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!  

All the same as usual around here, really

So, the state of emergency continues around here, and I know it probably sounds unusual, but things around here are more or less the same as usual.  I've been working from home for 8 years now, and I'm continuing to work from home.  I haven't lost any clients and I'm lucky to be busy...even though sometimes I'm too busy.  I work 50+ hours a week, and that's more than enough.  I typically shop for groceries once every couple of weeks, and I'm still doing that.  My stores have had most of the things I want, although there was a short supply of toilet paper for a while, but I had plenty on hand already.

My province is in an official state of emergency, with no public gatherings, no non-essential businesses being open, schools closed, and all the other usual things that everyone is dealing with now in 'lockdown' situations.  We also have closed provincial borders.  I can't visit my parents in Nova Scotia, nor can they visit me.  The provinces are like states in the United States.  I'm not sure how many states have their borders with other states closed.  Not enough, I'm sure!

All our provincial efforts are paying off.  We've had a total of 117 cases of COVID-19.  That's across the whole province!  77 of those cases are recovered.  So, we only have 40 active cases now.  A total of 12 people have been hospitalized, but we now only have 5 people in hospital, 3 in ICU.  We have had zero deaths in my province.  Not a single one.  We had an early, rapid shutdown response with fairly consistent abiding by the rules by most people.  We are very lucky, but if everywhere had taken such strict, early measures, things would probably be a lot better all around the globe.

I really haven't been particularly worried or stressed, and I'm still not, especially given how well our province is doing.  We're not out of the woods yet, but they say that the economy may soon start to open up again if we continue to have such low numbers.  For the past couple of weeks, our daily new case number has been 0, 1 or 2.  It goes to show that obeying the rules and acting responsibly really does flatten the curve.  We also have a relatively low density in our urban areas, and a lot of people live fairly rurally, which helps keep distancing easy.

I have been going for walks in the local park (where the trails have been made one-way only to support distancing).  I saw a muskrat on the weekend!

I'm also keeping busy with my usual things around the house, including some crocheting on my Sophie's Universe blanket.


The snow is still in the yard but it's melting and a couple of the raised beds now have no more snow on them.  I have some crocuses that are blooming in the flower bed that gets the most sun.  Some of the other flower beds are still completely snow covered.

I turned 51 last weekend.  It was a bit sad not to be able to visit my parents for my birthday, but it's for the best until things are safer for them and for me.  Marc baked me a cake, which was really sweet of him, and it was extremely yummy.

In other news, I set up the incubator to replenish some flock members, and the first chicks hatched today.  They are darling, as one might expect.  Let's hope for lots of hens!

Also this week, the moths have finally started coming back.  I'm using moth bait this year, which is a mix of brown sugar, molasses, yeast, red wine, and fermented apple pieces.  It's working really well.  So far, I've had a lovely mix of spring species.  I'm really happy to be mothing again.

Wanton pinion moth (Lithophane petulca)


Straight-toothed sallow (Eupsilia vinulenta):  one specimen with orange spots and another with white spots.  I find this kind of diversity within species to be quite fascinating.

Hoary pinion (Lithophane fagina)

Dot-and-dash Swordgrass (Xylena curvimacula)...doesn't it look like it's wearing an evening gown?!

Plush-naped pinion (Lithophane pexata)

So all in all, things are just about normal around here, and I'm really glad I am a bit of a quirky introvert with hobbies that allow me to stay home and amuse myself, and I'm really glad to have a home-based career.  Hope everyone in my blogosphere is staying healthy and calm.  Carry on!