite on the pads of her feet, but none on her ears or tip of her tail. D posted on the local lost and found and town FB pages but no one came forward to claim her. She then contacted the shelter in the nearby town (none in her community) and learned there are 70 cats currently awaiting placement and they couldn't take another in at this time. As a result, she now has a third cat. Lady Spencer (a nod to Princess Diana), has joined the family. She's been checked out by the vet, given meds to rid her of worms and ear mites, and been spayed. I suspect that she may have gone into heat and rather than doing what was best for her, the family she lived with simply tossed her outdoors. Their loss. She's settling in well, with Sheldon and Stanley, and is even starting to rule the roost. Stanley gets annoyed and jumps up somewhere, where she can't reach him, while Sheldon mostly tolerates the pesky kitten.

I'll get to meet her next week, as I'm heading out to visit for a couple of days. Eli doesn't have school either Monday or Tuesday, (teacher's conference or PD days or whatever they call it these days), so I'm sure we'll have lots of fun.

Have a wonderful week ahead everyone.