Last Friday, I was sitting in Dad's chair next to the big picture window when a hummingbird sort of buzzed by at breakneck speed past the window. He sort of came too close to the window and grazed it with his side and bounced off slowing down just slightly. We often have birds hit the big window, mostly in the morning when the reflection of the trees in the yard fills the window and confuses the birds. But this particular bounce was at noon and the hummingbird was sort of parallel with the window and had a sideways bounce.
Now that in itself is quite strange but the thing that happened next was even stranger. As he glided off the window he sped past our "weather stick" and stopped in his tracks...... tangled in a spider/cob web. I hate spiders, therefore, I hate spider webs.. That being said, I wouldn't kill a spider either and I am too creeped out by spiderwebs to ever disturb one, in case the spider jumps out from somewhere, lands on me and ewwwwww.... its toooo gross to even explain!
The particular web was quite large and didn't really look like a spider web as the strands were too thick. It was more like a cob web... you know... those dusty looking things that grow in the corners of your living room and you only see them when company is sitting on your couch!!!!
This poor little hummingbird got tangled in the thick sticky strands of the web... by his feet. In a split second he was hanging upside down... his wings spread out straight beside him and his head pointing straight down and he hung there as still as a statue. I was horrified to see this little guy hanging there.. and was in some what of shock looking at him. I couldn't tell if he was dead or not, because he was soooo still. I actually thought about taking a picture but then thought it might be too morbid.
Terry was home so we both rushed outside, me with a box, and Terry with a stick. He didn't move one feather, as Terry reached as high as he could to pick up the web... and as he lowered the web and the bird, it grazed the cedar tree, and he grabbed onto the tree. We left him there, and as I watched, his little heart was beating faster than I could even count.. and he sat nestled in a limb for a few minutes, and every now and then he would shift around until he was finally sitting upright. The cobweb was still hanging from his little feet but I didn't dare try and help him any more for fear of giving him a little heart attack. After a little while, he was gone, I didn't see him fly away, and he wasn't on the ground dead, so I figured he recovered enough to survive.
Now, that was the weirdest thing I have ever seen, and Terry cleaned off the rest of the web and the story was done. I thought! Later that night, well after dark, Michelle and Scott were home, and I was sitting in the same chair. As we chatted, I was reminded of the hummingbird and told them all about it. As I am telling the story I look up to the window and I see the spider that built the web.... and it is the BIGGEST, Ugliest spider I have ever seen... just as I tell the others to look, it zips up to the roof and disappears. Of course, that leaves me looking like a wimp and they just don't believe that it was a BIG spider. They know how I hate them... and figure I am just a baby about it all. Moments later, it returns and I direct Scottie to the window where he immediately goes into "WOW...."mode! ewwwww..... we all watch this thing re build its web and he is the size of the bottom of a coffee cup. My first reaction is to pass sentence on him ... he shall be killed! This totally goes against my grain, but man, he was just toooooo....ewww.... oh, I can't tell ya. I didn't sleep all night, thinking about it, but early on in the morning, I changed my mind. I can live with it, up there... as long as it doesn't come in the house. And it would need to knock to get in, as there are no rogue openings in my house big enough for it to come in. I am now at peace with this creature, who probably has survived many battles to grow that big. Off I go to a yard sale with Michelle and Stephanie and when we get home... Terry and Scott were proud to tell me that the beast was dead... and his mate! there were two. Oh, I felt terrible. My stomach ached for the rest of the day over those two ugly beasts until finally Terry put into prospective and told me that if we didn't rid the house of those... imagine how many would have made it in over the winter.... I feel a bit better now, and not another hummingbird will be tangled up in their web. Now, warning... if you hate them as much as I do... don't look at he picture. It hard to see how big he really is, but believe me... BIG.
This picture shows you the window, the weather stick and way up above is the spider. The hummingbird hung just above the weatherstick. The web went from the roof to the stick. Terry took the whole thing down in the afternoon, and mr spider built it back by the next day.
This is the spider... as big as a toonie... that's how big!
This is the spider... as big as a toonie... that's how big!
The very last page of the book will have this picture on it with the words "A Gift of Love". I truly loved making the book for this family, and I am so pleased that they will have a fun book to look at and see just what little miracles these kids are!
Above is our new livingroom/diningroom location for the next couple of weeks. We can still host guests, and feed them at the table (although it will be tight) and anywhere you sit, you will have a footrest (which is quite fun). 
Terry was quick to empty the room of all furniture and then tear up the carpet and disassemble everything else but actually laying the wood has been delayed. 
First the weather (soooo humid) and then we got busy. This week, after researching (through people and internet), Terry started the HUGE project of putting down the bamboo! Its beautiful and sturdy and warm. 
The whole process has been happening slow enough that the pets were not too thrown off by this until the big power hammer thing came out. The cat left home and mollie hid in the laundry room. Its going to be a long week or two for them.
We have recruited help for the weekend, so our task now is to move all the livingroom/diningroom furniture into the livingroom and tear up the diningroom/hallway before Friday. Very exciting!
Second, there is a science behind this game that I never really considered. 
The wind, the terrain, the distance you need all factor in to what number of club you need! Thirdly, the course itself was gorgeous. 
It was full of hills, greenery, hot spots, and breezy spots. All of that coupled with spending the afternoon with 3 very good friends.... made for a glorious day. 
The downfall of the day was the hot humid weather. We, in the valley are quite use to this weather, but we certainly didn't expect it down on the cool shores of Clare. But the fact that we were curling at 10pm that night got us through the whole day. After golfing, we relaxed at our beautiful rental cottage and caught up with our cottage roommates. The cottage is on Cranberry lake and this was my first time there in the summer. I have been there probably 3 times for winter curling but the whole atmosphere of the cottage was spectacular on this summer visit. One of the highlights was sitting on the little wooden dock and catching up on the events of the summer. Eventually conversation got around to girly subjects and the discovery of "VEET" was shared and I had lots of questions about this new hair removal technique. We giggled like school girls and made plans to have a VEET party sometime this weekend. Just picturing this event brought giggles to all of us. Curling was sooooo fun. First off, we dressed up in NS tartan shorts and comical Tee shirts, to show the other teams that we meant business... Taking pictures in a curling club is next to impossible because there are 4 rinks of people and the flash would disturb someone. But, on the hottest night of the summer when the outside temperature was 30, imagine trying to pull on leotards, then shorts, a sweater, and shirt... shoes and mitts! what a hoot. Then.... heaven.... we were suddenly plunged into -4 rink and working muscles we haven't really used in 6 months!! The bonspiel had 64 teams (thats 250 people) and they fed us very well.... roast pork, roast beef, lobster, scallops, homemade soups, homemade spaghetti.. and desserts each night. Our games were late at night (all between 10pm and 11:45pm) except one, which left our days free for shopping, napping and chatting. We tried to find VEET in the two drug stores in the village and no luck. Saturday afternoon, after our only afternoon game, we were trying to decide if we wanted to drive to Yarmouth (30 minutes) to find VEET or to just go back to the cottage..... we all gave up on the VEET and headed to the cottage for some lake swimming. Shortly after we got to the cottage, we had a surprise visit from our landlord. A wonderful gentleman that most of us have never met. He lives in Halifax, and using the cottage on weekends. He gave up his weekend there so we could use it, and we were very grateful. He and our cottage neighbour stayed for an hour and it was lovely to meet him and to share stories. We certainly learned a lot of answers to questions we have spent 4 years wondering about... After they left, someone commented that we were missing our lake time... to which Hazel pointed out... It could always have been worse!". If we had the VEET with us, he would have dropped by just in time to see 4 grown women lathered up (legs, bikini and pits) with VEET..... imagining that sent us into fits of laughter.. and actually it still does.!
