Busy, busy.

It's true enough that it never rains but it pours. I've had people coming and going all weekend. My brother and wife here on holiday from the states and their daughter and boyfriend from Australia showed up on Friday evening. They were at their cabin an hours drive from here and came by for a couple of hours. Great to see them. Saturday morning, daughter and friend arrived, then himself who had gone to a yard sales arrives back. Getting out of the car, he says, close your eyes, I got you a present. Noooooooo, what has he dragged home now I'm thinking. Close your eyes he says again, I do, and on opening them I see he has bought me a lovely wooden bird feeder with a roof and all. Well, says I, that's the best present you ever got me. I was delighted to say the least. Then other friends arrived. Afternoon comes, I'm just about to sit down for a read, knock on door, two more people. That put paid to my relaxing afternoon read. Sunday, a friend of Rogers shows up unexpectedly wanting to spend the night. While making supper, the boys went to the store and in the mean time three more arrived. I'll tell you, I'm beat! lol. Today I'm expecting niece and boyfriend but don't know if they'll get here as I believe they are flying out on Thursday so may have to go on to the city.

Now to back up a bit. Thursday, just after supper, we heard a racket outside. On running out we saw hen feathers from the front, going right up to the back with some going over near the stream. No hens to be seen. Something had come through and attacked them. Looked in the chicken house and one hen was in there tucked away. The other five were missing. I spent two hours going through the woods and bushes and plants all over the property. No sign of them. I was shattered. I was sitting on the back step trying to get my head around all of this when one came out of the woods, then another and another. Ended up with one gone. This was Thursday so Saturday morning Roger comes in and says how come there's two white chickens having a dust bath and there's one by the deck. Impossible I say! One of the white ones was taken off. Of course I had to go and look, lo and behold, the sixth hen was back. I just couldn't believe it. After two nights, she found her way back home. Surprisingly, they are all in good shape. My day was made.

One of the crows finally figured out how to get the suet feeder opened. I had a twist tie around it to secure it even more but he managed to get that off as well. So clever. I was watching all of this out the bathroom window and was so fascinated that I didn't want to interrupt him.

So many bees in the garden. I think every flower had a bee or two on it. Funny, people coming during the weekend, even next door neighbour, were saying "Not many bees around". Ha! This garden is full of them. Just goes to show that if you grow plants they like, they will come.

I did manage to get a few pictures even with all the company. Cheeky little squirrel is still at the feeder. Looks like he's smiling at me.


This plant has set up residence in one of the gardens. Some sort of thistle I think.