Pooter, lady slippers, & pulpits

 I had to get my pooter out of the cupboard. I only need it when the red lily bugs come out. Okay, not true, I use it in the fall when lady beetles try to come in the house! 

pooter  Wiki

One sucks on the short end, which had a trap (gauze) on the other end. The long tube you set by the bug and by sucking on it, the bug ends up in the jar. 

Everything is greening up!

Primula veris, the cowslip, common cowslip, or cowslip primrose

Trillium are scattered throughout the forest:

We have ladyslippers in our wetland. They are beyond the frog pond, on our furthest lot. Sometimes I forget to go find them! I found only two plants, We'll see. 

Here is one from May, 2020. The problem with May is the bugs come out. I think we already have blackflies. That's why I forget to go find if they are blooming!

Fred is being very careful, wary. She lost 3/4 kits to coyotes last year.

This was a big surprise. I was down in the forest, doing a walkabout. This is a jack-in-the-pulpit. I wonder if a bird took a seed down. 

I have them in my garden behind the house. 

Clean up in the forest

🔥Thank you, Australia and New Zealand. Sadly, we haven't heard too much about this. The Alberta premier deals in anger and denials. She loathes the feds, and didn't want Canadian soldiers to go help. She changed her mind, and that must have hurt!

     "I don't believe the UCP are conservative anymore," said one pundit. "They are conspiratorial, feeding anger. They are anti-science, anti-truth, anti-fact." Others are “echoing conspiracies that the federal government and a nebulous group of "elites" started the blazes to "destroy" Alberta.”

They did get some rain on the prairies. It is a terrible tragedy, however. There are still 10,000 people waiting to go home, evacuated due to the fires. Saskatchewan is facing similar issues with fires, and they hope for rain.

Thank you, Australia and New Zealand

 😼PEPPER cat: Monday night he visited at bedtime last night, howling through the Muskoka Room at Cinnamon. It wasn't exactly good sleep hygiene! I still don't know where he comes from. Cinnamon isn't a fighter, and he was petrified.

I'm still catching up on photos. They had a picnic in Vancouver on the weekend! 

🌲 I did some yard work in the meadow. The trees came down in April, and I kept forgetting about these two branches. Usually taking a photo reminds me. I neglected to take one. Out of sight out of mind.

📱JB was out walking at the arena. There was work to do. I texted Caitlin (home Monday from Vancouver), and trying to get back into work mode. She agreed to be my 'spotter' as I used the ladder. I fell off a ladder in 2005, it slid out from under me on the deck. Had a huge bruise, and JB didn't hear me, working indoors. I promised I wouldn't go up the ladder unless I told someone! I texted her when I was done! 

My issue was these two branches. I tried using the aerial saw last week, but it became lodged in the cut. The branches were covering a week evergreen, and I tried to work on it. The bugs are horrid this year, and I had to psyche myself up for it.

 This was not good. I worked at the upper branch, and gave up to work on the lower one. I didn't quite get the upper one down, but moved them off the path.

At least the wee evergreen can now get some sunshine. I threw all these branches off the meadow, in the trees, cutting a couple of dead elm branches that were trying to behead me when I used the tractor to cut grass in the meadow. 

 

Note To Self: You ought to put your equipment upwind of where you are using the reciprocal saw! My little box of goodies (iPhone, videocam, extra batteries for the saw, jacket, water bottle, extra hat, bug spray), was covered in sawdust. I used JB's cap I made for him in the woods. Two hankies are sewn to the brim. I sprayed bug spray all over the back, sides and top of the hat. It kept the bugs at bay. Sort of! I had to take off my sweater, scraped my arm, and got two bug bites. It was too hot, by this time.

🥀 My work done, I gathered up the trailcam cards (nada!) and decided to check out the pink lady slippers. We have 6 of them.

Done, I went indoors, put on my foot brace, and put my foot up with ice hubby happily fetched for me!

That was a good day. My shower was amazing afterwards.

Walkies

Our tick count
You can see the engorged adults, from Dorah and Annie,
the group of 10 nymphs was from Daisy.
I pluck them off with tweezers.

Daily I check the owl, the trailcams, the phoebe nest, and then the wood duck nesting box.

Twice daily we check the cats for ticks. Daisy is the winner, at 34 of the 38 ticks we've harvested. She favours the fields where the mice hang out, of course. Thankfully, it's easy to spot them on her. They crawl for a couple of hours, up to their heads. We've put Bravecta on them, a new product for cats. It kills them after they latch on, not before.


Daisy is my companion! She loves climbing trees. Her favourite are the cedars, with numerous branches that act as a ladder. She's not afraid of going down backwards, like a firefighter. I videotaped her doing this, that's in my previous post.
 

She launched herself up several, the mallard ducks weren't impressed. They flew off.


The ladyslippers are growing nicely. They might blossom in a month.


Owl is still trying to encourage the babies to come on out of the nest and branch. It's been coolish, so I don't blame them for staying in the cavity!