The first snow seemed to arrive early this year. We found a little at Ross Farm in mid-November and then enough fell in Mahone Bay on November 27 to make some straggly snowmen. (Exactly one month before the first snowfall of 2015.) The first real snowstorm blew in on Monday December 12. Surprisingly school wasn’t … Continue reading
At the beginning of April we downloaded the iNaturalist app on my phone and have been slowly but steadily uploading our nature observations. (The website is much easier to browse through: iNaturalist.ca) So far, we’ve uploaded 57 plants and animals. Our “finds” include salamanders and spiders, lichen and fungi, trees and shrubs, beetles and bees… … Continue reading
During COVID-19 lockdown we’ve spotted more bird nests in the garden than at any time in the previous 10 years. Here they are — in order of discovery (all spotted within a month from mid-April to mid-May, 2020): Cardinal nest on the way into the wood was the first nest of the year. She laid … Continue reading
We’ve had a mild, sunny few weeks (give or take a few showery days) and we listened for peepers for a few nights before we heard them on April 13: a very average date for the last 10 years after a pretty middle-of-the-road winter. I need to do some more research on average daily temperature … Continue reading
March 22, 2020: The world has been rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic and we’ve been in quarantine for a week since Matt came home from a work trip overseas. Today the premier announced all provincial parks and all beaches are now closed and people will be fined $1000 for violating the social distancing laws. We … Continue reading
It’s only February 23 but temperatures are close to 10° C today and the sun is shining. The robins were out in full force yesterday — around 15 of them — grazing on the lawn. And today we watched a pair of nuthatches on the suet bird feeder outside the kitchen window. It feels like … Continue reading
October was glorious this year — warm and sunny and golden. This was Thanksgiving at Milford House: The good weather continued into late October and November. This view of the window box outside the back door was taken on November 5th! We don’t normally have flowers still in bloom in November. Dandelions were even sprouting … Continue reading
Summer finally arrived in July and since then the weather has been delightful. Warm and sunny and not too humid (except for a week at the end of July/early August when the humidex values were in the low 40s!). All the rain fell in the spring and since then it’s been dry — wells are … Continue reading
It was a cold, wet spring on the whole (and an especially wet May) and everything was a week or two late as a result. April 21, 2019, saw the first few pink blooms open on the magnolia, the first lilac buds and the rhubarb shoots just poking through. May 8 we spotted our first … Continue reading
The first peep of 2019 was April 14. It was a glorious warm and sunny day 15 degree day today following a mild, rainy day yesterday. No surprise at all that the peepers were out tonight. Today was also the day the daffodils unfurled and the crocuses bloomed on the front lawn. But no … Continue reading
We spent August to early December travelling in the Yukon and Europe and arrived home to very cold temperatures in December — unseasonably cold temperatures and it took us a few weeks to get used to it. It set the tone for the whole winter — cold and icy and not much snow. We had … Continue reading
