Skies, #75, last flowers

 It is a change in season, and the skies have been lovely.

I bent over forwards to weed the stone path.  😓  I'm glad it is done for this year. I was tempted to use the shop vac on the weed seeds, but used a broom instead. They are ubiquitous.

With great excitement, I am sure I spotted #75 on his tree. (He's our released, rehabbed gray squirrel.) I think he's been out and about all summer. He took a giant leap from the end of the branch to the tree nearby.

He was in the front yard the day after, harvesting chestnuts. 

#75

   

 So far, all is well. #75 was yelling at Cinnamon. Both are aware of one another. 

 

The last of our flowers!

Signs of fall! The sumac is usually a lovely colour. 

But if you zoom in, there are spots of colour!

Rhododendron...

I've spotted the coyote with the hurt leg on the trailcam.

The Goldenrod is abuzz!  

 The porcupine wandered by. It sort of walks like an alligator through the forest.

   

 Yes, as YAM writes, when the goldfish have to come in it is a sign of the change in season. We're getting close.

 

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.

Fall sights and sounds

Here we are, deep into the school year. Poor Josephine has COVID. She'll be home from school. She's not feeling too badly, but did have a positive RAT. 

We are continuing to do research on gun clubs. The proposed gun range has me rattled. I'm trying not to let it make me sick, but it is making me anxious. 

I tootled on down to the back 40. The leaves are turning and/or falling! The aspen saplings are doing well, despite Bambi's affection for them! With the old sumacs dying off (insufficient moisture?), it add some trees to the back.

Just beside the wetland there are many little spider webs. 

Another mushroom photo! They look so cute! These are new.

This looks like butterscotch!

I'd looked for the puff balls I'd seen here, not spotted one. I was out looking for Fred's burrow under the rocks. Instead I found a hole in the side of the yard.

On the front deck we've still bumble bees bumbling about.

Next year's buds...

Out the back, the temperatures are lower, as the sun doesn't warm up the back deck during this solstice.

This is the last of our frogs, I think. The Spring Peeper.

The baby gray tree frog tried to slip away from my lens.

Maple, the gray tree frog, nestles under an ivy stem.

And, as YAM says, this is the sign of Autumn. I've filled the goldfish tank, to let it warm up in preparation for the goldfish. It was -2 C. last night. When I hustled outside to take out the garbage, I noticed the bird bath had a skiff of ice. Whoopsie. I plugged in the heater.

On the back landing, you'll see my lovely pumpkin. Butch raccoon has attacked it already!

Gramma Camp – Week 31

 Wednesday dawned. Grampa did an early walk, 6:45, to beat the heat. I worked on my blog post, and at 7 a.m. I went down the hall to open curtains. Isabelle wasn't in bed. She was in the bathroom. Happily, she didn't scare me as I have a low startle reflex! Downstairs, I opened the curtains, and Jos sort of sat up. She didn't quite wake up, so I had to go back down! 

The day unfolded. I take joy in the garden. Here is a huge spider, I think with an egg sack! I didn't want to bother her too much.

I figured I should take photos of the lilies our You Two deer beheaded, just for a reference point. There were 5 she took out. I didn't seen her all day Tuesday, so maybe my chicken wire and flags alerted her. (See my header!) JB spotted her this morning on the other side of the wire. 

The poppies popped. In the second photo you can see the bee.

The goat's beard has spittle bugs. I'm sure there are Latin names for them, but this will suffice. It's an interesting strategy.

I so miss these colours in winter. 

Lymantria caterpillars (LDD) 

There is devastation in the forest, with great white pine trees dropping needles like mad. It is LDD, and it is terribly discouraging. This is a video of this tree, and the damage.

My rose bush... one was destroying a rose bud, and it was promptly dumped in the soapy water I keep by me.

My poor rhododendron... I pop out several times a day to pluck off the caterpillars with my tweezers.

The spruce tree is heavily infested. It is discouraging. I think we'll have them for a few years. I'm still wrapping my head around all this. Nearby people had hired a company to spray their forests by helicopters. They use Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki (Btk) which kills them in a week. There is no more Btk to be had around here, though.

It's a three-year process, they tell me. The folks nearby are in their third year, and they have migrated over here to our forest. We had a couple of them last year. I am not hopeful. Biologists are saying the trees can stand 3 years of this, and will come back.

Gramma Camp

We had an interesting day. At 12:15, JB and I left for our 2nd COVID_19 injections. All went well. We are now fully vaxxed. Jos is next week.

When we returned home, an hour later, the Internet had been wonky. Isabelle had texted Momma and told her. I checked in with Caitlin, and she couldn't find any information on Xplornet. I had a hard time on my phone. I finally phoned the company, and they said that the 'Jupiter' satellite was down, and internet could be  gone or wonky. The girls finally gave up at 1:30. The girls hung out together and relaxed.

Jos and I played Skip-Bo!

We had fun watching America's Got Talent. The girls liked the magician. They don't have satellite TV at home, and this is just fun. After a stressful day, we were happy to sit and relax.

The Internet came back up while we were watching TV, and Jos began to work on stuff due that day. (Caitlin had emailed their teachers explaining the problem.) At 8:00 p.m., Isabelle told Josephine it wasn't a good idea to work on the computer so late near to bedtime. I've been talking to them about sleep hygiene, and I'm glad the message got through!

They were tucked in, and the day was done.