Happy anniversary!

 Here we are, Aug. 22nd. It is our 22nd anniversary. We talked about going to Kingston for an overnighter, but that isn't going to happen. It is chilly and maybe rainy. I did have a surprise!

 

I spotted a really tiny tree frog on the railing. It has to be this year's baby. Another one. It's good to see.

Wednesday I saw a storm move in, there were pop-up popcorn clouds all day Tuesday. It is an unusual storm, as it came from the north north east. Another cold morning, at 12 ℃. but I haven't had to put the heat on! 

The bumble bees are busy gathering pollen. Our woodland sunflowers are providing ample food.

I love a good storm!

Clouds and rainfall

When we drove the girls home from our adventure to Mill of Kintail and dinner out last week, there were crepuscular clouds! 

It was so lovely to have rain. July was quite dry. Monday, Aug. 29th, it darkened, and there were suddenly thunderboomers all around us. 

Here is August rainfall totals. 

That was a storm!

Saturday, Cinnamon and I went walkies on lot #3. The wetland is cold, and frozen!

There are lots of holes in the ground. I spotted two frozen frogs who may have sought shelter in the holes. 

He is a serious looking fellow! He was mushing the branch.

Monday morning, at 2 a.m. it was - 2C., I thought about a strategy for shoveling. Having a bout of coughing, I fetched some water and could see the snow had fallen, as predicted. By 4 a.m. it was 0 C. (freezing point), and temperature was rising. I was listening to the radio, trying to dull my mind. They launched in with a CBC Ideas program on the torture in Guantanamo. I gave up. Back to podcasts.

I was awake from 2 - 5:00 a.m., I konked out by 5:30, then woke up at 6:30 in time to do the driveway, and put out garbage.  Well, we had 8 cm  snow overnight, with rain following, and 8 C. temperatures. It was a mess. The lovely, new, flat driveway was easy to plough. What a difference! By 8:30 it was 5 C.  I sat and had my coffee, enjoying every drop. 

The snowplough piled it up at the end of the driveway, but I got rid of it! It was beginning to get slushy, and when that happens it just clogs up the auger. I hurried to finish, as JB brought me water.

There must be a smarter way to do this, but without a pen and paper to figure it out, my brain is full! Do you have a strategy for clearing out? I think I just plowed along making it up as I go!  😝

A bit of a shock! Just not good for photos, we've had clouds for what seems like ages!

JB went walkies and trod a path. The driveway was beginning to melt. 

After this, the rain fell and temperatures rose to 8 C. at its peak. We get a lot of precipitation at this time of year. Overnight it went down to -7 C., I'm glad I cleared it out. JB likes his charts and graphs, here is December over the years!

I shall have to do something about the eavestrough.

The storm on Saturday

 I noticed our doe and fawn were back. 

I took a video of them. They were cleaning up the weeds nicely!

 

Fawn and doe 1 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I divided the video in two. I'm fascinated watching them. As I taped this, the storm rolled in. The poor fawn wasn't sure what was up. Momma just kept eating. This ain't her first rodeo!

Fawn and thunder from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Off it went, to join momma on the front lawn again.

The goldfish pond was quite full, from the runoff from the rain barrel.

On the back deck, I moved a pillow so it wouldn't get wet. The tree frog was hiding there!

It was a heavy storm.

Even the downspouts were back up. With this kind of rain, we cannot use those leaf guards wouldn't work. 

I thought this artistic, the rain was so heavy on the coffee table, the drops were bouncing.

There are many who can capture lightning bolts. I am not one of them. I videotaped the storm and hoped for a bolt. As is my luck, there was one bolt I saw, but it was just off-camera.

The storm rolled in and over us.

storm from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

It was a lot of rain in one day. Very unusual for us. Nearly 49mm, or 2".

And goodbye, August! The girls come for the week, again. We'll see what we can get up to.