Jack’s Walk

Terracotta Park, Pointe Claire, Quebec ©voyager, all rights reserved

This photo was taken in a place called Terracotta Natural Park and it’s right in the heart of Pointe Claire. It’s a huge park (almost 100 acres) with lots of connecting and well maintained trails. It’s one of Jack’s favorite places to go, but unlike our woods at home I won’t allow my boy off-leash here because of the threat of coyotes. We’ve never seen one ourselves, but there are signs posted at every entrance to the park advising extreme caution and noting that they’ve been spotted in the area. My husband grew up near the park and we’ve been taking our dogs to it for about 15 years and this is the first time we’ve seen such warnings. That probably means there’s an established population of coyotes. And why not? The park is exactly like their natural environment and it’s filled with their natural prey plus it has the added bonus of human leavings. As their environments shrink or die all animals, including large predators, will move ever closer to populated areas just trying to eke out a life and avoid extinction. I think they have as much right to the land as we do. Maybe more. At least they’re not destroying the planet.

Last Sunflower Resident

The sunflower is now slowly drying, all the heads full of seeds. But when it was still in bloom, I encountered on it this beetle, one that I have never seen before. I have recognized that it is a member of the family Cetoniidae (flower chafers) but that was it.

I think that it is mediterranean spotted chafer Oxythyrea funesta, which was preliminarily confirmed to me by an actual active biologist. In that case, it is a rare sight because the beetle is rare in Czech Republic and is protected by law.

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Jack’s Walk

Milkweed, ©voyager, all rights reserved

Jack and I are having a better day today. It’s still humid, but the temp plummeted overnight and today it’s a reasonable 22 º.  We actually went for a real walk around the neighbourhood this morning and just down the street we found a front garden full of milkweed. When I was young I used to love pulling the pods apart and playing with the silk and it was awfully tempting to pluck one today. Instead, I took this photo, but the desire is strong and I cannot guarantee that I won’t pick one later.

Youtube Video: Nurgle Plague Sword Build

Michael Cthulu is not a smith, he is a welder. And he does not make historically accurate replicas, he makes ridiculous, humongous swords from computer games that have no chance whatsoever to being actually functional in the real world.

But he is entertaining to watch and he has shown some tricks in his videos that are valuable to me in my workshop – like his unique working goggles with replaceable glasses.

He also seems to be a genuinely nice person, at least judging by the ammount of his products he auctions for charity ever since he makes enough money for comfortable living.

Mild content warning – the video takes almost an hour and contains half-naked and very hairy dude in his fifties doing dangerous things with fire, electricity and fast spinning machinery.

Tummy Thursday

Today’s post is less a recipe than a post about cake making.

I love making cakes. I especially love making the “big cakes” where you can go wild. Chances are that if you invite me to an event above “kiddie birthday” and ask to bring a cake, I will use it as an excuse to turn approximately 100.000 calories into a cake.

The excuse for the following cake was my friend’s kids holy communion (the family’s catholicism has been puzzling to us for generations. Girl, I know what you did in your 20s and 30s).

The cake base was a red velvet cake with cherry filling, which I frosted with chocolate ganache. This was pretty not spectacular although already delicious. I went for two layers, though. If you do, use a cakeboard or a wrapped piece of cardboard supported by some sticks because otherwise the very heavy second layer will sink into the soft first layer.

Choclate frosted cake

It didn’t have to be very even because there’s a second frosting to come. I always wanted to do an Italian meringue buttercream, but I never tried because my old kitchen machine was designed by an engineer who put the motor below the bowl and the gears into the middle of the bowl. Don’t ask. Regular buttercream regularly ended in a disaster because everything just melted, so after a particularly annoying instance I decided to get a new one and Mr convinced me (I’m using that word in a very loose sense here) to get something decent and I went for a Kitchen Aid. I never looked back. The only problem was that I could have done with a second one to keep whipping the meringue while I was creaming the butter, but that was possible to do by hand. In the video, Yolanda just adds the butter, but I was following a different recipe.

Since communions are in spring I went with green, first a light one to cover the whole cake and then a darker one for the grass.

cake covered in green buttercream

But that’s only about 80.000 calories, so the next step was to break out the fondant and go crazy. I love that silicone forms have become quite affordable. The trick is to dust them with starch, as well as the finger you use to push the sugar into the form.

I was quite pleased with the result.

Finished cake

Fancy Bats

Joseph Zowghi has sent us another of his fancy bat portraits. This time it’s a group of Ectophylla albas, otherwise known as Honduran white bats, gathering under a leaf. I was happy to find this submission because I’m fond of Joseph’s drawings. The rounded, repetitive lines draw me in and the artist has a talent for making bats look appealing. Thanks so much for sharing, Joseph.

Jack’s Walk

Scrappy squirrel©voyager, all rights reserved

Well, it’s a scorcher of a day here. 31 degrees with a humidex of 40 degrees. Ordinarily I could laugh it off, but we’re staying with my mother-in-law who doesn’t have air-conditioning and it’s just not as funny when there’s no relief. Poor Jack is suffering the most. Thankfully, he’s still in his light summer coat, but he’s disinterested in everything except sitting in front of the fan. That’s pretty much my attitude to life, too. My fibromyalgia flares up in high humidity and it feels like I’m walking through a dishwasher in double gravity boots. As a result, our walk today was strictly business related and once Jack’s business was done we trudged back home to sit in front of our fan.

Harraka Island – Chapter 2

Today we’re back with Ice Swimmer for the next chapter in his series Harakka, an Island. Thanks, Ice Swimmer. I’ll let you take it from here…

 

Chapter 2 – Uphill

 

1. Crossroads, ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved

In picture 1 we’re looking south. The low wooden building is the brackish water aquarium building. We’re going to go uphill, to our right.

 

2. Geese Uphill, ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved

A barnacle goose family is blocking our way. They’ve got little ones so the parents may get aggressive.

 

3. Geese Uphill in More Detail, ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved

A closer look at the geese.

 

4. Uphill, © all rights reserved

After a bit of an undocumented detour, the goose family is elsewhere so we can try going up the hill. It seems there’s a dead tree at the end of the road.

 

5. Dead Tree and a Windmill, ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved

Indeed, a dead tree, a lamp post and a windmill/wind turbine. And there are a few gulls.

 

6. Footprints, ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved

Going up the hill and looking at the gravel, one begins to wonder: “To whom does this island belong?”

 

7. Building, ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved

The gulls are observing their surroundings and we can see a vaguely neoclassical building.

(link to previous post, Harakka an Island: Introduction)

Wednesday Wings

Another one from Barcelona. Parakeets are neozoons in many parts of Europe, including the Mediterranean, though interestingly, their number their is relatively low (3000 in Spain, 800 in Portugal) when compared to colder countries like the UK (35.000) and Germany (10.000). The Barcelona population makes one wonder about the accuracy of that count. 

Parakeet in a tree

©Giliell, all rights reserved

 

Itsy Bitsy, Lean and Mean

This is the last in this Itsy Bitsy Spider week, that has gone on for almost two weeks. That does not mean however that spider contributions are not welcome anymore. Should you come across some pretty specimen, definitively take a picture to share.

Today’s picture is from rq: Just a lean, mean, bug-eating machine hanging out.

Picture is bellow the fold.

[Read more…]

Jack’s Walk

St. Lawrence River, Pointe Claire, Quebec, ©voyager, all rights reserved

Jack and I have arrived safely in Pointe Claire and we’ll be staying here for a week or two before heading home. The weather here is really humid and hot so we decided to head out early and what better place to go for a walk than beside the scenic St. Lawrence River. The road that runs beside the river is called Lakeshore Drive and it’s a very exclusive address. The homes along it are all large, beautiful and most definitely out of my price range. That’s alright. Looking is free and dreaming is fun and at the end of the day I’ll still be content with my own little house.