Flowers and bugs

One of Freda's amazing planters, overflowing with flowering awesomeness!

I've seen a few of these little spiders around. They are very tiny - the body is smaller than my little fingernail. Usually I don't have a camera and they are too quick, but this day I happened to be able to take a photo of this one.

Uhhh, I just realized that this is the only photo of something that could pass as a 'bug', so I guess the title of this post overstates the 'bug' content...

A pano of the beautiful roses at the front of the house.

Well, the roses are beautiful until you look at them closer, and then you see that something has eaten ALL of the leaves!!!!!

Well, maybe there is a 2nd bug in this blog entry then, because of the bugs that ate the roses!

June 9, 2010
Hmm, these are hardy Explorer roses, but not against bugs I guess.

June 9, 2010
Not this one either.

June 9, 2010
The breathtaking pale pink peony.

June 9, 2010
A peony bud about to pop!

June 10, 2010
The same blossom from the pale pink peony as shown above, but a day later. The pale pinkness is starting to fade to white. Can you tell that we love this flower??

June 10, 2010
This flower is also a blossom from the pale pink peony - but it is several days older. The pale pink has faded to white, and the yellow center of the flower is showing as the petals come off.

June 10, 2010
This is the bright pink peony blossom that was just a bud yesterday. This flower is so bright that it overwhelms the sensors on the digital camera, and the redness of the flower is over-saturated. I had to desaturate this image slightly to get any definition in the flower. This certainly proves that the human eye is far far superior to the digital camera sensor.

This area used to be under a glacier, and glaciers carry rocks from all over the place in the glacial till that they push around, or carry along embedded in the ice or carried by the streams of meltwater underneath them. These rocks are part of our rock garden, and the wide variety of stones certainly proves that this area had seen glacial action. Look at all the different colours of granite and other stones, and one has a very high iron content (it is very rusty).

A beautiful day!

It had been so dry that I had been watering our back yard a bit, and then the rains came and made a 800% improvement in it. Look how nice and green the lawn is, even the part close to the house is very nice.

I love this photo - I think it is amazing that I was fortunate enough to catch the bird in flight without it just being a blur (and I do have a lot like that!). I am going to submit this one to the local tv station to see if they want to put it up in the newscast.


Update: My photo of the American Goldfinches captured in mid-flight in the viewer gallery on The Weather Network (snapshot on June 8, 2010).

Rain, Beautiful Rain!

We only had a little bit of rain yesterday (Saturday), even though it was forecast to be rainy pretty much all day. I was going to cut the grass today but decided to cut it yesterday afternoon instead. Good thing I did because it has been raining almost all day.

This was the view of the lake this morning. The rain made a pretty pattern on the water.

Peonies and Goldfinches

A pale pink peony, just about to open up. We have no idea what this one is called because Freda purchased it on sale - it was half dead and with no tag.

A beautiful white peony with a golden center - brilliant yellow like the Goldfinches. We have no idea what this one is called either because Freda purchased it on sale - it was half dead and with no tag. You can see an ant in the yellow center, at about the 11 o'clock position.

An ant on another bud of the white peony. Those ants move in and out of focus (at macro mode) so quickly!

Hmmm, something strange is going on with a few leaves on one of the lilac bushes.

This is a Black Walnut tree that a former co-worker gave to Freda. We have some other ones that we planted in our little forest. This little tree had a hard time last year because Taz kept peeing on it and that was killing the leaves.

The first time I have ever seen on the Goldfinches at the mixed seed feeder.

The finch feeders had got down to about half full so I filled them up so now more of these finches can eat at the same time.

This juvenile male American Goldfinch looks quite wet from the rain! At least he knows where to go to get a good meal. :)

Getting old...

Tawny must be feeling old, or tired, or just plain lazy these days. When we left the house, we would put a Milkbone dog treat in the Kong and she would crunch down on the Kong to break up the dog treat and eat it up. Lately I have found that she isn't get all of the treat out of the Kong, so I'm not sure if she's losing strength in her jaw to crunch down, or if she's tired or just getting lazy.

After the morning walk, the dogs enjoy laying in the sun. Tawny is sleeping, so maybe she is just too tired to eat! Haha!

American Goldfinches

My favourite little birds - the American Goldfinch - May 23/10

Female American Goldfinch

Male American Goldfinch

A female American Goldfinch. I love these birds!

A collection of birds

Wild Turkey, checking out the sunflower seed remains under the feeder at the back. (May 22/10)

Starlings at the sunflower seed feeder

Finally! I capture a photo of a Blue Jay!! I didn't quite get all of its tail, but I really really like this photo!!

Dove with ruffled feathers

Dove

Blue Jay (its a young one!) and a Brown Headed Cowbird

Downy woodpecker

a juvenile Cardinal!! This photo isn't very good because the only camera that I had at hand was the old camera. At least I was able to get a photo of it!

And here's a 2nd photo that I was able to capture before it flew away.

Some kind of moth that was hanging upside down on our window for almost a whole day. It looks like it is missing one of its main antennae. I tapped on the window to see if it was still alive and it flew off.

A macro photo of an ant on a lilac bloom. I haven't taken many macro photos - you can tell as this photo is a little fuzzy.

I thought this was a funny scene - the two doves were poking their heads up above the plants every few seconds, like a Jack-in-the-Box, keeping a watch out for the bad guys I guess.

The Dying Elm

Before. The elm is dying because of Dutch Elm Disease. There are some green leaves, but not that many.

The tree is felled!

Trimming off the twiggy branches that are no good for firewood.

A truck load of tree trunk, good length for the wood stove.

Bugs and generators

some kind of flying insect that it looks like the fish would enjoy eating.

We had a 13 hour power outage on Sunday May 23rd and a 2 1/2 hour outage on Monday May 31st. This is our generator in action providing standby power to the necessities (fridge, freezer, well pump, sanitary pump, and a few lights and plugs)

Flowers from the front yard

These photos were all taken on May 30th or 31st, 2010.

Morden Centennial

Rose from Debbie

Lambert Klossen rose.

Morden Blush rose.

A sweet rose!

Weigelia (???)

The flower pots on the path by the front steps. The little flower bed looks nice with mulch on it.

The rose garden in front of the house.