Hops Vine, flowers, sunrise,

That was a disappointment, only 1mm rain. That said, I can't smell the smoke today, Thursday, although I know it is there. The heavier smoke has moved off to the west. It is still there, though, and many activities are being cancelled. I tried working out Monday, and gave up after 10 minutes. I just feel depressed, and on edge. 

 I put in my annual trellis for the Hops Vine. It's grown up to the top of the railing, May 31st it was just at the deck. 

 

The vine will bring old friends to the back deck: the 🦋Eastern Comma, and Question Mark butterflies, 🐸tree frogs, sometimes a 🐍snake, once an 🐛IO caterpillar, lots of ants and aphids.

Flowers are blooming: iris, iris, persian cornflower, poppies.

The orange colour is unusual, it lasts all day. I don't dare hang out laundry. I had a haircut on Tuesday, and wore a mask in the car and outdoors. Wednesday morning, it was awful. Today, Thursday, it was a bit better, but it is insidious. 

I found the first frog in the goldfish pond. (Normally they don't move in until August when things dry up!) Percy has a friend! I'm having trouble with the pump, it keep falling over. 

Goat's Beard and milkweed

May 29, I have two cameras at the end of the frog pond. It has worked well to capture the beasts!

porcupine from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We'll see what today brings. I hope you are well. 

Red-eyed vireo, frogs, house wrens

Snuggle Bears presented JB with a new t-shirt for Father's Day. I bought it from the Legion's Poppy Store.

Jesse and Cluny phoned and left Grampa Joe a Happy Father's Day message! That was sweet.

We had a lovely Facetime with the Ottawa kids. Josephine has 7 days of school left. Five next week, and Monday/Tuesday the following week. I'm not sure how much they will get done. Isabelle has to go for two more days than her sister. I reminded them of the times Caitlin would finish high school before her brothers, and spend a week with my parents in Bala. They went strawberry picking after Jos finished some homework. 

What a surprise! I was coming in the house, heard them singing, and a pair of red-eyed vireos were having fun in the dead Catalpa tree. 

The red-eyed vireo photo was from my archives, for reference.

It was a difficult viewpoint, the video captures their songs, at least. It was quite entertaining.

red-eyed vireos from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Friends... well, cohabitants. I am surprised that Percy doesn't nibble the Leopard frog's toes. BTW: I dug the goldfish pond in 2011, River, and it was a process!

I cleaned out some foliage on the middle deck, pruning the tree I found a little friend.

The House Wrens nesting in the Bluebird box on the flagpole are doing pretty well. I think there is another pair, and they were scarce when they were replacing the eavestrough. 

I so love their little song. This predates the eavestrough installation. They were choosing which nest box!

House Wren from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Ontario is still in recovery!

 Thursday we had a threat of rain, but, as usual, we were the rock in the river. The storm moved around us. I guess it could be too hot to work on Hydro poles, instead of too wet. 

I feel better writing about our situation, rather than the other horrors going on around us in the world. The kids are with us still. Progress is being made in getting power to Ottawa. There is hope.

We planned dinner, tacos, Grampa went shopping, and everyone went to work. Isabelle doesn't have any schoolwork (gr, 6), but Josephine does. Momma and Papa worked, as well. If worse comes to worse, it could be Virtual School on Monday.

Storm Damage

• Ontario still has 48,000 homes without power. They are whittling it down from 277,000. 
• Ottawa still has 37,000 without power, down from 176,000. 

We had 11 deaths as a result of the storm. All things considered, it could have been worse. The derecho was phenomenal. It is 1000 km from Sarnia to Quebec City.

The size of the tree that fell, as well as the hydro poles that snapped, is astonishing. This church is going to need some work. The Twitter photos from across Ontario are shocking.

Spring Flowers

I hustled down to the trailcams and remembered to go a little farther and check on the lady slippers. I am glad I did. This is the last one to bloom. I could see it from a distance. 

The horse chestnut tree is in full bloom.

 

The honeysuckle are so pretty.

Going out back to fill the fountain, Caitlin was working in the Muskoka Room. Nutmeg was not amused as she wanted out.

It is a busy spot. You can see lots of action from here: Blonde Momma Butch ambles by.

Blonde butch from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

A little later, there was a crew!

The evergreen, the top stripped from the LDD (spongy) moth caterpillars last year, is showing a recovery.

A large Leopard froggy sits happily on the goldfish pond. 

The Phoebes have hatched. At least 4/5 eggs. All is good. They sing around the house, and is a delightful song just outside the bathroom window whilst one brushes one's teeth! The House Wren continues to charm us. They must have eggs by now!

House Wren from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Cinnamon and I went walkies. He stirred up the Wood Thrush pair who scolded him mightily. There must be a nest nearby.

 

wood thrush May 23 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

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.