A busy few days...

Well, we're off duty. The grandies are off on their around-the-world trip. They are so excited. I'm trying not to bite my fingernails. Hiking Kilimanjaro, wild animals in Africa, a week in Paris, a day in Chicago.
Today, they go from Chicago to Istanbul.

On this trip Caitlin, J-L, Isabelle and Josephine will be collectively writing a blog during our travels. We'll be putting journal entries, photos, videos, BigBrother-style video-journal entries and random theme music of our trip.

I put the rocks we painted during Gramma Camp under the window box of petunias. We didn't finish them with lacquer or something, and once we get rain, perhaps we can have another go at them!

My first chore Saturday was to take care of JB. His eye was hurting. He thought he had an eyelash in his eye, or another in-grown lash. Plan B: I told him to lie down on the bed with a compress. It didn't help. I said go back to plan A and have a shower. It didn't help. In the meantime, I had washed the kitchen and bathroom floors. I refrained from washing them BEFORE Gramma Camp! Off we went to emerg. There were a lot of people with sore knees or legs. It was about three hours, which wasn't too bad for a Saturday morning. No contractors bleeding from uplifted hands, cottagers, methinks.

The poor man has a scratched cornea. They gave him anaesthetic to examine his eye, and drops. I took him home where he rested. He took a 'happy pill.' It is better today. Whew!

Yesterday, I managed a video of the hummer. She was eating at the Lantana, in the hanging planter. In the drought I water them twice a day.

 

The monarch in action. Since I captured her laying eggs, I can go back to this to recall where to look for the caterpillars.


I am watering the front garden, too. Here is Katydid on the lily. It's about done!


Another fun event. There is a man, from Perth, who watches the osprey on the nesting box on the Port Elmsley Rd., just outside Diana's store.


He's been doing this for 5 years. One year, he told me, they only had a single chick and that chick didn't fly south with the others. Another year, they had twins. I have photos of them all! I told him about the time the osprey flew to our house, seemingly to hunt for snakes in the grass.

 I waited for a man to look through the viewfinder. I went into the store and bought some raspberries and coffee. By the time I came back out, the osprey flew away!



The good news is it is raining. You can see how much we need it. You can see where the septic system runs, as well. The bugloss is thriving. I do spot water them, now. We have a raft of bees, butterflies and caterpiglies feeding on them. I am inclined to put a trailcam on the water fountain. The cats drink from it, as do the birds. I wonder what else visits in the night?

What a relief. RAIN. Even the yucca needs water. So far, only 0.055" AKA 1.3 mm. Not nearly enough to fill our aquifers.


Daisy cat is pretty pissed off, though, with the rain. She took after her brother, Hooper. <Sigh>  I sprayed her with the spritzer and she went out to the Muskoka room.

The Monarch caterpillar has flipped to the underside of the leaf in the rain.


Then, there was a fishfly of some species on the screen.

They are difficult to ID. I had help with this one: 

 It is a fishfly (Megaloptera: Chauliodinae), looks like Chauliodes rastricornis.

On the trailcam, porcupine is as regular as Daisy and Hooper. Annie sticks close to home.