Bunny gone

Bunny left this morning.















I miss her, the place seems empty without her.










A bug has moved in.
















It is just not the same.

Weekend in Barrie, Bunny takes a trip

This weekend felt like the first weekend of summer. Hot. I kept looking at the trees, wondering why they had no leaves.

Had a good visit with my brother and his family in Barrie, he's lost some weight since the last time I saw him and is looking very fit. He invited me to go for a walk with him on Saturday morning, at 6.30am. He woke me up at 6.00am and we walked down to the lakeshore and along the boardwalk there for a ways, then turned around and came back, picking up some coffee for breakfast. That pretty much left me exhausted for the rest of the day! I'm going to have to work at it if I expect to be as fit as my brother, it's been a long time since I could say that.

Later in the day we walked over to a mall and did a bit of shopping. I bought an outfit I can use as a bathing suit in Belize, but also can wear kayaking or jogging or just working in the garden. It's completely synthetic, made from material that dries quickly and protects against UV. I got three pieces, a sports bra, a pair of shorts and a shirt. They are snug-fitting, so they won't balloon up in the water. It's not that I need a new bathing suit, but I did want to have something that I could wear while snorkelling that would protect against the sun. And being a certain age, I'm happy not to expose all my skin while swimming; this outfit provides coverage and looks good. It was expensive though, way more than I would ever pay for a bathing suit. But since it can be used for other things as well, I felt justified in paying for it. I had hoped to do all my Belize shopping errands so I wouldn't have to go shopping in Toronto, but I didn't really succeed. I still have a few more things to pick up so I will have to go shopping tomorrow or Thursday.

I checked my email when I got home today, there was one from a friend in Seattle. I had said I would be out west this summer and wondered if I could stop by to visit, he replied that was fine and he'd make space in his fridge for me. I kind of did a double take on that: in his fridge? What exactly did he have in mind? Then I realized that the last few times I have visited him I have had a cooler full of food in my truck that I would ask to put in his fridge while I was there. He knows me better than I do!

Another bit of news, tonight is Bunny's last night with me. When I arrived home, Gretel's Dad Karl (aka the Seafood Express) was here for a brief visit. And Bunny had kind of trashed my place. Apparently she thinks that when I am not home there is no need to use the litter box, rugs are just fine. So I asked Karl if he was up for taking Bunny back to PEI with him. He said it wouldn't be a problem.

I just think that travelling with her might not be realistic, I would have to constantly be watching her to keep her from escaping, I'm not sure she would enjoy it and I don't think I would either. Better she just have a new home. I would like to keep her but that's only going to work if I stay put, and I'm not staying put this summer. I will miss her but I think it is for the best. Tristan has already said his goodbyes to her.

So I hear that it is cool in Vancouver (and Seattle!) and that there even is the chance of snow there. I checked [daily dose] today and he had a photo of a pile of snow behind a building in downtown Toronto, so technically we still have snow too. But it's hot and today we have our first smog alert for the year. Crazy weather.

Very bad Bunny

Whoops! I spoke too soon about Bunny being a lady.

Bunny has learned how to get up on my bed. This morning I did not make my bed.

She got up, pooped everywhere, AND..

....AND...

she peed right in the middle of my sheet and the sheep fleece mattress cover under it.

Bad Bad Bunny.

Excuse me while I go clean up the mess.

My very own Easter bunny

In honour of the first day of spring and the coming Easter weekend, I am posting a photo of my 'roommate', Bunny. And a lovely roommate she is! This is her 'good' side, she's blind in her other eye due to a raccoon attack a couple of years ago.







Wednesday afternoon is my shift at the foodbank, near the end of the shift we were told there would be a meeting right afterward for all volunteers, a kind of Q&A session to keep us up to date on what was happening with the foodbank. A few of us sat around waiting for the meeting to begin and speculating on some of the rumours about what this meeting was all about. None of which proved to be true, as rumours usually aren't.

Anyway, how shall I say this, it was a 'spirited' exchange? A lot of stuff got said, perhaps a good deal of it that shouldn't have been, but on the other hand maybe it should have. I don't know! Definitely left me wondering about the future. And sufficiently tense that I did not sleep all that well last night.

Somehow I am going to put all that out of my mind and try to carry on as just a once-a-week volunteer. I get a real positive kick from being there on Wednesday afternoons, I don't want to give that up. I like that each week at least one patron expresses the opinion that they are glad I am there. Don't want to give that up either. I am growing familiar with some of the faces, enjoy greeting people that come by regularly and enjoy working with volunteers who appear to be enjoying the same things I am.

I know there are problems, after all, the very existence of a foodbank is a statement about the problem with how our society and culture works. But I like that I can send people on their way out the door with smiles on their faces, that they get more than just groceries when they come by. And so do I.

In which Bunny gets a scare and defends herself admirably

Library knitting group last night, there were only four of us this time. Jennifer took my email address so she could warn me next time they cancelled a knitting group meeting. Last week I walked to the library only to find that the group was cancelled due to the snow storm. I didn't really mind, I had some books to pick up anyway and it was a nice evening for a walk. I am almost finished my first hand warmer, the second one should go faster now that I have some idea of what I am doing.

The big news yesterday was the arrival of the puppy, now named Dobby. Gretel describes the event here with pictures here.

They brought the puppy home late at night and unfortunately I neglected to close the door to my apartment so within minutes of arriving in the house the puppy went upstairs. Bunny was sitting in the hallway and the second Dobby rounded the corner from the stairway into the hall, Bunny was off and running.

I had blocked the livingroom doorway with a low barrier, which under normal circumstances is enough to keep Bunny out of there, but she easily leaped the barrier and disappeared under the couch at the far side of the room. Dobby gave chase as far as the barrier but did not try to go over and I caught him and took him back downstairs. It all happened so quickly that I am not sure Dobby even really knew what he was chasing, Bunny was just a small black-and-white blur.

I eventually got Bunny out from under the couch---I had to grab her behind the head and drag her out---as I did not want her spending the night there due to all the exposed electric cords in the vicinity.

Today she is calm but on the alert. She built her own barricade under the kitchen shelving unit, using a box of plastic bags I had left under the table.

Dobby is very cute but not house-trained and he barks a lot when left alone in his crate. I hope he gets over that soon.

Yet more snow

Boy did it snow yesterday! I shovelled the sidewalk around our place and halfway down the block twice and Gretel did our place again before bedtime, and it was still coming down. I heard that it was only 20 cm, but I think we got more than that.

Here's another picture of my truck. The snowpiles in front and behind are half ice and half snow.






Gretel is not biking to work, her bike is snowed in for now.













The street is looking very picturesque under the snow. I'm impressed by the 8-foot pile of snow in this picture, somebody was very busy yesterday and this morning. Strictly speaking, it's illegal to put snow in the street, so this is 8 feet of lawbreaking. But these people have absolutely nowhere else to put it, the front of their building is entirely driveway. They have managed to clear it right down to bare concrete.

Isaac and Gretel are getting a puppy this coming weekend from Gretel's Dad. Her Dad's dog Maggie actually. Her Dad offered to take Bunny back to PEI to live out her remaining days on the farm but I said I'd miss her so we decided to try moving her upstairs with me. We just thought that it would make things easier all round not to have Bunny and the new puppy living together.

So last night we moved her upstairs, setting up her hutch and water bottle and food bowl in my pantry cupboard.

She's been exploring the rest of the apartment from there. She's much more mobile here because I have carpets and she can get some purchase for hopping. Downstairs there are no carpets and the floors are slippery for her. I think that is why she is chubby, she doesn't get enough exercise. I have to keep an eye on her though, bunnies are notorious for chewing on electric cords.