Thursday 26 December 2013

My Bucket List

During this holiday I crossed going to a ballet off of my Bucket List.  Today we drove to our daughter-in-law's parents, farm where she was raised, for a family feast,games and gift exchange. The children get regular presents but the adults draw names and give homemade or recycled gifts.  That is such a great idea.  Our continent would profit if we all did that. 

Late in the afternoon as the sky was darkening Judy, her mother, took me to the Skaal's farm down the road.  
I was blessed to see my first cardinal and he was a bright red on the snow under the feeders.



Then I saw a female.

           

In the end we saw two pairs at the feeder with the other birds.  I felt so blessed.  We have been to this area 4 times and have travelled in our RV all over the Maritime Provinces but never had the chance to see a cardinal in the flesh.  They do not live on the west side of the Rockies past Alberta.  They always look so lovely on Christmas cards.  I really wanted to see one in the wild and today I did.

Also, I need to make a correction about a comment in a former blog.  The sampler I thought was stitched was actually an illuminated work on kid leather done by a pioneer in a former era.  I had put it at the end of my blog for the Carols and Candles service on Christmas Eve.  We live and we learn, hopefully.

7 comments:

  1. How wonderful! I would also love to see cardinals in the wild. But not much hope here (and would I want to visit you in the depths of winter . . .). So, seeing a cardinal, is that it for your bucket list? Is that what you mean? Why can't you go to a ballet?

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    1. I did get to see a ballet before Christmas, The Canadian version of the Nutcracker. I think I wrote a blog about it. So going to a ballet is crossed off although there is a Chinese one coming to Vancouver that I would like to see. So with the cardinals sightings I crossed two things off my list. The trouble is that my list is NOT getting shorter, as I keep adding to it.

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  2. Cardinals are such beautiful birds! I was surprised to learn that they are not so prevalent in Canada. We see them frequently here, and it is also the Ohio state bird, where I was born and raised. A very familiar red and I am so happy you got to see not one, but two and the females!

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  3. Cardinals are such perfect Christmas birds. we saw them once at a feeder in our nephew's yard when he lived in Houston, Texas. It sounds like you had a great Christmas.

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  4. What a gorgeous set of pictures. Cardinal red on snow....:)

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    1. Hello troutbirder. You are new to me but I would be happy to have you as a contact on Blogger. I stole some of the pictures off of Google images. I was inside the house behind glass and although close to the birds, the glass was not clear due to all the bird activitiy. There is no way to clean windows in our winters. It is a Halloween and Easter job. It was a bucket list wish I had and over 4 trips to see our son and his family after they moved to be close to her family in 2002 we had never seen any and they live on a dairy farm with lots of trees around the house. I was lucky this year. I hope they weren't your pictures that I borrowed??? How did I get you into my contacts file? I am a retired teacher too.

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    2. Haven't heard from you since your initial contact in January. Can we contect somehow?

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