Saturday and Sunday were complicated because not only were the Olympics on, but F1 qualifying Saturday and the actual race Sunday in Belgium…
had to PVR some of the F1 programs, including pre-qualifying, as I enjoy seeing what all the commentators have to say as I continue learning the ins and outs of the sport;-)…
happily I was able to find the time between the Olympic sports I wanted to watch, lol…
early this morning (Olympics!), about 5:30, I was in the kitchen making tea when I opened the patio door to see what the weather was doing…
I noticed that the back gate was open so I went out to close it… I also saw that the side gate was open… both had been closed when I went to bed…
once they were both secured, I checked the garage/driveway camera and found a photo of what appeared to be a young man with a backpack on, moving toward the front street…
the fuzzy picture shows how quickly he was moving…
then I checked the garage to be sure nothing had been taken, and everything was where it should be;-)…
later in the day, at someone’s recommendation, I called the police non-emergency number and spoke with an officer…
they checked their call records and advised that there had been a report and police had spoken with a person who said they were running away from someone…
the officer also advising that calling the police for something like this was a good thing to do…
the suggestion was to call as soon as I discovered the open gates, just in case the police were in fact, chasing a thief…
and maybe don’t go outside until after consulting the police, lol…
well, the Olympics have begun;-)… started with about four hours for the opening ceremony yesterday afternoon…
woohoo… I will spend the next two weeks in front of the tv watching all my favourite sports…
I like to watch as it happens as much as possible… so, there will be a great deal of middle of the night watching and daytime sleeping, lol…
looks like 4:00 am will be my start time although I did cast some rowing to the tv at 2:30 this morning… I’ve added a new Favourites list with just the six channels that have Olympic programming on…
I also have an app that shows the schedule and send me reminders when events I am interested in are starting…
recently, I wrote about all the caterpillars and the butterflies that emerged and my hope that, as the milkweed has new leaves, another monarch mother might stop by and leave a feweggs…
well, on Thursday, this happened;-)…
I was very excited and after she left, and a bit of searching, made the discovery of at least four eggs…
it was a beautiful day for an adventure yesterday… and we hadn’t been on one for awhile…
my adventure buddy and I drove out to Pineridge Hollow for lunch and a wander around the new shops that are there…
we had a lovely drive out and only got a little lost, lol…
we were just in time for our lunch reservation so we ate first… we shared a number of things…
rosemary and salt beet chips with a goat cheese ranch dipping sauce… my oh my, those were addictive…
next we shared a small Pineridge salad with mixed greens, apples, candied pecans and smoked Gouda tossed in a maple Dijon dressing… I forgot to take a photo before we dived in, lol… the small was more than enough for the two of us… and it was delicious… actually it was my favourite of all we ate…
she had the pulled pork tacos and I had the carpaccio – seared beef tenderloin, pickled rhubarb, strawberry gastrique, fresh herbs, arugula, pistachios, and a garlic scape aoli…
it was fun to try something different;-)…
and because we hadn’t eaten enough, she had schmoo and I had panna cotta with haskap berries…
we could have just had the beet chips and salad, maybe with a bit of chicken in it…
but we enjoyed everything and had leftovers to bring home…
from there we wandered through the shops and picked up a few items before heading home for naps, lol…
when we got home from our time at the Airbnb we discovered twenty monarch caterpillars…
I had five milkweed plants but toward the end of their growing phase, the caterpillars were running out of leaves to eat…
they had stripped every leaf and I was able to cut some stalks from a friend’s yard…
I tied the new leaves to the old and we had just enough for them before hiding under leaves and building their chrysalides… two died, although there was still some leaves left…
we watched one caterpillar for a while once it moved into its j-shape but didn’t catch it weaving the chrysalis…
we only spotted two chrysalides, one of which vanished… not sure if it fell or something came along and ate it…
I watched it daily and then one day it turned black, which meant it was ready to eclose…
I watched all day, but nothing happened… late that afternoon I spotted the butterfly which had emerged…
it sat for quite a while before finally opening and closing its wings, but it was still on the iris leaf when I went to bed…
during the night the city came around and was spraying for mosquitoes…
In the morning it was hanging in a strange fashion and I was worried whether it would survive…
but, later I went out and she was gone;-)…
since then I’ve seen a total of eight butterflies flying through the garden;-)…
had a bit of a giggle as I was sitting on the deck eating breakfast and listening for bird songs…
when we were at the cottage we would hear a huge variety within just a few minutes…
of course that was also at migration time so I’m not sure how many you might hear now…
here, I can hear house sparrows, chickadees, the odd crow, squirrels yelling, and recycling/garbage trucks going up and down the lane, lol…
it has also been quieter lately because there is a Cooper’s Hawk hanging around, which makes for some very quiet times when all the birds and squirrels go into hiding…
you know it has left the area when all of a sudden large numbers of sparrows start getting drinks and gathering seed from the feeders, nattering the whole time…
herbiggirlpants 