pixelazy Not sure what this little #insect is (some kind a #spider from the leg count) but she was on the raspberry bushes and posed for a half a second for a #macro before hopping into the shadows.

8r4d They say never pick a fight with a #magpie but how about a family of five who are trying to eat your #garden and built a nest in the neighbours tree? I enlisted a small army to help. I thought I’d put my art skills to the test and painted eyes on a variety of objects like rocks, wood discs, and clay pots in an attempt to give the little birds the creeps when they contemplate their next visit. Will it work? Who knows. The worst case scenario is that I have a dozen little garden critters painted in the yard. Best case, my carrots might actually make it to harvest.

pixelazy I think maybe that today is the last day of #spring so it might be worth a new #sky shot with a bit of #sunset glow, huh?

gamerdad About a year ago the digital version of this 1990s drama-comedy came out on Apple iTunes, but I’ve been reluctant to purchase it at full price not quite sure of if I want to sit down and watch all 110 episodes of this quirky series I remember enjoying as a teenager. Luckily I located a copy at the local library, though only the first season and (due to my forgetting that it finally came up on my reservation list and there are a half dozen people behind me waiting for it so I can’t renew it) I only have a couple days to watch the first 8 episodes that was the first season before I need to return it. I sat down this evening and check off episode one, the pilot, and yeah… I can see myself making the effort. For a few more eps at least.

adventuredog Another #spring day sitting by the lake in the morning listening to #birdsong as #summer just hours away creeps into view.

gamerdad I think I remember why I played this game so much and for so long: it has a way of sucking you into that #justonemoreturn mentality. You will be be sitting there trying to accomplish some particular micro-task, working on putting a particular structure into a city or build a military unit or to move that group of explorers to the other side of the plot of land so that you can plan your next move, but the thing is that you are doing dozens of those little micro-tasks, not sequentially but in sort of this staggered overlap so that you’ve always—always—got just a couple turns until the next bit of action happens. There’s never a natural pause. That might be a long way of saying that I played this for like two hours this afternoon tho I only really set my mind to open it up for a few minutes. *sigh*

castironguy I may have decided that eating a bowl of supremely sour #haskapberry was a little bit of a waste if we wouldn’t actually enjoy them, so instead I bought some pectin and made a single jar of #jam

8r4d The outdoor chores payed out this week as I was doing some minor #yardwork trimming the shrubs in our front yard. A bit of paper caught my eye and it turned out to be a bit of #cash under the hedges. This five dollar bill has seen better days and apparently some little animal had a snack leaving about only four bucks behind in the mess, quite a feat considering that these modern bills are basically sheets of plastic. I did some online research and learned I can send this in to the Bank of Canada to have it replaced (as I’m sure it wont pass muster at the local Starbucks) but by the time I do the paperwork (yeah, really) then spend the stamp and wait the eight weeks for the government to do its thing, it might be more interesting just to keep the bill as a souvenir.

gamerdad I probably own this game on a couple other platforms but it is honestly one of those awesome titles that doesn’t hurt to keep handy for when one needs to dive deep into a game zen state. So when the platinum edition showed up on sale on #ps5 (well, technically ps4) this week for like 80% off I thought I should add it to my library and (of course) play a few hours. I’ve been playing Civ since version 1 and I’ve killed so many hours of my life building and defending cities that I should probably call myself a Civ veteran, but I’ll keep things updated as I dabble in a console version of this classic for the first time ever.

castironguy It was at least a dozen years ago when I first planted a pair of #haskapberry bushes in the backyard #garden and in that time the productivity of the crops has varied widely. Often we miss the harvest entirely and the birds chomp down on these tart little berries. This year I spotted a few purple glorbs catching the afternoon sunlight and realized that there was a small bounty of berries ready to be picked. These are rare little fruits that I’m sure have some storied history and lineage dating back to how they found their way into my yard, and I know it has something to do with adaptive breeding at the University one province to the east, but beyond that they are rarely anything more for us than bird food. Not this year, I guess.

8r4d The new #keyboard arrived in the mail sometime this morning after a string of email notifications that I’d signed up for last week when I got the original shipping notice. So that’s that then. I’m one of those guys with a fancy retro keyboard and no more excuses not to get lots and lot of words onto paper. I think I’ll be heading over to a cafe of some sort this afternoon just simply to make up for lost time and get some #writing done. One of the nicer features of this device, and I’m sure it is pretty much standard on any old keyboard these days anyways, is the multi-device functionality. That means with the press of a key or two I can flip between typing on my iPad (serious writing) and typing on my phone (for text like this.) I could go through a lot of rigamorole with the old keyboard unpairing it, repairing it and then back and forth that way, but it was a real big pain. It may not be something I ever use, or it could be exactly what i needed to get some more extensive posts going on here. Who can say? [read more...]

pixelazy Wild #flower pics in the dog park