A Love Story

This post is about the misadventures of two rabbits in love. Destiny tore them apart but, do not worry, it ends well.

They are reunited at the end of the story and presumably are still happy together.

One of the two

A Mr McGregor Morning

Our garden is rabbit proof.  So you will understand that it was a shock, first thing this morning, to encounter Peter (or perhaps it was his sister, Flopsy) leisurely hopping through the garden sampling this and that.

There were even two rabbits, one off the two not at all afraid of me.

They are actually snowshoe hares, and as you can see, Flopsy still has a lot of her white winter coat, but the summer brown is on its way.

Eyes bigger than stomach

I was walking by the pond when I noticed that a goldfish had died and was floating among the water plants. I bent down to pick it up with the intentiion of putting it on the compost heap but, as I got closer, the dead fish quickly sank back down into the water!

A Vocal Spring

Version française

Ten days ago we were under snow.   Now many of the flowering plants that bloggers from warmer climates have been describing in the last month have rushed into bloom here too. However,  if blooms are important markers of the changing seasons, here and at this time of the year, they are not the most obvious.

A Most Unusual Break-In

Having been away for two weeks with no one staying in the house, you always feel a bit nervous when you come back, not knowing what to expect. Not that we ever have had any problems since we started living full time here at Roche Fleurie.  This time, however, there was an unpleasant surprise when we turned the corner and first saw the porch. The glass in a window just above the door was smashed.

Some berries will have to wait

Fortunately our black currants are still not ripe. The white currants and the gooseberries are almost ripe. However, ready or not, a few of them will have to wait as some birds, some kind of native sparrow, have decided to build their nest right in the middle of the berry patch. They are not interested in the berries, just in the extra protection afforded by a thorny gooseberry bush in the middle of an enclosed garden.

'Pink Champagne' white currants

A Short Stay in Paradise

The garden proper is supposed to be completely rabbit proof. No rabbit has managed to break in for a few years. However the gate is sometimes open for a while, and a hare (the only kind of rabbit we have around here - they turn white in winter not to be noticed on the snow) will sneak in and is quickly chased out.

Last week however, we noticed that not only one of them had been locked in, but he had become familiar enough with the garden to find hiding places and the moment you tried to chase him off towards and open door, he disappeared. He was not interested in leaving. He had a wonderful week or two. No predator could get to him, there were lots of young vegetables. Fortunately for us, his favorite meal is not lettuce, but the clover and grass growing on the small lawn (although he was developing a taste for Swiss Chard).

Like all holidays, it ended too early this morning when, like an illegal immigrant, he was escorted to the border, that is outside the garden fence. He did not seem to be afraid of humans, being used to seeing us plodding around. He knows we are quite slow. You can see he is not slow when you look at is hind leg.

Curiosities

This post is made up of several pictures taken in the last few days of unusual things, at least unusual for me. The first one is a picture of a tree frog. Friday morning, after a storm in the previous night, this tiny tree frog was blown onto a window pane of the porch door.  I think it is actually a Spring Peeper, as it has an X on its back. Their maximum size is 3cm, but they have quite a voice. They start singing in spring even before the snow is all gone.

Spring Peeper tree frog

Predators in the garden

 We have some interesting parasitic wasps that live around here, and August is a good month to see them. They are black wasps that attack other insects. They even attack spiders!

Update on Chipping Sparrows

One week ago I indicated that some Chipping sparrows had built a nest in the garden, in a spot where you have no choice but to walk right by it.

The mother produced four eggs and has been sitting most of the day for a week or so, taking a five or ten minute break every now and then, in order to feed herself and stretch her wings. This last weekend, the eggs hatched and now the babies seem to be doing well. Covered with fluffy down, they seem to sleep most of the time.

Chipping Sparrow chick

A Sparrow Settles in

A Chipping Sparrow has decided to make a nest in a spot in the garden where you cannot avoid walking right by.  On a arch covered with New Dawn roses that separates two parts of the garden, it has built a little cup, a bit more than a meter off the ground. I read that they are not particularly afraid of humans, and it seems so. Even when you walk right by, she stays on the nest and does not seem overly nervous.

The arch with the nest

Strawberry Warfare

The strawberries were beginning to ripen, and the raccoons were keeping as close an eye on them as I was myself, checking them every night (as footprints indicated). In an attempt to fool them, I stretched a light nylon net over the strawberry plants, stapled it to pieces of lumber all around the bed. Then on top of the net, I stapled some "row cover", the fleece-like fabric especially made for gardens. The idea of the row cover was to hide the berries from sight. I reasoned that perhaps if they did not see them, they would forget about them. It has worked much better than I expected.

Chomp, Chomp, Chomp in the Night

These last few nights, we have been wakened up a few times by a gnawing sound. The first few times I did not venture out to see what it was, because it was pitch dark, and, for all I knew, it might have been Ruthie, the local black bear. But the last time it happened, it was dawn, and there was already a fair bit of daylight, so I set out to investigate taking my camera along. It turned out that the racket was made by a porcupine chewing on a piece of plywood!

Helping a Lady Cross the Road

Turtles are not rare around here, but you see them only in June when they leave the safety of their swamps to head for mating grounds and to lay their eggs. They often end up on the road, where they are at great risk of being run over. This one had decided to cross the road.

Eastern Painted Turtle

Snakes in the Garden

There are seven different kinds of snakes in the area around the house and garden. With time I should be able to show you all of them, since we have seen them all over the years. The most common is the eastern garter snake. Although they are completely harmless, I do not like to have them around as they make me jump.

Eastern Garter Snake

Mulch & Hare

At this time of the year I do a lot of mulching with leaves. Usually our summers are hot and often dry, and mulch can make all the difference when water gets scare. This mulching also regulates the soil temperature and acts in large part as a soil conditioner and fertilizer once the leaves break down. For the strawberry plants below, the mulch also prevents the fruits getting splashed and sitting in mud when it rains.
I conclude the post with the picture of a hare.

Strawberry plants mulched with leaves

Ruthie

Ruthie is a black bear and Roche Fleurie is part of Ruthie’s domain.  You can see her below. The reason you are not getting a close up is because,  if I can help it, I don’t get close to Ruthie. We have both decided to leave a large berth to the other.

Ruthie the Black Bear

Potty about Pots

I have lots of pots scattered around the garden. They are very attractive, but require a fair bit of management. They have to be emptied and put away for the winter to make sure they are not broken by the frost. They have to be refilled in spring, and filling up the big ones can require a lot of “filling” which has to be bought or has to come from the garden.

Wild Life in the Garden

Being right next to a Canadian national park with very few people living around, we see a lot of wild life at Roche fleurie: bears, deer, Sandhill cranes, wild turkeys, squirrels, chipmunks, porcupines and raccoons. Besides these, there are the animals you very rarely see, but are always around, such as foxes and coyotes. Raccoons are the only major pest in the garden. We have rabbits, not the small eastern cottontails most common throughout southern Ontario, but the larger snowshoe hares with brown fur in summer that turns completely white in winter to blend in with the snow. They even blend in on patchy snow: in the fall their legs are the first part of their body to turn white, so they become invisible between patches of grass when there is snow on the ground.