SPRING IS IN THE AIR

Spring is in the air! We are experiencing typical Rocky Mountain weather, one day cold and rainy, the next warm and wonderful.

All creatures great and small are in the mood for love. Well, I doubt love has anything to do with it but they are ready to procreate.

I found these two procreators on the outside of my kitchen window this morning. I feel a little guilty photographing them in this intimate moment but that's what you get when you do it on a photographers window! :)

Notice the delicate design created by there spindly, intertwined legs. Designs and patterns in nature are my catnip!

I'm afraid I don't know what variety of insect these are.

Insect Sex

©Kinsey Barnard

BABY HEDGEHOG

This is an incredible photo of a bay hedgehog. I just love these little creatures. This little charmer seems to be giving the high-ten. I am currently using one as the center piece on my dining room table.

Wiki-pedia "A hedgehog is any of the spiny mammals of the subfamily Erinaceinae and the order Erinaceomorpha. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera, found through parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand (by introduction). There are no hedgehogs native to Australia, and no living species native to the Americas. Hedgehogs share distant ancestry with shrews (order Soricidae), with gymnures possibly being the intermediate link, and have changed little over the last 15 million years.^[2] Like many of the first mammals they have adapted to a nocturnal, insectivorous way of life. Hedgehogs' spiny protection resembles that of the unrelated rodent porcupines and monotreme echidnas."

Hedgehogs

Hedgehog Centerpiece

CRANBROOK, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Yesterday Koty and I were filled with the urge to travel so we decided to go to Cranbrook. We hadn't been over that way in quite some time. I knew we were a little early but I just had it in my head to go.

Our first stop was at Lake Elizabeth which is just west of town. There is a visitor center at the lake which, unfortunately, was closed as were the restrooms. I was really hoping to use that restroom. The weather was cold and blustery and I lacked proper concentration. We walked the pathways for not too long a time. There were a few Canadian Honkers nesting, some mallards paddling and a ton of coots bobbing on the rough water.  A little further into spring this is a lovely place to wander and bird watch.

From Lake Elizabeth we crossed over BC 3 and drove up to Jim Smith Lake. This small lake was still in a frozen state. Jim Smith is a nice little paddle your canoe and have a picnic kind of place. But, again, a little later in the year.

I used to come to Cranbrook to shop but not so much anymore since the CAD has strengthened so much against the dollar. We just kind of drove through.

On the way home we stopped at our favorite local park, Kikomun. It was closed as are all of the Provincial parks around here until around May 15th. But, you can walk in. I thought we would be the only ones there but apparently there was some kind of canoe class or something going on as I was very surprised to see Surveyor Lake with more canoes on it than I had ever seen before.

Spring is in the air and there are subtle signs everywhere but it will be awhile yet before it really gets into to full form.

Lake Elizabeth

Female mallard paddling along

Out spout at Jim Smith Lake

Jim Smith Lake

Canoers at Surveyor Lake

Osprey coming in for a landing

As always we are never disappointed with our little sorties into B.C.


©Kinsey Barnard

KOREA EXPELLED FROM THE AXIS OF EVIL

North Korea Expelled from Axis of Evil
Ahmadinejad Cites ‘Lack of Evil’

PYONGYANG ( The Borowitz Report) – Just hours after an embarrassing launch of a rocket that crashed to the ground in a little over a minute, North Korea suffered another blow to its prestige as it was expelled from the Axis of Evil.

The decision was announced by the presiding Chairman of the Axis of Evil, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who cited as the reason for the expulsion North Korea’s evident “lack of evil.”

“There are a lot of evil countries out there, Iran for one, who are trying to terrify the world by developing nuclear weapons,” he said. “When North Korea launches a so-called ‘rocket’ and it goes about twenty feet before blowing up, that just makes it harder for the rest of us.”

A spokesman for the erstwhile evil nation objected strongly to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s statement, saying it was “totally unfair to judge how evil a country is based on one crappy rocket.”

For a rogue nation that prides itself on threatening the world community, membership in the Axis of Evil is considered essential, which makes North Korea’s expulsion from the group a particularly damaging setback.

“The rocket thing is hurting our credibility, evil-wise, no question about it,” one aide to North Korean President Kim Jong-un said today. “This afternoon we tried to threaten Japan and it went straight to voicemail.”

In a possible sign of newly reduced ambitions, North Korea today hurled a roll of toilet paper over the border at South Korea.

Mr. Ahmadinejad offered no comment about the latest incident on the Korean Peninsula, other than to say, “Really, the whole thing is kind of sad.”

THE MARKET IS THE TITANIC

 Seating is limited and music is about to stop. Do you have your chair?

 Rick Santelli gives a wonderful rant on debt in the below video. Debt is the problem folks and we are sinking in it.

MODERN DAY GREEK PROPHET?

"The Tsolakoglou government has annihilated all traces for my survival, which was based on a very dignified pension that I alone paid for 35 years with no help from the state. And since my advanced age does not allow me a way of dynamically reacting (although if a fellow Greek were to grab a Kalashnikov, I would be right behind him), I see no other solution than this dignified end to my life, so I don’t find myself fishing through garbage cans for my sustenance. I believe that young people with no future, will one day take up arms and hang the traitors of this country at Syntagma square, just like the Italians did to Mussolini in 1945"

The above words were written by one Dimitris Christoulas, 77, who took his own life on Wednesday morning. It is sad to say the least but I believe it is also foreboding. This nightmare of distress and dispair is playing out amongst the retired and elderly all over the planet. It's happening right here in America, the land of plenty.

Where is the breaking point? When will people have had enough and take up arms in protest? I have not a clue.  But unlike most, living in denial, I do believe it will happen in many places around the globe and here in America as well. The moneychangers have cannibalized  the financial system on a global scale. All the while using other peoples hard earned money to bail themselves out and pay themselves lavish bonuses. This whilst good people look for super in a garbage can. 


This economic crisis is not over by a long shot. The mess the bankers have made of things are much worse and much bigger than most can even begin to comprehend. If you think the economy is recovering and happy days are here again, well, I wish you luck with that. If you have been scared back into the market because you couldn't get any return on your savings good luck with that too.

You can read the article for yourself in the Athens News.

WHERE NOT TO PLACE YOUR BIRD FEEDER

A few days ago, I was suffering a little spring fever even though spring hasn't quite made it up to my elevation. Last year I placed a bird feeder on a beam on my deck because it was handy to get to to refill and still high enough that only birds could get to it. The problem with that, the birds whitewashed my deck. Something I didn't much care for.

I figured this year I should find new a place where I could still get to the feeder easily and the birds could feed and poop to their hearts delight. I came up with the idea of hanging it on the woodshed. Once hung it didn't seem as though the birds were not catching on to my new location very fast. I could detect no reduction in birdseed volume.

Yesterday I was over at the woodshed and to my immediate amazement there wasn't any birdseed in the feeder at all! I suspected at once I had been robbed. It was too early for the bears to be out snooping around so who was the culprit? I thought I had a pretty good idea who it was. Sure enough a little while later the bandit returned. And, I was able to catch her in the act.

Notice how she is using the same log round I used to stand on to pound the nail. Shoulda moved that for sure!

Moral of the story: Deer delight in low hanging fruit.

©Kinsey Barnard