Gramma Camp – Week 32.4

Thursday – We eased into the day. Again, I opened their blinds at 8 a.m. I went back downstairs at 8:30. Jos heard me, and thought she'd just sleep a couple more minutes. She emerged about 8:50! She said a couple of minutes turned into a long time. 

Later in the afternoon, Momma texted me, looking for a Canada Day Facetime, but they were on walkies (see below). The kids brought home treats, having visited the chocolate shop after their walk. And the gift shop. Grampa couldn't remember if I had pierced ears or not. "She only has 5," giggled Josephine! They bought me a pair of earrings.

Momma told us that the snowbirds went over their house! I found the flight path on the radar.

While the Three Muskateers were in town, I went down to the trailcams. I wore my trusty deerfly patches. 

When the girls were swimming in the pool the day before, I wore my deerfly hat, although they don't tend to bother us when we are in the pool. The mosquitoes are really bad, when the day is cloudy. The blackflies have almost disappeared. I had Grampa throw down the fly swatter and I smucked three large horseflies.

On the way, I noticed the catalpa tree, which has been devoid of leaves. It was killed by the winter heat and thaw, as the heat reflected off of the dark sinding on the house. It kills the cambium layer. It has the ivy nicely climbing up the tree. These are wild grape vines, and the birds will like them! 

The second photo shows that the tree isn't dead, yet. I love the great big leaves.

Forest Walkies

The serviceberry berries are lovely and red. The cedar waxwings love them.

The frog pond is growing over with wild phragmites. There is a section in the middle, where I ripped a bunch of them out last year. The frogs are sitting on the platform in the water. 

From there, I moved on to check out the wood duck box. Apparently, we've had a bear. It ripped off the baffle from around the tree. This is to keep the raccoons off. It doesn't work for bears! Of course, the wood duck box is empty. They are done nesting for the season. You can see where the baffle used to be.

Park Walkies

Grampa took them for walkies in town,  Stewart Park. There are far fewer bugs.This time, instead of clamouring on rocks, he chose to observe. He's been in pain for two days from his last traipsing around!

Josephine took a photo of mushrooms! Not bad, with Grampa's little camera.

Isabelle posted some photos of her art for her other grampa, in the US. 

"Me and Josephine were trying to do each other’s styles, and chose a dragon tribe to do. We chose SandWing, and they turned out not as well as we thought, but it was a fun experience."

After a late lunch, we 3 played Sorry. I won!

Isabelle sticks to our old, old schedule, a video at 3 p.m., and they headed downstairs. I watched my own thriller on TV.

Grampa was supposed to go out and get us Kothu for dinner, but I suggested we have leftover spaghetti instead. We were in the middle of a thunderstorm. We had a decent 7 mm of rain, not to be sneezed at.

Everyoe was happy with that choice.