Christmas Day

Christmas with a chain-saw swingin', tool pouch-totin' maniac about to run into the ocean (without drowning) is not really as bad as it sounds! Once again we were showered with wonderful and thoughtful gifts from our whole family, so we thought we'd display some of our Santa haul.

Doug is sporting the new PFD (Personal Flotation Device) I got him. The one he's been using was three sizes too small and purple... it was embarrassing, frankly... and I believe it explains the lack of fish on our last kayaking expedition. No self-respecting salmon will go near him with that get-up. So now he has a new "Guide" level PFD and at least I won't have to worry about him when he's out fishing alone. That is, I won't have to worry about him sinking to the bottom of the ocean when he flips his boat chasing a lure...

The reciprocating saw comes with love and hopes for our new cabin from the Calgary Chinnerys, and the tool belt comes from Mama D (my mother Dorothy). The Calamity Jane outfit I am draped with is the cow hide Uncle Paul gave us at the gathering at the Richardson farm in Chilliwack, where we were for Christmas dinner. Elegant work gloves in preparation for Hornby Island building courtesy of Mama D, and a perennial stocking stuffer from Doug - a great magazine on professional craft.


Another much loved perennial I have been greeted with on Christmas morning is a hand-crafted bird feeder of one design or another. This year didn't break with tradition. This year I found a Stellar's Jay feeder, made by Doug, ready to press into service in the wildlife sanctuary that our front doorstep has become.

Filled with peanuts - the jays love peanuts - the feeder was hung up at dawn and within seconds the jays had swooped in for inspection. They took all of a minute and a half to figure out how to line up the peanut for extraction and subsequent stashing (under our neighbour's balcony). We have counted up to five jays in the walnut tree in front of the house waiting their turn.

It used to be that the most exotic bird sightings in our yard were starlings, but now, with all three feeders of different sizes and food stuffs, we get flickers, jays, thrushes, finches, swarms of bush tits, and, once only, a Downey Woodpecker. We have even had a Sharp Shinned Hawk briefly touched down on the hand rail right below the feeders. Definitely the most exotic sighting to date.