HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA

     Tomorrow is Canada's birthday and we will be 152 years old.

      Now you're going to get a little history and geography lesson whether you want it or not.

     At one time this day was called dominion day signifying that we were part of the British Empire. Now we call it Canada Day

    When Canada was formed it was made up of 4 provinces...Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Ontario and Quebec were less than half the size they are now. Manitoba joined in 1870, British Columbia in 1871, Prince Edward Island in 1873, Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905 and Newfoundland in 1949. So it took us a long time to get to where we are now as far as territory is concerned. We still have three large areas that are territories. 

    It also took a long time for us to gain full independence. England controlled the final say in courts and enactments of laws until 1831. 

    So here we are, a relatively young country . We've taken a long time to get here . We've made a few mistakes along the way but have set up many very good things to make it a good country to live in.

    So Happy Birthday Canada!

THERE IS A TOOTH FAIRY

     We have been deluding ourselves about the tooth fairy for generations. As children the tooth fairy game was played with us. We told our own children about the tooth fairy. It was a pleasant activity.

     Well, yesterday I did find a real tooth fairy. The tooth fairy gave me a gift card to Tim Horton's!

     Okay, here's how it worked.

     Yesterday, I had my annual dental checkup and teeth cleaning. I've had the same wonderful dentist for a long time. He's pleasant, friendly, laid back, takes time  and does excellent work. At each appointment he will start out with a pleasant chat. He knows about your life and wants to know more. He asks if I'm still riding? Am I still skating? So I have one of the nicest people to be a dentist.

    Yesterday after a brief chat he gave me a Tim Horton's gift card. It was out of the blue and I was a bit stunned and didn't know what was going on. He called it Thursday throw back and because I have been a long time patient I got a gift card. I started at his clinic in 1970 before he came to the clinic. I'm not sure how long Glen has been my dentist. Last year we got chatting about a procedure I had a long time ago. He got the idea to look it up in the records. So for 10 minutes he went back in my records with me. He got a big chuckle about the prices charged.

    My wife and two children have had him as a dentist. 

    So folks, you see, there is a tooth fairy. He's my dentist.

THE END OF THE BIRD STORY.

   I posted two bird stories recently.

   First I had black-capped chickadees cleaning out a hole in the big stump in my yard. They worked for three weeks and then suddenly the chickadees were gone and two red-breasted nuthatches worked on the hole.



    The nuthatches nested. First, I watched the male come and go with food. Then both adults carried food.





   I wanted to get photos of the little guys. I tried. I waited at the stump. They would not poke their heads out while I was near. I knew they were close to fledging.

   This morning when I looked out something seemed different. There were no parents going back and forth. I have to assume that the little guys fledged and are somewhere else in the neighborhood.

A BOUQUET FOR FAR SIDE

     Far Side from Far side of Fifty https://farsideoffifty.blogspot.com/and her family are going through a stressful time right now. Far Guy is slated for a lung transplant.

     I know the yellow lady slipper is one of far Sides favorite flowers so here's a bouquet by photo. I also have one of Far side's carved yellow lady slippers which I won in a draw.

THOSE DARN HEARING AIDES

     Yes, I know I already did a post on my new hearing aides, but you're going to have to put up with another story.

    There have been some surprises with the hearing aides. Some things I haven't heard for a long time and now I hear them.

   Usually when we finish lunch I get up right away and do the dishes. Well, the other day the Micro Manager had something to do before I could do the dishes. 

   I decided to lie down for a few minutes until I could do the dishes. Well, often the Micro Manager takes more time so I drifted off to sleep. Now I don't nap very often but when I do nap it's 15 to 20 minutes and then I'm wide awake and good to go.

   The other day I kept waking up from my nap. It was very disturbing that I was being woken up. I would wake up because I could hear a noise. 

    Yes, you guessed it. When I started to snore , I heard the noise and woke up. I won't be able to say , "I don't snore." anymore.

    ...and I learned that I can't sleep with my hearing aides on!

REFLECTIONS ON FATHER'S DAY

     On Father's day I found that a number of bloggers wrote very elegant tributes to their Dad's.  Some tributes were written about Dads who've been gone a long time. Some posts were written about or, to Dads who where were still living. In other cases , wives took the opportunity to write some very good things about a husband and what a good Dad he is. I enjoyed all these posts.

    However, I look at my own experience with Father's day and there has not been a very significant celebration.

   As children , I cannot remember any experience with Father's day at home. I remember making some sort of card at school. Father's day was just not a big issue. My Dad's family were German pioneers and I don't think they had such a thing as Father's day. My mother came from an English family and I don't think they celebrated and any special days. 

    So when did Father's day begin. That's maybe why my folks did little for Father's day.

    It's thought that Father's Day may have come from Pagan customs. In modern times Father's day was started in the U.S. about 1910. So it was probably quite some time before Father's day caught on in Canada.

    In my own family I don't remember anything special on father's day. So both my kids sent me greetings for Father's day. My daughter in law sent me a greeting and a neighbor sent me greetings. I am happy.

    What are your Father's day celebrations like?

A DECISION IS FINALLY MADE

   A while ago I wrote about getting a pair of hearing aides. I didn't tell you that I took them back. Most hearing aid places have a policy that you try the hearing aid for a period of time...some up to 90 days. After about three weeks I decided not to buy the set of hearing aides. The customer service at the business was absolutely terrible. Then I decided that the hearing aides were junk and service would be hard to come by. 

    So because we were busy it took a while to get back on the hearing aide trail. We finally decided to try Connect Hearing. What a great business! They gave information that you could understand. They tried very hard to give you the best experience possible. I now have hearing aides to try for 12 days. I know already that I will buy them. The first time I went out in the yard I heard chipping sparrows. The sparrows have been there all the time. I just couldn't hear them.

    The hearing aides I'm getting will cost much more money. They are from a highly rated brand.

    Now the previous hearing aides were from Costco. They have a very good price for their brand. I believe Costco gets all the old brands that haven't sold and puts their name on them. The hearing aides you buy are not the latest models. You are getting an older technology.

    Things are changing very quickly with technology . It's important to get the latest.

    I have a second level hearing aide. It will cut out some of the back ground noise. But it doesn't have all the bells and whistles to let you adjust TV volume and phones. I don't watch TV and I don't have a phone so I don't need those features.

    So if you're buying hearing aides , do your home work. There's a tremendous difference out there. Each hearing aid business has a different gimmick. As usual , some professionals are much better than others so look around until you're satisfied.

A LITTLE UPDATE.

   In my last post, that was too long ago, I wrote about a serious snow storm that we had.

    Now six days later we had a high temp of 30 C (88 F)! That's what it's like here...extremes. I'm tearing down my fence and worked the whole afternoon which wasn't a good plan.

   Today about 3:30 Pm we had a very heavy thunderstorm. There were very high winds. The rain was blown like snow. Our intersection flooded like it always does. We probably had about one inch of rain. We needed the moisture as it's very dry here.

    So anybody want to guess what might happen in the next six days.

JUST TO LET YOU KNOW...

   Just to let you know that in Red Deer Alberta we had snow today!!! Yes, it snowed for about two hours this morning. At one time there was about 2 cm on the ground. It's rained all day...just what we need. It's very dry here.

    There was much more snow in the Rocky Mountains. At higher elevations there was lots of snow.

ELLIS BIRD FARM

   I took my bird watching group to Ellis Bird farm Sat morning. This is an excellent birding site as many things have been implemented to attract birds  and they do it well.

    My birders spotted 27 species  in a little over 2 hours. The biggie was to see a great horned owl and her babes. They are just about ready to leave the  area. It's the first owl I've been able to show my birders. I take them at the wrong time to see owls...10:00 to 12:00 noon.

    So here's some of this beautiful facility.

     This facility uses an original farmstead as it's base. Here's the original home now used as a tea room.

     We can grow tulips.

One of the many ponds

    She has a large purple martin population

   Much of the original farmstead has been kept. Here is the original barnyard.

     Many places have hundreds of nest boxes. They've been used as fund raisers.

     

     I usually don't carry a camera. Many of our birders got some great photos. I've taken the liberty to steal some. The first and third shots are from Lynette. The middle one is from Jurgan