Heron

Every evening he comes swooping in and lands gracefully on the grass at the edge of the pond. Sometimes he arrives for breakfast too.

The Great Blue Heron. There must be enough delicious little morsels of fishdom in the pond to keep him returning for his dinner every evening. He stands in the water, eyes concentrating on any movement under the surface, beak poised to attack, and suddenly he stabs the water, and he's caught a tiny wiggling fish. Gulp! That was yummy!

I wonder how many wiggling tiny fish it takes to fill a heron's tummy?

Vision

 Don't look over your shoulder, but you are being watched.

Wildflowers

Younger son had a crazy idea to start a wildflower patch in the meadow beside the house. 

You can see his first attempts here.

This year produced a bumper crop of Black Eyed Susans and blue and pink Cornflowers. Red Poppies too... but they flowered earlier in the spring.

The flower patches are full of bees and butterflies and little green grasshoppers. It's really buzzing! A third area of the meadow has been tarped to kill all the grass and it will be ploughed and rye will be planted, and then cut, and the wild flower seeds will go in. 

And this area by the little stream has been planted with Milkweed especially for the Monarch butterflies.

Stinkhorn

 Just google "Stinkhorn mushroom" and you'll find photos of lots of different varieties. I have no idea which this is.... could be the one called Devil's Dipstick, but I really don't know. The name just seems appropriate.

The mushroom emerges from a white rubbery "egg" buried in the soil or wood mulch, often known as "Witches Eggs", and grows 5-10cm tall, hollow, with a sticky dark gleba. This contains spores, and has a really bad smell... think rotting meat or vomit...... and attracts flies and other insects who love that sort of deliciousness.

These stinkhorns were growing in my son's garden. It was a damp rainy day. The next day was hot and sunny and they had shrivelled and dried up.

Crunch!

It was an ordinary Thursday morning. I was ready to go to my Art Group, just one more cup of coffee before I go, and then...... disaster. 

I'm not sure how it happened, but the coffee landed in a huge coffee puddle on the floor, my favourite cup smashed to smithereens, and I slipped on the wet tiles, sailed through the air and landed on my right wrist.

I heard the Crunch!

Called 911, Paramedics were marvellous, Ambulance to Emergency where they fixed me up with a temporary cast. Dislocated wrist and two bones broken.

A new cast installed a week later.  Did you know that when you get a cast, there's a colour chart to choose from? Purple seemed like a good choice. 

And now I am learning to negotiate the world with my left hand. Only 25 days to go. (see ticker at the top of this blog). I can't wait!

Wet

Thunder and lightning in the night, and torrential rain thundering on the roof. I was happy to stay in bed warm and dry and listen to it all. Up early, still a bit dark, and I saw something moving on the deck. 

The poor little chap was soaked. I think he was looking for a towel.

Sweetness

It doesn't take long for the trees to figure out that Spring is here.  A few warm days with cold nights and the sap starts running. The maple trees are tapped and buckets are filling fast. The driveway is lined with mature walnut trees, and they have all been providing sap along the blue sap lines. The lines can be seen in the photo background.  The lines lead to a large tub in the little barn.

This is the third year for this home-made humble evaporator. It's constructed from a steel barrel lined with insulation and firebrick.  Some large metal catering trays, various pipes, elbows, a couple of valves, and lots of firewood.  It may look a bit rough but it works! Sap goes into the top pan, drips into the lower pans topping up the evaporating sap. 

When the sap has been reduced enough, it's cooled and frozen, and when there are enough batches stored in the freezer, it's finished into the sweetest yummiest maple-walnut syrup you have ever tasted!