Last summer days froggin' on

Last night the overnight temperature was 20 C., after a day temperature of 34 C., it was gruesome for a first day of school in Ontario. Here are our teenage grandies in 2022 compared to 2023.

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I had friends while I was sitting on the back deck in the soft, gentle breeze. 

Tree frog #1 likes to sit in between the slats of my Muskoka chair. I pull the leg support out, and hope it'll jump down safely, and not get squished.

 It hopped down after MUCH encouragement, and landed under the table. I couldn't find it. Sitting back down, playing on my laptop, I enjoyed the afternoon. 

As the day passed, it began to turn from green to gray, peering at me sitting in my chair and nodding off! They are nocturnal, and sometimes croak in the day despite it being autumn. Usually they call for mates in springtime. People write that they sing in the fall to keep their voices strong.

Froggie #1 got tired of the action. He just wanted to sleep. It took off and went to hide in the hops vine. Can you see it on the railing?

It left behind a gift!

I moved the coffee table to get to the corner of the deck, and I heard a splat. Froggie #2 revealed itself. I've been hearing it singing just under the corner of the deck, and not been able to see it! 

I sat and watched. It moved around, then moved in fits and spurts over the the post, where it must have felt safe. It ate an ant crawling by, which was unusual. Then it went back to sleep.

gray tree frog from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I had trouble videotaping froggie #2. It was steamy and it fogged up the camera lens. He began singing, then promptly lay his chin down to sleep.

gray tree frog #2 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

It was there the next day, too!

Then the two of them began hanging out on the bench. When the time comes, they will hunker down and bury themselves under the leaves to sleep away the cold winter. I shall miss them! In the meantime, we've two more days of this heat. 

Saturday's Critters

A whirlwind week on  Crumbly Acres! (<= story is there)!   The critters are returning, or becoming more active. I heard gunshots yesterday, it sounded like a single gun doing target practice with 6 shots, a pause and 6 shots. Perfectly legal on your own property, but distressing to the wildlife. Not on the gun range. And shortly thereafter there was a barred owl in our forest. That was lovely to hear. 

Percy goldfish seems quiet, but it is chilly in the goldfish pond. 

We've still a leaking, broken outdoor tap, but they are slammed, like all the trades, and won't get a plumber until next Friday. 

Our arborists were to come today, but we've heavy rains. We'll see what happens. 

The gray tree frogs are awake! They call for females to breed, then hop down to the wetland to lay eggs.

When we were cleaning out the garage, I could hear it. I was worried it was in the garage, but it is inside the wheel of the garden hose!

froggie from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I could hear the gray tree frog, it took a couple of days to figure out where it was! He was there last year, too.

tree frog in the water barrel! from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I've since removed this handy little bird bath, thank you AC, but before I did it had a visitor! Every time we are in the garage, it keeps trying to get in at the bird seed. There is only a little left, soon I'll wind all that down. Our bear hasn't come back, good thing.

 

Dratted Red Squirrel from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The cardinal is still banging away on the windows, fighting his shadow. No bugs there, just a possible rival for his mate's attention! He does this on our picture window, as well. The cats rush to the window!

   

 In and on Golden Pond:

 

Saturday's Critters # 489  <= visit more critters here! Thanks to Eileen for hosting. 

Summertime!

I've been taking my time to recover after our wonderful week with the kids here. I have to wash the kitchen and bathroom floors, but everytime I come in from outdoor chores I have a debris explosion from my hair and/or bra! I tired to do a workout, but had to stop after 8 minutes and put my foot brace back on. It's about managing the aches and pains of old age. 

Laundry is done; sheets, napkins and towels. Art supplies put away for another time. (Josephine and Isabelle are here sometime in August, but have been more into sketching than crafts.) The pool is drained and cleaned. I may set it up for me. I like reading in my pool on hot days. 

I've been trying to figure out how to make a waterproof cover for the bench swing. I am loathe to bring the pillows in and out, as I often just sit there randomly in passing. The rain pours through the canopy and the pillows take awhile to dry. Any thoughts?

The guest room bed is remade. This room got little use, as the Vancouver kids all slept together in the basement. It was easier, as littles often don't sleep as well away from home. 

I sent them home each with one of the bunnies my friend Natrice made. She's been handing them out to healthcare workers. They liked the little masks on them!

I walked out on the back deck and heard a strange noise. It took me awhile to figure it out. I'd introduced the cockroach to Bryony and Cluny, "Do you want to hold my cockroach?" 

     "No, thank you, Gramma!" They were a tad fearful. These are all new critters to them.

cockroach from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The other chore was to wash the window crayon off of the windows. They are a fun toy, and kept them occupied. It was good motivation to wash the windows. Sometimes I leave it until too late and can't do it as the temperatures fall and the cleaning fluid freezes on the window. 

That was a bit of a funny story. I set a towel under the window and went to it with soapy water and a cloth. 

I stood back and admired my work. I wasn't done! I had totally forgotten the right-hand window. That was Bryony's work. 

Maple, the tree frog, is still around. Bryony wanted it named Maple, as it was sitting under what looked to her like a maple leaf. On their last morning, I suggested they say goodbye to Maple. Asking if they wanted to hold her, they declined. I put her in the palm of my hand and showed them her yellow legs. They bade her farewell.

I forget what they called the other tree frog. She decided to nap in the daytime (they are nocturnal) under the table umbrella. 

Percy goldfish is doing well. The rain filled up the pond, as it is hooked up to the water barrel.

I wrapped the deerfly patch around a stick, and put it in the goldfish pond. They like to pick them off and eat them. This was from one walk in the forest with the grandies. Sitting on the back deck reading, a deerfly bit me on the foot. It was swollen, and it felt like I was walking on a marble for awhile. The bugs are merciless, numerous, and vicious this year. Much worse than any other. I had another tick latch onto me after walking in the acreage. I got it off quite quickly.

deerfly patch

The orchid is happy on a corner of the back deck. It gets morning sun, and that seems perfect. The bud stem is getting longer.

I track the prey the cats capture. They usually bring their critters up on the front or back decks. Only 2 birds this year. 

After Rogers telecom went down, Canada's Industry Minister has met with the big guys. We have several big Canadian companies (Rogers, Telus, Bell, Shaw), plus some provincial ones. Our family has our smartphone with Telus, Internet with Xplornet, and our TV satellite is Shaw. We've no landline anymore. We were relatively unaffected. Some were unable to call 911, though.

This is what Minister Champagne has demanded of the big four executives within 60 days: 

• the minister has directed the country’s major telecom companies to reach agreements on emergency roaming, 

• assisting each other during outages, 

• communication protocol to better inform Canadians during emergencies.  

Tuesday – 8:00 a.m. The Istanbul airport is quite spiffy in the business class lounge. They are frequent flyers. There is a huge toy race track, a flight simulator, and Isabelle had a shower in the marble bathroom. The kids arrived in Athens Tuesday, and traveled on the metro to Monastiraki. Caitlin sent me a text. They were in their new hotel. 

Frogs, frogs, frogs!

 These are the goldfish pond froggies. They are quite happy to be in the water. It's been dry. The wetland no longer has puddles. The problem is that the pond is too shallow for overwintering for them. I shall wait for Autumn rains to fill the frogpond and shuffle them down. If you recall, The goldfishies are in!, I moved 20 to the frogpond from the goldfish pond in 2015. 

Above is leopard frogs, below a green frog. You can tell by the green chins.

They aren't the only frogs about. The back deck is habitat for three gray tree frogs. I thought they deserved attention, too. Too soon they'll be hibernating under the leaf and forest debris.

Out on the back deck, I pulled out the footrest on my Muskoka chair and found a friend. It's the young one. I can tell where they all go, as they poop wherever they are. This one pooped inside my cup holder. I did laugh. I put him up on the railing.

The middle-sized one was singing inside the BBQ base. It took me a few minutes to find it. This one chose to be green, they can change colour.

Here is the older, bigger adult. He is the busy one, which I measured last month.

For more critters: visit Saturday's Critters # 404.