Bunnies and Buddhas

   In my most recent post, I briefly detailed the lack of success Doralyn and I had had in our quest to find the more or less perfect Buddha for our garden. We had gone to all the most logical places here in London and had found lots of Buddhas of different sizes, shapes and countenances but nothing really that struck our fancy. Even online searches had been unsuccessful.
   As it happened, we were out for breakfast on the last day of our stay up at Oma's trailer, dining at a little place called MacPherson's, right oh Highway 21 as you get near Port Franks. We had finished breakfast there and had decided to take a quick spin through the gift shop attached to the restaurant.
   We checked out a variety of things and were actually starting to head towards the door when I happened to look down. There, at my feet, was a Buddha! Perfect size, perfect face and weatherproof! We couldn't find a price so I went and asked the cashier. She conferred with an older woman behind the counter and I could have sworn I heard the other woman say "$199.99". The younger woman came back to me and said "$109.99". I was a little confused so I repeated that price to her and she confirmed that it was $109.99. I took this back to Doralyn and we agreed that we weren't going to be able to find what we were looking for at a better price and, given our inability to find anything suitable, we kind of jumped at it! So Buddha goes in the trunk and we're off to Oma's trailer to pack up. As I'm flipping the Buddha onto its back so that it would be more stable, I finally notice a small price tag attached to the bottom of it. And it read "$199.99"!
   So I don't know whether we got away with highway robbery there or perhaps the Buddha was simply marked down but it simply seemed like it was meant to be!

Our new Buddha, in its temporary garden spot.

   Today was the first day I had an opportunity to rescue our new Buddha from its temporary spot on our deck and take it down to the garden. As I walked into the backyard to get it, I noticed a small movement in the grass about five feet away. It was a baby bunny.
   This baby bunny has been showing up almost constantly as I've spent more time than normal, working on our backyard. I tend to just leave it alone whenever it shows up and since I've never really harassed it, it's become fairly tame.
   This morning it was just nestled in the clover near our BBQ, munching away. I happened to have my phone with me so took it out and started snapping pictures of it. I'd take a pic, slowly move a step forward, and then take another. I got to about three feet away when it finally hopped off. This is kind of how the relationship works.

Baby bunnies in Brian Baker's backyard!

   At this point, I started paying more attention to the Buddha and took it down to the lower part of our backyard. I found a little bench to set it on, positioned it in a spot in the garden and then stood back to admire.
   As I was standing there, Baby Bunny re-appeared! It was almost as if he (or she) had stopped by to welcome the new addition and I headed off to get my phone for another pic. Unfortunately, by the time I got back Bunny was gone.
   The Buddha will hopefully soon have a permanent and reverential spot in our garden and when that happens  I'll post another pic. And, when Baby Bunny shows up again, maybe I'll have a carrot in my pocket....  
   

What I've Been Up To

   Okay, you may or may not have noticed but it's been awhile since I've blogged. Both "Neanderings" and "Strides" have been strangely silent the past few weeks and generally when this happens it's the result of me simply having nothing to write about.

   Lately though, this hasn't been the case.

   Not long ago, I attempted to get on to my blogs to check the stats on both of them. Upon entering my password I was suddenly given the message that I no longer had permission to use that service and that I needed to contact the domain administrator. If you're anything like me (and I sincerely hope you're not) then you neither have an idea what a domain administrator is nor how to contact one.

   I went on Google and tried to explain my problem in a variety of ways. I was given several different plans of action, none of which (given my technical skills) were actually feasible.

   I tried to figure out what I might have done lately to put myself in this strange position. It kind of boiled down to two possibilities. Firstly, I had signed up for my work's gmail account. Secondly, I had switched from Internet Explorer to Google Chrome (belatedly... the rest of the world had neglected to inform me just how passé IE was anymore.)

   A quick side trip to my office and a quick little talk with one of the office administrators put me back on the right track. Apparently all I needed to do was log out of gmail. As soon as I did that, easy-peasy getting back to the blog! Yay! Funny how much I was starting to miss it and how giddy I was at the prospect of getting back to it!

Some of the things for the garden--
minus the coffee cup...

   Okay, now for some backtracking and getting caught up a little!
   A couple of weekends ago, Doralyn and I had some time off to ourselves. We decided to head off and stop in at a couple of our favourite knick-knack shops in the London area. Part of the reason for this is that we simply like looking at knick-knacks and the other was that we were also looking for a Buddha for our garden. Well, we found a couple of things for the garden but no luck with the Buddha.
   Buddhas are a little problematic. We need one for outside (so not wood). It needs to be the right size (as it will be one of the garden's focal points) and it needs the right kind of face (we are looking for a contemplative Buddha, not a giggly one).
   The following morning, we decided it was nice enough for breakfast on the patio, one of the first times we've ever done this together.
   Doralyn has yogourt with Holy Crap in it pretty well every morning and I'm kind of an eggs, toast and coffee sort of man and this was how we enjoyed the morning.

Doralyn at rest after breakfast.

   One of the other things we did that week was investigate a nearby Komoka Provincial Park. We've been driving past this park for years and understood that there was quite a trail system there so we thought we'd go and take a bit of a look.
   We were actually kind of amazed at how beautiful it was there! There had been a bit of a rain shower earlier on in the day so there was the odd muddy puddle we needed to navigate around.
   From time to time we passed through some pretty dense forest into open grassland and then back into forest. The pathways took us past some pretty interesting tree formations and also brought us pretty close to to the edge of the embankment over the Thames River. At one point they had erected a boardwalk through what we assumed was a boggier part of the park.

Doralyn, sort of being angelic

   As we walked along, I was pretty well constantly assessing the trail system as to its run-ability. Then, at one point, a young female runner actually passed us and it became apparent that I was not the only person with the same idea! It was about the same time that we started wondering exactly where we were going that the same runner passed us going in the opposite direction, admitting she'd taken a wrong turn. On top of everything else, the sun was going down and we were still uncertain where the trail was actually taking us. Playing it safe, we decided to simply backtrack and make our way out in that manner. Will probably head there earlier in the day next time!
 

Awesome scenery along the way!

Glimpse of the river
through the trees

Funny-looking tree! With
lots of hearts and initials!

My face, right after the treatment.

In the middle of all this, my semi-annual dermatology appointment cropped up as well. Last September, I had undergone a treatment on my face for skin damage and this was my opportunity to get all that checked out again. My doctor found three or four little spots she wanted to take care of so she performed a little cryotherapy on me, right there in her office. This involved freezing/burning the areas. Kinda stung like hell and didn't look all that nice when she was done (see pic) but all for a good cause, as Doralyn reminds me!

   Last week, we took the boys and one of their friends up to Oma's

trailer in Port Franks for a few days. The weather was a little wet and cool so we spent a a touch more time than usual inside the trailer. When I say "trailer", though, I really mean "house", so we were pretty comfortable. The week involved the obligatory trip to Grand Bend and a couple of trips to the beach as well, although the water was a little cool for swimming, according to the boys.

Doralyn, working on the tan....

   Still, we did manage to get a little skimboarding in, found some awesome stones, worked on the trailer a bit, watched TV, caught the latest "Planet of the Apes" pic and even got in a 5K run, to boot.

   So that brings you pretty well up-to-date. What might have been two or three posts if I'd been able to get to my blog is now one longer one, hope you don't mind!

D., hunting for stones. She loves stones.

 
   

The boys, trying to gauge water temp.