First the cool stuff.

About a week ago, we found this bright blue caterpillar on one of the grape leaves.

Absolutely stunning colour!

We’d never seen one before and had no idea if it was a “good” or “bad” caterpillar, but we left it alone. After a rainstorm, I was surprised to find it still there, and then it just disappeared.

This morning, I found a different coloured one!

I almost brushed it off because at first I thought it was a dead leaf hanging, and then it moved and curled up like this!

It took some searching, but we finally found out what it was. It’s the caterpillar for an Abbott’s Sphinx moth, or Sphecodina abbottii. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the adult moths around, but had never seen the caterpillar. Turns out, they can have quite a few different colours and patterns on them, but that blue is my favorite, hands down! The caterpillars do actually eat the grape leaves, though I haven’t seen any damage, so they don’t eat much, it seems! The adults eat nectar from lilacs and honeysuckle, both of which are done blooming in our area.

That false “eye”, by the way, is over its butt. It has claspers at its hind end and, when startled, curls up and hides its head.

I think they’re gorgeous!

Anyhow.

We had another cold night last night. The predicted low was 9C/48F, which isn’t too bad. I didn’t sleep last night, so I was awake to see when it had dropped to 6C/43F – with a “RealFeel” of only 4C/39F! An hour later, we dropped even further to 5C/41F, but at least the “RealFeel” didn’t get any colder. I do wish I’d had some idea that it would get that cold, because we really should have done things to help protect our tomatoes!

When I checked them this morning, however, they seemed to be okay.

I was scheduled to help my mother with grocery shopping today. She wanted to go shopping at a different store after picking up her new glasses, so she kept postponing the trip, even though I reminded her they would come in, in 7-10 business days. When we arranged this, it was Saturday, and I offered to help her on Sunday (which was yesterday), but she acted all surprised and said, not on Sunday. Which is odd, because between my siblings and I, we’ve taken her shopping on Sundays pretty often. My brother visited her yesterday morning and, when he saw how empty her fridge was, offered to take her shopping, but she said no. I was going to be coming over today. He did go out to at least get her some milk and butter, but the grocery store wasn’t open yet, and he ended up going to a gas station. They didn’t have butter, so he got her some cream cheese, just so she’d have something to spread on her morning toast. An 8oz package of cream cheese and a 2L of milk cost him $16!

He had intended to go to church with her, and then take her for lunch, but she turned out to be having one of her bad days and got really nasty with him. So bad, he actually left, which takes an awful lot for him to do that! So I was a bit concerned about how she would be today.

Turns out, she was having one of her better days, and things went pretty well.

She’s been making a big deal in telling me not to pick up lunch before visiting her. The last time I got take out, including the food she’d been asking for previously, she gave me a hard time about it, so the next time I was set to come over and she told me to not bring anything, but if I did, to bring her onion rings, I made sure to eat first and didn’t bring anything. She was all surprised I didn’t bring her onion rings, when I didn’t even go to that particular restaurant. I told her; she said not to bring anything, so I didn’t bring anything! Then she had to make herself something to eat. This time, I simply picked up some fridge chicken and potato wedges (from the gas station; only place that was open at the time) and didn’t tell her. I just came in with the food. This time, she didn’t complain! She didn’t even complain that I bought a couple of fruit smoothies to drink, even though she’d never tasted them before. So we at least had a decent lunch! She did start to make comments about how we shouldn’t be eating so much “goody goody”, until I asked her, just how often do we do this? Now I wonder if she thinks we should only have food that tastes bad or something. She keeps seeing on TV or whatever, about how this food or that food is “bad” for you, to the point that she’s stopped even buying perfectly healthy food at the grocery store, but replacing them with stuff that isn’t any better, and sometimes worse.

It had been so long since she’d gone to the grocery store, she really needed to stock up. I think her good behavior likely had more to do with how tired she was. Tired enough that she got me to run in to get a couple of things for her from the pharmacy store, rather than go in herself. I got her the 2 things she needed and was done, but if she’d gone herself, she would have walked through the whole store and probably found other things to get!

But, she is well stocked now, and she was more than ready for a rest after I’d put everything away for her. She didn’t even try to guilt trip me into staying longer!

Before I headed home, though, I went back to the grocery store, as my daughter had asked me to pick some things up while I was out. Then I went to the hardware store and talked to someone about that water pipe to the garden tap that’s got a hole in it.

The pictures I took came in handy. After showing them to a staff member, she showed me some options. The problem is, I don’t know what the exact diameter of the pipe is. However, once I know that, I have a plant to fix it, without having to dig up the entire pipe! I can simply cut out the damaged part, and insert the cut ends into a flexible PVC coupling with stainless steel clamps. Once I know for sure what size I need, it can be a very quick and easy fix – and won’t have to dig out the entire length of pipe and replace it!

Though I am curious as to how it switches from the pipe I uncovered, to the hose end that connects to the tap.

She was very very helpful and likely saved me a lot of unnecessary work!

While there, I also picked up some water soluble fertilizer for the garden, which was planned, but also got a 50′ soaker hose, which was not planned, but the price was too good to pass up. I’d been looking at those in the city, and they were typically about twice the price or more – and the one I got wasn’t even on sale! I want to set it up in the bed with the purple corn.

While I was out and about, I got messages from my family. The first was to let me know there was a nice downpour happening – that started just minutes after I left! The next was to let me know it was hailing! Once it was clear, they checked the garden. One of the garden stakes supporting a tomato plant had fallen, but that was all – and the tomato plant was not damaged.

By the time I got back, the storm system had blown over, but the winds are still very high. We’ve reached 18C/64F, which is lower than the predicted high, and temperatures are supposed to start dropping now. Our overnight low is supposed to be 9C/48F, but that’s what it was supposed to be last night, too! Still, we are supposed to creep up to above 20C/68F for the next week or so, so the garden should be okay.

It would be nice if the winds would die down a bit, though. Driving home, I could feel the wind trying to push the car off the road! Oh, that reminds me; in one of the messages my daughter sent me, they had actually watched the top of a dead spruce tree break off. I’m going to have to make sure to check on that when I do my evening rounds.

Oh, there is one more happy bit of news. Last night, we reset things in baby jail, after taking out and washing all the bedding, including the cat cave. This cat cave is like a big bag that is drawn closed at the top with a rope. My daughter managed to wrestle the sides down to fold it in half, so the kittens couldn’t climb up it anymore, and risk them accessing the parts of the cage with wider openings in it.

They also now have a shallow litter pan, and I’ve actually seen a kitten using it! The whole set up is more open, though we can no longer casually reach in to pet the kittens in the cat cave. I look forward to seeing the pet cage the Cat Lady said she picked up for us to use!

The babies are really active and want to explore, so we have to be careful. We’ve changed things up enough that they shouldn’t be able to reach sections of wall where the wire is further apart, but they’re determined little buggers. I don’t want to get up in the night and discover kittens have gotten underfoot! They seem happy and playful, though, so that’s good!

The Cat Lady will be coming for Ghosty and her sibling soon, but I do hope she’ll be able to find homes for the younger ones, and Decimus, after they are weaned, too.

The Re-Farmer