Who goes there?

The garden confounds me. The lawns are a mess. I keep picking up tick nymphs on myself. The lawn tractor has gone for repairs. I cannot start it. This is where they hide, in the grass. It is perfect for the ticks. 

 You can see the ticks on the doe's legs, back and front. 

doe ticks June 4 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Yucca plant is throwing up a flower stalk. 

The Weigela is dropping blossoms. The Hops vine carries on up!

Can you see the White Admiral butterfly? I usually take a photo when I spot it, then try to move closer. Such cooperation this time!

I am having a fun time with a certain spider! It is quite clever, as the moths turn on the light as they flit by. It is a perfect place for a web.

 If you watch it, you'll see a little moth land in the web in the upper right. Spidey is quick to finish it off! 

Spider tails from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I don't know if the videos show bats or moths. We have both. Consensus from other camera owners is difficult, Bat or Imperial Moth. Someone suggested a flying squirrel, but they truly glide, and don't fly upwards. The photo is from June, 2012. I suspect this is what we see in the dark. They are huge!

UFOs in the night

moths from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

This is our big bear, May 31. Out in the daytime. We didn't see him anywhere the house, thankfully. At least not this day!

Bear comes and goes from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's holiday Monday in Canada. Happy Thanksgiving! The news is overwhelming, around the world. I just cringe. I am thankful for all we have.

I finished this felted piece. I couldn't manage their design, so I made it up myself. My crafty grandies approved. It is a bright spot of colour.

We have sent it to my D-I-L in Vancouver. They had to put down her 16-year-old cat, and I know how that feels. What a blessing these pets are in our lives. Her FB post was poignant, and reflects the gratitude she felt beginning as a single woman in her partnership with Dora, and being her partner through all those years.

We woke to the possibility of storms in Ontario. Yes, that came to fruition. Northern Ontario has snow. Thanksfully (new word, A/C, these typos can be creative), we only had rain. The blue is snow. The remnants of hurricane Philippe sent the storm into a counter clockwise direction. Then the part on the left is going south. 

🐸 Now, I know this is a gray tree frog. They do change colour, just to fool amateurs. I encouraged it to get off the deck, and head for the foliage where it will seek shelter over winter. The temperatures are going down, and it is time to nestle. This morning it is 7 C., and I think that is the last we will see or hear of them for the winter. 

🐍 I submitted both spider and snake sightings to iNaturalist. I had the snakes wrong, they are Northern Ribbon Snake (Thamnophis saurita ssp. septentrionalis), not 'eastern.'

I was given the correct species! It's a crap shoot some days!

🕷Marbled Orbweaver (Araneus marmoreus) AKA Charlie! She has decided she likes the corner and the little shelf the previous owners made for the tree frog.

I tried several times to photograph this spider. It could well be the same species. There are lots of cobwebs on the front deck. I went out at 6 a.m., to check on the rain situation. I figure I might as well let them eat, and once we get frost, and they seek shelter, I'll sweep all these cobwebs away at that time. 

I liked the pop of colour on a cool, rainy morning. 

Creeping bellflower. I thought I'd pulled it all, but I missed some. They are terribly invasive. I am mostly done with the garden. 

I wandered about with the zoom lens, and I think this a worthwhile shot. Most of my shots aren't that great, but I do like to document my days, to realize how much fun I had. 

We are up to 14 frogs in the goldfish pond. Since we are getting rain, I'll move them to the frog pond (filling as I write) after the weekend. They will be much happier there, since the shallow, hand dug pond freezes in winter. Well, with climate change it freezes and thaws, which truly isn't good for frogs or fishes.

Poor Charley!

 Charley, the spider, had a disappointment, something wrecked her web. She is still there, but didn't fix the web overnight. Nor the next. I was going to turn the plant around, but I can't with the web attached.

It was a beautiful web. 

😿 Friday night, around 7 p.m. dusk, someone came to the door to ask if we had a black cat. We used to, first Olive, then Felix and Buster. I am wondering if it is the wandering Pepper. This woman say a black cat had been hit by a car and was lying near our mailbox. JB and I went out and brought the little body in, and put it in a plastic garbage bag in a box. Joe took it to the vet Saturday morning. Hopefully he is chipped, but I doubt it, as Pepper was an intact male. 

I had a big cry. 

The vet posted info about the death, but so far no one has come forward. I have looked for months for where he came from, but no one came forward. He wasn't chipped, as I suspected.

Our last sighting in June, 2023.

😼 Cinnamon Walkies

The good news is that while Joe was walking around the house, Cinnamon went with him. (He refused to walk with me a couple of days ago.) Then, Cinn followed his sister back to the woodshed, and one of them got on the roof of the shed. It is good for him to get some exercise. The bad news is he won't walk with me in the forest! 

I'm wondering if our neighbourhood Bobcat is the culprit! We've a Bobcat. These are from postings from local trailcams, Nov. '21, and Jan. '22. It is an elusive beast. I've had a couple of triggers on the trailcams that didn't show up anything. Could be.

Autumn chores continue. All of the lilies, phlox, hibiscus, and other plants are done. I've one more rosebud, but that may be it. The datura is still going strong. My fuschia in the hanging planter, and the tomatoes, and the yellow petunias Caitlin brought me, are still good. 

I've taken down the deer fence.

The danged weeds are thriving, however. I've been pulling twitch grass till I'm blue in the face! I pile it into the metal garbage can, and throw it onto Oliver's Lot.

The other problem I have is that there are many saplings growing in the garden. I've been having to dig out knee-high trees: mountain ash, lilacs, and baby elm trees. 

Good news! I've been trying for years to grow forget-me-nots, and finally the seeds took in the planter. Usually, I put pine branches in this planter over winter. I'll have to rethink this. The lobelia and marigold will die off soon. Maybe I should transplant them to the garden.

We had a visit from the cardinal pair. He landed on the bench and then perched on the railing. This is a photo from my chair, it was a tricky shot.

Saturday's Critters

 I've removed the deer fences around the garden, since our little doe, Clover, no longer hangs about all year. I suspect she succumbed to something. She loved my front garden flowers! I tried chicken wire, and that worked fairly well, with flags across the top. 

The deer fence from Lee Valley Tools was amazing. You can see through it, the black mesh I stapled to 1 x 1" posts. 

It was time to take it down, though.

Farewell to summer.

The doe was being tracked by the coyotes! She ran away.

 

doe & buck from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Lest we forget the little critters. One insists on putting a web across the security camera!

 

spider from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I moved my trailcam. This is who I found!

 

doe from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Bears

They haven't been a problem this year. People have learned to put feeders away in summer. The birds don't need it, and it is selfish to want to see the birds, which risks all of them. I sure learned my lesson in May, 2017, in our early days here! 

There was excitement, as I viewed this raw footage. I spliced two clips, and now you can count the bear cubs. I must say I haven't seen any bears anywhere near the house, only on trailcams. 

 

Bear and cubs from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Saturday's Critters # 508 <= Thanks to Eileen for hosting!