More Tales from the Country

Yet again, time has flown and it's been a bit since my last post.  What's happened in the mean time?  Well, I completed another cake:

We encountered some other bird species in our back yard:

 

We think it's a female pheasant, but might be a grouse...we only saw her for a couple of days and then off she went.  (No...we didn't eat her.)  We had a lovely trip to Halifax, where we enjoyed a good hotel (The Prince George) and several good restaurants.  We also finally found a table for our bar chairs.  (I'm sitting at it right now, typing this entry.)  To top it off I enjoyed a trip to the spa, the first one in over a year.  The reality of autumn hit us on the drive home, but it's hard not to enjoy the amazing colours, even though they herald the coming of winter:

 

 

 

 

 

We thought we were getting to the end of our time with the little finches, but we seem to have more than we know what to do with.  The following photos were taken in different areas at the same time (meaning these are all different little finches) and we don't have a photo of the actual feeder that had eight or so of the little fellas.

 

 

But, I've left the very best "Story from the Country" for last.  As you know, Ron has a tenuous (at best) relationship with the local squirrel, Rasputin.  In hopes of catching him (the squirrel), Ron left the trap baited and open in the out building, where we know Rasputin is living.  Something came and ate all the food, but wasn't trapped, so we thought that was that (reconciling ourselves to not catching the squirrel) and never closed the trap door.  Low and behold, on Friday, Ron noticed that the trap door was closed.  Now you must imagine our out building...it hasn't much light (especially if you don't turn on the lights) and the corners are rather dark.  (Of course, that's where the trap was...sitting in one corner shaded nicely from the window.)  Well, Ron went to investigate and lifted up the trap...it felt heavy.  He wisely decided to gently place it back down and get a flash light.  On further investigation, it turned out that he'd caught a skunk!  (On the good news front, the skunk was too big to be able to lift it's tail - which means no spray - phew!)  Doing a bit of quick Internet research, we discovered that skunks are fairly docile and hesitant to spray unless threatened.  Following some online suggestions, Ron covered the trap with some old carpet and wodged open the door, retreating calmly, but quickly back to the house.  Giving the skunk some time, Ron returned to discover that our little striped friend had high tailed it out of there and we haven't seen him since.  Moral of the story?  When setting traps, you must be prepared to deal with what they catch.  Ron said the little skunk was quite calm and seemed to know that Ron was there to help it.  (I was at work and could do little else than laugh at the predicament!)

 

On a final note, we found this bag of potatoes, that we just couldn't resist buying...good ole' Stompin' Tom would be proud!  (If you don't recognize the reference, google or Bing it...well worth a laugh!)

Only in PEI!  It's a very special place!