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Tuesday 10 May 2016

greeted by an oriole/ cloven hoofed invaders

Hi Fran,
I visited ZRG this aft. I was hoping to visit Dan Dan the Fireman, but he'd already left. When I crossed the bridge I was immed. greeted by an oriole! - so I guess the nesting pair is back again after skipping a year or two. Another pair often nests on Dan's property.

I wandered around ZRG for about half an hour. I'm so glad you bought it, because just wandering about made me reminisce about Chase, & the rest of my visit was blurry :  (  There are several tulips in bloom in the rock garden, and 3 tulips in the funny little wedge garden between the 2 rocks below the shack. I went back thru the sacred cedar grove to the flat rocks, & lots of wildflowers are blooming along the path. Back at the shack I sat on the deck for 5 mins & reminisced, then walked back out thru the 'non-existent' driveway ;  )  If I were you, I'd just go ahead & use it as a drive, just don't call it a driveway! When I was on the deck a pair of wild finches were at the feeder ; )

Like your idea of taking the platform bed & turning it into a woodshed!  As usual, everything bright & beautiful at ZRG ... enjoy the summer!

peace,
Chris


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On 2016-05-10, at 10:50 PM, Fran wrote:

Hi Chris,

Glad you were able to enjoy ZRG today. I put in about 30 tulip bulbs last fall hoping a few would come up and they did! There should be some more down in the large rock garden by the bridge. Some kids must have been playing on those rocks because when I was up last weekend a lot of the rocks were knocked over....Grrr. Oh well, I just put them back. I planted a few other things here and there so will be fun to see if they bloom this summer.

I'd love to see the orioles. I put a couple of feeders up in the apple tree and so far we've seen blue jays, cardinals, a few different types of sparrows and lots of finches. I was thrilled to spot two Pileated woodpeckers on the other side of the river. They're big! We've seen a red fox strolling across the bridge one day (I thought it was somebody's dog at first), I'm pretty sure a beaver on the opposite bank and possibly a mink a few weeks ago.

It's wonderful to see ZRG through the seasons. I always have plans to do some work when I get there but I usually end up sitting and just enjoying the view.

Fran


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On May 11, 2016, at 9:33 AM, Chris Faiers <zenriver@sympatico.ca> wrote:

Hi again Fran,
That might have been a deer, rather than kids, that knocked over some of the border rocks! Every spring I'd find rocks kicked off the top layer of the rock garden, & incriminating deer prints in the garden where the shoots of last year's plantings had been nibbled off. I'm surprised that so many of your tulips have bloomed, considering ZenRiver's accessibility to foraging wildlife.

I posted my email to you on my blog, & if it's OK with you, I'd like to post your reply under this as well. It's a pretty harmless way to keep the spirit & memory of ZenRiver alive, esp for some of the blog readers who used to camp there during the 8 annual PurdyFest poetry festivals. ZRG and the fests have earned a place in the annals of CanLit and CanPo, & it's nice to keep some of the tradition alive under your stewardship.

Yep, I know how you feel about losing the desire to work on projects once you arrive at ZRG & just wanting to relax on the deck  ;  )-

zenriver peace,
Chris



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