November 30, 2009

...sorry all, i seem to have forgotten to post these last two entries until now! -c

Today as every day, I scan the ocean for signs of life, not once but many times,

since the panoply changes every few minutes -

perhaps that makes it a palimpsest.

A bunch of ducks float slowly into view,

riding the incoming or outgoing side

(which moves sideways here as well as up and down).

I will say more about the ducks when I see that the full range

of expected species has arrived.

Today's highlight was not ducks, however,

but our full family of five river otters, frolicking offshore.

They live under a huge log on our beach,

and their appearances are sporadic and unpredictable,

and they aren't always together.

I suspect they are at least partly nocturnal,

but I saw them in the late afternoon,

and I wasn't sure whether they were hunting

for dinner or just out to play.

My new superzoom Canon helped me to get a usable picture of them.

Not too long ago one of them climbed the 50 stairs

from the beach to our lawn,

but scampered down again when

the twins spotted him, squealed with delight

and could not be restrained from charging out look at him.

The second picture shows him just leaving...

November 29, 2009

We have just mailed the twins' letters to Santa Claus.
Although Canada doesn't seem to have entered the wireless age yet,
we can apparently communicate with Santa by snail mail.
You may be aware that our mail codes are a mixture of numbers and letters. Ours is V8L 1M8
Well, it is a nice coincidence that Santa's mail code at the North Pole id HOH OHO
Letters are delivered free, and we are guaranteed a reply.
I am attaching a photo of their letters. You can see that Skylar has more meticulous penmanship.
But the nice thing is that both their lists are so reasonable.
In fact Grandma has already gone out and found exactly what was requested.
(We have also bought them a Wii with 2 controllers and Nunchuks,
but that' a surprise).