Someone destroyed a mason bee condo that my wife and I volunteer to take care of in Ron McLean Park in SE Burnaby, BC.
Mason bees are beneficial pollinators and are no threat to anyone.
This is so sad. I cannot comprehend such wanton destruction. There was even a sign that explained the program, and that mason bees are no threat to anyone.
I am including the “food” category in this blog, because without pollinators like mason bees, we would have little or no fruit and many vegetables.
Gorgeous day today on the Duffy Lake Road loop. Burnaby > Whistler > Pemberton > Lillooet > Lytton > Hope > Burnaby.
I try to do this loop at least once every couple of years. You can do it fairly comfortably in a day, with several stops here and there along the way.
Duffy Lake
Seton Lake
Cool beetle near Cayoosh Creek
Spruce Sawyer, I’m told. That looks right.
Lots of big aquatic bugs in Cayoosh Creek
Google Maps has the trip at 580km and about 8 driving hours
Wow.
Yumi and I had a great time at the Nikkei Matsuri today, just up the hill from our place at Nikkei Place. Great music, displays, food, and culture, with a wonderful family-friendly crowd. It’s on tomorrow, too!
Here’s my Flickr set from today.
Several photographers were excited about this Green Heron, at Piper Spit at Burnaby Lake, in Burnaby, BC, today.
Wood ducks are gorgeous — males so flamboyant, females pretty, both sexes shy. Here’s one from Piper Spit at Burnaby Lake today. I had an errand to run in north Burnaby, so I brought the camera along for a stop at the lake on the way home.
I attended a one-day streamkeeper training course in North Vancouver hosted by the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation. We covered modules 2, 3, and 4 from the Streamkeepers Handbook.
I figured it was about time I had a refresher, since it must be around ten years ago that I originally took the training.
It was a lovely, sunny day, and a great group of people.
You can check out some photos I took in this Flickr album.
Caught two sockeye on the Fraser River today – the recreational daily limit. Large one just over 7-1/2 pounds, smaller one about a pound less. Cut the bigger one into two “roasts” and a couple of fillets, and the smaller one into cross-cut, bone-on-center, inch-thick steakettes for salting and freezing for Japanese-style broiled breakfast pieces. Thank you sockeye for your sustenance.
And thanks to my cousin who invited me out in his boat, rigged me up properly, and taught me how to bottom bounce for sockeye!
Choco the Cat had her annual checkup and vaccination today. Here I’ve just scooped her up and am heading for her carrier. She knows what’s coming and gives me a clingy “Daddy don’t put me in there” wriggle.
Choco was a Burnaby, BC, SPCA adult female rescue when we got her on August 12, 2005. Wow, that means it’s exactly nine years to the day since she stole our hearts : -). At the time, they thought she was about three years old, so she’s around 12 now, putting her at the human equivalent of around 64-65.
So the vet greeted her with a cheerful “she’s a senior citizen now!”
She’s still a wonderfully bouncy, active cat, though. Drinks lots of water, eats well, and in nine years of annual checkups, her weight has never varied by more than 1/2 a pound from around 7.5 pounds.
She looks bigger, but most of it is incredibly soft fur that she’s always kept impeccably clean and smelling wonderful. She’s had only one bath in her life with us, the day we brought her home from the pound, because in her initial stress she’d soiled herself.
She’s an indoor cat, only goes out on a harness for short stints of eating grass. She’s always been a bit afraid of the outdoors, and has never wanted to explore too far. We’ve always spent lots of time playing with her, so she can happily burn energy.
There are lots of photos of Choco and other pets on my old blog in the pets category.
On a foray into Richmond, BC, to visit several Asian supermarkets, Yumi and I ran into a display of huge, animated bugs at the Aberdeen Centre. It was great fun, enchanting kids and parents alike.
We had to take our picture by these “kabuto mushi” as they are known in Japan. They are very popular “pets” there.
The main stage viewed from the Shadbolt Centre with Deer Lake in the background.
A side view of the main stage from the shade. It was hot!
Gorgeous, hot, sunny day at Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival 2014. I saw the three acts I was most interested in — Miss Quincy and the Showdown, The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer, and Imelda May.
Miss Quincy and the Showdown. I vote for main stage next year for these powerful gals!