But tennis lessons are on early in the morning. This makes sense - you don't want to be out for 2 hours in the midday blazing sun. But gosh, this was a real struggle for us last year & yet here we are again. Because when I looked at the schedule in the brochure and then glanced at the eager face of a little boy, and then considered that we hadn't actually done a whole hell of a lot this summer, except endless "house things", I forgot all about the agony of getting three not-morning people out the door in the morning.
We made it. We brought the dog. The tennis courts are near a very large football field, and near some popular dog-walking trails. This gave Amelia and me lots of opportunities to have Daisy see dogs from a large distance & to do some training. Turned out, Daisy could have cared less about the dogs. I guess I had gone a little crazy on the distance. We'll have to lessen the gap a little on Thursday. Amelia and I also brought books and spent a long time sitting in the shade reading, with the dog napping at our feet, while Hugo did his thing.
But in the afternoon, both Hugo & I crashed spectacularly with headaches. I was first, and mine cleared up just in time to deal with Hugo's. By 6 I had put him to bed. And then at 9:30, I had to deal with a sad little boy who was upset that he had slept through the entire evening, including playtime with Daddy, and why were we getting ready for bed???
We get to do this again on Thursday, and two more times next week.
Oh, and look what visited our yard on Monday:
Anyone want to take a stab at ID'ing this guy? We're near Vancouver, BC. What is this bird who tried to hunt a little furry thing down by the creek, but missed?
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6 comments:
Maybe a broad-winged hawk?
http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/raptors/Broadwinged.html
Or maybe a red tailed hawk?
http://www.hangingrocktower.org/birds/red-tailwedoe6.htm
If it's smaller (14" or so), it could be a sharp-shinned hawk or a broad-winged hawk. If it's larger, it could be a red-shouldered or red-tailed hawk. Cool picture.
Probably a young red-tailed hawk, which are very common here too. The broad-winged and red-shouldered ones don't tend to make it this far north and west...
Hope the lessons go better. It's tough to remember your reasons when you're looking right into those sweet, eager faces! At least it's just for two weeks.
Oooh, I hear your misery about the early mornings, Hornblower. We've done nothing all summer either and now I feel guilty as all get out, BUT, after a whirlwind spring of dashing here and there for this and that, it was necessary.
Must remember to PACE our lessons next year.
And thanks for the RED DWARF tip in the previous post. Off to do some Zipping!
I think red tailed hawk might be right. Which would be amazingly silly that we didn't recognize it because we see them A LOT, but always from below - I've never seen one head-on. And this guy swooped down so fast I never did see his tail....
I am glad to see him. As I was surveying the little but bold rat which lives by the stream, I was thinking that what we need are some more birds of prey around here./
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