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
Tagged with spring …
A soggy spring
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
Spring Peepers 2019
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
Winter 2018/19
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
Spring round-up 2018
Here are a few of my favourite “finds” this spring in Nova Scotia. Here’s a painted turtle laying her eggs on the side of the Dynamite Trail — photographed by a friend, Callen, who spotted her while we were out for an evening bike ride at the end of May near Oakland Commons Pond. They … Continue reading
Eggs of common Nova Scotia birds
The top three birds found in Nova Scotia are red-winged blackbirds, American robins and European starlings. I was curious what the nests and eggs looked like of these and other common garden birds, so I collected some images. Blue is a common theme: check out all these shades of blue! And speckles. But my favourites … Continue reading
June bugs
The June bugs are out in our part of Nova Scotia. Seems we’ve had an early spring this year. I haven’t kept track of the June bug dates with the same dedication as the spring peepers, but here’s what I’ve been able to find in the archives. 2013 – May 23 -(missing a few)- 2016 … Continue reading
Back-to-back robin broods!
The American robins have returned to their favourite nest just outside our back door. Although everything I’ve read says that robins build a new nest for every new brood, this is not the case at Casa Hall. They come back time and again to the same nest, and don’t appear to make any upgrades or … Continue reading
Pseudoscorpion
We found this awesome little spider on our bathroom wall tonight. It was only around 1–2 mm long and a rich brown colour. We thought it was a large tick at first (urgh), but soon noticed its large scorpion-like pincers. Sure enough, it turned out to be a pseudoscorpion or false scorpion, an ancient arachnid that … Continue reading
Noisy raccoons
Every night it seems I capture the nocturnal wanderings of our locals raccoons on the trail cam. So I know they are out there somewhere, sleeping, as we walk through the woods to school and back. But we don’t see them very often during the day. Today, Lily spotted a large one walking up the … Continue reading
witches whiskers 