We have also had the hummingbirds coming and going. This is a photo of the female – not too good, but they are fast!

And here is a stunning moth we found on our porch. He is an Automeris io moth according to Wiki

Well this winter finally took its toll on the steps and they were starting to fall apart and become unsteady, so Chris decided now was the time to rip them up and start again. So the other day we went from this:

To this:

We now have a lovely rockery area which we will plant out later!!

The next stage was building a main step from pavers and we are then going to build a deck and steps leading from this to the door.

Since the weather took a turn for the worse we, or rather Chris has had to stop, but we are planning on getting the wood for the deck & steps this week, so we can make a start on the rest of it.

Other news:

Yesterday we saw the pair of flickers for the first time this year. They were hammering away in the back garden. We also spotted the thrasher the other day, but not since.

We definitely have two black squirrels, one very black the other more ginger. They both turn up most days, usually separately. We are hoping they are nesting near by and will bring babies over. Our reds are starting to molt and their coats are getting very tatty. Chipmunks are everywhere!

Weather is still very changeable lately. One day we have 21C, the next it is 4C. We have had rain, snow, thunder and lightening, sunshine, you name it we have had it. The other night we had a huge thunderstorm which woke us up several times during the night. One particularly loud bang which rocked the house had us thinking we had been struck, but we could not see any damage. The next day we found out large areas surrounding us were without electric, but we were okay, so somewhere close definitely got hit.

Whilst I was on the phone to my aunt in Spain yesterday morning we went from bright sunshine, to cloudy skies then snow, all within an hour. She was a bit shocked we were still in danger of snow as it is April. In Spain they are in the mid 20′sC with bright sunshine, but have had quite a bit of rain. When we went to bed last night there was a light covering of snow on the ground, but it had vanished this morning.

Hopefully the weather will get better for May, especially when for when our daughter and girlfriend arrive. We have so much planned to do that it will be a shame if the weather spoils it.

Our black squirrels are still regular visitors. This is one on our deck. As you can see this one is actually pretty red in colour, but next to the real reds, he is pretty black. We know we have more than one black one as they vary in colour so much. Nice to get a bit of variety though.

Also we have lots of chipmunks running around. This is just one of many.

Spoke to my aunt and uncle in Spain yesterday and it is mid 20C there at the moment and no humidity, so pretty perfect.

Today is the last day of March and it is once again snowing, but they promise that it will be temporary and that we will have sun over the weekend with temps around 10C.

Lots of grackles and red-winged blackbirds in the garden. The gold finches are also starting to change colour ready for the mating season. No sign of the cowbirds yet, sure they will arrive soon.  The deer are getting more absent as the weather improves, so we are not going to see too much of them now.

Our visiting black squirrel comes by most days. It is the longest any black squirrel has stayed with us. He comes by, eats for a while and then disappears. The reds don’t seem to mind him for some reason and let him stay, very unusual. We have lots of chipmunks about again, chasing each other round the garden frantically. The killdeer are back but we haven’t seen much of them. Hopefully they are nesting and will reappear soon, with chicks.

Visited a new mall (well new to us) last week. Fairview Mall in Toronto. It was pretty big and quite nice, not sure it is any better than say Pickering which is nearer for us, but at least we have explored it. It must be in a very Asian community as many of the people there were of Asian origin. It is also close to Ikea which of course we had to pop into whilst there. A bit disappointed as we didn’t find much we liked but did come back with a new kitchen mat which we needed.

Hoping to get over to the States sometime in April, but will wait for the weather to clear a bit. Might go to Syracuse, or perhaps Rochester. Time to stock up on summer clothes! Most shops are in the transition stage still so not all have very much in the way of summer stuff, but hopefully within the next few weeks that will change.

Lots of blackbirds and grackles are arriving and we have seen several robins. The geese are also about and the flock we have in the woods at the back of us have arrived and are honking happily. We have also had quite a few redpolls, pic below.

Chipmunks are up and about and frantically running around the garden and we still have the deer most days, but I’m sure their visits will be ending soon. But the raccoons are out and about. They are cute but a nuisance.

We are still waiting for the arrival of the killdeer who have come back every year we have been here to nest and raise their young. They usually arrive during the last two weeks of March so we expect them any time soon.

The junkos will be leaving us soon, no doubt. But it definitely feels more like spring now.

On another note I have decided against eye surgery at this time. The $4k price tag is too high to justify at the moment. I will readdress the issue sometime in the future perhaps.

Also daughter Stacey and girlfriend Amy will be visiting from the UK in May, so we are really looking forward to that. Planning lots of trips and adventures, so I don’t think our feet will touch the ground whilst they are here.

Here are some pics of one of the many rabbits (hares really) we have in the garden.

The deer keep returning too. We now have a regular group of four who come by two or three times each evening.

We seem to have a very strange chipmunk in our garden. All the other chipmunks decided to call it a summer about a month ago and like other years we will not see them again until the weather warms up in the spring. However this one chipmunk seems to have decided to become a winter chipmunk. Even with 4-5 inches of snow on the ground he is still coming out of his hole at the back of the garden, running along the tree line and then sitting at the bottom of the tree eating bird seed. We have never seen a chipmunk do this before, very strange. Clearly he did not store enough food in the summer and has to forage in the winter.

This evening was also the first time we saw deer in the garden. We knew they were about as we had seen the odd track in the snow, but tonight we happened to look at the window as three females were in the garden. There was one large one, one smaller one and another very young one. It is probably a mother with two babies, one last years and one this years. I love seeing the deer as they are so beautiful and graceful to watch. Hope to get photos soon.

I phoned the local dealership just to check that this was indeed the case and that the offer applied to leased vehicles and they confirmed that yes we could take advantage of the offer too. We made an appointment to pop in and discuss the options available. As we had not thought of a new car we hadn’t done any research on newer vehicles, so off to the internet we went.

We had no problems with the Santa Fe, but thought that perhaps we could get away with a smaller vehicle. We have a very long driveway that gets very deep in snow and we needed a vehicle that could cope with that so decided to stick with an SUV. That led us to the Tuscan.

It looked very nice on the website and it was a completely new design so would not look too old in a year or so. The Santa Fe is really due a new look, so the chances of getting a new one of those and then it being replaced next year or so was high. At least with the Tuscan we would get a new model.

We went into the dealership with all our original paperwork and they offered us a test drive in the Tuscan. We went out in a red one which had a brown interior that we did not like, but we did like the layout of of the interior. We also like the exterior very much. We decided after half hour drive that we would be very happy with the Tuscan as it offered all the things we like about the Santa Fe, but a bit smaller – I could actually put groceries in the back without having to climb in as it wasn’t as deep – yeah!

We drove back to the dealer and took a look at the models available. We wanted the GLS model with AWD and had a choice of several colours and much to our shock both chose the bronze. This was a colour we had dismissed from the brochure online as it didn’t look very nice, but in the flesh it looked much better. Also the interior was black which we loved.

Next we had to discuss the money side of things. We wanted to purchase this time rather than lease, so knew we might end up paying more per month, but they came up with an excellent deal which actually cost us less – that’s what I like to hear!

So we did the deal and are now owners of a brand new Hyundai Tuscan. Although we have only had it a couple of days we are very pleased with it so far. It is very comfortable, more so than the old car and it has an iPod connection which is a great bonus for me.

Here are some pics. The exterior ones are stock photos as it has been too damn cold to stand outside taking photos of it. But it is exactly the same as our model.

On a completely disjointed note, we have just spotted a chipmunk under the tree collecting nuts. Didn’t think we would see one of those again until April!

Our baby bunny is now a big bunny but is still as inquisitive as ever. He is also very playful as we often see him trying to engage chipmunks and squirrels in play, however they are not so willing. If he happens to find another rabbit in the garden, which is not unusual he will try to play with them. Sometime this is successful, but more often than not they see him off. If they do play they chase each other round the garden and lightening speed, then take turns to jump over each other which can be highly hilarious for us human watchers. This is him on the deck.

We also had a wasp wandering round the hummingbird feeder and Chris managed to get this rather good shot.

Talking of hummingbirds, we are inundated with them at the moment. We think we have at least three separate families. We have determined this by the location they fly to after feeding and there are three distinct locations. The feeders a busy with activity as each pair apparently has two babies, so we have around a dozen birds. I still find it hard to believe we get such tropical birds here in Ontario, but I am so glad we do.

We also had a black squirrel visit for about half an hour the other morning. However the territorial reds soon made him leave.

Last but not least here is a chipmunk looking rather cute with his full cheek pouches.

Is this the look of a chipmunk with indigestion??

Also the other morning we were late putting out the feeders. When this happens we see a lot of birds hanging around in the trees waiting. Also the squirrels and chipmunks tend to come up onto the deck as if to ask when are we going to feed them.

This particular morning a chipmunk sat on top of the deck post and seemed to be scowling at us. He seemed pretty angry that he was being kept waiting for his breakfast.

Also, we now have a family of hummingbirds. One of the pairs now has babies who are using our feeders. Last night four of them were outside the window together. Trouble was I watched them for several minutes, but as soon as I got the camera out they vanished. They are obviously camera shy. But I will keep trying.