Shore Birds... Or Sure Birds.

I don't know if I'm a Shore Bird... but I'm certainly a sure bird.

Each day passes in a flurry of activity now. Yesterday was spent moving all my junk from the log house to my mother's and father's house and moving the furniture that they want sold, back out to mine. As of Monday there will be a grand and glorious sale here at Nicholsville West. And hopefully next week if all goes well then I can get the movers to come and take our stuff away from the house in town. Either way, everything has to be out of this house by Thursday. Then I will spend Friday morning here cleaning the toilets, counters, showers, shelves and pantries and last but not least, I will mop my way out the door. Then I will drive to mom's and dad's and that will be that. Ten years of our marriage will be done and over with. I will be sad but no doubt Sir Arsewipe will be over the moon. It will be done, finito for the log house. From that point forward the girls and I will be living at my parents house until we leave. I wish I could have gotten the train tickets earlier but that wasn't to be. The earliest date I could get them, when I booked, was leaving on the night of the 10th. And so our last week here will be a flurry of getting mom's and dad's place cleared out and packing and buying suitcases (more on that in a minute) and saying goodbyes to friends and special places. Somewhere in there I have to get Narmie back to the vet so that I can get his booster shot and I have to go to FSJ looking for a kennel big enough for Jiggs and I have to buy luggage.

The train is beginning to be a priority for us. We have a friend driving us to Edmonton, that is... Mom, Dad, and me, while Sir Arsewipe will be taking the girls and the dogs and our luggage with him in his truck. It is getting down to the wire.

Yesterday while at mom's and dad's house we were discussing luggage. The train will allow us five pieces of luggage each. We are allowed a small piece of carry on luggage which will hold our clothing and towel, shampoo, and toothbrush etc... and anything that we want to do while on the train. We are also allowed 4 pieces of luggage to check into the cargo bay. They must not exceed 48 inches in all directions combined. So that means that the length, width, and heighth must add up to no more than 48 inches. These are not big bags. That means that I have to be very particular in what I choose to bring with me. I have to pick a suitcase that can take my wheel. I have to choose a suitcase that can carry my rigid heddle loom. Then I have to fit the majority of my clothing into the rest of my luggage.  So luggage has become the next big issue. I have to buy some because right now we have huge duffle bags that Sir Arsewipe and Daughter #1 used for JCR events, certainly not useable for a train. Today I finished packing the deck stuff and I decided to take the chimes... I figured Sir Arsewipe might get a set at his next wedding... heck if I'm in the right frame of mind I might buy them and give them to him as a wedding gift.... but if I do I'll be sure to buy the most jangling horrible set I can find.

(At one point in his discussions with his girlfriend they talk about their next wedding... you can hear it weighted with anticipation and hope,... she say, "I'm wearing white at my next wedding." He says, you look really hot in black. What did you wear at your first?" She says, I wore my friend's dress. White. I can't wear black at my wedding... " He says,  "In Korea white is a funeral colour..." She says, "I'm not in Korea... I doubt if I'll get married ever again anyway." Then it gets disgusting after that.)

Anyway, today I have to take a few more loads of stuff to mom's and dad's place before Sir Arsewipe shows up and wants the truck. He moves his stuff to his new digs tomorrow and I expect that I won't have the truck again for a few days. So I had better be off... there's furniture awaiting to be taken to my parents place. In the meantime, the girls and I are now getting closer to what's represented in the below photo... and we are all looking forward to it.

Nfld.... Here I Go

I have exactly one week left in my little log home. When I think about that I want to freak out completely. I am beginning to get panicky about all that is left to do... meanwhile I am trying to scrounge up enough money to move our stuff to Nfld... That financial hit that I took earlier in the week is really causing problems. Then on top of it all Sir Arsewipe decided that he was going to look into buying out my half of the house that mom and dad live in. Off he went to the bank yesterday to look at how the financing was going to go. So when he got back I asked him how it went and he talks to me like I am the bitch supreme. I am so sick of this. I asked to speak with him in the upstairs so that the Daughters wouldn't hear what we had to say and after I explained to him that we were trying to run two houses on one income and that he was throwing me and the girls to the dogs I asked him if he realized exactly what he was doing... no remorse whatsoever in that face and then stupid here asked him how he was able to live with himself... off went the fireworks!! Suffice it to say that the feelings right now are as overwhelming as they can possible be.... and not in a good sense. I know he hates my guts and I am as close to hating that f--ker too. (Sorry in-laws.)  I really don't know how he can live with himself. He just doesn't give two figs as long as he has got the chit. I was reading through his disgusting love letters and found where he was talking about going camping and how they were best friends and everything was going to be fine and that was back while I was at the Blueberry. He left my girls at home sleeping in bed and took off early one morning while I was away so that he could make breakfast for her and be together while they ate. That b--ch has him so wrapped around her finger that he doesn't even care about the girls. The Daughters are not stupid... they don't talk about it much but they know that he is blowing them off. Why is he doing this?  I just can't figure out how a person can blow off the people who love him the most. Just like that we are no longer important to him. I have been wishing really horrible things and so I went to the shed for an hour to do some physical labour in order to work off some of my anger... but it didn't help.

So I will focus on something else instead. Here are some pics of my house... the one that I am now officially buying. I finally feel like I can post some pics...

My Square box house!

The view from my deck. Gotta love that!

My nearest neighbour...

The back and the entryway to the house with the deck on the far side.

Foyer

 

Living room through the french doors.

Living room from the other direction.

Dining room

Obviously this is the kitchen.

Upstairs landing...

Master Bedroom

Second Bedroom

Third Bedroom

So that's it folks... this will be my new house if all things go right.....

I need to get away from here in the worst kind of a way. So I can't think of a better home to have in a better place.

Fabio... Huh???

A few days ago I blogged about drowning in pet issues and what to do with them. A good friend left a comment... (see two days ago if you want to see it). She said that she would send Fabio to save me...

You have to understand before I go any further that pop culture is kind of Huh??? to me. That is because I don't watch TV as a rule and so I have become a pop culture nerd. So when my friend left the comment about Fabio I wasn't really sure what the heck she was talking about.  Tonight I sat down here at this computer and I really needed a pick-me-up since once again Sir Arsewipe is rearing his ugly head (which is most of the time these days) and I ended up in a snot fest at my mother's and father's place as I tried to get under control the emotional roller coaster that he puts me on daily now. Suffice it to say we had another fight because we tried to talk about something other than the girls. Once again I was told that I am trying to get my own way and that I am jumping to conclusions with no basis. Nice! I kicked him out of my room which is where we were talking. He is now gone to his trailer via bicycle and probably is getting his ruffed feathers smoothed by his one and only since I think I saw her car headed that way as I came home from the parents house. Lovely.

Anyway... I digress... where were we... oh yeah. Fabio. When I read her comment I thought, what the heck is a Fabio. But I never really had time to look at it longer than that... tonight when I got back I turned on the computer to check my email and since my email is a Gmail email I decided to have a look at the stat counter on my blog. So I went in and noticed that there was someone checking out the comment that my friend left. So I went in and I remembered that I had been going to Google Fabio.

Shizam!!!! Boy am I glad I checked out Fabio...

Hoooottttttttttie!!!!

Fragile

Sometimes I feel like the most unbreakable piece of granite. At other times, I feel like something you would find in a jewelry store... something very precious that is easily broken.... a crystal butterfly that could smash into a million tiny pieces at a moments notice. At those moments I know that it is time to put my head down and get some rest. These sleepless nights that I have been experiencing, I know are due to the fact that I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. There are many things that have to be dealt with in my life at the moment. I am selling my house and trying to sell (or at least rent) my parents house. I am buying a house in Nfld sight unseen. I am trying to buy a car, and in the midst of all of this, I am trying to go through a divorce. Any one or two of these things would be enough to shatter a normal person. But all five at the same time while trying to keep a relatively normal lifestyle for the daughters and help my parents maintain some equilibrium, is starting to take its toll.  At times I feel the rush of tears at the back of my eyes and it comes at the oddest moments. I might be putting a load of washing in the washer or I might be ordering a cup of coffee from a waitress... and suddenly there is a familiar pinprick at the back of my eyes and I have to force myself to think of the beach in Nfld... or I have to think of Daughter #1's facebook profile picture in order to hold the tears at bay. When they are pushed back, then I can go on.

Each night now I try to be in bed by about 9:30 p.m. so that I can catch a few extra minutes of exhausted sleep since my inner clock seems to have decided that I am not going to sleep past 3 a.m.  regardless of what time I go to sleep.  Sleep is a precious commodity since it is the only thing standing between me and complete collapse. I am tired. Tired to my bones. Tired to the synapses that continue to go on in my brain regardless of me wanting them to stop for just a few precious moments. From three in the morning till around 6 a.m. I lie awake ruminating on all the events of the previous day, or shredding apart my feelings for Sir Arsewipe.

Yesterday was once again a day of revelations about him and my life with him. We left here yesterday morning and headed down to DC to meet with the notary there who is handling our side of the sale of our house. Yes the legal forms are all signed and so I expect that on the 31st everything will go through as planned and I will vacate this home of mine that I for so many years said, "it would take a bomb to get me to move out." Well the bomb came in the form of Sir Arsewipe. I sat in the office of  the notary and waited for the ending of a way of life and then when it was all over I walked out of that office into the harsh northern sunlight a walked across the street to the truck as my husband walked a mare few feet away from me. Not a word passed between us as we got into the truck and in the back of my mind I wondered how in the world he could face himself each morning in the mirror knowing that he had ripped apart his family and told the person that loved him the most that she was not good enough. I wondered how he could look at the Daughters knowing that he had ripped their world open and screwed us all over. This house which he so greatly resents, this house which I have tried so hard to make a home, was the biggest and best thing between us and financial disaster. It was our biggest investment and the thing which would give us the biggest return on our money and we had just signed it away without a backward look.  I just couldn't fathom how easily it had all happened.

We had spent the two hours going to DC barely exchanging a word. I had nothing to say to him and so I tried to catch a few winks of sleep which I think I did but you know how car sleep is.... sometimes it is not very deep and you know everything that is going on really anyway. After DC it was the same thing... and though I didn't sleep there was barely a word between us as the trees and scenery passed by outside. It kept going through my mind... how can you look yourself in the mirror each morning.... how can you live with yourself. Knowing that didn't change the fact that I knew the worst of the day was yet to come.

I had him drop me off at the Arts Post in FSJ so that I could meet with my spinners and weavers friends and go for lunch with them. I don't know what he did... but my friends took me out for lunch where we chatted and gabbed and I got to see some of the ladies who I haven't seen in a long time... one who has been fighting cancer for many months and is looking so good (I'm happy to say) and I was so glad to see her. But all the while that I was being enfolded into the arms of my friends I held in the back of my mind this little part of me which was thinking about a face in a mirror and the white mustache and the balding head and the hollow eyes. I was thinking of Sir Arsewipe looking at himself in the mirror and I wondered what he saw.

After lunch was over I headed to the Fairways Divorce offices and got there a few minutes after 1 p.m. which is when our meeting was supposed to be held. I walked into a board room where he was sitting and once again looked at that face and all I saw was the mask.   I know that somewhere deep down there has to be some feeling but I am no longer privy to what he thinks or does and so his face remains impenetrable.

During our negotiations, I stupidly agreed to a couple of things that means the bulk of the debt is being paid out of my portion of the assets. But I will address that in our next meeting because the bulk of the negotiations is yet to come. I had to cash in one of our RRSPs after the negotiations for the afternoon were over. That was ok since it means that there will be one less debt since we will use the money from the RRSP to get rid of a jointly held credit card. That is how it goes... Divorce does not mean that you split everything 50/50 it is a back and forth so that our individual net worths come out in pretty good shape. But then no one ever wins in a divorce. Dividing everything and deciding who gets what is a horrible job and as is the case no one ever wins except the lawyers.

We came home in the truck and I have discovered that the only thing that we are able to talk about any more are the girls. They are our common ground now... We can speak about them without it deteriorating into a bitch/butch fest. About halfway home I felt a serious case of fidgets coming on and so I asked if he would pull over and let me do some driving. He was ok with that and so we switched places. It felt good to be behind the wheel and I felt a surge of independence that I haven't felt since before we were married. It felt good and I felt the corners of my mouth starting to relax and just slightly go up.

With this little tiny bit of positivity in me, I felt that I had an opportunity to talk to him a little bit about something that I can't mention here yet, but it needed to be talked about since it was giving Daughter #1 some sleepless nights. So I broached the topic cautiously. There was a few moments of discussion before I backed off and felt I had dealt with it at least some. After I got home I sat down for a few minutes and realized that Sir Arsewipe was out on the deck with Daughter #1 now discussing what we had only moments before talked about in the truck... it was ok because they needed to get it sorted. Afterwards he was leaving and Daughter #1 came in with tears in her eyes and I wasn't really surprised about that since it was a fairly touchy topic. I asked her if she was alright and gave her a big hug and that's when it all came pouring out. She really doesn't believe a word he says. I wish I could talk about it more but I can't... but suffice it to say that it was based on that discussion of what he had said to her that I realized why Sir Arsewipe can look at himself in the mirror each day. It was in that moment that I realized that the man that I married is a Peter Pan...

You see my very great understanding came when I realized that he doesn't think that he has done anything wrong.  He thinks that he is completely in the right.  He sees his relationship with the other woman as just friends.  He sees himself as embarking on a way of getting rid of an overbearing and controlling woman (me).  He sees me as the fault for all of our problems and he sees our house as not the investment into our future that I understood it to be but as a noose around his neck. That is when it hit me that he is 49 years of age going on 20 years of age. That jackass got to the age of twenty and never moved beyond. When he looks in the mirror he sees someone shackled to responsibility and when he is finished dumping me and the girls and my parents he will be free of that responsibility... he will be free to pursue his own interests again.

So you see I have lain awake tonight a mulled it all over in my head and I am tired of being mother to this man child. I am tired of my responsibility for him. He was supposed to be my partner but instead I became the Wendy to his PeterPan.  It is one more responsibility that I do not need. It is one more burden that is make me quake under the weight of it. It is one of the things that is makig me so very tired, and fragile.

But when I look into the mirror what do I see? I see a woman who is tired and alone in this world with nowhere to turn and nowhere to rest. I just keep plodding along in the hopes that at some point I will be able to shed a little of this burden that I am under.  And the first step will be to see if I can get our stuff moved, because that is one of the dastardly things that I have had to pony up on in our negotiations. Debts paid means that I have less to money to get us home... basically to get me through this divorce I have had to give up the amount of money that I would have used for the movers... and so I am left scrabbling and trying to find a way to move our stuff across Canada.... unless I sell Mom's and Dad's place.

It is 5:41 a.m. and I have been awake since 3 a.m.  I am tired and so I am going back to bed to try and get a couple of more hours of sleep before the sun comes up. (It's raining out and so I expect that the sun might not be out today.) I will call Narmie up on the bed in the hopes that he will cuddle up to my back as he sometimes does and I will drift off into a peaceful and deep sleep that I so greatly need to keep my equilibrium.... and if not... then the next couple of hours will be devoted to a little of this....

Moving...

Our house has met all requirements to close. The offer on the house in Nfld has now been signed by both parties, so that for all intents and purposes our move to Nfld. is a go.  I have tickets for the train... I have been looking at cars in Nova Scotia... the only thing left is the divorce and the movers. Something bad came up today which means that it looks like we won't be able to move our stuff. I have shown Mom and Dad's mobile home... so hopefully if that sells then we can move all of our stuff then. I would hate to lose some of the things that mean so much and have been in my family for so many years but we may have to sell it all and start over. The something bad was very unforeseen.  I try to make sure that I have all my bases covered but sometimes you take a hit and you just don't see it coming... but we are still hopeful that it will all work out in the end. We will see soon enough though.

Sir Arsewipe still works on the house. The silly man said he would be finished on Friday and then he said Sunday and then it was Monday and now it is Wednesday and he still has a day of work to do. Tomorrow we have to go to Dawson Creek for legalities with the sale of this house so he won't be finished then either. We also start negotiations on spousal and child support. I absolutely fear tomorrow... for a number of reasons. Firstly because I will find out what I am going to have to live on for the next few years... also because I have to sit in the truck alone with a man that I haven't been alone with for more than two months. I will bring along a book and my headphones so that I can listen to some music and if all goes well I won't sleep tonight which will mean that as soon as I get in the truck in the passenger seat I will fall asleep. That would be good because then we won't have to talk.

Next morning...
I wrote all of that yesterday evening and then pooped out and went to bed before I could finish. I have been awake since 2 a.m. because as I suspected my mind wouldn't stop working on problems that I have to overcome. I am so very hopeful that mom's and dad's place will sell because that is the only way we are going to get our junk home. Mostly I am concerned about dad's chair and the antiques and the personal stuff like photos and Christmas stuff... after that I really couldn't care less. It is all so hopeless... I look at Sir Arsewipe and wonder how I could have been so happy only a few short months ago when everything has turned upside down and inside out.  It really hurts to think about it all and so I try to not think about it at all. I have decided that men are not worth my tie and it doesn't matter what the bible says about divorce because most men are pond scum and I am better off on my own. So there you have it... I have become the bitter hag that I was hoping to avoid.

My great grandmother Leah Sanger had insurmountable problems in her life and she lived to be a  very old lady who seemed happy enough. I've always felt a connection with her story. Somehow I see my life playing out similar to hers. She was married and had five children and lost her husband to Diphtheria I think it was... but some illness... and so she remarried someone that she liked well enough who would take care of her and her children. She was the spinner in the family and had a huge great wheel in her kitchen. she read the bible every day but couldn't read a word... still people would catch her sitting in her rocker with the bible in her hands upside down and she could repeat her bible verses easily... she couldn't read a word but that's what she would say she was doing... she was reading her bible. then her second husband died and she was left to fend for herself...In those days Newfoundland had not become a part of Canada and so there were no widows pensions or money when your husband died. You lived off the sweat of your back and luck and kindness. She lived on fish that fishermen would bring to her or trout that she could catch... potatoes and carrots and turnip that she grew in her garden... and berries that she picked in the fall of the year. Occasionally she would get a bit of money from her oldest son who worked away in Boston. Then as her other children grew up they would help her. Once Newfoundland became part of Canada and old age pension was available she thought she had died and gone to heaven.  Then her daughter contracted tuberculosis and she couldn't afford to send her to the sanatorium and so she died too. My great grandmother was so strong to have survived all these horrible deaths. But she was strong... very strong. She picked berries all through berry picking season and made jams and tarts and things that she could eat all through the winter. My mother remembers her walking along the Catalina road and off into the berry picking grounds with a bag over one shoulder with a kettle and a few teabags and a can of milk and berry picking buckets that she could fill. And that is how she lived. When she died in the early 1960s just a few years before I was born she had reached the ripe old age of 92. She was buried quietly in the back of the cemetery with no stone to mark her passing... I know where she is buried but I do not know exactly... just approximately. 

Well I had better get my butt in gear since I will be picked up by Sir Arsewipe in approximately 10 mins... I need to get a bite to eat and pack my stuff in a bag that I will need... you know marriage certificate... not that it's worth the paper it's written on but I guess you need at times of divorce. Then I need that book and those earphones... desperately... Wish me luck... I'm off...

Dogs And Cats

As soon as I found out that Sir Arsewipe was a lying cheating useless piece of scum and that divorce was inevitable... I knew that there had to be some decisions made about pets. I knew right away that Narmin and Jiggs would be coming with me. I didn't want Bailey because she had never bonded with me and I know that dog is going to require energy to make her into a decent dog... energy that I just couldn't commit and besides she had bonded with Sir Arsewipe and so I felt that he could take her. Then there were our two cats. Cat number one is a 13 year old male that is as mild mannered as could possibly be. Cat number two is a 1 year old female that was as pregnant as could be. Cats do not move well. I know that from years of trying to force cats to do things that they just don't want to do... like travel. I really like our old black male cat but he has never known any other house than this one and the poor bugger is going to find it hard enough to move up the road let alone across country. I figured Sir Arsewipe would be ok with taking him since he has always had a soft spot for Midnite. But what to do with the kitten... again I felt that it would be easier on the cat if Sir Arsewipe took her... then she had her kittens... seven. Her first litter. Four died right off the bat because she is only tiny herself and I wasn't surprised that she just wasn't able to take care of them. The three remaining are all alive and well. Two are females and one is a male. Daughter #1 loves cats and she really wanted to take one of the kittens with her but now we find out that Sir Arsewipe is not able to take any of the cats and so they are all looking at being put down, or off to the SPCA, or there is this dreadful problem of trying to find a home for them.  We are even looking into flying the old caat across Canada so that we don't have to put him down. Either way the young one and her litter are not coming with me... this is a problem.

I am not a cat person. They are ok as long as someone else owns them or if they are in my house then they have to understand that they have a limited area in which to be. I am allergic to cats and as long as I keep a distance, as long as I do not have carpets and can clean out their dander regularly, as long as they are trained to go out doors to do their business, I can tolerate them.We have an understanding Midnite and I... he stays away from me and I feed him and make sure he has a bed on cold nights in the winter. Summer time he catches mice and I make sure he is fed and has good clean cold water available to him... it is a good understanding.

The thing is that we will be traveling by train. We are allowed to take the dogs with us as long as they are in kennels that meet the regulations. It will cost us only a little to take them on the train but they will have to be in the cargo area and we will have to feed and water them regularly and then we will have to make sure that at the longer stops that they are taken on their leashes and walked for exercise and their bathroomities. but to take a cat on the train is not going to happen... no way no how... never ever...!Sir Arsewipe is looking into sending it across country... on a plane. God what we do for our pets.

Sometimes I wish I could just get in a car and leave but that is not possible with the health problems that Pops has. he has to have his feet elevated for more than a few hours each day. he has to have time when he is comfortable. he cannot deal with driving for more than tree to five hours a day. That would mean that we would be on the road for three weeks. Everyday driving... with hotels each night... not happening... and so we travel via train... dogs in tow... and cat to follow by plane later. God what in the f-ing world has this shit I married got me into....?

I just have to remember one day at a time... one foot in front of the other. But I will be honest I can't wait till this mess is behind me.

Help!!! I'm drowning....

It's Newfoundland or bust!!! I wish the pets could just drive themselves!!

O Give Me A Home

So what did you all think of my poem... I had a good laugh writing it because though I exaggerated, the story itself is not made up!  Mmmmmm... fish and fly soup...still in the fridge if anyone wants some. : ) I have been noticing that the grasshoppers though not as bad as some years are still pretty darn bad... the flies... well you can't leave the door open at all and you had better make sure that food is in air tight containers. Hornets, the darlings... they are all over they house and I can't close the doors because Sir Arsewipe is still working on getting the house done so he comes and goes with wood or tools at will. As of today he hopes to be finished. I hope so too because quite frankly I'm tired of him being here and having to watch every thing that comes out of my mouth.  Daughter #2 took off and went to a friend's house last night but Daughter #1 and I sat around and had custard and cake... (made with corn flour and potato flour...it was ok I guess ... but the custard was good). I think I am looking forward to the end of this day.

I am out of boxes and have to go to the grocery store to get more today. The packing continues and while I didn't get all of the stuff packed on the deck that I had planned on doing, I did get some of my kitchen stuff done. Some progress is better than none. I still haven't tackled the fleeces in the shed because I don't want to go at that while there is sawdust everywhere. The last thing I want to do is have to pick fleeces in Nfld because they are full of sawdust that they got contaminated with here. the shed remains a dreadful mess. Still, slowly but surely there are fewer and fewer things in the shed to come out. I am glad of that. I can't wait to get the shed cleaned out because once that's done then that's when we are going to have a huge garage sale. Still the 31st which is our closing date is looming closer and closer. It scares me how quickly that date is creeping. Today being the 20th of August means that in terms of daylight we are equivalent to April 21st. I'm not sure why that is so daunting but it is.

I've been wanting to use the above painting for a few days now but since I have been so focused on going back east to the shore and the ocean I really couldn't find a good reason to use it so today I am using it just because I like it. And well it does remind me a little bit of Farrel Creek which is a farming area close by to where I am living now. It is something that I will be leaving behind when I go. I've always loved to pass the fields of buffalo because it reminds of the days when bison roamed this country freely. No fences and no boundaries. There's something appealing about that.

Freedom is an intoxicating concept... I'm not sure it is a real thing but still I like to think that somewhere there is true freedom. I have contemplated the idea many times and I often wonder if it is possible to find such a thing. I know I have never found it and never will that is because my family are far more of a priority to me than freedom. If you have even one person relying on you then you cannot have true freedom... not if you take your responsibilities seriously.

I also love the above painting for the colours. As soon as I saw it, the sky reminded me of a Kaffe Fassett piece of knitting. I wouldn't mind designing an afghan based on these colours.

This morning I woke to the sound of the chickadees swarming the last of the Saskatoon berries in the bushes between the house and the old chicken coop. there were quite a few berries this year but I didn't pick them for one because I'm not dreadfully fond of Saskatoons but also because I will have no reason to store any this year and picking them and just eating them is not to our liking. Normally I would freeze them when I got them and make pies but since I can't eat gluten in wheat pies kind of seem pointless.  anyway I loved the sound of the chickadees... i wonder if they will be around in Nfld... Now I know you're wondering about that since of course there are chickadees in Nfld. But they do tend to be further inland than right on the coast and you did see the pic of my (hope-to-be)property in yesterday's post... not a bush to be seen anywhere... but lovely grasses. There will be shore birds I'm sure... but what else I don't know.  Definitely the sea... the sea oh the wonderful sea...

So let's see... today, as an ending to this post, I will post a couple of paintings of birds... those that I am leaving behind and those that I expect to see.