Wednesday, 29 May 2024

Allium, rhododendron, lady slippers, account fraud

Awake at 4:30 a.m., pondering our banking issues, I was happy to have slept in until then. 
It was a buggy, rainy day on Tuesday, and I must admit I accomplished little else than worrying. Lots of phone calls and emails, trying to resolve the account fraud. There have been lots of emails from my automatic payments. They didn't have my VISA number, just my bank account number. My VISA was still whole. Our old accounts are frozen, deposit only. 

We've been trying to keep ourselves entertained. CNN has been quite the deal, with the Hush Money Trial, as well as tennis. Bugs and spotty rain all day. We fretted indoors. The trick with tennis is figuring out which of the games we'd like to tape at 5:30 a.m.., with the men and women's on various TSN channels. It helps to have insomnia. 

We chilled out with a new show, After the Flood. It is good to have a murder mystery, plus a disaster. It puts one's own issues in perspective. 

🐈 🐦 

With the new doorbell, I am trying to retrain the cats. If a bell rings in a TV show, Cinnamon would wake up and look for danger. With the old bell, Nutmeg would run away from the door. It is handy in trying to keep her indoors. The new one wasn't having that effect, with its Windsor chime, so I keep entering loudly after ringing the new bell. Cinnamon watched Nutmeg run by him when I did so. He really glared at her!



They meow! Catbirds:

  

Gray catbird from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

This is with my phone. May, 2024, with my camera, in the evergreen behind the horse chestnut tree.

grey catbirds from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.


Up in the sky, is it a bird? Is it a plane? 


I was reminded by someone who posted lady slipper photos, to put on bug spray and go see if ours were blooming! They are.



This sad one was horizontal to the ground. The next had no flower. 


The weigela is in blossom, despite Fred nibbling.


People are posting amazing photos of their rhododendrons in bloom. I wrapped this plant over the winter and it graced me with two blossoms. For that I am grateful.The red one didn't bloom at all. 


Allium:

Fred update

Freda is still nest building. She is quick, though. I am not sure of Fred is still around. They are solitary critters, and I think he's already knocked her up. I've a video of him chasing her! Her belly is lovely and round.

 

Fred nest building from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We shall see what this new day brings.

12 comments:

Tom said...

...the lady slipper is sweet!

Patio Postcards said...

Your Rhododendrons are so pretty, I wish I had space for one. I remember when traveling to B.C. in the spring for business, I'd get very excited because I knew the office building had huge Rhododendrons in all the colours that would be in bloom. Oh the idea of some baby groundhogs ...

Barbara Rogers said...

Great to see the cat birds. And also good to work on managing the doorbell and cats situation! They are so different...your two cats, not cats to cat birds...but really so are they. Lady slippers are so fragile, and I'm glad you braved the insects to catch some photos of them. Fraud thing is kind of like being burgled...giving a sense of not only anger, but being invaded by others (violated)..leading to all the troubles of straightening things out.

Kathy G said...

Thanks for the lovely flower photos.

KarenW said...

I'm watching After The Flood too. Amazing scenes of the actual flood. I wonder how they got that? AI? We aren't watching the "TV" other than local news now. (I love BritBox.)
Someone has been chomping on the gladiolus here. I suspect it is our Fred. We also have a fisher hanging about all times of the day so I'm not sure how the furball is staying safe. (Thankfully the resident cats never go outdoors. They will sit right in the open doorway but not cross the threshold.)

tz_garden said...

Oh NO! How terrible someone stole from you, just horrible!

Elephant's Child said...

And now I want rhodies and lady's slippers...

RedPat said...

Methinks there will be little Freds soon.

Divers and Sundry said...

Fraud issues are so stressful 😢I hope everything shakes out soon.

Gorgeous flowers! I haven't seen a catbird in years. I like them.

DeniseinVA said...

Gorgeous rhododendrons, love their color. Fred, he's so cute! It is wonderful that you have lady slippers growing on your property. I have never seen one around here and have to go up into the mountains along the trails, and then it is iffy if you find one.

Jeanie said...

I think your flowers are looking great. Those rhododendrons are gorgeous. As for the fraud, I'm reading backwards so I'm not quite sure what is happening here but I'm continuing on and hope to find out. In any event, I hope things can be remedied soon. (I'm watching the trial stuff too.)

Anvilcloud said...

Lady Slippers already? I expect the Purdon ones around mid-June. Are yours early or a different variety?