Elly Belly's Brood Part 3

Just the last few pics I still had on my camera of Harvey's grrranimals, and more photos of the harborfront. (Part 1 was here, part 2 here.)

One of the chickies dug herself a little nest in the garden and just sat there.

"You weren't expecting moi to prevent this, were you?"

While the other chicky continued foraging about. "More grubs for me!"

The neighbor's walnut tree which thoughtfully overhangs the property and provides greenery... and walnuts.

"This is how you read your peemail Auntie?"

And the famous Harvey herself. Isn't she a cutie?

Her Lisa doll, which Auntie's Stepmommy got her. (Auntie's Stepmommy is ridiculously dog crazy. My dad now has two tropical birds who will live to 60 and take up tons of time because he didn't let my stepmother get a dog 15 years ago. That's a moment when he needed a small man in a tuxedo to jump out and sing: Mistaaaaaaake!)

The patented over-the-shoulder "Did I say you could stop scratching my bum?" look.

Sitting under the pear tree.

Harborfront walk, where everyone hangs and eats ice cream.

Little restaurant on the water.

Arts center.

Proof that for all the old people, this is still the West Coast. (And hippies gotta retire somewhere too right?)

Seaplanes! Another great way to come over from Vancouver.

We came across these rocks and thought What the--!

Apparently not a natural phenomenon.

One of Nanaimo's colorful past mayors. He liked dressing up as a pirate.

We're at the park now.

Harbor to one of the wee island out there. 

But some have their own ride.

Movies in the park.

The seawall keeps-a-going.

People who contributed money towards it.

I like that Squire was known by only one name, like Prince and Madonna. And Aase Plougfelt sounds like the kinds of names Shawn gives his sidekick on Psych.

And some final pics of Ells Bells. They might give you the impression I have a ridiculous love of cats. You'd be quite, quite mistaken, I assure you.

Napping away a rainy afternoon.

In her living room. Bye Elly Belly!

      

Elly Belly and her Brood

[There are cat pics in here. ...I have an online friend who does not care for the lovies.]

So Harvey is my brother's friend, and I'd never met her til this animal-sititude. But we got along great when she brought me to her place to meet her mini-peeps. In this town there are a lot of these wee houses that look like they were built around WWII. Harvey lives in one and it's lovely.

Here are the residents. This is Sweetums and (she thinks) Lilyrose. They're her daughters, who's off jetsetting. I just call them Chickies. I let them out once or twice a day for an hour so they can pick off the bugs in the yard. I sit under a lovely shade tree and read while my chickies roam about. ...When they're not stealing my breakfast that is. Last time I eat peanut butter & rice cakes in front of them. (I didn't think I should eat it after so I put it in the fridge and I bring them pieces.) L'il monkeys.

This is Ella. I used to call her Ella Enchanted. And then Ella Bella. And now I call her Elly Belly. When Harvey was showing me around every time I asked a question about what Ella's allowed to do or not, the answer was: Ella does whatever she wants.

She's an enigma, cause she's very independent, and also very biddable. She let me pick her up and give her a cuddle as soon as we met. She'll sit on my lap as long as I'm willing to pet her. And then she goes off into the night and terrorizes the coyotes.

I try to keep her inside at night cause I don't know the coyote situation here, but I actually suspect they fear her and do her bidding. Also, she has some secret entryway in the house, I don't know where. First night I went to bed at 7 AM so I let her out, and when I awoke in the afternoon she was sitting in my room staring at me.

Look at that face! When baby lovers say "I just wanna eat that face" I don't get it, but I do feel that way about cats.

Now here's our movie star, the fabulous Zoe. (Lately Zoe Bowie.) Apparently when you combine this...

 with this...

you get this!

She's a guard dog, a huntress, and a cuddle muffin. What could be better? Here she's modeling her "gentle leader" which goes over her muzzle. 

Because when Zoe spots one of these...


...she TAKES OFF. And like the Giant House Spider, this dog can move. The first time we saw a small mammal I understood what Harvey had warned me about--I was almost yanked off my feet (and I'm tall, that's not easy.) The next day it was a squirrel and she jumped so fast she startled me and my parents.

She chases Ella but Ella appears to enjoy it.

Now I walked my mum's dogs for 30 minutes--they could go longer, but they're oldies so it's ok. But I try to walk Zoe at least an hour. Being that I am out of shape and we're in a heat wave, I do my best, and we go in the evenings.

FIRST WALK

Some local poetry.

Local rope.

Local housing (in spots.)

And all three of my nemesi together: English Ivy, Morning Glory, and Blackberry.

Boardwalk.

My yacht's out for repairs.

Canada Geeses.

Zoe got a 2 hour walk that day cause I got lost on the way home. We past our street twice but did Zoe tell me? Well not in language I understood.

Day two my folks came by for the walk. In my mail carrier bag I have the camera, a terrible map, water and a fold out water bowl for the Queen.

Day Three

"Auntie? You remember this? My leash?"

(I called myself Auntie Mabel the first day I met everyone, and now all the notes Harvey left me are addressed to Auntie Mabel. Hey, I take my petsitting duties personally.)

Actually, I took down her leash and was putting on my shoes, and she started running all over the livingroom with it.

We went to a Snuneymuxw reserve. There was a warning sign about trespassers! So I saw a woman watering her lawn and asked if it was ok to walk my dog (yes) and we got into a chat. And a little kid, along my walk, showed me the Iron Man on his pop can.

No condos! Amazing. A lot of Canada's nature gets preserved by reserves. (Well maybe they'll put up a condo one day! But now it's just some houses, beach, grass, dirt.) It was quite peaceful.

In another neighborhood...

people often make flower beds at sidewalk level.

One of the Aboriginal Centre's buildings. I thought it was interesting to see a repurposed church (though it looks like a castle in this picture.)