Animal babies

Our daily walk took us to the High Park zoo yesterday. The second pen had two baby goats in it (Gavin said "aww"). The third pen had a baby wallaby in it. The little wallaby is getting too big to stay in its mother's pouch, but it kept hopping in and out, mostly for entertainment, I think. Another pen had a very small baby bison still shakey on its knobby legs, and we also saw a baby llama (I'm omitting the technical terms for all of these infant animals, but when you visit the zoo with us next time you are in the neighbourhood I'll point out the newly revised, kid-friendly signage that contains all the info). Thinking we'd seen it all, we turned around and headed back out of the zoo, up the long steep incline to the main road - but then we spotted a family of red foxes playing in a half-hidden pen towards the back of the enclosure. 
Although I only saw four, a watching local informed us that there were six baby foxes and two adults - all somehow living the free life in the city-bound park. Two of the babies were tossing the body of an unfortunate squirrel back and forth between them while their proud parents looked on. I don't know why, but this reminded me of Caroline's practical approach to farm 'pets'. Hopefully our own baby will take the hint and come out to play sometime soon...I also hope that, next time we trek into the High Park zoo, we remember to bring our camera. Despite feeling sorry for the larger animals, I find the zoo a cute place to visit at this time of year.

Spot the birdie with the hat

So, we're still pregnant...."due date" my @$$. And so I'm trying to keep myself busy.

Today I painted for the first time since grade eight. Gavin says that I should comment on how much I've improved since then...well, to be honest, I'm glad that we've got nothing to compare this with in order to find out. I'm guessing that the baby won't be judgmental (at first) - but I suppose we'll learn that soon enough.

Almost-A-Mother's Day Bouquet

Gavin and I came home from a long walk in the village today to find this enormous bunch of flowers waiting outside our apartment door. The picture doesn't really do them justice.
It's funny to think that there is a new set of "holidays" to celebrate now...thanks Mom and Dad!

So the digital camera saga has finally been resolved. No, we still haven't fixed our standard digital camera. That will take a number of weeks and requires us to mail our camera off to Mississauga. Instead, we went out and bought a digital memory chip for our camcorder, which enables us to take still shots on that.

This is one of the first pictures I took with it, and I thought it appropriate that my first post on our "baby blog" - or for that matter on any blog whatsoever - start off with a picture of mama and baby pre-delivery. Cute, huh? I especially like the fertility symbolism inherent in the picture of my pregnant wife surrounded by spring flowers. This was taken in our front yard. You can see our front window in the background. Actually, Grendel (our cat, for any of you who don't know) also tried to get in the photo. A few seconds after this shot was taken, he appeared at the window. Apparently, he doesn't want to be forgotten in all the baby madness.

OK, so this was a fairly boring post. Things should get livelier when the little rugrat arrives. Bye for now.

Is this the most inactive blog in the virtual-verse?

Possibly. But we've got an excuse - there is something wrong with our camera. So, while we sort that out (hopefully before the arrival of baby Lovett Hammel), here is a picture from bygone days that somehow is still relevant to the current situation. I fell in love with this sign while waiting for a train in Bamberg a few years ago.