Hilda, Henry, Harold and Henrietta

After doing some house hunting around our patio Henry and Hilda chose a spacious one story right outside our front door. As you may recall their first attempt to hatch eggs failed but we're happy to report the birth of their twins, Harold and Henrietta. They are extremely good at ignoring the fact that they live in a busy neighborhood - I can't believe they aren't disturbed by Buster. He lives next door and barks a lot! It will soon be time for flying lessons so we may not be able to use the front door for a while.

"I told you so"

Honestly I never uttered those words - even if they were on the tip of my tongue. I don't know how many of you have ever driven in England but I wouldn't recommend it. I've been on way less scary roller coasters! Take the fact that you are driving on the opposite side of the road, add in those hair raising roundabouts and the rental car is a standard (picture using the gear shift with your left hand), your wife (that's me) is a back seat driver and you have a recipe for disaster. Oh, I forgot to mention the roads are extremely narrow.
We arrived in Newcastle and picked up our rental car, and even though neither Mark nor I had more then 5 hours sleep in 24 hours, we made it safely to our bed and breakfast. The next day we were off on our first adventure and on the way out of town I kept saying "You're too close to the parked cars." Mark, being a man, said "You're just not used to sitting on that side of the car." Guess what happened?

OMG

The internet is a very, very scary thing. I just posted about the birds and what google adds appear on my blog page? One for egg cartons, one for egg donations, and one for egg incubators. Tell me that doesn't make you think twice (or three or four times) about what you put on the internet?

Hilda is Back

I told Mark to move "the nest" but all he did was remove the eggs and now it looks like Hilda has laid new ones. At least she's getting plenty of "loving". I'm pretty sure Mark got attached and wanted to see if they would try again. We'll see what happens this time.

I'm taking up Golf ?!!

The story about why my new golf clubs are pink is written on the scrapbook page - it's a boring story. Of course so is the one about me taking up golf, but I believe that blogging was invented so you could bore your friends in a whole new way. I got clubs for several reasons. One, they were on sale. Two, they were pink. Three, Mark loves to buy stuff we don't need so it can decorate our garage. And last, but not least, we both enjoy eating breakfast out on Sunday mornings. A reasonable, good tasting breakfast can be had a our local golf course. It happens to have a driving range so we hit a few balls before breakfast and, voila, all of a sudden I'm taking up golf. Wish me luck - I'll need it as this is the third attempt at learning this game and I'm not very coordinated, as most of you know.

Update on Hilda and Henry

I'm sad to report the the eggs didn't hatch and Hilda and Henry have moved on. They were young and inexperienced and I'm sure that the next attempt will result in baby doves, but I hope they find a new home. It kind of freaked me out having them right outside our window.

The Eggs

According to the Internet, doves always lay two eggs and will have up to 5 broods a spring. In warmer climates they will have up to 8!! Oh, did I mention they like to return to the same nest? I don't think I can take having birds that close to the front window all year. Don't worry about Mark disturbing the Mom to get this photo. Shift change takes place at about 6:10 pm and the eggs are left alone for about 10 minutes. We have no idea who takes the night shift, Hilda or Henry, but I kind of like the arrangement. At least one of them gets to party all night!

Meet Hilda

Hilda is our new pet Mourning Dove. She is married to Henry, a very good husband who takes his turn sitting on their egg at night. Mark, and his darn hanging baskets that look like bird's nests, has attracted this little family to our front patio. At first we thought Hilda was just some crazy bird that liked looking in our front window. The thought occurred to me that she was making a home. Mark checked the planter one day and, sure enough, there was an egg sitting as happy as could be right in the middle of the flowers. At first we were concerned that Hilda was a poor mother with a drinking problem. She would disappear every evening at 6:30 and leave the egg to fend for itself. Then we realize that Henry would show up to take over babysitting duties. That's not to say the Hilda isn't out at the bars but at least she is responsible enough to make sure child care is provided. I'm not really a bird lover but I hope this drama unfolds happily and the family flies away into the sunset. I'll keep you posted.

The Good Old Hockey Game

What do you get when you take a rented beach house add some friendly Americans and Canadians, toss in a couple of cases of beer, some good food and mix it all together with the Canada/U.S Olympic final hockey game? A darn good time - and very little trash talk. The three Americans were very good sports and I think they were secretly rooting for Canada. They didn't want to witness a second outburst of profanity from yours truly. The first one occurred when the U.S. tied the game with 30 seconds on the clock.

I haven't blogged in forever, as my sister pointed out to me. So I will try to post a photoshop layout once a month. I'm now teaching scrapbooking with photoshop to a couple of the customers at the store and I love it. Of course combinding three of my favorite things together is a winning combination - who wouldn't love teaching, scrapbooking and the computer? Don't answer that!
If you are reading this - I miss you!