Gramma Camp – Week 29

What a beautiful day it was! Sunny and warm. Our routines are pretty set.  While the girls worked, I did some chores.

Lunch was leftover spaghetti. The gift that keeps on giving! One ate on the front deck, the other out back in my Muskoka Chair.

We rescued Isabelle's frisby with the roof rake and ladder. She handed me the roof rake, and I dragged it on down.

Izzy touched the roof rake down on the lawn. 

Afternoon walkies to fetch the trailcam. The little spring peepers are swimming merrily as tadpoles. The girls decided the mosquitos were too bad to go check out the lady slippers, which I'd found. I'll have to remember to keep checking on them. (I don't always!)

Grampa rewarded us with minion popsicles. He had to go to two stores, as the first didn't have the new stock for the season. 

It is officially  spring. The two-week forecast shows it above zero. I figured we were good to go. We popped the goldfish into the goldfish pond. 

goldfish release  

After school, they watched some funny videos on the swing bench. 

We chose pizza for dinner. A good time had by all. Gramma ordered it. Grampa drove in and picked it up. 

Gramma Camp – Week 29

 Here we go again and we made it to Wednesday. 

Happily, we've been vaccinated our first dose. JB and I had Moderna, our second is in August. Caitlin and our SIL have each had an AZ.  They are working from home. The kids have been in virtual school since last September. Our peculiar provincial government is heading towards a hybrid model of school, and throwing out demands that parents choose virtual school or in-person schooling for next school year. We are all hopeful that they will all get back to school. 

Virtual school, they say, will be run by TV-Ontario. This is my experience with TVO, journalists pretending to be experts. We all know how well that goes.

Josephine and her friends continue to keep up relationships by making cookies for friends, and driving them around to deliver. Isabelle does some Facetime with her friends, whom she misses. What we've noticed is that the two girls are really good friends. They work in separate rooms, and do lunch in parallel. I asked Josephine about virtual school, and if she's made any friends. She said there isn't time. I seldom hear her talking, except for a morning 'ici' as the teacher does attendance. Sometimes, they do breakout groups, but there is little time for socializing. They've both had friends at school for years. 

Isabelle walked by herself to virtual school Wednesday. She skipped the bus and signed on early! Jos hopped on and signed in.

Grampa did his walkies during the day! I think I might move the trailcam yet again. We'll see what today brings. walkies  

With two girls on Google Classroom (I wonder how much money Google is making from this) Momma supervises from home with texts and phone calls, if necessary. I'm afraid to go online when they are working, as the videos drain the system. 

For our afternoon break, we all went down to the frog pond.

The little spring peeper tadpoles are adorable! Sadly, the mosquitos are hatching out!

tadpoles  

Isabelle checked the middle wood duck box. No guests. None in #1, either. Only #3.  They could hatch May 17th, at the earliest, except it has been cold. 🐤WOOD DUCKS

From here, we all went down to see if the lady slippers were out. They are just beginning.

The frogpond is beginning to look lush. The wood ducks, and mallards, stay on this side of the pond when we arrived, then all flew up and away.

We made our way back up to the house. Out in back, they were discussing what to do in the event of a zombie apocalypse. 

Grampa came along. We've been watching the cooking show, Master Chef Canada,  where they shout: "You have SEVEN minutes!" (until they have to go to asynchronous learning.)

Grampa makes us laugh!

Apparently, my hat makes us pose!

"TWO MINUTES, you have TWO MINUTES!" Off they ran to log on, again.

Back they went. Josephine was finishing a short story she had to do. She worked beyond 3:30. Isabelle was done. She went outdoors to watch a video.

When Josephine finished school, she went out front to read. As she sat there, she realized Butch was there, too. She talked to Butch, who promptly ran off and went up the tree. He's been around in the day time a lot.

The daffodils she helped me plant look wonderful. I'm toying with adding to the spring bulbs.

It was a good day had by all. Spaghetti and meatballs, except I forgot to put spaghetti noodles on the list. We had egg noodles.

Here we go again today! 

Gramma Camp Week 29

Cinnamon found a Notable Sawyer. Josee was a bit creeped out. I scooped it up in the bug collector. Of course, it was better than a bat.

Breakfast time chat

There was some self-deprecating humour from Izzy. We were talking about handwriting. She learned cursive in gr. 4, you see, but they don't use it much online during virtual schooling. She said something about Josee's writing being better than hers, but that is a low bar. Then the puns flew.

Grampa was in the Catholic school board until gr. 4. They were to do cursive writing in Gr. 5, then he transferred to the Catholic school board. He had to teach himself using the bulletin board letters.

I told the girls that my gr. 11 teacher told me I wrote like a drunken spider. He was a known tippler, too. From there we asked about whiteboards. "Whiteboards are remarkable," apparently. Good pun by Izzy.

They said a lot of their classrooms had them, although some have smartboards (which project the teacher's laptop screen). I told them that a teacher in my school had piloted an early version. They flew him out west for training, as it was quite new technology. Now, every newscaster use them.

Josephine accidentally made herself a puzzle! We haven't gotten her any more, since school keeps them fairly busy.

isabelle made herself lunch. It never varies, when it comes to sandwiches.

Just as we set out for our afternoon break, the rain began. It looks lush and green.

Cinnamon watched the geese and ducks. Cinnamon geese ducks 

 

Rural raccoons are different than city ones! I loved watching him stand in the water to drink. Butch raccoon 

 

The crows must still be nesting. Crows May 8 both visited the cracked corn.

 

This videocam result is a hoot. The deer dancing in the frogpond! We all laughed and laughed!

I tucked Josephine into bed, and Cinnamon was on her feet, while she read before bedtime. It was so sweet.

Happy birthday to Isabelle!

The kids brought the girls over for Gramma Camp Week 29!

I spotted the first tree frog on the back deck since last year. He escaped from Jossee's grasp!

 Isabelle turned 11 on Friday. They had a virtual party for her friends. First, she and Papa delivered the 'loot bags' to their homes. Next, potions .  (It was a Harry Potter theme!)

Then they ordered pizza for her friends. They all chatted on Zoom, whilst eating pizza. Then, they watched a movie together. They are so creative, our adult kids. They are working so hard for a new normal. 

There was a bat Sunday night in the basement. Cinnamon caught it, and it fell on Josephine's bed. Jos picked it up and we put it outdoors. (I was upstairs fetching a net, which we didn't need.)

I think we may stop calling him Cinn-mon, as a pet name. I'm in favour of calling him Bat-mon! 

Sunday night, after dinner, we had cake and presents for Iz.

Isabelle had the most wonderful red hair!

We've had to close off the basement door. Phoebe is there nesting. Robin is nesting nearby, I think.

The robin has begun choosing a nesting site, right near phoebe. They destroyed phoebe's last year's nest. The video shows the beam, where they have put debris on each part of the beam. I don't know if it is to dissuade other birds, or to give the female a choice... robin's nest 

The buck ambled by at dusk.

New videos:

Meantime,  Butch continues to visit the dock.

Cinnamon 1   went tree climbing.

Cinnamon and I went walkies. We spotted a brown creeper .

Spring continues...

 It is springtime. HOPE springs in the greening of the land! It's so good to get outdoors, too.

The 🐣PHOEBE  have FIVE eggs! This is an archive photo, as I don't want to bother them. May 22 they should hatch!

The female rose-breasted grosbeak is back, too. I'll look for the male, although I know I heard him. The house finches, as well.

• Crows 🐦

I noticed a raptor doing a fly-over of where the crow nest lies.

The crows May 7   have been interesting. They've gone silent in the past week. It's been a cold, rainy week, and I wondered if they were sticking to their nest. I finally spotted the pair of them in the backyard. I've posted videos of the one with a small stick stuck in its cheek. (That's what I think it is!) I think that is one of our pair. They've been down at the pond, however.

They'll incubate 16 – 18 days. They'll stay in the nest 20 – 40 days, according to All About Birds!

They are really vigilant. I opened the door very slowly and quietly, and the one took off. The other, if you watch the video, seems to be the one with the wound. crows  

I anticipate monarchs, the milkweed is starting to grow here. The second photo was from 2019. 

I saw a swallowtail in the yard. What a delight!

Do you remember my Lenten Rose? We had snow, it fell over. It's standing tall, now!

It happened again. Somebody knocked it into the water. It is cold water!!!!

I think this is a morel, but I'm letting it lie.

Butch has been busy. He still wants to get into that nesting box!

 

Butch on deck 

The deer   in the meadow, the one day it cleared up! The guidelines say not to have the camera face north, but I've not much choice in trees.

I went walkies in the backyard. I had two cats roaring around with me. My friends! cats and trees