A Story - "Shocking News" and a Little Tree Frog

 A Story 

Shocking News

"The news story was horrific.  School children had been shot by a mentally disturbed young man. Parents were stunned to learn that their child had died.  The rest of the community grappled with the shared grief, mingled with guilty relief that their child had survived. 

Tessa shuddered seeing the reports.  She had two children, about the same age as the victims. She wished that she could just keep them at home, protected, shielded from the struggles of the real world. How many other young people were falling through the mental health care cracks? Politicians put out statements in support of the suffering families but nothing concrete was done. 

Her phone pinged and after replying, she got ready to leave for the hospital.

After years of challenges, her teenage son had stopped eating and become aggressive towards her. He had finally been admitted to a psychiatric ward.  The doctor was cautious about a successful outcome with  treatment. Tessa felt dizzy with apprehension. How violent could her son be in his distress?  The hospital could only keep him for so long. The future looked terrifying. "

The weather has been pretty gray lately.  Still definitely winter and not much sun.  Hard to not feel sleepy like this little green tree frog.  I took his picture last summer while he was napping. Tree frogs make quite a loud chirping noise when they are calling to each other.  Surprisingly loud for a small creature.

A Story - "Mousetrap" and Burning Bush and Eastern Red Cedar

Mousetrap

The November days were shrinking and growing damp. The young mouse scuttered below the low bushes and approached the older bungalow. She knew where the small spaces were where a mouse could squeeze through and get to the shelter of the garage. Her mother had shown her the way to get inside last fall.

Tonight she  wiggled her way into the garage where she could look for food. In a corner was a metal garbage can that smelled tantalizingly of sunflower seeds.  The young mouse leapt for the handles and then managed to get to the top of the can.  She chewed at the lid but her teeth weren't strong enough to get through. 

 Giving up on the seeds, she dropped to the floor and started sniffing along the base of the wall. She found a chocolate bar wrapper that still had a tiny bit of chocolate on it. She licked it bare.

Then her nose caught a whiff of peanut butter. In plain sight, was a hefty blob of it. She got a hit of dopamine and crept forward.  All her efforts so far had yielded little but here was a chunk of food ready to be gobbled up without any struggle.

But peanut butter on a trap is never free.
 

November can be a drab month so the sight of a burning bush (euonymus alatus) is cheering to see. The bushes can grow to around 6' tall and wide. The best colour is produced by a bush that is in full sun.  It is deciduous so the bush is bare during the winter and will sprout its new green leaves in the spring. During the summer, it just stays as a green shrub. It is hardy in zone 4  but can be invasive especially in the warmer zones (5 and above).

It has shiny little red fruit which are poisonous as is the rest of the plant.  However, some birds eat them.

Eastern red cedar is actually a juniper - juniper virginiana. It is a tough small tree native to North America that can grow in poor, dry soil. It can be the first tree to establish in disturbed ground.  It grows slowly and can live for a hundred years or more.  The blue seeds are not edible for people but birds and small animals  eat them.

A Poem - "Goodbye" and Red Hypoestes and Improved Ant Bait

 A Poem

Goodbye

 Goodbye my dear mustang,

My rugged bay pony built to withstand wind and snow

Always mindful of the need to survive.

Your mellow greetings still linger in the air,

Your rich throaty murmurings sing to my heart.

Memories of your beauty will always wave to me:

Your movement, your strength, your agility.

The little flycatchers will wonder where you've gone.

The robins will miss your shed fur for their nests.

My life is forever changed because of you.

Your life resounds in rippled waves across my world.

This red hypoestes (pink polka dot plant) has stayed nice and small over the winter.  Last summer it was on the back deck where it grew to about 10" tall.  I gave it a good prune and it kept its small form while it was on the cool windowsill for the winter. I'll put it in a bigger pot for the summer and it can be outside in a semi-shade location.

Every spring we have ants of various sizes.  I read somewhere that ants like trillium plants and we have lots of those so there are just a lot of ants in our environment.  Over the years, I have used borax/sugar mixes to keep them in check but last year I came across a brilliant improvement to my ant bait. The secret is a piece of Eggo waffle. In the picture, you can see that I took a plastic container and poked some holes near the brim.

Next I put a piece of Eggo waffle on the lid and pour over my equal parts borax/sugar mix that I have dissolved in some hot water.  Put the container bottom back on the lid. The waffle is like a sponge and the ants are happy to break off a little piece of the sweet treat to take home to the nest. Every so often add more borax/sugar solution to the waffle.

I might add that some ants prefer protein so peanut butter is a better bait for them, but my ants like sugar. 

You have to experiment to see what they like.

A Story - "A Dog's Life" - and Some Special Dogs

 A Story

A Dog's Life

From the time he was a young puppy, Marshall was in training.  Marshall had to obey his owner: no chasing cats, no jumping on people.  He always came when called.  His owner gave him fun things to do: searching for objects, playing frisbee, navigating obstacle courses.

From the time she was a young puppy, Molly did whatever she wanted. She chewed shoes, pulled on the leash and never came when called.  Her behaviour meant she rarely played with other people or dogs.

One day Marshall found a lost child.

One day Molly ran into the street as a car came.

Since we are on the theme of dogs,  here are some photos of dogs that have lived and visited with us.  This is Bonnie who was my daughter's dog.  Bonnie was energetic, mischievous and fiercely loyal to my daughter.

This is Bella, my neighbour's dog.  She comes for walks with me.  She looks a bit like the Littlest Hobo from TV fame years ago and she also has a very independent spirit.

Our two Labs that we had for about 12 years.  Ginger and Snap were sisters.  Ginger, on the right, was the bossy one but she was afraid of the vet and couldn't handle car rides.  Her sister Snap loved to play find the Kong outside and didn't mind the vet. I thought Snap would be very sad when Ginger died but we had our son's dog at that time and that eased the transition.

They almost always slept touching each other.

This is Jaws, who my son took in from a shelter.  He was extremely stressed at first but my son won him over and he became a real cuddlebug. He was much smaller than the Labs, only about 25 lbs. but he never felt that he was a little dog and happily played with them. He stayed with us for several years when our son's job didn't fit with keeping a dog.

Sullivan is a newer addition to the family and belongs to our other son.  He is playful, gentle, well-behaved and a bit of a chicken.  A good friend to our young grandson.

A Story -"The Invisible Woman" and interesting Fungi, and pretty Mare and Foal

 A story:

The Invisible Woman

At the restaurant, elderly Patricia spied two Italian-suited middle-aged men sitting a couple of tables away from her.  They kept leaning towards each other, speaking in low voices.  Patrica turned up her hearing aid until she could hear what they were saying.

"We need to get rid of the Attorney General.  He won't work with us."

"Georgio can do the job."

Shocked, Patricia turned on audio record on her phone.  As they were leaving, she discreetly took photos.

She e-mailed her information to the police.

The puzzled looks on the men's faces when they were arrested, made her smile.

This fungi looks like layered rock.  Very attractive design.

With doom and gloom in the news,  I think it's nice to see a peaceful picture of this lovely mare and her foal.  This is a picture I took a few years ago. The horse belonged to my neighbour.

Another month to the shortest day and then we turn the corner.  Take care.

A story "The Squirrels"

 The Squirrels

Grandma liked to feed the birds in the winter.  She had a special bird feeder with a spring-loaded perch that closed the opening to the seeds if a squirrel stepped on it.  Grandma had a long-standing war going on with the squirrels.

"Ha!"  Grandma would exclaim triumphantly when a squirrel slid down the cylindrical bird feeder and fell to the ground.

One afternoon, I decided on impulse to visit Grandma.  There she was standing in her snowy yard tossing peanuts around.  Squirrels dashed and skittered to retrieve them.

"Squirrellies, peanuts,"  Grandma called gaily.

I guess everyone has secrets.

Two Bunny Walk

I have been seeing these bunnies on my morning walks but lately I have not been taking my camera with me.  I decided I better take it this morning.  This bunny, who lives on one side of the road, has a perfect habitat with about 15' of mowed grass on the verge of the road and a dense cedar bush beyond where it can easily hide.  They are Eastern Cottontails, the common rabbit of our area.

This rabbit lives not far along from the first one but on the other side of the road.  A few cedars line the road but then the land opens out into a scruffy field with enough bushes to hide in. This pair seems to me to have more white on their front than some others I have seen over the years.  Perhaps they are related.

This pic is magnified to a point that it is blurry but I wanted to show off the rabbit's really big front feet.  The ears are lovely, not only big, but they have quite a curve to them. A couple of tuffs of winter fur are coming out.  They are not white in the winter but a lighter shade of the grey/brown.  Even with good habitat, the rabbits don't over multiply as they have many natural predators .

They both stayed still for quite a while even though they had seen me and only ran off when I tried to get closer. 

The flycatchers arrived a couple of days ago and are already refurbishing the nest on the porch windowsill. It's like they have opened up the cottage for the season.  So nice to see them again.

 

A Pair of Silly Sheep

I wanted to make a couple of little cards for two of my granddaughters.  These small pictures are based on a Youtube tutorial by Karen Rice Watercolours.  Her painting was much larger and featured five sheep.

These pictures are about 4" x 4".

It was fun doing them.  The sheep were masked out with masking tape which was removed near the end so  that I could paint them in. The sprinkled colour in the background is water colour pencil grated on an emery board over the paper. There is a bit of splatter - still haven't mastered good splatter technique. The white on the eyes was done with white gel pen. The trunks of the trees were drawn with a broken Q-tip (any stick-like tool would work) when the paint was still damp. I attempted some salting on the red part but you really need big crystalled sea salt and I only had table salt so it didn't work the way it is supposed to.

I hope people have been able to find some fun things to do in these restricted days.

Spring is coming and hopefully vaccines. Take care.

Dinosaurs

 I was going to put up some more butterfly photos but I am feeling like a bit of a dinosaur today so I went with dino pictures from the Museum of Nature.

 Definitely experiencing some "hole in the head" moments myself.

I like this fellow. I think I feel a kinship with his ridiculous face.

 Going hither and yon. Lead the way fair dinosaur.

My physiotherapist told me I was walking improperly. Sigh! After all these years, I still need to  learn how to walk.

However, like this turtle-like dinosaur, I can float. Even old dinosaurs can swim:)

Mystery Tracks

 About a week ago, we noticed some unusual tracks near our house. They were bigger than cat prints, and too rounded for dog or fox prints. An online search made me wonder if it was a river otter. Down at the drainage ditch about 1/4 mile away, several well established track paths went from brushy patches down to the water.

This photo is washed out but it shows the tracks going from one side of the ditch, along the ice, and up the other side. None of the tracks extends very far beyond the edge of the ditch so it is definitely not dogs or deer. It is something that is living in the river bank or under the brush.
River otters are happy living near beavers and beavers regularly damn up this waterway.  In fact, I startled a beaver resting on the ice a couple of weeks ago. I have never seen an otter in the wild but they tend to be nocturnal so that's no surprise. According to the internet, the otters are fairly common, just not seen very often.  Welcome to the neighbourhood, Mr. (Mrs.) Otter, if it is you!

Light Grey Squirrel

We have the usual black and red squirrels but this one is a lovely soft grey colour. He (she) is eating a bitternut hickory nut from one of the trees on our property. My tree book says that squirrels and chipmunks find the nuts bitter and don't regularly eat them but our little creatures seem to enjoy them. Perhaps they are an acquired taste.

Springin' Up

 A bright little patch of miniature daffodils.

 The trilliums bloom without fail the first week of May. It doesn't matter what the weather, their internal clocks have them opening up at the same time every year. We are gradually getting more red trilliums , while the number of white trilliums stays about the same. The white trilliums are happy to pop up in the flower beds where the soil is a little richer.

The dog-tooth violets are also becoming more numerous which is nice. Our patches of wild garlic keep expanding as we don't pick it. Many wild patches are picked bare by people who sell it at markets so I'm happy to nurture our patches.

 The pulmonaria is so happy on our property. I started with a couple of plants from my mother's garden which originally came from my grandmother's garden, and now I have hundreds of plants growing with no care at all. I love the pretty colours and spotty leaves. It's also a very, very good plant for the bees, both honeybees and bumblebees.

 Who is this? One of the clan of Rascally Rodents. I think their latest snack is nasturtium seeds as I saw some empty hulls where I had planted nasturtiums.

The robins are nesting in the horse shed and I saw a pair of flycatchers a couple of times so I guess they will build a nest on the property.  I see and hear a cardinal pair regularly just across the road so they are undoubtedly nesting over there. So nice to have the birds around.

Making Lemonade

 I like crocuses. They are  cheery announcers of spring.  Alas, our squirrels and/or chipmunks have developed a taste for them and I am left with just the odd one they missed. So now I am planting more chindoxia (glory-of-the-snow) which they don't like.

 The critters also don't like scillas which freely self-sow on our property. I'm happy for that because they give the bees and other pollinators something to feed on early in the season. I saw a bumblebee this afternoon feeding on the chindoxia , but the honeybees liked the scillas more.

And they are very pretty.

 My trusty yellow primulas always come through the winter unscathed.
The weather has been warm the last few days so suddenly the plants are coming awake.
It was a long winter so hooray for spring!!

November-Fading Light

 One of the few advantages of November days is that you don't have to get up very early to see the sun rise.  Tomorrow we set the clocks back so it will be dark at 5 pm.  Every year it's the same and every year I am surprised by how short the days get.

 After some very rainy and cloudy days, the sun came out this afternoon.  Quick get out for a walk!

 There is still colour out there but you have to look a lot harder for it.

 Some very red berries.

 A stylish mushroom.

 Tenacious fluff.

Sumacs against a rocky fence.

Beavers have been at work here. Two small stumps show up in the foreground and a larger tree on the left is half cut through.  In the middle, a dark path indicates where they travel from the pond to the trees.

Distant poplars are a spot of colour in the distance.

The grass is still surprisingly green and this patch was just glowing in the sun.

We got the winter tires on the cars and the propane delivery man filled up the tank that supplies our heater so I guess we are all set for whatever comes our way. I don't mind winter if I don't have to go anywhere but snowy driving can be stressful.  Hopefully, I won't have much of that to deal with.

I hope you have found your cozy sweaters and have some good books to read. Spring is just around the corner :)