Some Tiny Critters

I've found a number of critters in my camera lens recently, mostly by happenstance, as they appeared in a photo I was trying to take, or fluttered past my eyes.

I had read on a number of blogs about the number of Painted Ladies being seen, but until the other day I hadn't seen even one this summer.  Then this one fluttered past my eyes, and landed repeatedly on the driveway, sitting still politely while I got a good picture. 

I also got my first picture of a Monarch this year about 3 weeks ago, though we've seen quite a few fluttering past this summer.  It's sitting on a Ligularia bloom in the garden.

A not very good picture of a bee visiting a New England Aster in the meadow.

This bumblebee was crawling around the Fall Anemone flowers.

And I was sitting under the apple tree minding my own business when this Chipmunk popped out in the old stone fencerow to check me out.

A milestone in our move today, as we had our final walk-through of the new house.  It is done, complete and ready for us to move in.  The builder won't be coming back to finish any unfinished corners, 'cause it's ready!  We start moving late next week.

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Fall Colours and Skies

I was surprised when I headed out for my walk this morning, to see that the trees were starting to turn colour, mostly yellows and orange, but definitely more colourful than 48 hours ago.  It was as if the Sugar Maples had suddenly woken up and realized, 'It's October; we'd better get ready'.  Thanksgiving next week is normally the peak of our fall colour.  But I've never seen it change so abruptly as today, after I struggled to find coloured leaves just two days ago!

I wondered if yesterday's rain had anything to do with it.  It has been very warm and dry; maybe one day of rain kick-started the change?

It wasn't just a few trees, there were a lot of maples looking somewhat orange.

A few of the trees were actually red.  A beautiful bright sunny day too, but the suddenness of this change just floored me.  It looks like the fall colour will unfold as it always does, even if not as bright as usual.

Flashback - Vancouver Aquarium

I was skimming back over the past few years checking out how the fall colours compared to this year, and I realized - two years ago tomorrow (when most of you will be reading this), we went to the Vancouver Aquarium with our grandson.  Our daughter, son-in-law and 6 week old grand-daughter were there too, but our grandson definitely led the way, excited about everything he saw.

This is the famous sculpture 'Chief of the Undersea World', a killer whale, by the even more famous Haida sculptor Bill Reid.  It stands at the entrance to the aquarium.

When I went back to check these photos, it appears that I never did post any in the blog.  So I selected a few for tonight.  Remember, in spite of the copyright, these were taken Oct. 5, 2015.

The touch tank was a favourite.  When we travelled with our own young children, camping our way across the country, we encountered two touch tanks, one on each coast of Canada.  I'm not sure anything else intrigued the kids so much.

A number of the most popular exhibits are in outdoor pools, here the barking Sea Lions.  As you can imagine, our grandson was practically jumping up and down with excitement.

They have a large pool with Beluga Whales, and for children raised on the song 'Baby Beluga', it's the top attraction.  This pool used to hold Killer Whales, and the aquarium was part of the controversy over whales being captured for public display.  But it was also the first aquarium in the world to stop capturing of Cetaceans (whales), and the last Killer Whale left in 2001.  It continues to be a major centre for research on Killer Whales.  You can read a bit about this on their website.

Inside there are quite a few tanks holding numerous fish on display, here a Sea Turtle and some tropical fish which I do not remember!

There's a small area of terrestrial displays to go along with the fish from the Amazon.

Check out this video of the amazing Jellyfish!
Be sure you click to get full size.

I'm well aware of the controversy over public marine aquariums.  In my mind, after watching our own children here 30 years ago, and our grandson two years ago, the educational value of getting young people interested is well worth it.  This is one of the most memorable places we have taken our own children, and our daughter is now taking hers.

Where is the Fall Colour?

I've been watching for the leaves to change, as they typically do at this time of year, but it's not happening very much or very fast.  Half the White Ash have already lost their leaves, but the leaves just dried up and fell off.  I actually had to go out hunting to find even a few leaves showing signs of fall colour.

Perhaps it's the excessively warm September we've had, but most trees are still green.  I did find a few Red Maple leaves that are sort of half red.

The Silver Maple leaves tend to turn yellow rather than red.

The Sumach does turn brilliant red, but there are literally only a few bright spots in our big patch of them.

Admittedly, our Burning Bush by the front door is red.

And I did find some reddish-brown Red Oak leaves on one particular Oak Tree.  The rest are all green.

In comparison, these pictures are from October 1st last year.  I'll be reporting on how this year's fall colours turn out.  In the meantime, we enjoyed the beautiful warm October day and got some outside work done - until it got too hot!  In October!

The Garden in October

There's not much left to the garden in October.  I should really be cleaning it out, but we're too busy with other things right now.  There are a few flowers still blooming though.

The last flower to boom in our garden every summer is the Monkshood, a beautiful deep blue, but deadly poison too!

The fall anemones have been in bloom for a while now.  Always seems like a gentle flower to me.

The best part of the garden at the moment is the big circle of Brown-eyed Susans.  They've been blooming for six weeks now.

They now form a complete band around the big rock and small trees in the middle of our lawn.

The bright yellow/orange Ligularia is also still blooming.  And did you notice the Monarch?

Another beautiful sunny day, remarkable warm weather here for early October.

The Seasons Turn

I'll come back to my the French River canoe trip, but let's bring you up-to-date on the 'seasons in the valley'.  Seasons are changing fast here, and we had our first heavy frost today, just 3 days after the average date it happens.

It was a beautiful sunny day, though only 2°C when we struggled out of bed, so I knew the frost would disappear fast.  I actually hurried outside to get pictures even before having my coffee!

In all the lower parts of the yard where the cold air drains downhill, the grass was white.

Actually a lot of our 'grass' isn't grass at all, but an interesting mixture of weeds that I keep mown short.  Here Creeping Charlie I think.

This big old Rhubarb leaf seemed to show the frost well.

As did these Buttercup leaves in the garden.  Buttercup is an invasive weed if you allow their pretty yellow blooms in your garden!

The frost was some contrast to the day before when we had that windy rainy afternoon, with more rain overnight.  All the fallen ash leaves seemed to hold the water droplets til morning.

But the rain did help break that uncomfortable hot spell we were having, and maybe it will help us finally get some fall colour.  Today turned out to be a beautiful warm day, great day for working in the garden.

After the Sunset, the Sunrise

The sun was rising pretty late at this time in September, so I was up in time to sit and watch it.  Just like sunsets, a sunrise over the water is special.

Today here was downright chilly, but a great day to get some outdoor work done.  Slowly making progress toward the move.