Porcupine and coyote

 That was a rainy weekend! I had to resort to doing some indoor chores. 😏

Lots of pop-up storms went by. Usually I wait and total them, but that has led to forgetfulness on my part!

I've another arthropod laying eggs. On the back of my Muskoka chair. They are the cutest little fuzzy things. This is a photo using the macro lens on my iPhone. 

Back to the normal lens. The poor thing laid eggs for hours, then dropped off the chair to die. 

The arthropod was the highlight of my day! I finished another couple books, in between storms.

Slowly easing back into regular activities, this bush (Weigela), was encroaching on the path. I trimmed it.

The Great Lobelia is looking... um, great?! The bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds are all attracted to it. Time to put the bench cushions away. 

In the dark, the porcupine ambles around.
 

 The coyote in the forest:

   

  Both on the frogpond trailcam... Coyote seemed to know that porcupines can be dangerous.

 

coyote and porcupine from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The arthropod and the gutter!

 We had one lay eggs in November, 2022. They hatched into little teeny caterpillars in June, 2023. 

. 

They lay their eggs on the white-marked tussock moth cocoon. 

 

arthropod from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

☔The Aug. 11th rainstorm was heavy at times. I took a video of the rainfall, to remind myself to clean it.

rainstorm from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We've a storm arriving on Saturday, so Wednesday I took the ladder out, set it up, but had to rest. Back at it, up I went. There wasn't much debris, but the Catalpa tree leaves sure blocked it. I chopped off some of the end of the branches. I'll cut off some more limbs, as they'll fall in there again, once Autumn arrives. 

I sat myself back down, and had a bit of a coughing spell afterwards. This danged disease. 

After I was done, I noticed my supervisor sitting on top of the air conditioner (Cinnamon). Joe's not allowed outside when I'm climbing the ladder. He makes me nervous! I do tell him I'm going up, and report back when I'm done!

😷We continue to recover from our COVID symptoms. Our semi-local hospital, Smiths Falls, has put out a mask mandate due to a COVID-19 outbreak in the surgical ward. Of course, we don't know how many cases we have in our health unit, since our Premier shut all that tracking down. We used the data to gauge our risk and public activities. He is busy trying to privatize healthcare in a country where universal healthcare is a priority.

I went for a bit of me time, a pedicure. I wore an N95 mask. The esthetician told me she'd had COVID twice. Since she has asthma, it took her a long time to recover. I think she said 6 weeks. I'm coming at 31 days. Since I usually get viral-induced asthma, I was not surprised that I coughed after coming home. Thank goodness for the puffer. I cancelled my haircut that I'd booked for today. 

We'd some leftover turkey breast, and I made tacos for dinner. Joe helped me. Then we went back to watching Grantchester. My cough settled down.

Activities of Daily Living

 I'll begin my post with Cinnamon. He was watching Mayday with us last night! We are working our way through another series, as well, City Homicide. Happily, there is a new season of Professor T. We've lots to look forward to. What miffs me, as much as A/C's wife, Sue, are the stupid advertisements on Amazon Prime. 

Got back from picking up a grocery order and I have non-mental notes to remember! 

1) Should have powdered my nose first. 
2) Should have had breakfast first!

3) I have to remember I am Joe Brian there! (Poor woman couldn't find the order.) 
4) Apparently, I ordered ONE Brussel Sprout! I keep seeing the 100g and figuring I ordered that. 

It's lots of fun shopping on a Sunday morning. The streets and parking lot was quiet, except for this woman who kept dropping the F–bomb outside her car. She was older than me! 

I pulled out of the mall parking lot onto Wilson street, and nearly ran over a weasel. At first I thought it was a red squirrel. This is a file photo of one on our deck. The one I saw was crossing the street, in traffic. 

More CHORES

I am still working on my 60 gallon fish tank. I've a plan. Either buy one from someone in the area (30 gallons) or I repair the old one. I cannot repair it where it sits. We have to find someone to help me move it outdoors. I have a bit more cleaning to do on it.

<= The ladder didn't work out. I was afraid of falling in! 

If I get a new one, I'll hope my fishies don't grow as large as Percy. 

I was thinking of converting it into a vivarium. This looks like a fun pet:

I know my long-time followers have been following our Ottawa grandies. Jo (gr. 11) is happy to be done 3 of 4 exams. Today she writes Psychology/Sociology/Anthropology. Then her year is done.

Aster is finishing up her gr. 8 year. She has a graduation celebration this week. Grampa is under the weather so I think we'd best stay home. 

I have some small graduation presents for them. They are a surprise. I'm not sure when we'll see them. They have so much fun with friends, as well they should. 

The milkweed plants are in bloom.  I saw a hummingbird feeding at the plants. I was too slow for a photo.

I tried a macro.

More fun! The petunia.

Here is the egg sack from the arthropod eggs. They hatched, and turned into larvae.                    

I am obsessed with the Easter Question Mark egg! Or Eastern Comma. I'm not sure. The butterfly is so quick. 

Hah!

That's all the fun I had this weekend. Time to go put the garbage out in the pouring rain. These Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) keep us going. It's the big test of whether you can stay in your home or not. 

Have a great week! I hope you have fun with your ADLs

A young buck visited!

There is so much happening in the world. This family, closer to home, had a house fire in January. They are still working on it. It hurts my heart all the issues around the world, and near to home.

The birds aren't bathing much, and my heater looks a bit the worse for wear. It took me forever to find a replacement screw with a nut. That said, it's away in the cupboard. The plug pulled out of the extension cord, and I cannot trust it. 

I switched out the bird bath fountain with a heated bowl. Thank you, A/C!  It is so much easier to clean during the cold winter.

We had a visitor on Sunday. A young buck, likely a fawn from this year. He was hanging around the front yard in the afternoon. I suspect he's lost his Mama. We'll watch out for him.

young buck from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

😷😷😷😷😷😷😷😷😷😷😷😷😷😷

COVID numbers are up in Ottawa. Poor 😷Isabelle got it last week. Thankfully, she's well vaccinated, and only had sniffles, a sore throat, and headache. She was able to make cookies on Thursday, and she stayed home from school on Friday. She is on the mend, however. 

Ontario is only tracking long-term care and congregate settings. Almonte, Prescott and Kemptville have cases.

🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷

In an aside, my mystery bug (seen laying eggs) seems to be an Arthropod of some sort:

New updates in the last 24 hours from iNaturalist Canada

medolark added an identification to an observation  View Observation