138:365 Bumble-ing along - Updated

Philippe: The cat likes sunspots, and I'm an opportunist.. it's a good combination

















Anna: Today the girls and I went to the museum for a most excellent presentation (Dragons and Cryptozoology by Loren Coleman). As we were crossing the grounds back to the car, I stopped under a blooming linden tree to see what sort of incests I might be able to photograph. The tree was planted in a large raised bed surrounded by a low concrete wall. Low enough that, even with my knees, I could step onto it without much assistance. As I was climbing onto the wall to get a closer look at the linden tree, I noticed a bumble bee placidly walking along. I promptly got back down and tried getting some photos of the bee as it kept ambling towards me.

It was moving a bit too fast for me to get good photos, but I noticed another rather lethargic bumble bee in a flowering bush. So I tucked in behind a bench, with my knees braced on the concrete and my butt braced on the bench, maneuvering to get a good angle of this second bee. The girls promptly started telling me that the first bee had turned around and was heading back towards me, and that I might want to move.

I acknowledged them kept clicking away.

Next, they were telling me it was heading for my knee.

Sure thing, I said, still clicking away.

Then they were telling me it was *on* my knee and climbing.

Okay, so now I finally move. The bee was heading up at a good clip and was soon climbing my shirt. My elder daughter tried to persuade it to head downwards again, or even fly off, but no such luck. In trying to move it (without me getting stung, though there didn't seem to be much danger of that), the bee ended up on my camera strap.

Off went the camera, and we spent the next while trying to convince the bee that the flowering bush was a really nice place to go. Still no luck.

At which point I figured, what the heck. Since it was there anyways, I started taking pictures.

I liked this one the best.

We did eventually get the bee off the strap. It never did try to fly.

137:365 - Back at the Devonian gardens

Philippe: So we went back to the Devonian Garden today. Turns out they've got a butterfly house :)


Suntanning on a rock



















Kinda prickly looking, but still pretty













Just plain pretty.














Um, still pretty, kinda :D












Anna: I've uploaded a whole bunch of photos from today onto my flickr account. I was really envying the macro lens today - the one that was on Philippe's camera. ;-) This trip, we went through the Japanese garden, then the greenhouse. We'll have to make another trip to see more.

I wanted to post this photo, not because it's particularly good, but because it shows what a totally geeky family we are. *L* If you click on the photo for the larger image, you should be able to see that black beetle my elder daughter is trying to get a photo of.

It's black, about 1 1/2 inches long with antennae about the same length, and with huge mandibles. I don't know what they're actually called, but when I was a kid, we called them wood bugs because we always found them in our log pile and on trees. They bore through wood with those powerful mandibles. We used to tease our barn cats with them by holding them firmly (and carefully!) by the body and holding them out for the cat to investigate. When the cat leaned forward to sniff the beetle, it wasn't unusual for the cat to end up with the beetle firmly attached to its nose. After shaking the beetle off, the cat then usually ate it.

It was on me.

I had been taking photos off to the side and, as I returned to my family, my younger daughter spotted it. With a rather shocked look on her face, said "hey, there's bug on you!" I couldn't see it myself, as it was quickly climbing up my shoulder. Philippe promptly started chasing it with his camera (none of the photos turned out - it was moving too fast) as I felt it go around the back of my neck, turn around, go back around the side of my neck and up my jaw. That's when Philippe finally flicked it off of me and onto the path, which is when my daughter took over with her camera.

It's a good thing I'm not bothered by bugs.

136:365 Fuzzy bee and the kindness of others.

Anna: The family and I headed out to lunch downtown today, and found some flowering "weeds" next to where we parked the car. As I was taking photos, I got visited by this fuzzy bee. No idea what type it is, but it's got a neat, pointy sort of face.

The cool thing is why we ended up going out for lunch today. Philippe actually wasn't feeling well and was home from work, but he felt he needed to get back to this place. It's a place that sells donairs that he goes to fairly regularly. He and some of his former co-workers would meet there weekly, and he kept meeting them every now and then, even after he changed offices. So the people that run the place know him well.

Two days ago, he decided to treat himself to donairs for lunch. After he got his order and was going to pay for it using his debit card, he found out that their machine was down. There had been a lightning strike in the area and the power surge had fried their debit machine! He didn't have enough cash to pay for the whole order, but the owner told him it was ok - he could come back and pay for it another time. How cool is that? You just don't get a lot of places that are willing to do that.

Not being able to get back yesterday, we really wanted to take care of it today - and the 4 of us had lunch, too. Mmmm.... they made the best donairs. They had a sign on the door saying their debit machine was still down, so we made sure to bring cash. While giving our order, we made sure to tell the guy at the till to add on the extra order that we owed. The owner saw my husband and came over to talk. Chatting with him, he told us that they were just waiting for the company to send a replacement machine, but it was taking a while. Meanwhile, he's been loosing a lot of business for lack of a debit machine. People just don't carry cash much anymore, so they just leave and go someplace else.

We were more than happy to bring in a little extra business as thanks.

Not that I need any excuse to have a donair at this place.

135:365 Sweeeettt.....

Anna: I have no idea what this vehicle is. It's got 2 front wheels and one rear wheel. I'm assuming it was part of the parade that had just ended, which we skipped. Judging from the crowds leaving the area while we took the train to the library, that was a good choice. *L*

134:365 Je suis gaucher

Anna: Another one for the Love My Parts group.

For most things, I'm ambidextrous. For some things, like embroidery and other crafting, I'm right handed. With others, like writing and drawing, I'm left handed.

Writing left handed is apparently all it takes to make me a left handed person.

My hands, like most of me, are pretty rough around the edges. When my kids were younger, they would sometimes entertain themselves by counting my scars. I've got a few doozies on this hand! Some, I even remember how they got there. ;-)

There's one on my middle finger from a hatchet I was using to trim branches off a log and there was less resistance than I expected (I'm right handed with a hatchet). I've got scars across 3 fingers from when I was playing "swords" with one of my brothers. He's completely left bodied. *L* We were both holding our "swords" in our left hands (a stick for me, a long piece of tin for him), when he caught me across the fingers. He cleaned up the blood and patched me up - something we did for each other rather frequently, as I remember things. Several others are from when he and I were in the attic, melting plastic over a candle. We discovered that the yarn my mother used to knit slippers melted quite dramatically, and that if you swung the yarn, you'd get a glowing circle in the air. Which is when we also discovered that globs of plastic can go flying, and that they really like to stick to skin.

Somehow, that didn't stop me from getting more scars the same way on my other hand.

If I ever find myself with cancer or something, I could probably safely blame it on the fumes of melted plastic I breathed in my younger days. Or the lead we used to melt down in the furnace and play with.

Sometimes I wonder how my siblings and I ever made it through childhood without killing ourselves, each other, or burning the farm down.

133:365 - Cats are so thoughtful - updated: baking day

Philippe: So it's Midnight, and my daughter can't sleep. Of course, she grabs the cat on the way by to the couch.. :D























Anna: Baking day today - I've got 2 loaves of oatmeal and honey cooled down, 2 loaves of eggs and milk fresh out of the oven, and a batch of Red River Cereal buns in the oven right now.

Garlic and tarragon butter is ready and waiting for those first slices.

The apartment smells heavenly.

132:365 And then I ate it...

Anna: I went for a walk this evening and ended up talking well over 100 photos. I've uploaded the ones I liked the most to my flickr account.

This is a Saskatoon berry. When I was a kid, I used to walk along the roads and in the bush in our farm, indulging in these delicious berries. So I was really happy so see lots of Saskatoon bushes along the top of the river valley. I got a picture of this one ripe berry.

Then I ate it.

Because that's what you do with Saskatoons.

Yum.






I got so many photos of these butterflies. They loved the vetch growing along the pathways. I don't know what kind of butterfly they are, but I was just amazed at how long their proboscis were!