Collared Doves were another species that inhabits the camp site and that will come and pick breadcrumbs from basically under your feet.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
The Daily Bird #781
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
Collared Doves were another species that inhabits the camp site and that will come and pick breadcrumbs from basically under your feet.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Highway 401, looking east from Woodstock, ©voyager, all rights reserved
Jack’s Walk is on the road today. We’ll be traveling down Canada’s busiest (and most boring) highway the 401 all the way to its eastern end in Montreal. It’s about an 8 hour drive for us once we add in about 4 or 5 stops for Jack (and us) to get out and stretch. We’ll be staying in a place called Pointe Claire, which is on the west end of the island of Montreal, where Mr. voyager’s mom lives. We’ll stay a few days to visit with family and friends and then we’ll hit the road again, this time along with my mother-in-law and brother-in-law, for a much longer drive (about 1000 km) all the way to the Gaspe Peninsula.
This is an annual trek for us. In a little village at the very tip of the Gaspe Peninsula is a place called Perce where my husband’s mother has a second home. It’s a very special place. It lies nestled at the base of the Chic Choc mountains in a small valley on the edge of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It’s full of colour and charm and I can’t wait to show it to you. It’s a well-known vacation spot because of the Perce Rock which lies just off it’s coast. It’s a stunner! It also has the world’s largest colony of gannets on Bonaventure Island which is also just off the coast.
But I’m skipping ahead. The next week or so is all about getting there. Jack’s Walk will still be here daily, but the timing will probably be wonkier than usual. My mother-in-law doesn’t have internet (she’s 92, although you’d never know it!) so I’ll be posting from the Tim Hortons down the road. Same thing once we get to Perce…no internet for the first few days, but one or two of the local motels has accessible wi-fi so we’ll get here somehow.
See you soon from la belle province, Quebec.
We’ve been neglecting the Daily Bird, which is a thing that cannot be.
So here’s a gorgeous Sardinian Warbler for you.
The funny thing about shooting with the 600mm lense is that I sometimes don’t even know what I’m shooting and only find out at home when I look at the pics on the computer screen.
Sardinian Warbler
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Early harvest, ©voyager, all rights reserved
According to the weatherman we can expect to have rain off and on all week so the farmers are out making hay while the sun still shines.
Tree Tuesday gets around and this week we’re in Finland on Uunisaari Island in Helsinki with a grouping of birch trees sent to us by Ice Swimmer. Birches are a favourite of mine and Ice Swimmer’s photograph shows them off perfectly with that beautiful white bark standing out in the sun and their small, delicate leaves silhouetted against the blue sky. Gorgeous.
Thanks Ice Swimmer.
Birches in Uunisaari, ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved
While there are few green areas in the centre, there are wonderful planted balconies and lovely squares. One thing is that apart from the pretty fountains there are water fountains everywhere that keep the population on two legs as well as four legs hydrated.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Another pigeon bath
©Giliell, all rights reserved
As you may remember, our lovely bunny Pünktchen died some weeks ago, and of course, the first thing my dad did when he returned from their holiday was to take the little one to the breeder to get a new one. The guy breeds bunnies for shows, so those who don’t fit his breeding needs are sold as pets, which shows again that those things are stupid as the new bunny is the cutest.
So here’s the first pics of the new family member. Let’s start with Molli, being very hot and not suspecting that life would change again.
Effin’ heat wave when you’re wearing a fur coat.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
And here he is, Fleckchen.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Isn’t he pretty?
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Translating his name got me thinking again. Now, first of all, in German we make things small by adding -chen, which doesn’t always work in English. While you get a baby and a kitty, you don’t have a “cary”, meaning a little toy car. Now, the former bunny was “Pünktchen”. A “Punkt” can be a dot, but also a spot, which would be the more usual term for describing an animal’s coat. A “Fleck” is something like a larger dot. It can be a spill on your clothing, but also the colouring of an animal, so now I have two rabbits named for their coat and they could both be translated as the same word in English. So I went with “Patches” because his coat looks more like a patchwork blanket.
Molli and Fleckchen
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Here you can see the first contact between the two, with Fleckchen being in his temporary enclosure, from which he escaped the next day. Thankfully he#s still too young for making baby rabbits.
Taking flight, ©voyager, all rights reserved
It’s been a crazy, busy day around here and Jack didn’t get out until much later than usual so to make up for it I took him to the lake. I figure you guys have seen lots of wet dog photos lately so instead of another one here’s a nice bit of fluff.
Wedged in between the mountains and the sea, Barcelona’s streets tend to be narrow and dark, and beautiful.
But it’s also a place where you can see the contrast between rich and poor, with people sleeping rough, begging for change and trying to make ends meet by selling knickknacks. When you come to the harbour you will have the multi-million dollar yachts next to poor immigrants selling cheap sunglases.
I will say one thing in favour of Barcelona and that is that they don’t seem to actively work against the homeless population. There was a spot at Catalunya where our bus arrived and left where a homeless guy had his place, with a small foam mattress and a few belongings. He usually wasn’t there when we arrived, but at least nobody destroyed his things and the police didn’t remove them.
My kids were wondering about the “junk”, not knowing that this was somebody’s home, and when I explained it to them they emptied their pockets and put all their change on the mattress. I was never prouder of them than in that moment.
Narrow street just off the Rambla. ©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Red Admiral butterfly, ©voyager, all rights reserved
Red Admiral, underside, ©voyager, all rights reserved
The weather here was a bit strange last week. We had very high humidity and bouts of rain, but it was cool making it feel more like late spring than the middle of July. I’m not really complaining, cool is definitely better than sweltering, but it was weird. Today, though, things seem to have reset. The humidity is mostly gone, there isn’t a cloud in the sky and the temp has climbed into the mid-twenties and seems to be staying there. This is what I call a perfect day. So does Jack, who had a welcome spring in his step this morning.
A quick birdie before I crawl back to bed.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Just off the big Boulevard “La Rambla” is the big market hall Boqueria. The front is dominated by the stalls that mostly offer their goods to tourists, but in the back you can find the Barceloneses doing their shopping. Fresh fish and fruit and most delicious baked goods for prices that let you forget that you’re supposedly in a tourist attraction.
Marzipan and sweets in the market.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
What I interestingly couldn’t find were signs and comemorative plates of the terrorist attack that happened there last year.
Pretty in Pink ©voyager, all rights reserved
Reach for the sky, ©voyager, all rights reserved
Does anyone know what kind of tree this is? I’m having difficulty figuring it out from my plant guide. It looks and smells a bit like hydrangea, but I’ve never seen a hydrangea tree. Whatever it is, I think it’s beautiful. It’s been in bloom for several weeks and the flowers move from a deep rose colour to the palest of pinks. It has a small, sweet scent and it attracts butterflies. I waited around for a bit hoping one would turn up to add to the photo, but Jack was restless and no doubt keeping them away.
Please let me know in the comments if you can give me any information about this tree. I think I might like one for my own garden. In the meantime, happy Saturday. I hope everyone has a good weekend.