July 12th.

My camera is buggered at the moment....she says as she weeps. I'm not going to go into details but hoping I can get it straighted out soon. So, thought I'd put on some pictures I took last summer around the area.

Burnside




Salvage

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETE

Some pictures of ducks for you.

Firstly, I can't get a title in the title bar. The cursor won't go in so if anyone has an answer for this please let me know. Well, we've been having heavy rain and cooler temperatures lately but today just an odd shower or two. Still not much in bloom in the garden but I can see that it's almost ready to burst forth. The Blue Jays have their young with them now, sounds like a nursery in the garden with the young ones squawking for the parents to bring them food. Not many birds about all the same. Everything is so wet outside, never the less, I got the camera and took a few pictures of odds and ends. No Butterflies or Bees, guess it's too wet and cool today.

Chickens resting.
Odds and Ends, some flowers that are in bloom and some of the ornaments.

Wednesday morning, my daughter phoned, crying, with tears of joy and laughter in her voice. Her daughter, my granddaughter had flown into the city without telling anyone she was coming and had just walked in Laurie's front door. They said they would drive out here the next day and stay until Saturday, today. They arrived just after lunch on Thursday and I can say that I was over the top with excitement. We got their suitcases in when crazy things started happening, my daughter picked up one of the cats to cuddle, unfortunately he had just come out of the litter box and had some poop stuck to him so Laurie ended up with this all down her blouse. She got the blouse off and I washed it and hung it outside. Then we were just getting settled in for a chat when dear daughter on looking into the kitchen yells that the cat has a great big black monster thing in its mouth. Daughter runs into one of the bedrooms and slams the door shut, peaking out through a crack. Now, these things don't normally bother me, I don't jump on a chair if I see a mouse, etc. But Hilary, the granddaughter jumps up on the chesterfield and I find myself up on one of the chairs. I scream at Roger to go see what it is. He comes back with a tissue with the creature on it....a black beetle. Honestly, did I feel foolish. Then a little later, I was bent over doing something when I say, "What's that horrible smell?" Laurie yells, "Mom, your hair is on fire." I'm not even going to go there with how that happened and no, I hadn't been drinking, lol.

My Precious Princess.

So, after all the madness, Hilary, Roger and myself decided to go and walk up the beach. It was such a beautiful day.





That night we just chilled out, rented a movie, when that was over we three women were left alone and had so many laughs talking about old times, new times, etc. It was great. Then yesterday they wanted to go to the Goodwill and have a poke around. I saw a big plastic container full of chalk sticks. I said to the girls, hey look at this wow, I wouldn't mind having those. Laurie says yes mom, what are you going to do, mark out a hop scotch thing on the road. Ha, ha. I thought I could do something with them and as there was no price on the container anywhere, Laurie said she would find someone and ask. She comes back and says that she asked the woman who said 50 cents. Laurie says "What, only 50 cents!" Then the woman says "Ok, a dollar then." I ended up paying a dollar. So last night we had a couple of friends in for wine and food. A great evening. And they left this morning. It was a wonderful visit. Hilary will be coming back with her partner in October...Whoo Hoo!

Another Butterfly picture.

July 3rd.

I heard this morning that there was a chance of frost tonight. Ye Gads!!! And we are into July! The weather for the rest of the week, including the weekend, is mostly rain. I suppose I can satisfy myself by saying it's good for the garden. Won't be able to get much done outside though.

One of the chickens is broody. She's been sitting on four eggs for days and as the eggs aren't fertilized they will come to nothing. Although there are other nesting boxes in the hen house the other hens have decided to keep out of her way and have made a nest in the bushes in one part of the garden. This morning we decided to take matters into our own hands and get her out of the box and get the eggs out of the way. Roger gets his heavy gloves that come almost up to his elbows on, I grab the egg basket and away we go. Amid growls and bites he managed to get her off the nest. I took the eggs hoping that would deter her from going back and settling in again. She went out for a walk about and then ate, had some water and went back in. The only thing I can figure to do is each day take her out and take the eggs, if any, away. Hopefully she will soon get fed up and things will get back to normal.

Not much excitement around here these days I'm afraid. I did see this creature in the greenhouse yesterday. Don't know what it is as I'm not up on moths or butterflies or the like. Maybe someone can tell me. It's very small, about half an inch across the wings. Not the best of pictures but here it is.

Yay, My First Butterfly Picture

I'm over the top with excitement. I finally got a picture of a Butterfly. Thanks Pete for telling me how it's done.


It's been an exciting afternoon. I heard there was an iceberg down off the beach. It's probably about 15 stories high...a beautiful sight.

June 30th. A walk around the garden.

Things are starting to bloom at this point. Most haven't but are well on their way. These are some pictures of part of the garden. A lot of it is in deep shade at this hour of the morning so didn't get any pictures.


Pathway with Buttercups.

Wild flower area near stream.

Majestic Lupins coming into there own.

June 28th.

It took me three days but I finally finished cleaning and sorting the books. Roger took eight boxes of books to the Goodwill the first day and the woman told him that they couldn't take anymore until next week. By the time I finished, yesterday, there were nine more boxes. I wanted to go to Glovertown to buy a long planter to go under the kitchen window and as the car was full of all these boxes, Roger said he was going to stop at the Goodwill and beg her to take them now. Well....without telling me as I waited in the car, he told her we were having company and really needed to get these boxes out of the house. So, he comes out of the shop and starts bringing the boxes in and the woman comes out chatting with me and says how long is your company coming for. I say, company? There's no company coming. Duh!! It clicked in my brain that this is what he must have told her so I immediately said, well not for a week. I don't normally tell fibs but what could I do....sigh!

We then went to the greenhouses. At this point the plants are all over grown and root bound and all I could hear were hundreds of flowers yelling "Take me, take me, I'm dying here". I came home with more plants than I needed but at least I gave some a chance.

My neighbor, who is an animal lover, phoned and said her husband was bringing a bag of garbage out to the box for pick up when she looked out the window and saw him in the middle of the road swinging the bag around. She couldn't figure what on earth he was doing so when he came back in she asked him. He said there was a grouse with a pile of little chicks on the road and he was trying to get them off to the side in case a car came by. He did get them off to the side and they went on their way.

Roger said that on his early morning walk yesterday morning he saw a squirrel in the middle of the road dragging a dead baby rabbit across. I couldn't believe it! Do squirrels really eat things like that?

This one is for you Jan....a young squirrel in the garden.

June 26th, I think?

Yesterday morning I decided to take on the awesome task of taking down all the books, sorting them, cleaning them and washing down the shelves. I also decided to get rid of the "junk" books and bring them to the Goodwill store. I'm ashamed to say how long it's been since I did all of this, I kept putting it off until now the guilt had set in and I figured I'd better get at it. I have two walls in the living room that are floor to ceiling book shelves with all the books doubled up on said shelves. We got a pile of empty boxes from one of the stores and threw all but a couple in the guest room until I fill the first few. I threw open all the doors and windows as I knew the dust would be unbearable. Had to move some of the furniture and crap so the living room was up to my ears. I had been at the books for about three hours when I heard a voice outside....a friend who is doing a one man show in Trinity decided to drop by for overnight without informing us. lol, what a state I was in. The guest room you could hardly get into let alone the living room. Anyway, as the guest room has two beds in it, I threw all the boxes from the floor and one bed on to the other one so at least he could get in there and sleep. This morning I was at it all again and am pleased to say that I am two thirds of the way through it all. Hopefully I'll finish tomorrow.

I did manage to take a few pictures while on a break from the books.

Wild Iris.


Buttercup.

Bees.



Don't know what this is. Lots of them at the Lupins. Looks something like a small wasp to me??



I did chase a Butterfly around for awhile but no luck. When it did land, it fluttered off to something else when I came near.