Fred, and a Lady Slipper

What is with this cold? 

I've a new photo of Fred and her newest 3 kits. I wish them well.

From what I have noticed, miniFred is still hanging around. Last year a coyote brought a caught kit towards the house, from lot 3 to 2. I wondered. I figured out that miniFred's siblings went that way. She was a little more shy and hung out in our yard. 

Since then, I have found her on the trailcam on the driveway. 

 

And on the trailcam. They can climb trees, but her siblings may have missed the memo.

I took an afternoon walk to see if I could spot a burrow. 

Possible hole in the rock?

The bonus of visiting the 3rd lot, is to check out the Lady Slippers. We have only one blooming this year, but two other plants. It is the only spot on our 16 acres where I have found them. On the edge of the wetland, sheltered under trees, but with dappled sunshine. 

Allium, rhododendron, lady slippers, account fraud

Awake at 4:30 a.m., pondering our banking issues, I was happy to have slept in until then. 

It was a buggy, rainy day on Tuesday, and I must admit I accomplished little else than worrying. Lots of phone calls and emails, trying to resolve the account fraud. There have been lots of emails from my automatic payments. They didn't have my VISA number, just my bank account number. My VISA was still whole. Our old accounts are frozen, deposit only. 

We've been trying to keep ourselves entertained. CNN has been quite the deal, with the Hush Money Trial, as well as tennis. Bugs and spotty rain all day. We fretted indoors. The trick with tennis is figuring out which of the games we'd like to tape at 5:30 a.m.., with the men and women's on various TSN channels. It helps to have insomnia. 

We chilled out with a new show, After the Flood. It is good to have a murder mystery, plus a disaster. It puts one's own issues in perspective. 

🐈 🐦 

With the new doorbell, I am trying to retrain the cats. If a bell rings in a TV show, Cinnamon would wake up and look for danger. With the old bell, Nutmeg would run away from the door. It is handy in trying to keep her indoors. The new one wasn't having that effect, with its Windsor chime, so I keep entering loudly after ringing the new bell. Cinnamon watched Nutmeg run by him when I did so. He really glared at her!

They meow! Catbirds:

  

Gray catbird from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

This is with my phone. May, 2024, with my camera, in the evergreen behind the horse chestnut tree.

grey catbirds from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Up in the sky, is it a bird? Is it a plane? 

I was reminded by someone who posted lady slipper photos, to put on bug spray and go see if ours were blooming! They are.

This sad one was horizontal to the ground. The next had no flower. 

The weigela is in blossom, despite Fred nibbling.

People are posting amazing photos of their rhododendrons in bloom. I wrapped this plant over the winter and it graced me with two blossoms. For that I am grateful.The red one didn't bloom at all. 

Allium:

Fred update

Freda is still nest building. She is quick, though. I am not sure of Fred is still around. They are solitary critters, and I think he's already knocked her up. I've a video of him chasing her! Her belly is lovely and round.

 

Fred nest building from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We shall see what this new day brings.

Trillium and lady slippers!

The heat has been atrocious. 

We've a female red squirrel. She was pretty hot, running around. She lay down on the branch in the shade until I apparently disturbed her! She was watching me clean the goldfish pond. 

Even Cinnamon took it easy! Here he is in the Muskoka Room. He prefers it to the A/C! 

First trillium!

Someone posted photos of their ladyslipper. That inspired me to go check our little nook. They are coming along. I've snapped photos, so if I forget to go back amongst the 6 billion mosquitoes, I'll have proof. They are late this year.

Chores take a lot of energy. Some we are happier doing, especially involving water! JB is filling his water fountain, it was a surprise gift for him a number of years ago! 

It's taken me three days to get it all done. Fishies out (day 1), fish tank drained (day 2), equipment cleaned (day 3). Finally, day 4, I reassembled them, now that they are dry, and get the tank ready for October!

Jack-in-the-pulpit!

 The season is well on its way. I had to get the anti-itch cream out. Blackflies and mosquitoes. There was a mosquito in the house while we were watching Vera!  If you look closely in this photo, you can see even the mosquitoes were hiding from the heat in the shade. (No, not that much dirt on my camera lens!) I've been cleaning up, placed the cans in there, slowly backing away from the horde. 

My Aspen grove is doing well, despite the spongy moth attack last year.

The big news is that two of the robins have hatched! I'll bet the third is out, as well. But I try to avoid the area. This is an image from June 2020. We had a drought, and I didn't realize that even as young as this, the parents will follow and feed them. 

We're up to around 11 eggs in the wood duck nesting box.

11 wood duck eggs from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Lady slippers: Cypripedioideae orchids

May 15th I checked up on them! There are about a dozen!


By the 17th -they were blooming pink!