Watching the deer

On Monday when we were driving to my son's place to return his cat to him, my hubby and I decided to take a little side trip. The weather was good and it was late afternoon when we paid a visit to the Upper Canada migratory bird sanctuary near our home. This is a favourite spot for walks in the spring and fall but is also very popular in the winter for another reason. Besides being a great spot for crosscountry skiing it is the home of a large deer population. I'm not sure how long this has been going on but people come and feed the deer here - right beside the Do Not Feed the Wildlife sign! I have been known to bring apples and carrots along but mostly I just love to watch them. Just when you think there aren't any around you look in the rearview mirror and suddenly spot a group of them. It seems they know the sound of the cars and what they bring! Most will venture fairly close. I had brought our new camera with me in the hopes of

getting some good photos. All this time we had the cat with us in the car. I was sitting in the back seat with Tugger and lowered the car window for a better view. You should have seen him when he spied the deer! I captured a pic of him at the car window. He never made a sound but he watched their every move. When one of the deer spotted the cat, she sniffed the air and hightailed it back into the woods. I counted 20 deer around us on this particular visit. If you want to see the other pictures I snapped, follow the link to my Webshots album.

Shrove Tuesday left me no time for stitching. I flipped pancakes at the church supper. The choir sponsors this fundraiser every year and combines it with a silent auction. We're a small parish and served meals to only about 65 people but we managed to make $400 on the supper and another $700 on the auction. All the items for the auction are donated by parishioners and the community. My DH offers a boat ride as one of the items. Bidding is always fierce and this year some close friends were the victors.

I was gone most of the day and evening so consequently there was no time for my CdC SAL. I made up for it the next day though and devoted a few hours to it in between housework.

I wish I could spend all my time on this piece. I find it's very therapeutic.

Thursday marked a return to work and another nerve wracking drive in a snowfall. We were only forecast to catch the tail end of this storm and weren't expecting a large amount. However Mother Nature had other ideas and we ended up with a lot more snow than expected in our area. My first indication of how bad it was occured just a short piece up the sideroad where there was a snowplow in the ditch and two others trying to pull him out. The road was blocked so I had to turn around and take an alternate route. Then when I hit the main highway 401, I found only a single track in the center had been plowed and blowing snow was already filling it in. I thought I'd given myself plenty of travel time but this slowdown and the detour cost me and I was late for work. When I arrived everyone was so surprised to see that I'd made it! Guess I should have just parked myself at home in the drive. Next time I will!

Over the past week or so I've pulled my USA tree out of hiding and been putting some stitches into it as well as WWW. Both are coming along slowly but surely. As you can see, the USA tree is now complete on the one side and the initials are in place.

This weekend promises to be another busy one so tonight I'm staying put by the fire, stitching in hand. Happy stitching everyone!