It seems I’ve done neither of the above much lately.
Oh, I did that post the other day about my boss and his trip on the high seas, which was an occasion to tout that I had surpassed the halfway mark to my eventual goal. I am still striving to stride toward that goal, though Mother Nature made it tough to do so this weekend.
Friday was designated as an errand day, much as I hate to waste my walking time for such mundane stuff, but one must eat and thus a visit to the grocery store was in order. Then there was the tax bill to be paid, plus a few other miscellaneous and sundry tasks requiring the car. The pedometer told me that I racked up almost two miles and two miles was better than nothing, but it was not fodder for a Friday post.
Saturday it rained all day.
This morning I didn’t fare much better, but, unlike yesterday, at least I made it outside. I listened to the weatherman and checked out “The Weather Channel” online and it was all good, so I hustled myself to get going before the rain’s expected arrival in the 9:00 o’clock hour.
But once outside, the sky was dark and ugly, it was just 65 degrees and quite blustery. I took the car to give it a spin, and, while driving to Council Point Park, the first little “spits” began. A few raindrops dotting the windshield here and there … okay, maybe I could live with that, except I didn’t bring an umbrella as I believed I’d be home before the rain’s ETA. I even went so far as pulling into the parking lot at Council Point Park, but then the spits became splats and I muttered a few words, pulled back out and headed for home.
It isn’t like I would be twiddling my thumbs in boredom here at the house, because I often put blinders on to the dust bunnies and clutter that persists. Between working, walking and blogging, it leaves scant time for little more than eating and sleeping. Housework always gets put on the back burner.
My other dilemma, besides the rain intruding on my weekend walks and the chance to visit different venues and take more photos, is that Council Point Park has been very boring lately. I wrote about the squirrels last week – the young‘uns are skittish and the “regulars” seems to be missing in action most days. Occasionally, I drag out my Ziploc bag of peanuts and my camera is at the ready, but those occasions have become few and far between.
The Park robins, having reared their young, have abandoned their nests and are now at large in the Park.
The geese and goslings are long gone and won’t return until Fall, once their flying feathers have all grown in. By then, the goslings will look (and act) like their parents, so any photos shall be just ho-hum.
So, I’m sharing a few photos from my morning jaunts over the past few weeks.
First, a dirty old pear was what this chubby squirrel was chomping on as I passed by. I don’t know that I’d scramble down from a tall tree for this morsel when my friend Linda is offering up peanuts … but then, I don’t think like a squirrel.
This peanut pal was acting a little squirrelly, dancing around in the middle of the pathway. It is the same squirrel I featured the other day, but this time in a standing pose. Perhaps he had been out in the sun too long?
In trying to establish a rapport with the young squirrels, I toss out some peanuts whenever I see them, even though I’m usually rewarded with a deer-in-the-headlights look for my efforts. But, I know they will come around eventually. The peanuts don’t go to waste because the cardinals and red-winged blackbirds try to remedy the squirrels’ snubbing of treats, by flying down to snatch a peanut for themselves. Here’s a photo of a cardinal who flew down to the asphalt pathway BEFORE a peanut landed there. Imagine his surprise, he who lives by the motto “the early bird catches the worm” – I made it worth his while for his incredible swooping efforts.
This inquisitive bunny caught my eye one morning. I inched closer to him and he did not bolt, but posed nicely. I wondered what the heck was on the back of his ear, and zoomed in for a closer look, thinking I could tell better when I got home and uploaded the photos. I’m no further ahead, but it looks like a snail?
Here’s the heron who humored me this time by posing for a photo. He is in the same place every morning, scoping out the murky water for his breakfast. I peek through the bushes as I near the cement landing, so I know whether or not to have the camera ready. Aha!! Gotcha … this time anyway. Usually, just as soon as I appear in his peripheral vision, he takes off, pulling his feet up from the cement landing, flapping those huge wings, his hurried flight accompanied by a prolonged croaking noise as he heads down the narrow passageway of the Ecorse Creek.
These might be the tiniest inhabitANTs at the Park, but at least they weren’t at someone’s picnic. I had my share of ants this year, first the wiggly ones at the kitchen sink, then the winged ones flying around my face seeking a mate, which siege lasted 24 hours, then they mysteriously disappeared (thank goodness).
The grass at the Park is filled with morning glories as far as the eye can see.
The bunnies love munching on the morning glories.
One morning I came across a woman who was picking something that grew along the pathway. From a distance I squinted to see what she was taking. I knew it wasn’t berries at that location, so I snapped her picture from afar.
As I neared her, to satisfy my curiosity, I asked why she was plucking leaves off a plant. She told me it was milkweed and she was harvesting the leaves for her Monarch caterpillars she had at home, because, even though she grows milkweed, (the host plant for Monarchs), she needed many more milkweed leaves for all her baby Monarch caterpillars. Her reply initiated a whole conversation as I relayed my story of when I bought a milkweed plant from the Wyandotte Street Art Fair, complete with a half-dozen Monarch baby caterpillars and mosquito netting wrapped around the plant and pot. I thought it would be fun to release these butterflies when they emerged from their cocoon. But, in record time, the six baby caterpillars ate all the milkweed leaves and I had to find more leaves to feed them pronto, so I gave the “kit” away to a butterfly enthusiast in Allen Park who raised Monarchs and released them from her backyard. Just like me, this young woman had run out of “baby food” and was there picking leaves for the growing caterpillars. As she reached into the leaves, she was triumphant over the discovery of a tiny Monarch caterpillar and showed it to me. I should have taken a photo of it, but we were busy talking and I didn’t want to be rude. (It was bad enough I asked why she was picking leaves off the plant … the plant didn’t belong to me!)
Here is a photo of the milkweed plant.
This young woman also raises Black Swallowtail butterflies and their host plant is Queen Anne’s Lace, so she has plenty of this lacy-looking wildflower (pictured below) growing in her backyard.
The rain was pesky in that it interrupted my walking plans, but truly it was needed. We were in almost drought-like conditions before this weekend’s rain. My lawn was not just brown, but crispy. The Park pathway is strewn with leaves, mostly yellow and brown, crinkly and curled up, just like it was the end of September rather than mid-July.
Our weather is not so stellar this coming week, with fits and starts of rain and thunderstorms intermingled with heat and humidity. Once again, I will scratch my head and say “and I waited all Winter and most of Spring for this?”
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Great photos a usual. I think that’s a tumour on the rabbit’s ear. Love the cardinal, the blue underwear is kind of cool.
Fred
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Thanks Fred – I had to do a compilation of photos as picture pickin’s have been slim of late. The blue underwear look is something new to me. I wondered if that was a tumour on the poor thing’s ear.
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I was going to say it was a flea because I have seen what looks like that on dog’s ears. Oh my God, I hope it wasn’t a tumour.
Susie
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Really that big for a flea? OMG. Susie – I was sorry I saw it since I am like you – going to worry about the rabbit now.
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You see so many critters on your walks… so lucky! I can’t believe that those are ants in that picture. They just look like a furry clump of something. I’d sure hate to have those in my house or visiting my picnic! I love that people are raising butterflies! We need many, many more.
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Those little critters, furry and feathered, make my day Janis. Those ants were terrible and running everywhere – no ant hill, just a big cluster. This girl knew the woman I gave my monarch caterpillars too. They both have a backyard full of milkweed and Queen Anne’s Lace to lure butterflies … she releases them after they emerge from their chrysalis and they usually stick close by, laying more eggs, and a new cycle of butterflies.
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So cool that’s she’s trying to help the Monarchs in that way! 🙂
Hopefully, that rabbit will do OK.
Get a Roomba; they make cleaning (the floors at least) easy! 🙂
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Yes, and she knew Karen Hoffman, the woman who I gave my “kit” to. In 2010, I had just read the story in the local paper about a woman (Karen) who had all these terrariums filled with Monarch crysalises hanging on wires in each terrarium and when they were ready to emerge, she took them into her yard (completely filled with milkweed). Very interesting conversation we had.
I hope the rabbit will do okay too. One blogger said maybe a tumor. I thought it was a snail sitting on its ear, though I wondered if that was possible.
Does a Roomba do carpeting too. I have carpeting throughout unfortunately.
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People who do that for Monarchs are wonderful! One of my friends has a lot of land and he plants a lot of Milkweed all over the place for the butterflies and other insects that love Milkweed. He has a lot of birdhouses, huge ones, all over his land too; some go way up, far from the ground! 🙂
Roombas do great on shallow carpeting. On thick carpeting, probably not as good, though i may be wrong. If you have thick carpeting, though, you need to get rid of it; thick carpeting is not healthy and can harbor all kinds of mites and things!
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Hi Tom –
I do have shallow carpeting. It has been installed since 1985 and is still in good shape and I have allergies to dust and mold, besides Spring allergies, but have been on the allergy immunotherapy for decades. I take OTC Alavert from April to 4th of July to help with the grass and leaves in the Spring. I just went off it last week, extended a few weeks since the Spring started so late, and despite the shots, I am still sneezing a bit.
I looked for the 2010 article about Karen Hoffman as I intended to include it in my post, but it was not Googlable. I will have to try on the newspaper site. The story told how she releases the butterflies, each one separately, and she is an excellent photographer. Butterflies are her specialty, especially Monarchs. I went on a butterfly walk last year, a different woman, in a neighboring town. Verne Felty’s Felty Farms is a backyard full of perennials, and a Monarch waystation. Every year she opens her backyard to the public and the price of admission is an item to donate to a local animal shelter. I wrote a post about it here and it was too bad the day was overcast and not many butterflies, but what a sight with the flowers, her yard art and the koi pond. https://lindaschaubblog.net/2017/08/27/butterflies-are-free/
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It seems to me that we, people who have dust, mold (also dogs and pollen in my case) allergies get more attracted to nature and we do whatever it takes to control our allergies but nothing can keep us apart from admiring and enjoying life, doesn’t it?
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That’s true Martha. As to me, I had allergy immunotherapy from 1975 to 1995 and it was dust, mold and chlorophyll, plus ragweed around August. In December 1995, my allergist retired and told me I could be weaned off the shots because after 20 years I no longer needed them. This was a relief since the new allergist who was taking over his practice, was not open Saturday mornings or Tuesday evenings – he had a 9:00-5:00 schedule just four days a weeks, and I would need to miss time from work to get shots and the required once/year doctor visit/consultation. Happily, no more trips for shots, even though I had been in the maintenance phase (shots every four weeks) for years. Almost nine years passed and one Spring, I had sneezing and watery eyes and I knew it had to be allergies, but it was a very hot Spring, and I thought it was a fluke. The following year, in the Spring, the sneezing and watery eyes were back with a vengeance. I went to that allergist and after the testing, was told I had the same allergies as before, only instead of ragweed in late Summer, it was trees and grass in Springtime. I’ve been on the shots ever since and OTC Alavert from April to July, which does the trick.
We just have to suffer a little to enjoy life and are thankful allergies is “all that ails us” … I know I am.
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Linda,
The most interesting part of today’s blog post was of course, the woman who was looking out for her caterpillars. Every one of your posts restores my faith in humanity and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing such inspiring stories- they inspire me to do better with creatures smaller than myself.
The red cardinal who got his”worm peanut” is so beautiful- red is my favourite colour. I notice you spell tumour with an “o”, the British way and not the American way ?
The rabbit standing up on two legs is like he is applauding you or saying thank you or good morning- I wonder which. The heron who posed for the photo was being a good boy too- or girl.
Can you walk with a raincoat or is that too cumbersome ?
The group of ants-ooh, I wouldn’t want them at home, better in nature than indoors. I hope you got some housework done. Thanks for sharing the picture of the milk weed plant. I would have thought the Calotropis that we have around these parts is the milkweed but seems like this is something different.
Susie
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Yes, she was very nice, even though I asked her what she was doing (truly not my business, but I said I write a blog about walking and the Park is my favorite stomping grounds). Then I found out she knew Karen, the woman in the next city over who raises Monarchs, so we chatted about that and my experience … the caterpillars go from almost microscopic to this worm, then one day they spin a green-colored pupa (crysalis) with a gold threadlike substance on top and attach it to a twiggy part of the milkweed. Karen and this woman have terrariums and they have heavy thread or wire which they string inside the terrariums so all the pupas are lined up in a row til they are ready to emerge.
I supposed I could walk with a raincoat, and leave the camera at home, but I took the bus for so many years and had to deal with all the bad weather, that at this point, I don’t like to deal with it and usually if it is raining in the morning, by afternoon it is always so warm and humid in Summer and I don’t always leave work early enough to walk any great distance.
The ants look nasty and I’ve seen bigger gatherings than that – sometimes on the sidewalk as I walk along.
There are different types of milkweed. This one has pinkish-colored flowers (this is what the woman told me – there are no flowers on this plant or the others in this group).
I am happy to help restore your faith in mankind – mine often wavers as well.
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“Linda,
The most interesting part of today’s blog post was of course, the woman who was looking out for her caterpillars. Every one of your posts restores my faith in humanity and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing such inspiring stories- they inspire me to do better with creatures smaller than myself.”
Wonderful and heart-feeling comment. I couldn´t have said it better.
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Thank you for saying that Martha – I believe that interacting with animals in their natural setting instills a peace like nothing else can do. I am inquisitive by nature and I had to know what this woman was doing, and when I found out, I discovered we shared a common bond, a nurturing spirit and a love of nature.
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I love this cute squirrels!😊 You always manage to take so good picture of them. The bird is beautiful, we don’t have any so red colorful bird in Sweden.
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Thanks John … sometimes the older squirrels sit still a while and I can get some good shots, and their antics are funny, especially the one standing on hind legs in the middle of the pathway. The male cardinals are beautiful with their crest and bright color and the females are equally striking with the crested head, but a little drab looking with their brown plumage. We have a rainy week … rain at some point every day, and it rained again this morning … I wish I could send you some to Sweden.
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Today it came 139 firefighters with 44 fire trucks from Poland. We have people from all over Europe here now to help us. some fires are impossible to extinguish, it burns well below the ground and needs winter cooling…
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That is so sad John. I hope the landscape that you love so much is not burnt beyond recognition, all that beautiful scenery. That happened in California with their wildfires, and then they had the mudslides afterward, and the mud is no longer stopped by the trees, as the trees are gone – the mud slides went into people’s neighborhoods and flowed down the streets. The pictures of the mudslides last year (or maybe 2016, not sure) looks a little like the molten lava that is flowing from the volcano in Hawaii.
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The worst is that we don’t have any defend for this kind of fires, and Sweden is covered with large area of wood.
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I hope that some of your fire-fighting resources from other countries are able to stay put because now the story of this morning is the fires in Athens, Greece. It seems to me that 2018 has been one of the worse years for natural disasters of every kind.
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We have cardinals but I don’t think I have ever seen the blue/gray color above the leg. Now I will have to check ours out again! I would love to know what is on the bunny’s ear too! Beautiful pictures as always!
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I’ve never seen that color either Diane – perhaps a blue jay was in the mix somewhere in its lineage? Fellow blogger Fred said he liked the cardinal’s blue underwear. 🙂 Glad you liked the pictures. I didn’t like seeing the mark on the bunny’s ear either … hopefully it does not hurt him.
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My cardinals were feeding on our feeder today. No underware on our cardinals! Lol
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Ha ha – no blue jays are around, perhaps that’s why? 🙂
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Fabulous photos, the squirrels make me smile and the cardinal is so colourful. 🙂
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I knew that you, a fellow squirrel lover, would get a kick out of those squirrels, especially the one in the middle of the pathway … he looked like he was making a statement of some kind, didn’t he? I love the cardinals … so beautiful and they wait for me to toss peanuts and off they go, down from the tree to retrieve them. The red-winged blackbirds do that as well, the bluejays too.
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I love your pictures, Linda. All those beautiful creatures you capture with your camera and your soul. I also enjoy the comments here in your posts. I read them all.
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Thank you for the kind comments Martha. I am trying to get out to more places to immerse myself in nature for more photos and stories to enhance the blog, but our weather has not cooperated much this year. I enjoy the comments as well and have learned a lot about the subjects I write about, by comments and suggestions by other nature enthusiasts, and a few naturalists whose livelihood is nature photography. I am enjoying the blogging very much. If you didn’t know, I was blogging for almost five years with the same 18 or so people and suddenly things took off last Thanksgiving and I began interacting with more bloggers – it was overwhelming at first, and still is, but I’m thoroughly enjoying the blogging experience.
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Pingback: Rovin’ and ‘Ritin’ … — WALKIN’, WRITIN’, WIT & WHIMSY – REBLOG – Afterwards
Dear Miss “Rovin”…………………………………….thank you for asking that young lady what she was picking in the trees…………………………….it’s interesting what people get hooked-on for summer hobbies………………..we learn from others as our paths cross…………………………….I didn’t know what Monarch butterflies eat
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Ann Marie – I could see it wasn’t berries, so I was nosy and asked. Then we had something in common as I had the same problem back in 2010. Marge and I both had the “kit” … a milkweed plant with a half-dozen caterpillars and it was potted in a big container with a stick that propped up the mosquito netting so the caterpillars did not escape. The ate continuously and grew in leaps and bounds. Last year at Felty Farm, did you see the area of the backyard designated as a Monarch waystation? Verne Felty had a lot of milkweed plants. At the park they have no blossoms, but they have a pink-colored blossom. All Marge’s caterpillars died for some reason but she had her grandchildren over and they may have disturbed the netting to look at them close-up. When I first met you, I was checking out a wooly bully caterpillar and counting its ring to see what kind of Winter we would have.
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Wow! I wonder how you get all this amazing photos 🙌
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Thanks Sharon – some days I am lucky and the critters pose (feeding peanuts does help) and other times I go to the Park and could twiddle my thumbs as no one shows up!
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Great photos! It is great to find friends at the park.
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Yes it is Leigha and I look forward to every walk there – it is a fairly small park (2.2 acres) but the one side is more dense so there are more critters there. The geese are molting and losing their flying feathers so they’ve been gone nearly a month already … it is much more animated when the geese are there (they think they rule the pathway) and through May and most of June they had their goslings, so that was fun to watch them grow up. There were three different families of geese this year and born several weeks apart so there was always something to see, plus the baby robins …. lots of activity in the Spring, but it has slowed down now.
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Sounds like a wonderful place to walk!
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It is and a perfect way to start the day!
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Absolutely stunning photos!!!
BTW yesterday I walked over 5000 steps – which for me is AMAZING! :-))))
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Thank you Ellie – I am glad you enjoyed them. It had been rather slow at Council Point Park, so I grouped several photos from the past few weeks together … then the next day was the fracas with the robin and the squirrel, so suddenly I had more photos to post again. That is great you walked that many miles! Be proud of yourself. Was it cooler this weekend in Montreal? We had a great weekend weather-wise … cooler temps, low humidity and the sun was out. I’ve not seen much of the sun all Summer.
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Thanks! Was a bit cooler and humidity was a bit lower.
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My kind of weather. My favorite season is Fall, even if it means Winter is on the way.
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