More Hallowe'en!

 Some of us can't get enough of Hallowe'en. Like most of my life, these days, I live vicariously through the kids.

Jean-Luc and Aster in Ottawa. JL was a character from this movie, which I'd never seen! Ben Stiller in Dodgeball in 2004. It's pretty darn good! Aster is totally unrecognizable!

I was so excited to be involved! When we visited Jordan at Queen's he showed us the guitar he was making for his Hallowe'en costume. He was making it from scratch. He pondered how to make the guitar strings. I had an idea. We thought they should be gray. I had some string. I dunked it in a can of garage floor paint that dated to the previous owners.  It was sort of gray! 

I thought it was so clever! But the entire thing fell off the toilet paper roll, and I had to straighten it to let it dry. Then mail it. 

Dried, straightened, wrapped around a piece of cardboard, Grampa mailed it off to Kingston.

Jordan designed and cut and pasted all the pieces, I think it was that plastic stuff campaign signs are made of. He made stickers for it, pegs and keys. Just amazing.

My fun has been in the forest. I moved the frog pond trailcam, as I spotted a worn path on the point. This leads to the wetland. Here it is in the daytime. 

It is a peninsula, that extends into the wetland. It is surrounded by water on 3 'sides' and the critters trod from little out cropping to outcropping. We had two roly poly Butch racoons and a Fisher.

There were three deer. I love the eyes in the dark!

And just for fun, the Barred Owl again!

Saturday's Critters

 I was thinking of bats the other day. Colonies have been decimated with White-nose syndrome: impacted bats. Bats only produce one kit a year, recovery will take time. Around here they will hibernate soon. Bless our little bug eaters. We often have one in the house, but not this year. 

Our red fox continues to patrol, mostly in the dark. They are sensitive to humans, and know we sleep at night!

   

 The buck was around. Soon it'll be mating season for them! 

   

 The coyote zipped on by. Well, not exactly 'zipped' as he stopped to have a pee on camera, as they do.

   

 This one was watching for something. I don't know if it was me or not!

   

 In the day time, Cinnamon and I check out trailcams. No sign of Barry Beaver.

   

 No Barry, but a beautiful doe.

 

Visit more critters here: Saturday's Critters #668!

Saturday's Critters

Change is in the air. The last of the August bloomers are in bloom. I find it tough to enjoy each moment, planning the garden clean up I will have to do. Thankfully, Fred is helping!

I heard, and have seen, a frequent flyer is the House Wren. They haven't nested here in a few years. One is hanging about, though. Eating all those bugs in the garden.

The ribbon snake has been out and about, also eating insects. Soon they will enter their hibernaculum. They spend winter underground.

The doe wanders in the forest.

   

 Fred is entertaining all of us. Cinnamon can't understand why he goes down in the hole! Cinnamon is fascinated with Fred. He's such a gentle cat. 

   

 There is one turkey ambling through the habitat. 

   

 Coyote have such beautiful colours! 

 

Saturday's Critters # 663 <= visit more critter posts.

Frogbit vs. Duckweed, Barry beaver, Doe, Butch, #75!

 Things have been hopping in the news! Here is the Gordie Howe Bridge. A wonderful testament to progress, technology, and engineering. This is Howe's grandson, Gord and wife. They are the first ones to drive across the bridge. A grand gesture. They aren't public figures, but appreciated the opportunity. There was much lobbying, $ millions spent in petitions, by the private owners of the nearby Ambassador Bridge. They donated millions to the orange felon. This bridge is a much better, faster, smoother highway to highway drive. 

The bridge is beautiful! CBC.ca

🦫Barry's wetland is filling up. We had 12 mm Tuesday. Barry has lots of water. It is pouring even as I write!

This from the other side of his inlet.

Nov., 2009 Long Lake, in Bala, Muskoka

Our Barry Beaver has vastly different conditions than beavers in lakes and rivers↑.

Point of clarification! Frogbit vs. Duckweed We have both in the wetland! 

It's a busy yard. Cinnamon got himself breakfast. A fat, juicy vole.

Nutmeg took off.

Cinn back at it.

I won't bore you with the whole video, but here is a screenshot of Phoebe who is still in the yard and doing bug clean up!

Butch has been happy eating Serviceberries!

 

 The Cardinals have been busy foraging, as well. 

   

 The doe is foraging in the dawn. 

 

#75 seems to still be around.

Cardinals, scarlet tanager, doe, cats, finches!

 Glad I took a 'before' photo!

It's my own fault. They smell something in the soil, and hope for food. Or they are curious!

It wasn't Cinnamon!

Nor Auntie Fred.

I blame Butch racoon!

🔥 I am grateful to those working these fires. in Northern Ontario. They are awful. Sadly, our Ontario budget for fighting fires has been diminished.

We are on fire

That July 1st storm was awful. Here is the doe in that storm!  

 They are the silliest cats! 

   

 I daresay the Cardinals are raising another brood! 

   

 I guess it is birding week!

   

 Finches! 

 

Saturday's Critters

We continue to laugh at our Freds. We do have other critters out and about. I've raised the pots to keep them out of groundhog reach. They are climbers. All over the deck, and into my petunias and my zucchini. 

 With Fred choosing to eat the flowers, I popped this planter on top of a plastic crate. Butch raccoon had to inspect it. 

   

 I haven't seen the Fisher for a long time.

   

 One doe ran, another, the pregnant one, popped out of the yard.

   

 We had two bucks visit. It was while the HVAC guy was here for an inspection.

 

Pregnant doe!

 

Saturday's Critters # 654 visit Eileen's blog for more critters.

Monday was a busy day!

It was a cold start to the day. I had the garbage out by 6 a.m.!

1. The 8 goldfish are out in the pond. The fish tank is half cleaned. I have to clean the hoses and the pump. 

2. The released squirrels are still in their box. At least two are. I seldom see 3 at a time. Butch raccoon visited. The camera was askew when I waded through the mosquitoes. Joe fed them, and noticed the box askew, as well.

3. I cleaned out the gutter, which had overflowed in our 21mm rain. No wonder. I shoved the old hose down it, and it seemed to clear. 

4. We have 4 Fred kits, and auntie Fred, from last year's brood. That is my working theory. I thought we were down to 3 kits!

This one was hanging out at the flag pole burrow. Caitlin thought it looked like a great dating profile photo!

5. The garden is coming along. Apparently Fred doesn't like hollyhock. He nipped at my milkweed, though. 

 

Poppies are done! I snapped a photo. Thankfully.

The cedar waxwings have created a platoon.
They fly about, chirping away, eating bugs in the evergreens.

I was on Zoom for a webinar, UNMASKING: Embracing ADHD, Autism, & Being Queer. Thing was, it was on at 6:30 in Edmonton, Alberta, and it was 8:30 here. I set up on the dining room table, prepared to learn something. Just at pre-dusk, as I was trying to absorb all I was hearing and reading, I noticed a bear out back. YIKES! It went into the forest in the back 40, headed for the wetland. 

Why not go out front and see if it was there? There was our pregnant doe. Back to my Webinar, and there was Bear again. I whistled, and let it know we were here. It moved off. I shall have to look for the Marine Horn.

I lasted until about 10 p.m. on the Webinar. I usually go to bed around 9 and read for an hour.