While walking near the harbour in town, I passed these very interesting looking seed pods.
One of them was hiding a tiny surprise.
The Re-Farmer
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Kittens everywhere!
Kits and cats all over the place!
We were out for much of the day, from a quick run to pick up prescription refills and tank up, to a trip to the city. When we got back, we found the yard full of furballs, all over the place.
Beep Beep was right over, demanding attention, and Butterscotch came by, too. Then the kittens came out! They were in the flowers by the inner yard fence, climbing trees by the smaller people gate, rolling in the dust, climbing the Chinese elm outside the kitchen window, and just plain running around.
Only one of the calicos showed up, though. I haven’t seen the other one for some time.
Teeny tabby is easily the most rambunctious, bouncy ones of the two litters!
I saw out with some cat treats for a while, and Beep Beep was right in there, crawling around under my legs as I sat on the steps, and diving for my fingers.
For the other cats, I ended up just throwing treats in their general directions.
Cat treats do not throw well.
The kittens had a blast, but the tuxedo was the only one that would come near me. The teeny tabby played with the end of a stick for a bit, but that’s as close as he would get. There rest wouldn’t come closer. Not even for the treats I left on the corner of a step.
Ah, well. Hopefully, they’ll warm up to us, eventually!
An early night tonight, and an early morning. We need to leave by 4:30am to drive our guest to the airport in time.
It might be easier to just stay up all night, to be honest! :-D
The Re-Farmer
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A fuzzy friend
We saw this little guy while playing tourist, a few days ago.
So cute!
I tried to identify it, and the closest to it seems to be the banded tussock moth.
The Re-Farmer
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Hiking for snakes
We got to play tourist again, today, this time heading out to visit the snake dens. It turned out to be a fairly cool day, so I wasn’t expecting to see very many. We did see quite a few, though nothing at all like when they first emerge in the spring.
We saw many along the paths, including some we only saw because they moved when we got too close for their comfort. More than a few times, we would look ahead and wonder; were we looking at a bunch of snakes up ahead? Or a bunch of twigs? Sometimes, it would be both. Other times, we would see a big branch on the path ahead, only to have it move and turn out to be a huge female (female garter snakes are MUCH bigger than the males).
The dens were filled with huge burdock and nettles, and one of them had snakes draped all over the place!
A few were climbing trees, too.
I’m glad we were able to make the trip while the weather is still holding. While going in the spring is much more dramatic, I rather like that we had the entire area, all to ourselves! It made the hike much more enjoyable.
Hmm… I think living in the city for so long has really peopled me out. :-D
The Re-Farmer
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I see you!
While walking around the yard this morning, picking up branches fallen after last night’s high winds and a bit of a storm, something caught my eye.
I ended up having to grab a stool to get any photos, since standing in my tip-toes, stretching as high as I could and using voice commands to take pictures, wasn’t quite cutting it. ;-)
These pretty little mushrooms are tucked into the V split of the large maple that is causing me so much concern about the power lines.
I love finding these little, hidden surprises. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Brightness
Some wildflowers in the native plant garden we visited a few days ago.
Such cheery flowers!
The Re-Farmer
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Crowded beach
My daughter and her friend decided to make today their hang out at the beach day. It’s the last long weekend of the summer, so they were intending to go a couple days from now, to avoid crowds. Weather forecasts changed their plans.
The beach was certainly crowded, though not in the way I expected. :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Hidden in stone
Some other photos from when we were playing tourist.
One of the perks of living on the bottom of an ancient lake bed is that the local sedimentary rock is sometimes filled with fossils.
The fossil above is one of many scattered about some limestone columns we passed by.
There is also a fair amount of granite in the area, and sometimes you can really see the mica bits in sections of layers.
This picture is from a big, decorative rock sitting in a park.
I’ve always loved rocks. They often have the most interesting things hidden in them.
The Re-Farmer
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Morning kittens
I hung out after putting kibble out for the outside cats, hoping to lure some kittens.
No such luck. Going past where I was sitting to get to the food bowls was the most two of them would allow. Beep Beep came over for pets, as usual, and her tuxedo came with her, though he wouldn’t let me touch him. The little bobble headed orange tabby came close enough to play with the end of a stick. No sight of the calicos at all.
That grey tabby is getting to be a really big tom! He’s definitely heftier than his mother (though that doesn’t take much, really), though still not fully grown.
I can’t get over the size difference between the teeny tabby and all the others. It’s quite noticeable when he’s with his brother. Hard to believe they’re from the same litter! It’s good to see that he’s very active and playful, and has a very hearty appetite. He just looks sickly and half starved. :-(
The Re-Farmer
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Pollinators
A couple of photos from when we were exploring the native plants garden.
This bee photo was pure serendipity. It was the first of several I took, in quick succession, and the only good one of the bee!
This was in a structure near the native plants garden that I think is actually there to disguise and protect some infrastructure equipment. There were several wasps nests in varying stages of construction, all on the shadow side of these support beams.
I didn’t see the spiders until I uploaded the photos, though.
I’ve seen many wasp nests in varying stages of construction before, but never have I seen the cells exposed like this, at this size. The little ones on the left of the photo is usually about as big as they get, before they get covered over. I think the high level of protection they have in these locations may have something to do with it.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 