Yard critters

The robins hatched, brood #2 under the deck: July 5th.

The hummingbirds are happy with fresh food. 

The crows still pop around. I threw out part of a bagel. This is a screen capture from the video. It was quick!

The goldfish are good, although with the heat the water is green. I accidentally dropped the fountainhead off of the pump. I won't be able to find it until it gets cooler!

If a tree falls... A dead birch had the biscuit. I spent days cleaning up debris to make walking paths in our first few years here. I gave up, because we've been having highs winds in the past years, and it seems futile. I think it good exercise to step up and over the tree branches. 

Our Canada Day was different here. Out of respect for Indigenous People and the Sixties Scoop, many of us reflected on the past, the present, and the future. This beautiful flag was designed by the late Curtis Wilson,  who lived in Campbell River, B.C. He died of a heart attack.

Curtis "Mulidzas" Wilson (1980-2019) Mulidzas is the traditional name handed to Curtis Wilson during a family Potlatch held in 2001.

The robins were bop-bop-bopping in the serviceberry bush. It is laden with berries.

The sumac are surviving, barely. The wild grape vine is covering a couple of them. The integrity of the entire patch was compromised when previous owners raised the brush in lieu of open field. I've been letting it grow.

 

A coyote whipped by in the dark. Don't blink! coyote  

  

The racoon was doing the worm dance. She managed to find several. I was fascinated. She stomps with both paws to scare them, or something, and tugs the great long things out of the ground. Racoon worming 

 

She was searching in the backyard for food, as well. I'd chucked out a yucky apple. The funny thing was, the camera tipped over and I missed a few critters, I think. The dragonflies, in the daytime, managed to trigger the camera. I was impressed. backyard Butch 

 

We watched the storm come in on the radar last night. It was a wonderful 25.6 mm (about an inch). Thunderboomers in southern Ontario dotted the lightning map.

Ice Storm '16 Part 1

What a horrible storm it is. And it is not over. Our poor White Pines, in fact, most of our conifers, are in bad shape. Droopy. It's not as much damage as our last ice storm.

Wednesday, we watched the storm very carefully, and at the last minute I used the snowblower on the 5cm (2") or so of snow. We knew there was ice rain acomin'. Then we waited. I cleverly (not) put the rain gauge out around 3:30, although when I went out at 1:30 to do the snow, that's when the rain pellets began. We had about 25mm or 1" of rainfall. The trees were droopy on Wednesday, and I knew it would get worse. I soaked two winter coats!


There are thousands without power across southeast Ontario. Ours went out at 8 p.m. yesterday, Wednesday, I hunkered down in bed reading, with a flashlight. It cam back on, then off, then on, then off! I banked the fire for overnight heat, and went back to bed to read.

The trees look terrible. It breaks my heart to look at them. My back is really sore today, I guess I slept badly, and I have a bit of work to do in the yard clearing up the tree branches. They do smell lovely, mind you, pine sap aroma as a comfort, although one knows that it is the blood of the trees that is dripping. Quebec, in the third photo, has an estimated 250,000 people without power.

I slid along the sidewalk, filled up the bird feeders, and slid down the driveway to get the paper. The mailbox, which was hanging on by two/four screws, has now come off. So much for mail for the next few days! We bought a new one, but I wanted to wait until our storms were over to install it. The snowplough just whacks them sideways to hell.

 

It is still 0 C. (32 F.) and it is expected to get colder and snow some more.

I dread it! In the meantime, it is still raining... Buster is not amused. He looked out the door, tried to avoid the ice pellets on the deck, shook his paw, looked out into the yard, then looked back at me!


And in Ottawa!

Giacomo Panico ‏@GiacomoPanico  40m40 minutes ago

Video of flooded Colonel By at Bank St #otttraffic

0:14

Play

Looking back:Dec. 2012 What a day it was!
Dec. 2013What an ice storm: December 21 - 22!  hit Toronto very hard.

After the storm...we went into town

Hubby needed some more supplements (calcium, etc.) in Carleton Place. When we left, it was a lovely, sunny part of the day. That soon changed.

We tootled on up to Almonte for bird seed and stuff for our lonely robin. Yes, it's quite common to have robins here in southern Ontario, but normally in groups. Our red-breasted buddy is on his lonesome.

Bob suggested a suet with meal worms and fruit in it. Also, dried mealworms. I'll keep you posted.

First, there have been lots of these wide loads along the way. They travel highway #7, stopping at Penny's overnight in Perth. Lots of motels, and large parking spaces, methinks.

Wednesday, Feb. 17th

The radar looked sinister, to me, but hubby is the driver and the wannabe weather forecaster...
You can see in the following photos what the radar begat! First hail, then more snow. It was rather pretty. I post these, not that they are spectacular, but I might sketch them later.