backtracking a bit

 On Canada Day we went to Lower Fort Garry -

a Hudson's Bay Company Fort

just north of Winnipeg.

The Canadian flags were free!

Do you notice the photo bomber in this picture?

 It's a beautiful old fort that sits alongside the Red River.

 The general store was stocked to the rafters!

 Next item:

David and Katy arrive home from Pennsylvania!

It was fun to make a bit of an event to welcome this "foreigner"

to the True North Strong and Free!
It's so wonderful to finally have him here!

I think he'll do just fine!

He's even worn his new Canada cap a few times - 

much to Katy's chagrin. :)

update...

Not much to report this morning.

I think the mother is weary as she stayed in the nest

and didn't notice me

until I was right beside her. 

The babies look a bit sleepy this morning too.

they're hatching!

The miracle has begun!

It has been so windy the last few days

in the aftermath of the tornado

that I was fearing for the lives of our wildlife!

But mommy robin knows how to

stay upright even when the tree is swaying from side to side -

nearly bent double 

at times.

This is SO exciting!

crazy skies and crazy weather

 The cloud formations have been absolutely spectacular

the last few days.

 Then last night there was a HUGE tornado in southerwestern

Manitoba which touched down for

almost 3 hours

and at some points was more than

1 kilometer wide.

Miraculously, no one was hurt and there was

little damage.

 The weather continues to be hot

and humid

(the humidity was over 80% again this morning)

and as a result the storms are fierce.

 We had another thunderstom this morning

but now the sun is out and the wind is blowing.

It feels almost cool in the house.

 Our streets were flooded again last week with another

2 " of rain falling in about an hour and a half.

In a few days we leave for Scotland where the weather

is wet

but considerably cooler.

We will definitely be wearing more and warmer

clothing for our week there.

As I've said several times -

we aren't going to Scotland for the weather. :)

yet another deluge

Yup. 

Another storm last night after a very hot and humid day.

The lightning was crazy 

together with the rain and the wind.

We actually drove out during the storm last night

and some streets in our neighbourhood

were almost impassable.

But we made it out and actually saw this

motor home stranded in the middle of the highway through

town which was closed for several hours again

last night.

(Another borrowed picture.)

I did check on the mother robin and her eggs this morning

and all is well.

I was fearing for their lives last night during the storm.

a summer surprise

 

Howard noticed a few weeks ago that there was a nest in one of

our trees.

Now, you can see that this tree is pretty small and

that the nest is very low to the ground.

But being that it's summer we didn't think

that this was an "active" nest but one that

had already been used in the Spring

and was now vacated.

We felt relieved, thinking about that

cat that has been around our house in the last few weeks.

 Yesterday I was out pulling weeds (this seems to be

a past time that I can't seem to shake - no matter

what country I am in!) and I was going to take

a look in that little nest.

But the weeds got the better of me.

A few minutes later Howard called me over

to have a look.

I was amazed -  and still am.

I could look at these beautiful eggs for hours on end

but then that would mean that the poor mother

wouldn't get to do what she is supposed to be doing.

So today I had a quick peek and then

went into the house to look at the pictures again.

What an amazing thing to have happening

in our own backyard

in our own little French village!

(not that THAT has anything to do with it!) 

And I'm VERY glad that I've been extremely inhospitable

to the cat that's been hanging around here.

we had another storm...

 Last night while we were watching our back ditch, lawn and garden 

fill up and get covered by more water than ever before,

we had no idea that the downtown of our village was flooding!

Our sump pump was working overtime but I was feeling

relatively pleased that the front lawn, which I hadn't watered yesterday,

was getting a good soaking!

It rained 3" in 1 hour.

The highway into town was actually closed

until early this morning.
This is the third storm like this
(of course, this one was the worst)
that we've had in the last few weeks.
The ground is saturated and the water has nowhere to go.
We wonder what the crops look like after this storm.
They seemed to be recovered pretty well after the last two storms
but everything has its limit.

We are thankful this morning for a dry basement

and a new sump pump that was able to keep up to last night's demand!

(I borrowed these pictures from "Steinbach Online".
This car is actually parked on a gas station lot so the water level is higher
than it appears.)

 Just found some more pictures from another news site.
This is the gas station where the car above is parked.
That is the highway through town!

 The parking lot at the French school.

 Looking across the highway through town.

 Another addition.
Apparently part of the street was washed out -
but not where these people are standing!
Click here to see more pics! 

a trip to the zoo

 The girls were able to join us for an outing to the zoo.

They were at their prime...!

 

 Jean rented mom a scooter which she learned to accept

with much encouragement...!

 

 Of course Katy was in her element when Grandma

wanted to walk a bit!

 The star attraction of the Winnipeg zoo is the recent

addition of the polar bears!

 Fortunately they were swimming that morning

so we got a good view of them.

 It was quite spectacular.

Some were maybe a bit too lazy to go for a swim that morning.

 This pretty much sums up weather anywhere in Canada.