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!

Stamps

 Do people still collect stamps? Perhaps philately is a thing of the past, now that email and social media are the modern means of communication.

I had a stamp album with lots of stamps when I was a child, but it's long gone now. But I still can't throw mail away with a stamp on it, so the stamps get packed into an envelope in the junk drawer.  One of the local churches was asking for collections of used stamps, so I decided to find the scissors and clean up my collection. 

And here's the pile of bits that were removed around the stamps. Lots more room in the junk drawer now.

Glow

 A sample of the stunning stained glass windows at Humber Valley United Church in Toronto.  The windows were designed and built by Eric Wesselow in 1977.

Eric Wesselow was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy and president of the Quebec Society for Education through Art.  The Wesselow system of layering glass so that there are no visible lead lines was named for him.

2025 Books Read and Not Read

 As in previous years, here is the list of books read (or DNF) during 2025.  British authors in BLUE, Canadian authors in RED, American authors in GREEN, all others in BLACK.

January

Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson (2nd or 3rd? time of reading, I always enjoy this British author!)

Normal Rules Don't Apply - Kate Atkinson

The Good Thief - Leo Furey

The Taming of the Queen - Philippa Gregory

February

The Last Gift - Abdulrazak Gurnah (loved this book)

Life After Life - Kate Atkinson (2nd time reading this, always find something new in it)

Mrs. Queen Takes the Train - William Khun (DNF)

The Seventh Son - Sebastian Faulks

March

The Last Murder at the End of the World - Stuart Turton (DNF... weird)

Luckenbooth - Jenni Fagan

Barkskins - Annie Proulx (713 pages!)

April

Death at the Sign of the Rook - Kate Atkinson

Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers

These Impossible Things - Salma el-Wardanay

The Quiet Librarian - Allen Eskens

Flesh - David Szalay

Long Island - Colm Toibin

May

The In-Between Book Store - Edward Underhill

Redhead by the Side of the Road - Anne Tyler

Wild Houses - Colin Barrett

Intimacies - Katie Kitamura

Confessions - Catherine Airey

The Other Story - Tatiana de Rosnay

Reptile Memoirs - Silje Ulstein (DNF, horrible)

French Braid - Anne Tyler

Mania - Lionel Shriver (DNF, horrible)

June

The Flicker Men - Ted Kosmatka

Back When We Were Grownups - Anne Tyler

Miss Morgan's Book Brigade - Janet Skeslien Charles (DNF)

The Chalk Man - C J Tudor

The Burning Girls - C J Tudor

Three Days in June - Anne Tyler

July

The Valley of Amazement - Amy Tan

The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan

Bear Necessity - James Gould-Bourn

Sourdough - Robin Sloan

Clock Dance - Anne Tyler

August

The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie

Noah's Compass - Anne Tyler

The Keeper of Stories - Sally Page

Leaving Time - Jodi Picoult

Lump - Nathan Whitlock

The Tin Can Tree - Anne Tyler

How to Find Your Way Home - Katy Regan

September

The Grandmother Plot - Caroline B Cooney

Human Croquet - Kate Atkinson

The Vow - Jude Berman

The Fellowship of Puzzle Makers - Samuel Burr (DNF too dopey)

Benjamin Franklin's Bastard - Sally Cabot

October

Redhead by the Side of the Road - Anne Tyler

The Vanishing Point - Paul Theroux

The Fox Wife - Yangsze Choo

November

Eat, Poop, Die - Joe Roman

The Rent Collector - Camron Wright

The Lost van Gogh - Jonathan Santlofer

The Ghost Bride - Yangsze Choo

December

Lost and Found - Brooke Davis (DNF, silly)

The Child Finder - Rene Denfeld

The Rent Collector - Camron Wright

The Things We do to our Friends - Heather Darwent

Fair Play - Louise Hagerty (DNF)

Open, Heaven - Sean Hewitt

Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid (liked this book!)

Blackout - Connie Willis (DNF not my style)

The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak (currently reading this for the second.... or is it the third?....  time.) (Loved this book, my grandchildren studied it at school this year.)

Not many Canadian authors on the reading list this year, I shall have to do better.

Milk Bag Mats

 Milk Bag Mats? What is that?

Here in Ontario, milk comes in plastic bags.  One colourful outer bag containing 3 smaller sealed bags of milk. These smaller bags fit into special shaped jugs that hold the bags steady. Just snip the corner of the bag and pour.

If course, all that plastic isn't ideal.... lots of plastic waste. So here's a way to save some of the plastic from the landfill sites, and be useful at the same time.

The outer bags are collected, snipped into loops, and threaded into strings which will eventually be woven into plastic sleeping mats. The mats can be used during disasters or for any one unfortunate enough to need access to a sheltered place to sleep. 

First strings of bags are stretched onto a wooden frame, and then more strings woven back and forth.... not too tight as it has to be soft..... until the whole frame is covered. I had no idea there were so many different grades of milk available, all with a different colour design, making the mats very colourful indeed.  It takes at least 450 milk bags to complete one mat, so save your milk bags everyone!

Weaving these mats is an ideal way for high school students to earn their Community Hours. Each student has to complete 40 hours of volunteer work in the community in order to graduate High School. The kids are helping people and also helping the environment, and helping themselves too.

The finished sleeping mats are lightweight, waterproof, easy to dry if they get wet, won't go mouldy, comfy to lay on...... and very much needed by those who do not have a bed to call their own.

Last year, over 100 completed mats were delivered to the Outreach offices and to the shelters from our Volunteer group. Many more groups are doing the same.

Signs of the Times

 

First game of the World Series on Friday October 24 2025.... Let's Go Blue Jays!

Edited: first game won 11-4. On to game two. Fingers crossed.

Fall Stuff

I've been a lazy blogger for the past month, somehow I lost the blogging-get-up-and-go, but here goes with what's been happening around the Rook's Nest.

Fall has been happening. This display of colour just outside the Community Centre windows.

And a Great Blue Heron is checking out the fishing rights at the local reservoir.

End of September always means a visit to Markham Fair to see the prize potatoes and cabbages and livestock displays. And the overgrown giant pumpkins. Check out these veggies.... all from a friend's garden.

Saturday night at Markham Fair is the Demolition Derby, lots of steam and smoke and noise and hot metal crunches. I sat up in the grandstand with Older Son and Oldest grandson. We munched fairground food.... blooming onion (very greasy but delicious) and polished off a couple of bags of those Tiny Tim Donuts. 

And now... the big excitement. The only Major League Baseball team in Canada.... the Toronto Blue Jays..... are battling with the Seattle Mariners for the Championship title, and the right to challenge the mighty Dodgers in the World Series. It's a best of 7 games. Blue Jays lost 2 games, then won 2, then lost1, then won 1, so tonight is Game 7.... which is a must-win for both teams.

Older Son managed to get tickets for Game 2 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Even though the team lost, it was a very exciting time to be in the middle of a noisy super-loud crazy crowd of almost 45,000 rabid Jays fans. Younger Son was watching on his TV and saw us in the crowd.... see the red circle!

Let's Go Blue Jays!

Update: The Jays are off to the World Series!

Through the Window

Lots of activity among the zinnias yesterday. My little Canon Point'n'shoot camera takes much better pictures than my rather ancient phone, especially through the window. 

I've had Ruby Throated Hummingbirds at my feeder all summer, and they are particularly active right now, preparing for a long migration flight to their wintering areas in Central and South America. This female was sampling the zinnia nectar. The wings can beat up to 53 times per second, so no wonder it's such a blur.

And not only hummingbirds among the zinnias, there were two of these green birds hanging onto the flower stems and sampling the seeds. Can anyone tell me what these birds are?

Dry

 Did someone pull out the plug on the big bath tub? Gurgle gurgle....

It's time for the seasonal scrub-a-dub-dub and fall maintenance of the local pool. It will be full of water and swimmers in a couple of weeks.

Co-operation Please!

I would have appreciated a bit more co-operation from this rather tatty Red Admiral butterfly. She (or he?) was happily flitting around the zinnia patch, enjoying the sunshine, and nibbling on the juicy nectar in the middle of the flowers. 

But she kept flapping her wings and fluttering about, and couldn't quite decide which flower was the tastiest, and I wasn't able to persuade her to stay still long enough for me to get a good photo. Perhaps she was camera shy.

I tried talking to her but she wasn't listening. When she landed on a flower, I crossed my fingers that she would show me her wings, and I told her how pretty she was but she ignored me, and kept her wings closed. Or with the occasional flap which was too fast for me.

Finally she landed on this blossom and opened her wings. She didn't stay long. She had places to go and things to do as I'm sure she is aware that it will be migration time very soon.

Thanks for visiting Ms. (or Mr.) Red Admiral.

Millie

 She's so darn cute!

Downtown Lion King

 Last week I realized that The Lion King musical that had been showing at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto was closing at the end of August.  It opened in November 2024, and it's been advertised on TV, in the papers, on the internet, on the buses and the subway, everywhere and I really wanted to see it. And everyone who has seen it, loved it.

But tickets were expensive and so it just didn't happen. But I found a last minute ticket on a single seat so off I went.

First, drive and park at the nearby GO station. (GO is Government of Ontario.) Then the GO train to downtown. Then the subway to the stop near the theatre. Then a 6 minute walk.

I had a great seat, 3rd row of dress circle, right in the middle. The Lion King is a breathtaking experience with stunning visuals, innovative puppets that are actually worn by the actors. The animals are so real! Elaborate costumes and wonderful special effects.

The opening number "The Circle of Life" was so emotional I found tears running down my face. I had to have a quick look around just in case anyone saw me being so silly.... but I think everyone reacted in the same way.

The story is fairly simple, and has a theme of identity and responsibility. Of course there are the good guys and the bad guy, and some very funny comedic parts.  Wonderful music, powerful performances, colourful visuals, I'm so glad I went, I would not have missed it for the world!

The Lion King was absolutely the best show I have EVER seen in a theatre!

A couple of shots of King Street... where the theatre is. I don't very often get downtown so I got a bit excited with all the big buildings!

 

Sunny

Do those sunny faces make you feel happy? Artist group gathering, drawing and painting the sunflowers. We had big smiles on our faces as we wandered through the fields, clippers in hand, looking for the perfect flowers to take home. 

Yes that's me, wading through those huge plants looking for the perfect bloom. Wow, those blossoms are heavy! And tough and scratchy. 

St Lawrence II

Grandson Callum is on an amazing maritime adventure.... cruising the Great Lakes while sail training on board the brigantine St Lawrence II. No phone, no TV, no comfy bed, just lots of hard work and exposed to whatever the weather throws at him for two weeks on board ship. The cruise started on August 17 in the port of  Midland on Georgian Bay, then through Lake Huron to Sarnia and Port Huron.  From there along the St Clair River, across Lake St Clair, then the Detroit River past the City of Detroit.

The ship has been caught on various web cams along the route.

From there into Lake Erie, and a stop at Erie, Pennsylvania, to take part in the Erie Tall Ships Festival August 22 -24.  Then with a flotilla of the other tall ships to Port Colborne and through the Welland Canal to Lake Ontario. 

There will be a stop at Harbourfront in Toronto and I'm hoping to be able to meet with Callum and sing a few sea shanties! Not sure what day that will be though. 

From Toronto it will be sailing the waters of Lake Ontario to the port of Kingston where the cruise will end on August 31. And then it's back to school!

St Lawrence II was built by Kingston Shipyards in 1953 to a design by the legendary Francis MacLachlan & Mike Eames. The ship is designed to create teamwork, community, and cooperative effort between participants; to connect people with the natural world through tactile experiences, to deliver an understanding of both the power and fragility of nature; and to foster the creation of lasting friendships.