Farm!

My cousins came to visit in Baltimore, and we took the opportunity to go visit S's family's farm. S's farm was super fun - there were animals all over the place and I even got to sit on a horse, while S led me carefully around :)

Nasi Briyani and thunderstorms

 

During thunderstorms, even animals who don't like each other put their differences aside and stick close to Mom :)

I went down to do bloodwork, and at M's recommendation, got nasi briyani from Shami Banana Leaf Delights. It was good - the rice was fluffy, it wasn't oily and it was very tasty!

Spending time at home

 

It's my last day in Singapore for a few months. I baked another batch of the chocolate banana cake I've been making (incorporating pecans) and also spent time with the animals. I went for facial and bought vegetarian food - look at the Scouty's adorable face. Who could not miss her - though she just tried to kill a bat.

Mom finished her beautiful new sweater - look at Amber admiring it. We also went to visit a neighbour yesterday. Thanks to everyone who called to say goodbye.

Animals at the Farm

 

If yesterday was the day of poop, today was the day of mud. Simian and I went to Green Akey's Farm to get some free range eggs. The farm was a little further out than we expected but we met the very nice guy who runs the farm. The chickens are not on pasture right now because it's too snowy but they seem pretty happy. He spent quite a while talking to us and they've just started farming just two years ago.

They also a few cats that were ferals brought in by a cat rescue and three very sweet dogs. One of the cats seems too tame to be a feral and climbed onto my lap smearing mud on my jeans. He was the sweetest thing, purry and sweet. One of the dogs immediately jumped into the car and curled up in the front. He was muddy too! :) The guy who ran the farm felt really bad and asked if he could offer to pay for our laundry but it was fine - mud washes off and the animals were adorable. We also got a whole bunch of eggs and they'll keep for a while so we don't need to drive out again too soon.

We also did some other grocery shopping and stopped by JoAnn for Simian to look at the material. He's quite pleased with the selection and says we'll go back sometime.

Pigs

Sadly when I saw this post, I was most envious of the fact that pigs can run faster than I can. That's 7 minutes for 1.6 km people!

Cooling down

The weather is starting to cool down - I've spotted juncos on three separate occasions, but only a single one each time. I know I've been taking less photos of birds - but it's not because I enjoy watching them any less. My instinct is no longer to run for the camera but to enjoy the moment. We had six deer in our yard last night, and I watched one nuzzle another - lovely :)

Whale watching

 

I really wanted to go whale watching but the sea was too choppy yesterday. We skipped a plenary session and lunch and rushed down to make the 2 pm trip (our days here start at 8 meaning the first lecture/panel starts then).

We made it down and it was great. We saw two humpback whales - a mother and baby and several blue whales. The trip lasted 4 hours before pulling back into the harbour They were also collecting stool samples for a researcher, so halfway, they stopped the boat to pick up whale poop.

The water was a bit choppy and Simian was very slightly boat sick. We had dinner out (not provided today) and now that we're back, we're both exhausted!

Interestingly, several people asked where Simian and I bought our Vibrams and said they were really cool.

Deer

 

As I was about to leave the house this evening, I noticed the mother deer with her two babies. The babies have grown. They're still skittish but the mother deer seems to know me. She saw me watching, then went back to eating.

Deer and Raccoon

Deer and Raccoon
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

I was trying to get a shot of the raccoons last night, when the deer showed up. The Raccoon who visits us every night has brought a friend - and neither of them are frightened of the deer.

Deer

Shots care of Simian.

I wondered why the possum ran off and then turned around to discover three deer on our front lawn. At one point, the backlight from my LCD screen alerted this doe to my presence as I tried to fiddle with the settings. Simian eventually took the camera to another room and then came back and took these shots.

Possum eating squirrel food

Possum eating squirrel food
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

I saw this possum eating the squirrel food last night. It didn't care that I was standing there taking photos, and I even managed to turn on the outside light after taking this shot. It moves like a giant rat :)

Horse show and food

I went with K and M to the Horse Show today. It was pretty small and was really a show more for people who own horses. There was a man demonstrating how to work with frightened horses during the session we attended. K thought he could have talked less, and rode more :)

What I found most interesting were the horse rescue places. It was also baby N's first big 'outing'. It went pretty well but she got very sleepy and had to go home after lunch.

K and I went to Bowman's and to a few other places to pick up some stuff after. I was amused at the flavours of cat food they carried. I also bought a HUGE squirrel block - this one cost only $3 more than the small one I bought and it's so big it won't even fit IN the feeder. I don't want to put it directly on the ground, and will move it onto the feeder once it's been nibbled on enough. Let's hope no one gets brained before that (and that would probably be me).

Bowman's also had baby chicks on sale - they were SO cute.

Cute badger

Cute badger
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

Simian took this photo because I had been fiddling for ages and getting bad shots.

What do old fogies do on a Friday night? Get very excited about spotting a badger in their garden. I have to admit that the only reason I could recognise the badger was due to the Wind in the Willows cartoon. Sad but true.

The deer came back last night too.

UPDATE : This is apparently not a badger, but an opossum!

Deer

Deer
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

So I found one of the culprits who has been coming in at night - we fell asleep early last night and I came down to turn off my laptop at 4 am. I tried not to use my flash so the photo turned out grainy.

Tracks near bird feeder

Tracks near bird feeder
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

Anyone know what these tracks are? I looked up a few websites including this one. I did see what I think was a red fox while running this afternoon.

I realised as I was trying to edit my story that the first part which I wrote last year is in the present tense and the rest of it which I started earlier this year is in the past tense. Ugh.

Tracks

Tracks
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

The other nice thing about thicker snow is that we got to see some of the tracks the animals left in our garden. We've suspected that there are a lot of animals around - Simian found poop, and we've definitely seen deer.

We didn't realise how many animals walk around at night though! This was before we had gone to bed last night - we were in the other room with the lights on (playing with the Wii) and when I came out, we found all these tracks.

Bull

Bull
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

Mom I thought you'd like this - this is R's 'baby'.

Busy

Busy day. Simian and I went for a jog, and we got a phone call from our neighbour asking if Simian was free to give them a hand. They needed an extra pair of hands to move the flatbed off their truck - the truck by the way was huge! So was their workshop where they had all manner of tools which Simian was invited to use anytime. It was quite an experience to see it - and to see Simian moving a huge truck bed!

One of our neighbour's friends also came over - with her new pygmy goats that she just adopted. The goat was adorable - you think goats have just one sound but no, this goat had a whole variety of baaas. There was the "I don't want to go there" baa, the "hello" baa and the "no, I really don't want to go there" baaa followed by digging in of heels. I've never seen a pygmy goat - and not one on a bright orange leash. I wish I had my camera with me!

Simian and I went to pick up some groceries, then dropped by Suntaneye's place. She got me some beautiful presents - and I'll post them tomorrow when I take photos of them.

We went to Simian's lab for a short while, dropped by the Wine Source at Hampden, then came home for dinner. I also managed to lose the gold backing of my earring while in the shower :(

Injured deer

Injured deer
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

We saw this injured deer off one of the trails. His hind right foot was very swollen. He wasn't too frightened and we could walk fairly close - it looked like a bone was jutting out of his foot. Simian suggested alerting the rangers to it though we didn't think they could do much.

The ranger thanked us but said that they generally leave nature to its own devices. Poor deer :(

Chickens

Chickens
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

At R and G's new home (which they moved into before selling us our present home), they have chickens again. G reared them from tiny chicks and they have a huge chicken run - this is just a small section. I've also never known that chickens can run that fast.