What a weekend!

I left it too late to do laundry to hang it outdoors with all confidence. In this heart, rain is most welcome. Stuffing a load in, I put the towels and underwear in the dryer. Hung the other thing on the line, ready for a quick rescue. I even remembered to START the dryer this time. 😸

Sunday morning, there was a dead mouse on the living room floor. The cats can do their jobs indoors!

My veggie gardening days are done. No more wrestling with Fred groundhog, who likes to rip the plants out by the roots, and eat only 3 leaves. He visited on Saturday.

FRED: 

Fred groundhog from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I can do cherry tomatoes. Here is JB harvesting his lunch!

 I was up early Sunday morning, there was no point in trying to sleep. I had a nightmare, and gave up after listening to the radio for an hour. I tracked the kids' planes. (See below, they had three flights)

I found friends on the back deck in the predawn.

🦉 Down in the forest I could hear the barred owl call at 5 a.m. That was sweet.

📺 We finished watching Spooks on Friday, and went back to find the latest season of Shetland. The scenery is amazing. 

We've still issues with the new eavestrough. It sags in the middle, right over the door. I've emailed them with videos. 

Eavestrough 1.2

eavestrough from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

eavestrough 2.0 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We had a massive storm Sunday night. Lots of lighting, power outages. There were 38,000 without power when we went to bed. This morning, that is down to 5,000. There was 12 mm rain.

TORNADO

It has been confirmed that a Tornado has touched down in Marmora with multiple homes being destroyed. Gas leaks and powerlines down. Multiple reports of damage from high winds including a fallen tree in Cambellcroft near Ganaraska road that has people trapped in their vehicles with live hydro wires on top.

Two people have gone to Campbellford hospital with injuries sustained from their trailer flipping over on its roof during the Tornado.

The Tiger Lillies look great. We'll have to get Izzy here to do a reprise of her 2020 photo!

It is too hot to work outdoors. JB has been cleaning out stuff, paperwork and clothes. The heat is so oppressive, thank goodness for air conditioning. 

I am a bit scattered these days.  I lost something, and, as is the way, found something else when I was looking for it. I found the foot brace I lost and had to replace. Turns out it was in my office/store room, but the box was empty! I've lost the fan he gave me for my birthday. 

I found another treasure, this box, which I'd carefully tucked away in my end table. It was the perfect time. A clever design, you fill in the blanks with personal messages for loved ones. I chose the 'Read me when you miss me' envelope. It was really touching. She is an amazing daughter! 

Our Fierce Travelers

There was some US air traffic based out of Crete. Good to know people are on duty.

Their travel end this week. They left Ottawa July 5th  => 🛫 Toronto => 🛫New York City => 🛫Istanbul => Athens ⛴ => Heraklion => 🚘Chania => 🛩 back to Athens => 🛩 Istanbul => 🛫Amsterdam. That latest trek on July 24th had them on 3 flights in one day. They are mighty world travelers.

The Istanbul airport lounge is amazing. They are now in Amsterdam, doing touristy things.

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.