We have been having the most wonderful spring like weather.
Rob and I took full advantage of it and spent 3 days working in the yard.
The ponds were cleaned of the leaves that fell in and around them in the fall, the gravel pathways were raked and a new trail added joining the two paths together.
We had a bonfire burning and were able to burn all the branches that had fallen due to heavy winds or weight from snow.
Things are looking good.
I will take the camera out and take a few pictures for my next post.

Bridgett, my grumpy Lhasa, has had a rough time of things in the last little while.

Our weather was extremely cold for a couple of weeks.
Ice formed on the ponds that was thick enough to hold my two grandsons, Who had a great time freaking their mother and me out by jumping on it!
Any way, I let Bridgett out one evening around 8 00 p.m. I put the kettle on for tea, checked emails, puttered around for a bit while the tea steeped and suddenly remembered Bridgett had not come back in.
Calling her is pointless as she is deaf so I took a flashlight out side to look for her.
The pond is in total darkness and away from the area that she would usually wander so why I shone the light in that direction is a miracle in its self.
Sure enough Bridgett was in the middle of the pond half submerged in the icy water and clinging to the ice trying to get herself out.
The pond is small so it wasn't difficult for me to reach her.
We wrapped her in towels and rubbed her dry. Poor love was shaking very badly. She was, I think, in shock.
It was 3 or 4 hours before she began to warm up.
The next morning she was a bit subdued but over the worst of it.

A few days after that I decided it was time to give her a trim.
She got so worked up as I tried to groom her she tried to take a bite out of the clippers. Sure enough it ended up cutting her in the mouth and made her mouth bleed.

Last week she stumbled into Ben, one of our Greyhounds, it startled him and he took a bite at her.
I could see she had blood on her side but because of her awful disposition it was impossible for me to check it out to see how bad it was.
I put her in the bath tub so that I could at least clean the area.

Enough was enough. I wasn't able to see the wound because I wasn't able to groom her, I couldn't groom her because she is such a nasty little thing that professional groomers, vets or I can't hold her down with out getting bitten.
When I take her to the vet they don't want to put her under anesthetic and shave her down because of the risk factor due to her age.
This time I called and said it would be kinder to let her have a heart attack while she is under anesthetic that fighting me or them while we try to give her a trim.

They agreed and almost $3oo later Bridgett has a complete hair cut, nail trim, ears and eye cleaned. She was given a shot of antibiotic for the bite from Ben.

After all she has gone through in the last couple of weeks I think she now deserves some quite time!

I help my neighbor once a week by doing a bit of yard work and tending to her aviary birds.
She has been clearing out a few things lately and asks me, or my daughter, to take what we want and send the rest to the thrift store.

She had a box ready for the thrift store with 8 bone china cups and saucers.
I told her they would not see the inside of any thrift store as I would love to have them!
I now drink my tea from a Royal Albert bone china tea cup and it has never tasted so good!

Well, my last post was telling you about the hawk that was here.
The week following its great escape from the woman that came to rescue it was quite eventful.

I got a call back from the Raptor Center that I had contacted about the bird.
I was put in touch with a lady in my area that works at the center who is on maternity leave.
She is obviously dedicated to birds of pray.
She was very helpful and even though she was on leave from work, she came out here twice in the hope of being able to help capture the hawk.
She was able to locate the birds owner who also came here hoping to find the bird still here.
He eventually brought and set a trap in the hope of of re-capturing it.

He told me the hawk is a mature Harlan Red Tail. I have no clue if I have the correct spelling on that but that is the way it sounded to me!
It made its escape along with a couple of falcons when, during the last snow fall the roof of the bird house collapsed.

We saw the bird last Saturday and again last Sunday but had no sightings of it at all during this past week.

This morning our dogs started barking. As well, our ducks, chickens and even the pea fowl started squawking out side.
I looked out the window and sure enough the hawk was finally in the trap!
I was so happy to see it captured again.

I called its owner who came right over to pick it up. He was very relieved and greatfull to get his bird back safely.