🍃Moth Caterpillars🐛

 May 23 –  Lymantria dispar dispar (LDD)

The moths are into a new instar (going from 4 => 6mm), and have covered my rose bush. I picked off (all I could see), and dropped them into soapy water. 

Monday, May 24 – Gypsy Moths

There were more the next day. Instar #3: 11 mm long.

This is the young elm in the garden under the bird house (see above). Lots of holes, and little caterpillars. While discouraging, the holes in the leaves, you can see the dragonfly on the top of the leaf.

Did I tell you how bad the bugs are?!

OK, the bugs are REALLY bad this year! Here's JB in his walking outfit. Cinnamon gave him a bit of a glare. He tensed for fight or flight, and I told him who it was, so he calmed down! 

It's a long weekend here, Monday. What difference this makes, I don't know. We're still supposed to be in lockdown. 

March 4th, I had a real haircut. By May it was shaggy! My hair has bugged me. I went at it!!! 

The horse chestnut tree is in bloom, as well as lilacs. I love seeing the bumble bees around the blossoms. 

If you look closely, you can see the caterpillar webs of the gypsy moth larvae, on the top of the spruce tree.

Also, on the stuff I have hanging.

The bleeding hearts are in bloom, too.

Down in the forest, this little evergreen has been chewed by the deer and isn't all green anymore.

We've ants coming in the corner here. I'm not sure what to put in there. It's a teeny hole. We are usually invaded by ants in the spring, and I just spray some Raid outside, or behind the dishwasher, and into the outlets. Maybe just some tape?

I have little teeny cherry tomatoes! The leaves don't look very good. I think I overwatered it. I shall hold back.

I saw a great blue heron fly over the yard.

I've been watering. We anticipated rain Saturday, but only 0.76 mm fell from the skies.

The pop of colour is heartwarming! I'll leave you with these! 

Apps and technology for fauna and the skies

The gypsy moths are here 🍃Gypsy Moths🐛 <= I'm going to keep track of them. There's not much we can do about it. They have hatched, I noticed them Monday, May 17th. They fling themselves out into the world on gossamer threads, and their 4 mm bodies are spread on the wind.  They are all over the back deck railing, which is unreal. They eat tree leaves. It really is discouraging. 

I've a bucket of soapy water, I keep washing it all down. We cannot spray anything, you need dormant oil prior to the eggs hatching, and now we've gray tree frogs who inhabit the back deck, plus lots of butterflies and moths.

I'm happy to take a break, go indoors, and watch curling with JB. The poor man is fighting allergies, as well as being unable to use his left arm to lift, and his neck pain. Technology has really helped many get through this all with family Facetime and Zoom. 

That said, my son and DIL had their birthday/wedding anniversary yesterday. I kept meaning to phone, knowing Jesse is working from home. I didn't want to interrupt his work day. I kept watching the clock. Then it was 4 p.m., and it was 1 p.m. in Vancouver. Then, our dinnertime, and I was wiping caterpillars off the back deck. Next, I was sleepy, konked out, and went to bed early. I feel so badly! 

This is Jess and Stacie, with her niece and nephew and Isabelle and Josephine, 7 years ago at their Surrey  wedding! It was a lovely backyard wedding, at her mom's place. Jesse is doing so well, with a new job.

Up in the air!

In the meantime, look up to the skies. When my dad was dying, I found it helped to record what happened in a memoire on a daily basis. I've written about my noise issues, that is a symptom of anxiety. (Also, inability to make decisions, trembling, a sense of danger or doom.) JB has to warn me if he's using the dustbuster. I startle so easily. Bless his heart.

What I found helps is to try capture the air traffic (a good challenge), try ID them and spot them on the Flight24 Radar. Some don't show up. Especially the military helicopters📹! They are big and LOUD! Compilation: heads up 📹. 

More air traffic around the hummingbird feeder. Yesterday, the female was watching me📹from the safety of the lilac tree. Wednesday, the female visited, the male came by, and she chased him away! When he left, she went back to the lilac tree to see if the coast was clear! You go, girl! hummingbird battle  

Song Birds

They are back from their winter break. There is an app I heard about on Twitter. BirdNET, by Cornell U. It's not bad. It identified the red-eyed vireo for me, as well as a Cardinal, and blue jay. I was down at the frogpond, and ID'd another red-eyed vireo. It took a couple of tries, as there were noisy dump trucks going by. That was funny: "human made sounds!"

Thursdays are OPP gun days, and the app was mystified. The long green marks show the guns going off. They do recertification for all 500 OPP members in the region 500 m behind our property. Again, when it began we used to go out for a drive, and lunch out.  It sounds like a murderous insurrection, with 12 police, shooting upon command, for 10 seconds. I had a tour of the facility, and that helped calm me.

Are you languishing?

While I am on meds for depression and anxiety, many people are facing life-limiting health issues. Then there are fires in Manitoba, drought, COVID–19 is everywhere, anger and resentment boils over what governments are or are not doing. I have to turn the news off. 

I watched one CTV segment on Languishing, which seems to reflect the challenges of many. Mental health is a spectrum, from depression < = > flourishing. I've many people I follow on Social Media with serious issues that make daily life hard. The impact of the pandemic has been horrible for them. Self-care is truly important for those who are struggling somewhere in between. People can feel joyless, aimless, stagnant and empty, according to experts. 

CTV segment on Languishing

NYTimes wrote: 

There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing

The neglected middle child of mental health can dull your motivation and focus — and it may be the dominant emotion of 2021.   

I hope you are all looking after yourselves. We will get through this! 

Painting the decks, back to school, trailcams

 Is my back ever sore, but it is all repainted! I had to lay down a second coat, as recommended. I'll leave this here, in order to remember what I used. I was quite pleased with it.

One is supposed to not replace furniture for three hours, but I don't have that option. I moved it all to the side, painted the inner portion, and moved it back carefully, painted the outside section.

I managed to get the top off of the swing, preparation for winter, standing on the now dry deck. Progress.

I saved enough stain for my chair.

JB went for a walk, as he does several times a day. He said, "It's raining, but I have all this rain gear I ought to go for a walk!"

I found some invasive gypsy moth eggs on a conifer in the front yard. 

Tired and colder in the cooler weather, they've hunkered down.

Our sumac aren't doing well. We've had a couple years of dry Augusts, but there are some leaves.

A little Isabella caterpillar...

Our granddaughters online classes begin today, Friday morning. They have mixed emotions. 

I caught myself on the trailcam! Soon I will be mulching leaves.

Nutmeg grabbed a shrew in the forest.

Our coyote was back, three days later. He was snuffling in the bushes. The cats may have left the shrew there. He's a good clean-up crew. I've not seen him in the daytime. 

 Butch

Butch from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.