WITH FIERY VOLCANO-LIKE GURGLINGS AND RUMBLINGS

With fiery volcano-like gurglings and rumblings in my lower intestinal track this morning I had to cut our Jeep ride short and make fast tracks for home.  Good thing I did and that's all I need to say about that.  To make up for our short Jeep ride Pheebs and I later took Scooter for a run.  That little Chevy 3500 just runs along so nice and smooth.  Home again, I hauled out my tall step ladder and cleaned the rig's rolled-up awning.  Raked up and wheelbarrowed some pine needles and that was about it.  My today was far better than my yesterday.  

 TAKING SCOOTER FOR A DRIVE

 LOOKS LIKE MY TRUSTY NAVIGATOR HAS DOZED OFF AGAIN

 CLEANING THE AWNING 

 AND THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE LAST GASP OF SNOW IN OUR DRIVEWAY

Saw my first Killdeer this morning and our bird station is continuing to be over-run by Grackles.  Cardinals, Blue Jays, and Mourning Doves are still coming in but I think some of the little Juncos may have already left for their Northern haunts.  Won't be long now and the early spring Songbirds will be arriving.  So nice seeing a few flowers pushing up through the ground cover too.  After its long and dreary frozen dormant state, the land is once again beginning to come alive.  And none too soon I might add.      

 CONFRONTATION

 DIDN'T TAKE LONG FOR THE MOURNING DOVE TO PUT THE SKI-DADDLES ON THE GRACKLE

 A MIXTURE OF GRACKLES, RED-WING BLACKBIRDS AND ONE MOURNING DOVE

 RED-WING BLACKBIRD IN FOREGROUND, GRACKLE IN BACKGROUND

 COWBIRD, GRACKLE, RED-WING BLACKBIRD

 A RED-WING BLACKBIRD FLASHES BY MY CAMERA LENS

 MOURNING DOVES ARE NOT AS PASSIVE AS THEY LOOK

Pheebs and I managed an afternoon walk and how nice not having to wear a coat or jacket.  Sunny blues skies and 55F.  No wind but that's all about to change.  We have a weather advisory pending.  Rain heavy at times tonight and Friday, and a chance of isolated thunderstorms.  Winds possibly gusting to 50mph winds Friday.  Let the good times roll:))

 A NICE AFTERNOON WALK ALONG THE PINE TREE TRAIL

 FISH IN OUR PARK'S POND

 I THINK I SEE A SHARK IN THERE

 OUR FRONT YARD POND IS FINALLY FREE OF ICE SO NEXT COMES THE BIG CLEAN-UP

GROANER'S CORNER:((   A woman came to her doctor in a panic.  "Doctor, all day long my daughter eats yeast and car wax, and won't get out of bed! What will happen to her?"  "Don't worry," said the Doctor, "eventually she will rise and shine."

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Q: What did the baby digital watch say to the mommy analog watch?
A: Look Ma, no hands!

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What do you call a sandwich box swinging from a bell rope?
The Lunchpack of Notre Dame

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AND DOWN THESE WOODSY STAIRS WE GO

 'COME ON DAD YOU CAN DO IT'

Cloudy morning but that's okay, we've had a good dose of sunshine lately and that Spring tonic will carry us through now.  Pheebs and I headed straightaway over to the Bannockburn Conservation Area to get us some walking in.  Luckily, there was no one else there.  A few sprinkles of rain in the air but we got a walk in anyways and I felt an improvement in my legs.

 NEW DECKING SINCE THE LAST TIME WE PASSED THIS WAY

 THAT'S QUITE A KNOT OF CEDAR TREE ROOTS

 THERE ARE SWAMPY AREAS HERE

Skies partially cleared around noon and we had bouts of warm sunshine.  We made it to 65F today.  I raked up our back yard and that finished me off for the day.  

 THIS BANNOCKBURN WALK IS PROBABLY THE NICEST ONE IN THE WHOLE AREA WITH ITS HILLS AND DALES

 AN OLD MOSSED OVER TREE STUMP

 HEADING BACK

 AND BACK DOWN THIS FLIGHT OF WOODSY STAIRS WE GO

GROANER'S CORNER:((    A man is struck by a bus on a busy street in New York City. He lies dying on the sidewalk as a crowd of spectators gathers around. "A priest! Somebody get me a priest!" the man gasps. A policeman checks the crowd but finds no priest, no minister, no man of God of any kind.  "A PRIEST, PLEASE!" the dying man says again. Then out of the crowd steps a little old Jewish man of at least eighty years of age.  "Mr. Policeman," says the man, "I'm not a priest. I'm not even a Catholic. But for fifty years now I'm living behind St. Mary's Catholic Church on Third Avenue, and every night I'm listening to the Catholic litany. Maybe I can be of some comfort to this man."  The policeman agrees and brings the octogenarian over to the dying man. He kneels down, leans over the injured and says in a solemn voice: "B - 4. I - 19. N - 38. G - 54. O - 72."

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IT WAS AS IF AN EARTHQUAKE HAD HAPPENED AND CHANGED A FAMILIAR LANDSCAPE AHEAD OF ME

 ANY GUESSES ON WHICH ONE IS THE FEMALE GULL

It was a drive to Goderich this morning for Pheebs and I.  Nobody at Rotary Cove's dog walking area so we hit the trail.  The path goes about a quarter mile then dead-ends in a kind of nice little cove area with trees and tall sand and clay cliffs off to the left running along the shoreline.  I've always liked this scenic little spot.  Imagine my shocked surprise as I approached the end of the trail and found all the trees and cliffs gone and the landscape ahead of me totally changed.  Had I just stepped into the Twilight Zone??  Yes, even the towering shoreline cliffs were gone and it had nothing to do with high water levels and waves.  It had everything to do with a new 'high-end' housing development atop the bluffs.  There were bulldozer tracks all across the land where the cliffs once stood.  The cliffs had been bulldozed into a long gentle slope from the clifftop to the water.  And where trees had once stood in an area at the water's edge right in front of me there was only packed down solid clay made so by more bulldozer tracks.  It was as if an earthquake had struck and shifted the whole landscape into something totally different.

 GONE ARE THE TREES THAT WERE ONCE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME AS WELL AS THE TALL CLIFFS....NOTHING HERE LOOKS AS IT ONCE DID 

 THIS TELEPHOTO SHOT IS OF THE NARROW PIECE OF LAND TO THE EXTREME RIGHT IN THE PHOTO ABOVE....THE CLIFFS ON THE LEFT ARE ALL THAT'S LEFT OF THE CLIFFS THAT ONCE WERE 

Home again shortly after 10 I busied myself with more raking along the road in front of our place.  Hooked up the utility trailer and took a load of yard waste to the Park's landfill site.  Pheebs came along to help me unload.  While there I heard another rumor about our Park.  The latest rumor is that our Park has been sold and the deal closes Friday.  Now, an old saying is quite appropriate here....I'll believe it when I see it!!  

 WORK HAS RESUMED ON THE BOARDWALK BETWEEN ST. CHRISTOPHER'S BEACH AND ROTARY COVE ALONG GODERICH'S SHORELINE

 THE DOGGY WALKING PATH HEADING SOUTH AND ALTHOUGH THE LANDSCAPE HAD DRASTICALLY CHANGED AHEAD OF ME I HADN'T NOTICED IT YET

 AN EXAMPLE OF SHORELINE EROSION

Twenty minutes south of us down Highway 21 is the small but rapidly growing little village of Grand Bend.  It seems like our whole shoreline area here along the shores of Lake Huron from Goderich to Bayfield and Grand Bend is in some kind of large development phase.  There seems to be a lot of money pouring into this region for new higher-end housing and commercial retail, etc.  The times are a changing and if you read this Grand Bend link it will give you an idea about what's going on.  Big money, big ideas, big plans.  Grand Bend Make-Over.  Be sure to click on the video in the article. 

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Let them take your temperature on your forehead as you enter the supermarket because it erases your memory.  I went for macaroni and cheese  and came home with two cases of beer.

My mind is like my Internet Browser......its frozen up  and I have no idea where the music is coming from.

It's a five minute walk from my house to the pub 
It's a 35 minute walk from the pub to my house 
The difference is staggering.

Most people don't think I'm as old as I am
until they hear me stand up.

I swear we're fighting two pandemics. 
Coronavirus and stupidity.  Well ain't that the truth eh!!

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