Look to the skies!

 Our trees are cleaned up, more on that another day. Firstly, tennis!

🎾 We were watching tennis in Spain. They have been having models as ball girls wearing little cropped tops and short skirts. There was fooferaw, and they appeared the next day in skorts.  

 "Was the decorative ball crew not enough objectification?" - Tennis fans scream misogyny at Madrid Open as presence of models as ball girls goes viral

 

A New York based company, IMG, is now in charge of the ball kids, and they introduced ball models for the high profile men's games, says Eliza Wastcoat is a Tik Toc video. The regular ball kids work the outside games in more modest clothing, while the ball models work in t-shirts and skirts.

 River asked, "Why does the deer fence not just stay up all year so you don't have to put it back up each spring?"

Good question! I don't like the look of it in winter. I have been trying to rake and weed the garden before I put up the fence. It's a pain working around it. Also, I need to pluck off the lily bugs. The deer are mostly off in their summer habitats and I haven't seen them. 

🇺🇦 War on Ukraine

✈Today, Russia celebrated Victory Day, an annual holiday marking the defeat of the Nazis, amid mounting anxiety following a series of attacks and over a looming Ukrainian counteroffensive. It was a watered down event. They were busy bombing Ukrainian civilians.

 🛩 The weekend was busy here with air traffic. It keeps me sharp following it all. It's not that bending and weeding, and throwing cement water fountain pieces around wore me out! It was such a nice weekend, people were out and about.

 

It was really busy in the skies May 6 and 7th. I had various levels of success! I nearly tripped in the first clip!

 

weekend air traffic from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

🐦I don't know if this is the kestrel that nests not too far away. It is a bird of prey!

 

hawk from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I've stopped feeding the ducks, now that things are warmer. They are hanging about. They do fly pasts, as well, heading for the pond. When they have ducklings, they aren't overhead much at all.

ducks 1 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Docktales! What is at your dock?

Docks are important to cottage life.  I wrote a post illustrating with photos about boathouses, last March. CBC features a show on the long weekend in August, and this struck a chord for me.

DOCKS

You jump off of it. Lots of critters use our docks. We park at the dock. Beavers may chew it.
We tie things to it. We fish off of it. For those who have boat access only cottages, it is crucial.

Fishing, with my dad,  on the dock
–circa 1965.

Fishing off the dock (where we would swim!)

Jumping off of the dock

  They tie up airplanes at the dock

Critters on the dock

–both two- and four-footed critters, large and small, in all seasons!

 

There are large and purposeful public and private docks

Islands need docks!

Then there is Andrew Cumming who has a 9 m (14') monster on his Lake Muskoka dock! You can see this monster on Baxter Island. (SEE MAP: Just to the left of the "E" in Eilean Gowan Island.) He seems quite proud of it, despite some controversy.   Cumming's been handing out press releases about his sculpture and doing interviews. I wouldn't want to see the monster in the fog! It doesn't seem to fit in with the peace, tranquility and beauty of cottage country. But that is just me, and my memories of cottaging in 1960 - 2010 in Muskoka! Cottaging sure has changed over my lifetime.