For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Good morning everyone on this beautiful Wednesday! Most of the smoke cleared away overnight and we even had a light shower. Not much rain, but it helps to wash the dust off the plants, and my deck. But perhaps other areas received more than we did, that would be nice. It is so dry here now that the wildflowers are not doing well either. Most are just withering down to nothing, the few that are blooming have very small flowers or flowers that did not form correctly. That’s making it harder to get pictures.
Not much in the way of bird pictures since I’m not feeding them right now, and now not much in the way of wildflower pictures. I usually like to get as many different pics as possible in the summer to help through the winter months. There’s not a lot of variety in the winter, especially if we don’t get many birds, so having some extra summer pics is nice. That’s why some pics don’t get shown in the summer, I deliberately save them for winter. The dryness is even affecting the insect population. Dragonflies that were so abundant earlier are now getting hard to find. There should be new varieties showing up now for the summer but I have not seen any of them yet.
Mushrooms are another one that are just not growing this year, they need more moisture in the ground. However, that could change yet for mushrooms. But other things will be lost for this year now. So far the butterflies are doing okay, except they are very hard to photograph, at least certain varieties. But some will soon be gone, like the swallowtails. I’m still trying to get their pics, and also the white admiral, which isn’t white, but that’s what they call it. Every year is different and has it’s own challenges. But if it was always easy, it wouldn’t be as much fun. A little easier would be nice though. Hehe.
My internet is working properly now, it was definitely the right choice switching to a new ISP. It’s going to warm up a bit this week, up into the 90sF (32-33C) by Friday. Then back to normal summer temps next week. The squirrels are out there fighting over the peanuts and Chuck the crow is trying to get in there too since he also likes peanuts. There is at least 4 squirrels, Jasper, Freddie, Slim and Chase. Jasmine hasn’t been here yet or she would get rid of those other squirrels in a hurry. In between, the chipmunks come and get some peanuts. There are no peanuts out there however, I’m trying to discourage some of the squirrels.
But when the chipmunks show up I hand them some peanuts. The squirrels are still fighting after 20 minutes, and there’s nothing to fight over. Guess I will have to go and sit out there for a while so the chipmunks have an easier time. Have a beautiful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
Β©2021 Steve McLeod.
Talk about extreme temperatures, particularly on the west coast.
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Yes, they are really getting hit out west, cools off a bit by the time it gets way over here, but still nice. That smoke has come back very thick and strong smelling.
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Sorry to hear that
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The joys of a dry summer.π
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Thatβs not what Iβd call it
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True enough! Everything is such a weird color right now that smoke is so heavy. And it’s really getting my throat and lungs.π¬π₯π₯
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Take care
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So far there’s no real problems at least. Thanks.
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Thatβs good to hear Steve
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we are going to be close to 100 today…
the squirrels just seem a bit high strung…
and I haven’t heard about the bear in a while, so that seems like a good thing…
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Yes, the bears have lots of food for now. But the wild berry crop is poor so that will bring them back into town early this year I think. Those squirrels are getting to be a problem again, but Jasmine wasn’t here this morning to keep them settled down.
We should be in the high 90s on the weekend.
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so I guess with the possibility of the bears coming back, no bird feeding. I guess Jasmine does serve a purpose… π
Stay cool…
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Well, I hope to start bird feeding again soon, but we’ll see. Yep, I would rather just have Jasmine and Jasper to deal with. Jasmine is actually starting to get along with the chipmunks, at least when I’m out there. Those other squirrels are just trouble.
This smoke is so bad right now, everything has a weird color and it’s really hard to breathe, gets my throat and lungs.
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sorry to hear about the smoke; I hope it cleasrs up soon…
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Might be a while with all the fires around, 8 new ones today and they are investigating 12 more possible fires. Ash has been falling here now. But none of the fires are very close though which is good. The closest fire is 30 miles away, but they are hitting that one hard and it’s not very big.
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that’s got to be a tough job, fighting fires in this heat…
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That’s for sure. Those fire rangers are well trained but they can still collapse in the heat. When it’s like this the heat from the fires can be felt half a mile away. Sometimes they get trapped because the wind blows burning debris behind them starting another fire.
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lots of admiration for those fire rangers…
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Yes, that’s for sure. It is a hot, dirty and exhausting job, plus being dangerous.
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π
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Sitting outside now in the shadeβa touch cooler today but still hot! π₯΅ππΊ
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No shade here, unless I go for a walk, but I’m not sure I could manage it today. Smoke is very strong again today, getting hard to breathe.π³ππ»
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Where are your fires? Luckily the winds are blowing the smoke here away from us. It does get difficult to breathe. πππΊ
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Most of the fires are further north, some east of us. A new fire started up last evening only 8 miles away, only 1 acre but it’s out of control. Usually I don’t have problems with smoke from forest fires, but this time it really bothered me, my eyes and throat, I coughed quite a bit. Plus being hard to breathe at times. Oh well. The hot weather from out west is coming, should be at least 100F by Saturday.πππΈ
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Just looked at some of the pictures. Wow o wow!!!
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Forest fire pics?
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I googled Canada wildfires 2021 and some crazy pictures came up. π³
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Yes, there are some terrible fires around. One in BC yesterday destroyed a small town completely. People had to evacuate with no notice so couldn’t take much with them. Northeast Ontario has worse fires than us, they have fires close to communities, none of ours are close to people, except that new one that started just east of our town yesterday.π¬
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Be safe. Scary. And to all those who just lost everything…( ) silence. Prayers. ππ»
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Yes, that is a tough one. Lots lost their pets too, if people were not at home at the time, they couldn’t go back to get them.
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Oh gosh. Yeah, that is a tough one.
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