Bat update!

So I'm happy to say that they were able to help the bat, and that he was successfully freed from the siding of my house :)  They took him in to examine him and make sure he is ok, and all is well.  There was no damage to his wing, he looked to be in full health (they said he was making it quite clear he was ticked off at being handled by people, which was a good sign), and that he is being released tonight :)

So, yay!  Very happy to hear that everything turned out well in this situation :) I was pretty worried for the little guy!

Bat in distress

When I left for work this morning, this is what I found near my front door: 

This poor little bat has some how managed to get his entire wing stuck in the siding of my house and is unable to free himself. I didn't want too touch him because of risk of disease, and of injuring him further. And I has to leave for work. 

So I called the humans society, who redirected me to the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, who redirected me to the Alberta Institute of Wildlife Conservation. Hopefully they are able to get out to the house and are able to free him. They said they would TRY to get out to help him. And hopefully his wing is ok. If not, they will take him to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre. 

I will keep you posted! 

The Merlin Family

Last night I had church.  This summer, I've been making sure I leave a bit early so I can spend some time before service checking in on the Merlin Family.

No, these aren't people. These are the small little hawks (12-14 inches) that started nesting this year in a tree in our church parking lot.  You can always hear mama screeching up a big fuss during service, probably a Magpie got too close to the nest. 

I had suspected for a while that they were nesting in the tree, and it took me a long time to find the nest.  But when I finally located the nest about 3 or 4 weeks ago, I found this little guy:

This is Baby Merlin - "fledgling" is the proper term.

 I haven't seen Baby Merlin too much since then, but Mama Merlin is always around.  And sure enough, I was in luck last night.  She was on her usual look-out post, and what was more perfect was the lighting.  I got these gorgeous photos of her:

Mama Merlin telling the Magpie off and protecting her nest.

 Its been quite a treat to watch these guys this summer.  I'm hoping they'll choose to nest here again next year.

Book Review

I forgot to review the last book I read, and I totally meant to do that!  So this will be two book reviews.

I finished this book a week or so ago.  This is not a novel, or a fictional work of any sort.  It is a historical book, starting with the conquest of Henry VII and ending with the last Tudor monarch, Elizabeth I.  I could NOT put this book down!  I found it easy to follow, the author wrote this book intending the audience to be normal readers, and not university-educated historians, so the language was much easier to make sense of.  What I really loved is how the author took time to explain things going on during the different time periods, and how that affected the Tudors.  The author took time to explain such things as how the church was organized, so that the reader could better understand the changes made. It also gave you a very realistic view of the Tudor monarchy, not just the propaganda that was put forth and which is much believed today (Elizabeth's era was not so "golden", she ignored the poor, and she painted her face white because it was scarred from a bout of small pox shortly after she was crowned, and she was very vain of her looks -interesting, no?!!).   Overall, this book is a keeper, and one I will be reading again! Highly recommended!

I just finished this book today:

I decided on this book because after reading the above Tudor book, I realized I don't have a basic understanding of the English monarchy BEFORE the Tudors.  And I decided I needed to no more.
And the price was right - $12! This book starts with the first official monarchy of England, up until the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

This is what I really liked about the book:

The blue box on the left includes their date of birth, parents, spouse, children, date they succeeded the throne, and were crowned, their death, and which Royal house they came from (which corresponds to a several family trees available at the back of the book).  It also (not shown on these pages) includes a timeline of important dates of that monarch, from birth to death, that run down the outer sides of the pages.  And then 2-4 pages (average) is spent summarizing key events in their life and reign.

Royal Houses - family trees

All-in-all, a very informative book!  But a lot of information, for me personally, to absorb at once.  While I feel I've learned a lot and gained a better understanding, I know that I have forgotten or not yet mentally connected everything in my head, and so I think a second read through will help secure this knowledge.  I would recommend this book!

Next up on my reading list is a book I've been eying for some time, and when I saw it for $8, I grabbed it!

I love me some Russian history!  And it will be a nice switch from the revolutionary history I've been absorbing myself in of late!  ....well, ok, maybe not too much of a switch, since this overlaps the revolution.  But its from a different perspective! Oh Russia, how I love you. So complex, so cultural, so.......Russia! 

Handyman me!!!

I stopped by Canadian Tire today to pick up some carpet cleaner for my car, and took a look around the store and found this: 

I've been looking for something this size to put beside my keyboard to hold all my music books in the office. I need to get rid of the boxes it all sits in. It's the right colour. And better yet, it was the right price....$25!!!  So I got it. 

And since Stephan just left to go back to work, I put it together myself. Of course, I had some help along the way. 

But then part way through they quit on me and I was on my own. Such lazy workers!!

That's ok, I got it finished! 

It feels great to finally have my music out of boxes and ORGANIZED.  Ta da!!!!!! 

Peace on a Saturday morning.

Usually Anna and Leo do a lot of fighting. Normally because he plays too rough and doesn't get the hint to stop, even though she makes it quite clear she's ticked off 

So, while I was still in bed this morning, Leo started to clean Anna, and I was sure it was going to turn into a fight (it normally does at this point because he starts to chew on her ears and climb on top of her, which she hates). 

When it didn't, I quickly grabbed my phone. 

My babies are getting along :-) it makes my heart melt! Too cute! :-) 

Southern Alberta Flood

Back in my updates, I mentioned a few things I wanted to talk more about at a later time.

One of those things was the massive flooding that occurred in Southern Alberta in June.  I'll share my experience, and pics, as well as other pics from areas around me.

We had been experiencing heavy rain a few days before the flooding happened, and combined with the spring snow melt from the mountains (which the rain melted much more rapidly than normal), served to triggered the flooding.

On Thursday, June 20th, Canmore, just over an hour west of Calgary in the mountains, started to flood.  It stemmed from a small creek that just didn't have the ability to absorb the massive amounts of run-off and rain coming from the mountains. Very quickly, a state of emergency was declared.  Homes were completely lost, and the main highway was wiped out.

via

By the afternoon of that same day, the flooding had continued its way down river.  Bragg Creek ( a small town) was completely evacuated, and several other small communities declared states of emergencies.  High River was also completely evacuated later in the afternoon, and was the hardest hit out of all the flood zones.  Some residents are STILL not back in their homes, and may never be.

High River:

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 By the afternoon, flooding had started to reach downtown Calgary, where two rivers merge into one big river.  By the time I left work, 10 communities in Calgary had been evacuated.

I went about my normal life.  I went to zumba, and then I went for a walk by the river (I live in the river valley).  The river was high, and flowing fast with a lot of debris, but I wasn't worried.  The river was on one side of the valley, against the ridge, and I was against the opposite ridge.  I had a couple of km's between us, and protection from the golf course.  Stephan cautioned me to be careful, anything could happen.

Its important to note at this point that Stephan was away at work.

I stayed up until midnight, watching the news.  All schools had been closed for the following day, and downtown Calgary now looked like this:

via

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via

 

 

In shock, but still not worried about my home in the valley, I went to bed.  I was promptly woken up at 1:30am by bright flashing police lights, with the police yelling over megaphones that my community was now under a mandatory evacuation and we must leave IMMEDIATELY.   (On a little side note, when I woke up, I put my glasses on to look out the window, not realizing that I had fallen asleep with my contacts in, and may have panicked a little bit about why I couldn't see when I had my glasses on already). 

In full panic mode, I called Stephan.  My hands were just shaking.  He helped keep me calm on the phone, reminding me of important things to pack (passports), and to unplug the lights, put an x on my door, etc.  I may have grabbed from the house then I needed to, but I had no idea what was going to happen. 

Luckily, I had a place to go, to my "Calgary Family", so I gave them a call and went there. I spent about 2 days out of my house, an utter ball of stress, with barely any sleep.  I would just break down and cry at any given moment. The entire city was in shut down, no one was working, everyone was told to stay home.  All bridges over the river were closed, which means it was impossible to get anywhere in the city (built on the river) anyways. Most of my frustration and stress was from lack of information on my community.  I don't want to complain, our Mayor did an AMAZING job of handling the flood, keeping everyone safe, and getting everyone evacuated in time, but trying to get information on my community was very frustrating. 

So my Calgary Family took me back to check first and make sure.  My house was 100% safe, no flood damage, the water didn't get close to my house. It turns out I could have returned to my house 2 hours later, at 3:30am in the morning.  Except they forget to notify the people who had left of that fact.  They tweeted on the Calgary police twitter page (I don't have twitter), and that was it.  The city was not notified.  Hence why I had difficulty finding out if my community was ok, if I could go back, because they didn't even KNOW we had been evacuated!

Better safe than sorry though :)

Here's what the flooding looked like in the valley where I live (it's still serious, quite some damage, but we're very lucky it didn't reach the houses. Not one house received any damage from the flood in our community, so I don't have to leave, I can stay in my little valley which I oh so love, yay!!):

bike path on the river by my house

And here are some more pics outside my community, in areas in Calgary and in the Canmore/Bragg Creek Area:

Canmore - this was cougar creek, a thin trickle that started the flooding

Canmore - Cougar creek

Calgary - Fishcreek Provincial Park

Calgary - Fishcreek Provincial Park

Calgary - Fishcreek Provincial Park

Calgary - Fishcreek Provincial Park

 

 

I thank God every day that he kept our home safe for us, that I had a home to return to when so many have lost their homes, and that I can continue to live in the valley that I have come to love.  I also thank God that I had people to turn to in this time of need, who were so wonderful and supportive of me during a very trying time.

He just won't give up.

Leo is still at it.

this is the routine:

He paces on the floor in front of the sliding door, crying.  He hopes up onto the back of the couch, and tries to climb up the curtain, still crying.  He walks over to me on the other couch, crawls on me, sticks his nose into my face and cries a few times (while purring at the same time), then crawls across the back of the couch to the window, and tries to climb up the window, still crying.  And then it repeats, in reverse order (me, back of couch, floor in front of door, back to couch, etc. in a loop).

Maybe if I try the window???

I'm sure there's a screen door behind the curtain.....

It has to be there, I just saw it!!

Is he seriously trying this??

This dude is crazy.  $10 he hurts himself.

Mom, the screen doors gone!! There's this weird glass thing in front of it! What the heck is going on?!

Maybe if I try one more time???

Mom, his crying is hurting my ears!! Make him shut up already!

Seriously, where'd it go?!!

 

Yup, he's nuts.......