From my regular walks. Some flowers are in my garden, but the delicate clover blossoms are in the woods, where they’re grabbing the sunlight now before the trees grow their leaves.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
I planted these last autumn, and the package promised almost black flowers. Well, never trust a package, but they ARE lovely.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Will I ever get people who use poison against dandelion? I hope not.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
I have no idea when I became a person who goes to amusement/theme parks. Probably an unexpected side effect of becoming a parent and family cultures. We were not a family that went to theme parks. In fact, the only one I ever visited was the original Legoland in Denmark when I was six years old on a holiday with my parents. Mr’s family usually didn’t have money for a holiday, so their holidays were occasional day trips that included amusement parks*, so when the two merged and the kids learned about the concept of theme parks, we became people who go there.
Since the Easter holidays were badly timed, we decided against a week in nearby France and instead booked a two days trip to the Legoland in Bavaria. The very redeeming feature there is the wonderful Lego creations, which I’ll share with you, together with the anecdotes of the Giliell family at a theme park.
Our first attraction was the Safari, where you sit in little cars that roll on trails through the savannah.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Interestingly, the grey animals come out looking like badly pixelated images from the dawn of computer graphics in the pictures.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
You could get a nice shower there.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
*We do come from families that are remarkably similar and different at the same time.
You Shall Not Pass. ©voyager, all rights reserved
Jack and I were very near the end of our walk along the riverbank this morning when we discovered the last section of the trail was underwater. Jack didn’t see any problem with that and just swam across, but I really wasn’t in the mood for a cold soak. The trail itself is a big loop and when you reach the (currently submerged) cement segment you are only one big left turn and a short jaunt away from the car. I almost took off my shoes and socks to go wading, but in the end we just turned around and retraced our steps all the way backwards along the big loop until we finally saw our car.
Spring is the season for babies and Avalus has lots of new little cuties in his tank. Let’s go see.
Hey There! ©Avalus, all rights reserved
Not much going on in the new tank. I cut some of the faster growing plants, next week the platies will go back to the main tank and there will come new fishes (neon tetras (Paracheirodon innesi) and mosquito rasboras (Boraras brigittae)). Both are tiny colourful fishes, the neons are blue with a bit of red and the rasboras purple with a copper or golden tint.
But on to the titular babies. [Read more…]
Birds from different places always seem so special. While for the American readers the following are probably quite ordinary, to me they’re wondrous exotic birds. Thank you, Anne, for these submissions.
American Robin
©Anne
Hooded Oriole (not Oreo!) ©Anne
©voyager, all rights reserved
©voyager, all rights reserved
Yesterday I forgot to attach 2 photos so here they are today, a bright yellow daffodil and a deep pink hyacinth. Jack and I have been walking around our neighbourhood this week because of the flowers. Wild flowers in the woods are a few days away from blooming, but the bulb flowers of spring are opening up all around us. So far, daffodils, hyacinth and a few crocuses are showing off, but I’m most anxious to see the tulips, especially in our local park. Every year our city changes the colour scheme and it’s always a surprise until the flowers are open. The tulips are up and in bud, but they’re taking their own sweet time to bloom. I’ve got my eye on them, though, so I’m hoping to get photos when they’re at their peak. In the meantime, Jack has started his seasonal allergy tablets so he can tolerate walking on grass without picking his feet until they bleed. He likes to walk around the blocks close to home occasionally so he can pick up his p-mail and leave his replies. It’s very important dog business.
Yesterday we saw a sac of frog eggs that Avalus had found in his botanical garden. Today he’s sent us another amphibian egg sac that he found in the same botanical garden. It’s not as far along as the previous sac from which tadpoles were hatching, but here the babies are all shaped like little, adorable commas.
Laich, ©Avalus, all rights reserved
Speaking of babies, make sure to check in tomorrow for the next installment of Full Fish Ahead. Avalus has lots of babies to show us and they couldn’t be any cuter.
©voyager, all rights reserved
I’m still recovering from my long day of waiting for my dear hubby to wake up from dental surgery, but today is bright and warm and the sunshine is doing wonders for my mood. Jack and I had a slow, pleasant walk around our own neighbourhood today and the flowers are starting to open and all the colours are finally coming back. My neighbourhood is also positively busy with life. I’ve seen butterflies and ladybugs, gnats and ants. The birds are busy building nests, finding food and singing their songs. The squirrels are digging, jumping, running and twitching their tails. Soon they will be harder to spot as the trees get fuzzier and leaf day approaches. Now is when the magic of spring becomes visible and my senses can take a long drink of the sweet outdoors. These are the flowers that are blooming today and the hyacinth is scenting the air with a sweet bouquet. It’s grand.
Avalus has found some frog spawn in his botanical gardens and he’s sharing it with us.
Kaulquappen. ©Avalus, all rights reserved
Thanks, Avalus. I’m glad all is well with these tadpoles. Marcus over at Stderr had his own adventure with frog spawn and it’s worth the read.
From Avalus who was lucky enough to witness the birth of a phantom midge.
Büschelmücke. ©Avalus, all rights reserved
©voyager, all rights reserved
Yesterday was a perfect spring day with sunshine and warmth and all things good. Today is also a perfect spring day, but of the drizzly, rainy kind that feeds all the growing things. I’m not sure the little growing things really need the rain because the ground is still pretty wet from the last rain we had plus the winter melt, but the trees are doing thirsty work making leaves so they’ll use up any extra left over water. I know that there are parts of the world who are struggling with a too dry spring season and I wish I could share. Here it’s been snow and rain and rain and rain for many weeks. It should settle down eventually and I can only hope the trees get enough wet now to protect them from the blistering heat to come. The weather has changed so drastically over the course of my lifetime that I just don’t know what to expect anymore. I do love the trees, though, and I hate to see them suffer so let it rain on my beauties while they grow their summer suits. I can wait for the sunshine.
This week we have gorgeous spring blossoms from Avalus. This is a Mirabelle Plum tree and it’s magnificent. The critter in the last photo seems to agree, although it is likely not enjoying the blossoms as much as it will the fruit to come.
Mirabelle ©Avalus, all rights reserved
Mirabelle (2) ©Avalus, all rights reserved
Plums ©Avalus, all rights reserved
Squirrel ©Avalus, all rights reserved
The Palomino Tree, ©voyager, all rights reserved
Our walk today was slow and short. To begin with it’s raining. There’s been a constant light rain since yesterday and every now and then it unexpectedly morphs into a heavy downpour that eats up the light and has you soaked in seconds. That’s what accounts for the shortness of our walk. The slowness is another matter, though. On rainy days I move like a sloth. The best way that I can explain it is that I feel like I’m moving through thick porridge. Even my hands give me trouble and simple things like doing up buttons and keyboarding seem to take forever. Today it’s worse than usual and I’ve got quite a bit of brain fog to go along with it. Let me tell you why.
Yesterday Mr. Voyager had sleep dentistry done. This is becoming a thing around my area. You’re given a light general anesthetic while they do fillings, etc. and it’s commonly used for children. Mr. V needed 2 root canals done plus several fillings so being asleep seemed like the best option. He’s had sleep dentistry done in the past and it went well so we weren’t expecting any problems. Ha, silly us. This time the Mr. wouldn’t wake up. He went under at 11 o’clock with about 2 hours worth of work to be done. At about 1:30 the nurse came to tell me everything went well, but they couldn’t rouse the big guy. Nothing to worry about they said, he’s just sleeping. OK, I thought, he didn’t sleep well the night before so let him snooze for a bit. Then 3 o’clock came and went. Then 4, then 5 and by the time 6 o’clock rolled around the office was closing up for the night and the nurse is still telling me not to worry, he’s just sleeping and they’ll stay with him as long as needed. Finally at 8 pm the Dr. himself walked my sweet, groggy husband out to the car and we made the 45 minute trip home. My sleeping beauty drowsed the whole way home, went to bed as soon as we got in the door and didn’t get up until 11 o’clock this morning. He says he’s feeling quite refreshed. Me, not so much.
I do most things standing up resting on my arms because sitting is uncomfortable. My desk is at standing height and so is my work table. Some days even lying down isn’t comfortable so I’ve learned how to sleep standing up. It’s because of the fibro plus an advancing scoliosis. Sitting causes nerve compression which sets off sciatica which sets of the fibro which makes voyager a tad cranky. Yesterday, I sat for hours. It was pouring rain outside so going for a walk wasn’t appealing and there was nowhere I could stand and rest my arms. I also kept thinking he’ll be awake soon and we can go home.
Jack’s day wasn’t much better. We left him with my brother-in-law who has a dog about the same size as Jack named Angus. Angus is a dick. He’s part German shepherd, part border collie and part Australian cattle dog and he’s smart as a whip, as fast as the wind and a bully. He taunts Jack and teases him with toys that he never shares. Yesterday was the longest that Jack has had to stay with Angus, almost 12 hours, and he was absolutely overjoyed to see us. I can see today that he’s exhausted so I don’t think Angus let him rest yesterday.
So, both of us slow today. Sorry about the prattling on, but I can’t find the brevity button in my brain. I hope you find some joy in whatever you do and have a good weekend.