Despite the cold long winter the Humming birds have arrived on the 13th May this year. These little Ruby Throated males are amazing to watch. It still seems so strange to be living in Canada and seeing tiny humming birds hovering around drinking not nectar, but pine sap and Kathryn's feeder with its sugar syrup mixture at the moment (nectar later). Below is a picture of one, nice eh?

However they have been accompanied with the other hovering menace, the MOSQUITO.

Today the mosquitos hatched, and as I sat on the deck I notice a formation of "bombers" advancing over the lawn towards me. I quickly decided to slip back inside and prepare for WAR!

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Tomorrow it is chemical warfare day. We have the 'Deep Woods Off' spray and Skintastic, for the more sensitive souls in the house(i.e. everyone except me). I have also gone a step further, and armed us with the ULTIMATE in biting fly warfare. I brought one of those MegaCatch trap things at around $299 and turned it on today. I will keep you updated on the progress of the war.

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Rufus the Raccoon visited  (Yes I know it's a pest but the girls insist on naming everything that appears in the garden). Gemma has some photos but I don't have access to them at the moment so you have to make do with some snaps of Rufus from last sept/oct.

(I have no idea if they are the same Raccoon, but they are all called Rufus, or Mrs Rufus if two appear at the same time)

This looks like a missus raccoon to me?