I just discovered that the BT remote for my VR headset (that I rarely use because it eventually makes me nauseated) can turn pages in FBReader! I’m one gooseneck tablet holder (ordered a few minutes ago, supposed to arrive Saturday) away from perfect ebook reading in bed!! I’m making my way through the surprisingly large collection of books by Fergus Hume. He was remarkably prolific, but I’m quite enjoying his stories, especially because they were written when people really did believe that women were “more sensitive” and people of Celtic origin very often possessed a “sixth sense”.

Well, prints, at least. I took this last week when it was freezing cold; the snow and birb tracks are gone now but the hungry fevvered freeloaders aren’t. I love my birbs even if they’re little ingrates who thank me for feeding them by dropping poop bombs all over my car.

I gave up on the old ceiling fan, and bought a new one. It’s a 52″,technically too big for the room, but I want a lot of air moving when I’m sleeping, and this thing can do it! I did the unskilled labour, and P did the mounting and wiring. We got it installed in not too much time, and it works very well. We’re a good team!

Every one of you dumb fuckers who refers to an adult dog as a puppy, or to any dog as a “doggo” or “pupper” gets downvoted. You could say your “doggo” saved a busload of nuns and children from certain death and I wouldn’t give a shit. You all suck, and I hope your “puppers” shit on your stupid faces. Fuck you.

I don’t remember when I took these, but I’ve been meaning to upload them for ages, just so the last photos of 2017’s was season would be complete.

Fat bunglebee on blue mistflower. 

Fat bunglebee on white aster, and I don’t care if people think they’re weedy flowers. Neither do bees. 

Psillopsis assassin. Found him on the screen and moved him to a better spot. 

On Saturday, we had decided to go and look at a 2015 RAV4 that I’d seen for sale at the Toyota dealership in Mt V. It looked nice, and low mileage, but it was red, so I figured P would want to wait and see if we could find something he liked better. Still, the price was reasonable, and the mileage low, so we figured it was at least worth a drive to Mt V.

We left precisely at noon (GradgeCam caught MB’s last drive away from Parview and if I remember, I’ll put it on YT), and returned a bit more than 3h later with…a 2015 Toyota RAV4 in Barcelona Red. I have four years of car payments, but more importantly, I have a very happy husband!

I took this earlier today because I thought he was heading out on his maiden “hitch up the team” voyage, but he was actually playing with all the cool stuff in Command Central.

Not much going on in the Bistro these days except for my continued career as Aquarius the Water Bearer because it fucking REFUSES to rain. On top of that, it’s been in the 90s for the last week, so I’ve been doing virtually nothing but hauling water, trying to keep the Bistro on life support, and keep enough flowers blooming to feed the remaining MLBs and the brazillions of flutter-guys that depend upon Parview’s Bistro.

I had roughly 75 Pipevine and Snakeroot Swallowtail cats this year, and I did my very best to make sure they got enough to eat, and found a safe place to pupate and spend the winter. Of the 75, I’ve actually found…one. When I was uncoiling the hose to water yet again, I noticed this little dude had chosen a potentially dangerous spot. I think I’m going to try to move him somewhere safe for the winter.

Again, while watering, I accidentally doused poor Cletus with chlorinated water. He didn’t seem fazed by it, but just in case, I quickly got a bottle of water and rinsed him off. He’s been singing off and on a bit lately; apparently Southern Leopard frogs sing in spring and in fall, but don’t have much to say in summer (leaving the stage open for Bully the Bullfrog, who has plenty to say!)

I went home at lunch to turn on the irrigation so I could have the hose free when I get home. P had mentioned the asters I got from J earlier this year, and for him to notice, they must be remarkable, indeed! These are in bloom, a few more NE asters are in bloom, a little boneset, goldenrod, and blue mistflower. After the god-awful dryness, I have no idea how, but I’m glad for the late-season nectar.

…and so are many, many flutter-guys, and bees (and other nectar-loving creatures)!

…and a beautiful Monarch boy. It looks like it’s his birthday, and I wonder whether he’s one of the two little ones I moved over to the honeyvine on the fence. Whatever his origin, he’s welcome!

My accomplishments over the weekend were very few, but I did finally get the poor Sorghastrum grass out of its pots. I also discovered that the small pot I’d first thought was sea oats and later thought must be Indian grass is, in fact…sideoats. I have absolutely no idea how I managed to put sideoats in the pot; I thought I’d put all of the sideoats seed in Sara-Flah’s Giant No-Mow Flowerbed (where they did absolutely nothing), but apparently, I did not because sideoats bears its seeds…on the side of the seedhead! Speaking of distinctive seedheads, the stuff I planted from seeds that were sold as sea oats is something other than sea oats…looks like plain old wheat or something. I stuck it in the ground over by the pond, but don’t care whether it lives or dies. Not so for my poor remaining actual northern sea oats plant; that has one seedhead on it, and I want it to LIVE (and reproduce). Anyway, I put the two pots of Indian grass in the ground out front. I threw some water-absorbing polymer crystals in with the soil; apparently, this grass does well in dry areas, but our “dry” is beyond ridiculous.

I normally don’t pick up the local fauna, but I was on my way to feed the freeloading birbs when I noticed a blob at the edge of the pond. I thought maybe it was a clump of plant roots that the trash pandas had fucked up (may the little bastards all drop dead), so I went over to look. The pattern on the carapace immediately gave it away as an Eastern box turtle, and I thought the poor thing had drowned, trying to get to water, so I picked it up, intending to give it a decent burial. “It”, however, was a he, and very much alive. Not terribly happy about being picked up, either (which is why I usually do not).

I took a couple of pictures of him, then let him go, and turned on the soaker hose around the pond to give him some damp soil. Poor turtles…I need to come up with a trash panda-proof way for them to get to water when it’s as dry as it’s been this summer (and early autumn…could we have some goddamned rain, please?) They fucking ruined my experimental box turtle pond (may the little bastards all drop dead), so I’ll have to think of something else for the turtles (may they all live and reproduce).

I didn’t take a lot of photos while I was on vacation, doing jack-shit, but I did make a few friends, and we’ve got some new kids!

I might have posted these already, but perhaps not. I watched the female deposit these on the snakeroot (video on YT if I remember to link it).

I checked on them one morning to discover that…they were hatching and ready to meet the world!

Just about everyone. From this batch, at least. Another female must have come by a few days later to deposit more eggs because I found a few more clumps that weren’t quite ready.

Moving around a little. I like their tiny noms in the leaf. <3

I can’t see them, but I saw their noms!

I also found more on the Dutchman’s pipe.

AAAAAAND…some on the tiny string of tomentosa pipevine that I got from J this spring. I think Pipevine Swallowtails are making a run for world domination…at least in Parview’s Bistro!

AAAAAAND…I was brushing spider webs away from the security cameras, and thought there was a paper wasp caught in a web. I reached to brush it off…and it backed up. It also wasn’t a paper wasp; it was a creature that looks like a praying mantis had an illicit affair with a paper wasp. The first mantisfly I have ever seen IRL! Super-cool little thing!

Not so rare as a mantisfly, and certainly not my first because I have hundreds of them this year, but a Painted Lady is always welcome.

Speaking of welcome, the baby Rose of Sharon that had volunteered by the Cliffie bush, and which I had suspected would be a baby Cliffie bush…isn’t! Grey Stick is dead. Long live Grey Stick! I don’t know whether it was a seed, or a piece of root, but I think root is more likely because poor Grey Stick didn’t bloom well over there at all. Anyway, I have a baby Grey Stick!

Hibiscus making a few more blooms before cold weather (now that it’s not so disgustingly hot).

Same goes for morning glory.

The rest of the jewelweed died in the heat/dryness, but this smart little cookie put its roots…into the pond. It’s alive and well, and attracting Mean Little Birbs, too!

EDIT: Finally remembering to link to the video on YT.

I took four vacation days, and combined with the long weekend, and the weekend before, I ended up with 10 days of slacking bliss. What did I accomplish? Not a whole lot (though I do have a ZoneMinder server working!). Was it worth it? Oh, yes! Will this have to be multiple posts because some is Bistro and some not? Yes. This is Bistro, though, because it’s for watching the local residents thereof.

This is actually pre-vacation (Ballon Fesk weekend), but it’s an awesome birthday present. P gave it to me early so that I’d still have some nice, warm weather to enjoy it. Cambridge Woodworking rocking chair! 600lb capacity (not sure what to think of that), treated pine, and it’ll probably outlast me. It didn’t take us long to assemble, and certainly made the noise/crowds of BF more bearable!

All done!

Onje preferred the box. A very big box.