Little Darlings

We have had two simply gorgeous mornings in a row. The temperature is hovering around the freezing mark but there is bright sunshine and, more importantly, no wind. This justified a couple of trips around the Island and out to Liberty Point in the big Park. The downside, of course, is that since it’s the weekend we have another big storm coming. They aren’t sure yet if we’re south of the snow line – if we are we’ll just flood. 🙂

The roads in the Park are not paved which leads to some hijinks (read destruction) by some of the young guys looking for something to do. When the ground is soft they go “mudding” and compete to create the deepest ruts they can. This image is of one of the flattest parts left on the main entrance. In some places the ice is still filling the big gouges so it’s slippery but easier to negotiate.

Fish loves riding in the country mostly because he has an ongoing feud with the young alder bushes alongside the various roads. Some brain fart in his pointy little head made him decide that these shrubs are attacking and it is his job to grab as many as he can after positioning himself as far out the car window as possible. It’s funny to watch but he’s deadly serious about this.

He wasn’t so happy last night. In fact, none of the residents (or guest) were pleased to be awoken by what sounded like gunshots in the front yard. When I looked out my bedroom window I saw what looked like weird lightning in the sky and heard the bang bang bang of some otherworldly attack on this planet.

I found the spent fireworks on Jackson’s Breakwater this morning. I guess the guys who spend everynight down there eating and disposing of empty cartons, seeing how long a trail of burned rubber they can lay down, and just generally messing around, came into enough money to buy new toys.

The two older cats freaked out. Fish concluded that I needed a quivering dog scarf around my neck and our guest decided he should move from his bed to sleep alongside mine. Ciaran, however, climbed up on the windowsill to watch. 🙂

Speaking of the kitten, he is now 6 months old and has a brand new talent. My friend Saffia had a gorgeous polydactyl who was often involved with our online meetings. Torvald could fold his extra toes and open the cat flap. Ciaran has figured out that, if he folds his front paw, he can pick things up. We’re going to be in a lot of trouble when he’s full size.

I mentioned a few months ago that I had fallen in love with a tree here on the Island. It has bright red berries which last into the winter after all the leaves have fallen. It didn’t look right for a Mountain Ash but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Locals told me they call it the Red Berry Tree – which is fine but makes it difficult to track down.

My sister lives on the West Coast and wanted to plant some – but I needed to be able to tell her exactly what to look for. I finally found it – it’s the Winterberry Holly (aka The Canadian Holly). I’m now trying to decide if there are places on my property I could plant a few (you need to have both male and female specimens). They are available from various garden centres although I’ll try to get permission from Customs to take cuttings from the row near them. I’ll have to do some research to figure out the difference between the boys and girls. 🙂

My last little snippet of news is not for any of the arachnophobes amongst you. I will give a link to a photo of one but will be kind and not put it in here – just in case you don’t escape before catching a glimpse of it.

If you live on the East Coast then you will already have heard the news about the Joro Spider. If not, allow me to bring you up-to-date.

They arrived in the US in 2013 and have some interesting characteristics. They are beautiful, over 2 inches long, will fill an adults palm according to some articles I’ve read, they don’t mind the cold, and they are poised to spread over the entire Atlantic Seaboard. They travel by spinning parachutes and letting the wind take them where it will.

They don’t appear to be aggressive – at least to humans and are the stereotypical “more afraid of you than you are of them”. They have very tiny fangs, so if they do bite you it shouldn’t be a big deal.

I have friends who hate spiders with a passion so don’t want to know about this. I, however, am really really hopeful that they eat mosquitoes and black flies. Don’t tell me if I’m wrong. I welcome our new spider overlords – as long as they eradicate the pests that I really hate. 🙂