The old pine tree

I loved your comment about Diwali lights, YAM! It was early, but we needed cheering up in the dark of the night. One year (2000-ish), when he was living with me, I asked my youngest to help me hang the pagan lights. That worked for him! 

We went walkies, me an' my boy, and found the wetland filling up nicely. This will protect the critters that hibernate under the snow and ice.

This old white pine tree on lot #3 has had its day. Cinnamon likes it, but it is dead as a doornail. This will allow more water and sunlight for the young trees coming up. 

Another poor dead pine tree in the background. The cedars lean, too!

This old tree fell in May of this year [fallen tree]. I looked inside it, snagged a photo of the hollow core, and it would make a great shelter, if there wasn't so much traffic! This is a busy trail, now that the wetland is wet, again.

While the old pine trees fall, the little ones begin their journey.

Cinnamon smelled something VERY interesting here. His tail got pouffy, perhaps a coyote?!

I had another great adventure! 

My old hairdresser is on mat leave, and she had a replacement, who quit since the salon is being shut down. I had a cut with the replacement person a month ago, but since she is no longer available to me, I have to find a new one. For someone with anxiety, I was a bit anxious! I spent a lot of COVID doing my own hair and this week I tried a new salon. 

First photo is the before, the second after the cut! 

When I made it home, I grabbed a photo as I may never be able to recreate the 'DO'! 

I am so pleased. It was worth putting my face on for it!

In the meantime, back outside in the wind to try and clear away the leaves. This is after several passes, and still the leaves fall and blow in the wind!

❄ NOVEMBER 2021 ⛈ We'll see what it brings! November is usually windy. This is the historical data... our snow tires are on, so here we come! This morning it was 0 C.!

 

 

What a week!

October ended with an horrific crash between Barrie and Toronto, on highway 400. Another incident with a tanker truck, which involved another tanker, 14 vehicles total. They are bringing cadaver dogs to search for bodies in the debris. This is becoming common.

Back to nature... last night we were treated to coyotes howling in the back 40. They must have caught something.
The week began with 3 days of rain over the weekend (100+ mm/4").
The goldfish pond is green and full beside the house. I have to drain the water barrel, which drains into it. It'll freeze soon.
 The frog pond, down beyond the meadow, is full of lovely water for the critters. The swamp grass is green!

Tuesday, Oct. 31st

I visited with my client, on the way home I had to stop, climb the bridge, and photograph the clouds and the rainbow. By the time I climbed up to the top of the bridge, the rainbow was much less visible.


I left hubby waiting for Scott, who does trees for us. This one had fallen over the house. By the time I returned home, they'd done the deed. It was quite a production, they covered the windows, and the air conditioner. JB put towels on the windows, just in case, and they covered the old air conditioner.



All went well. I have more clean-up to do except it's pouring rain today.

Cats, cats, cats...& Monarchs

June Precipitation

We were in a 'Mild Drought,' in May, then by June 3rd, we had Moderate Drought conditions. When we had good rains June 5/6/7 we went back to 'Mild' where we sit.

Monarch Butterflies

archive photo

Within the Biosphere in Mexico, the greatest threats to the butterfly habitat are deforestation, illegal logging, unorganized tourism, forest fires and lack of cooperation amongst authorities.

From 10 acres of winter habitat in Mexico, monarchs have now expanded across 1 billion acres of breeding habitat. Reaching Massachusetts this past week, they are moving slowly. They have to reproduce along their journey northward. They were 3 weeks late arriving in the central breeding area. You can track them on this Citizen Observer migration map.  I haven't seen once since late July, 2014. They simply didn't make it far enough north.
We have a ton of milkweed plants growing, lots in the garden (lower left!).

  Mission Monarch is looking for public input about milkweed locations and monarch sightings. 

Walkies

Hubby took Annabelle walkies when the other two were sleeping. I followed them down
to the dock, on the vernal frog pond, which is drying up rather quickly. The water is down about a foot. The smaller frogs have morphed into frogs, while the bullfrog tadpoles are still working on their two-year process! They'll have to hurry as the pond might dry up, again, as it did in the drought of 2012, when we lost our Monarchs.
We have a ton of milkweed growing.


I took Daisy for a walk Sunday. Annie and Dorah stayed at home. Everyone is loving the broken tree trunk. First, Dorah took me on a walk.

Fallen tree

 JB took Annie down Tuesday, I took Daisy down the day before! They know not to go with Daisy, as she is jealous and bullies them. I love the light and shadows in the deep forest. We have clouds, just no rain.

Cats

Dorah needed to come in. NOW! Poor Dorah. Her face looks awful with tick bites.TICK COUNT 2016 = 68, with Daisy accounting for 44 ticks removed, Dorah = 23! They are all larvae, which means a massive tick population by the fall. I will hope for a deep, cold winter to kill them off!


On Saturday, June 12, we had 4 mm rain (not nearly enough), everyone was in the living room having a catnap. There was much grooming, as well!

Mouse Patrol

We've been having hot, sunny days, as well as hot cloudy. Still no rain. Dorah was after a big, fat, juicy field mouse in my garden! She's been a good mouser, bringing home a mouse or mole every night, meowing loudly to let us know her joy and then depositing it in the hallway in the wee hours of the morning.