A visit to Nova Scotia

The province of New Brunswick, where I live, shut its borders in early May in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  That meant that only essential workers and law enforcement could cross the provincial borders to either Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, or Prince Edward Island.  Of course, the border to the US was also closed.  Last weekend, after several months of the closure, the four Atlantic provinces decided to form an Atlantic "bubble" because all the provinces have very low numbers of active cases (I think it's 6 or 7 cases between all four provinces now).  I was really pleased because I was finally able to visit my parents in Nova Scotia.  I hadn't seen them since Christmas, even though they only live a couple of hours drive from me.  The borders to the rest of the Canadian provinces and to the US are closed, although land owners can come in but they have to self-isolate for 2 weeks before they can go anywhere public.

Anyway, as you can probably imagine, there was a bit of a frenzy of travel on the first day that the 'bubble' opened, and that was the day I left for Nova Scotia.  I left at 8:45 am, and normally, it would take me about 7 or 8 minutes to get to the border.  Instead, due to the line-ups, it took me 1.5 hours to get to the border!  This was because there was a LOT of traffic, but also because every vehicle was stopped to question the occupants about their destination and determine the place of residence of the vehicle occupants. This is for contact tracing purposes.  I was stopped in traffic, so it was OK to take a picture.  

Traffic later in the day was backed up for 5+ hours, and they had to install porta-potties as a result of the line ups.  When I was in line, there were people walking their dogs and just getting out of their cars to wander around for a while as they waited.  It was kind of crazy.  I didn't see anyone relieving themselves in the ditches but apparently that happened later in the day.  Ugh.  

Anyway, it was absolutely wonderful to get to see my parents and spend a few days in their company again.  It's amazing how we take these things for granted until suddenly the opportunity is gone.  My parents lived through the second world war in England, so they had years of experience with food rationing and restricted movement.  People of my generation have never had to deal with this kind of situation.  Fortunately, for me at least, it wasn't a significant hardship, especially since I already work from home.  The biggest things I missed were visiting my parents and getting together with spinning or knitting friends.

My parents' garden was absolutely lovely to visit at this time of year, with loads of roses in bloom and many other flowers.  In addition, of course, I was busy photographing insects.  Here are some of the pictures I took on my visit.  Here are some of their roses - just glorious.  The one in front is named a campfire rose, and the blooms change colour with age, from yellow to pink (or pink to yellow, I'm not sure!)

This is a scarlet malachite beetle (Malachius aeneus) on a foxglove flower. It was the first time I had seen one of these.

A close-up of a campfire rose bloom.

This is one of the David Austin rose line, but I'm not positive which one.  Lovely blooms and ever so fragrant.

This is a European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) taking a rest in a foxglove flower. They are called wool carder bees because they scrape and gather hairy fibres from leaves and flowers to use as nest material and carry it with their legs in little bundles, so it sort of looks like "wool."

A beautiful double columbine flower.  Such a rich colour...looks like grape jelly!

I don't often take panorama shots, but here is one I took of their backyard flower beds. 

A stunning Japanese maple, flanked by foxgloves (shared from my garden!)

Yet another beautiful rose coming into bloom.

It's absolutely delightful to sit and take in the glorious colours in their backyard, and as long as the neighborhood kids aren't making an infernal racket, it's really peaceful and inviting.

This is my first observation of a bee from the subgenus Hylaeus, or masked bees.  I haven't been able to make a species ID on it.  They are very small bees. 

This was also a first time observation for me.  It is a hawthorn mining bee, Andrena crataegi, confirmed by bee expert John Ascher on iNaturalist. 

Finally, here's an ever-so-ordinary honey bee, Apis mellifera, but still a lovely insect to observe.

All the bees were going crazy on the masterwort (Astrantia) blossoms, so I'm hoping to get some for my garden as well.

I'm so glad I took the time to visit and enjoy the hugs and love that only parents can give!  

A visit from my parents

It was lovely to have my parents visit me for a few days earlier this month.  My work schedule allowed me to spend most of the time with them rather than worrying about work commitments, and we had some great weather during their visit which allowed for outdoor pursuits.

We visited our favourite local walking spot - the Sackville Waterfowl Park.  The park is lovely at all times of the year.  This time of year, the water levels are a bit low, and the water is often heavy with duckweed and algae.  The ducks don't mind!  We saw some wee mallard ducklings - a late brood of 8 with their mom.  So cute!

My mother took some time to commune with a beautiful mature birch tree.  I am so thankful to her that I learned to love trees, and all of nature, at an early age.  She and my father are most definitely the reason that I, too, hug trees. 

I managed to snap a shot of a cedar waxwing while we were at the park.  They can be a bit difficult to photograph, being a bit flighty and elusive, but this one obliged me.

As always, my parents lent a hand to any task I had that needed doing.  My mother spent time weeding and helping me harvest from the vegetable beds.  She also did her usual (more than) fair share of the cooking.  She was so enthusiastic with weeding that she accidentally "weeded" one of my Rudbeckia "cherry brandy" plants.  Fortunately we were able to locate it in the compost pile and get it re-planted.  It has not suffered from its temporary uprooting!

My father, meanwhile, did a marathon job of sharpening a variety of my garden and kitchen tools.  He was able to do the work out in my screened porch, giving him lots of light and fresh air, but keeping the mosquitoes at bay.  He did an amazing job de-rusting, sharpening and oiling my pruners and snips. 

Some of these had been almost untouched since my move from Iowa 8 years ago, and the rust was dreadful.  I sprayed them with vinegar before their visit, to get the cleaning process started.  My father used sharpening stones to really sharpen the blades and get them into good working order.

He also took care of the sharpening of my loppers.

I have two large pairs of loppers and around here, with all our trees, they are well used.  I am so glad to have them sharpened and in good order.

I am so grateful that my parents are still able to visit me and that they are so willing to help with tasks that I can't always find the time to focus on.  

I've read about storing garden tools through the winter in a bucket of oiled sand.  This prevents rust and keeps the blades sharp.  I might give that a try this winter.

Visiting my Parents

Earlier in July, I visited my parents for a few days.  It was great to step away from my desk and enjoy a few days with limited thinking about work commitments.  I took the camera to record any interesting birds, bugs, or other beauty that I encountered.  Here's a round-up of my captures.

Some beautiful roses (my mother has a super green thumb!)  No doubt you will find the visiting bee.

The birds were happy to put on a good show for me during my visit.  There were hummingbirds and American goldfinches, not to mention a very accommodating song sparrow who allowed me to repeatedly photograph him.

The finches looked so pretty next to the William Baffin roses.

There were honey bees in full force...

...as well as bumble bees, both the common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens)...

...and the two-spotted bumble bee (Bombus bimaculatus).

It may not be that exciting, but this common greenbottle fly has an amazing metallic green coat.

As always, I was happy to see their dog, Bella.

This tiny moth is the orange mint moth (Pyrausta orphisalis).  It's sitting on a begonia flower.  Probably it was visiting the monarda - which is one of its preferred food species.

Spending an afternoon in this gorgeous garden really is very restorative.

Friday's Hunt v 2.19

It's that time again - where did the week go?  I am still busy with work.  I have many things I want to blog about, but don't seem to find the time to get the posts written.  I really hope things calm down a bit soon.  I'm still doing my best to keep up with Friday's Hunt, and this week I'm actually going to post on Friday!  Our prompts from Eden Hills are:  Starts with S, Week's Favourite, and Amazing.

Starts with S
S is for spinning, and anyone who has read my blog for any length of time probably knows that I'm a spinner.  When I went to the Maritime Spinners' Retreat a couple of weekends ago, I did some spinning, and then I finished a little bit more when I got home.  Here's some yarn that I have spun over the past couple of weeks.

The purple blend is something that I made at the retreat using the fibre they gave us to play with - not my usual colours, but it's what I was given!  The green mix is some Coopworth roving that I had hanging around in my stash.

This multi-coloured yarn is some 50% merino - 50% tencel blend that I spun fairly fine, and then chain-plied to maintain the colour sections.  I really love the way it turned out and I'm very pleased with the overall yarn.  It has a nice shimmer to it and a lovely drape.  Not sure what I'll use it for yet.

This is a soft grey alpaca blended with a mixed batt that had alpaca, bamboo and wool.  The turquoise is the bamboo.  I spun one ply with just the grey alpaca, and the other with the batt.  The batt was spun at the retreat, but I did the solid grey when I got home, and plied them together.

Week's Favourite
My favourite picture this week is this blue jay.  I like the way he's tilting his head, sort of like a dog who has heard a funny noise.  I believe he's doing that to actually take a better look at the ground. He's under the seed feeder, picking up sunflower seeds dropped by the chickadees.

He certainly had some success with seed hunting that day!

Amazing
Sometimes, the word "amazing" is thrown around in a rather haphazard manner.  People say that things are "amazing" when, in reality, they're good, or even great, but perhaps not quite amazing.  I looked up the dictionary definition of amazing, which says that it is "causing great surprise or wonder" and "startlingly impressive."  I'm going to tell you about something that certainly falls into the startlingly impressive category.  Even though I'm biased, I have to say, my parents are AMAZING!

When I think about all the times over the years that they have helped me, in a myriad of ways, it's really remarkable.  I know, it's a parent's "job" to help their child, but their help goes so far beyond the requirement, it's not even on the chart any more.  So let me tell you about a few weekends ago when my amazing parents helped me out yet again.

I have had a lot of work contracts lately, and since I work for myself, I just have to take the work as it comes.  Before the busy time, I had purchased about 300 spring bulbs for planting, thinking that I'd have plenty of time on the weekends in the fall to get them in the ground.  As is often the case, the best laid plans of mice and men (and women!) don't always work out the way we expect.  I had very little time to get the bulbs planted. In the meantime, I also had the terrible experience of having the nuthatch die by hitting my window.  I had purchased some special tape for installing on the windows to help prevent bird collisions but...no time to install it.

Parents to the rescue!  They knew I was in a bind, so they came to visit for a couple of days to lend whatever help they could.  My mom and I spent a morning and afternoon weeding all my garden beds and planting all those many bulbs - assorted daffodils, alliums, English bluebells, Chionodoxa, many kinds of tulips, Siberian iris, and more.  I know you can't see the bulbs, but they're in the ground, and they'll be glorious in the spring!

As if that wasn't enough, my mom and I then processed about 60 lb of apples (I'd bought huge bags of apples, thinking I'd have time to process them...oops!).  We peeled and chopped for hours, and I put some into the food dehydrator for dried apple rings, and others went into a fresh apple crumble for our dessert, while the majority went into freezer bags.

Meanwhile, my amazing Dad installed the anti-bird-collision tape on all the windows of significant concern, which required washing all those windows first, and then using a little plastic scraping device to properly adhere each of the little squares to the window by rubbing it into place.  The squares are evenly spaced on a tape-based product.  This bird-saving product is endorsed by FLAP and I have not had a single bird collision since it has been installed.  Before it was up, I regularly had collisions from "gentle" to severe.  I am really impressed with the product, but I am even more impressed with my Dad, who just got straight to work and helped me, and the birds, in a time of need.

Although the squares are white on the outside, they are not as obvious from the inside, and the mild effect on the view outside is certainly worth the trouble!

That's not all he did!  He also did some work on that tree that fell in our woods a few weeks ago.  He cut off all the branches so the log would lay on the ground and begin its decomposition process more quickly.

Then he cut the top end of the fallen tree into four sections, all of which will be easy to move.

And even that's not all.  My mom prepared a slow-cooker turkey dish ahead of time, which she brought with her, so we didn't have to worry about making supper while we were doing these tasks. To top it off, it was actually her birthday as well, and we were able to celebrate despite our hard work. I definitely owe her a cake!

So when I tell you that my parents are amazing, I do mean it, in every sense of the word.  I am a very lucky daughter, and a very grateful one too!