Knotilus Daily Pond

theneohippy (63)in #nature • 2 years ago

Good day to all of you!!

Check out this beautiful sunset!

😻

The pond is frozen over yet again, and while this freeze probably won’t last very long, this week looks like mainly low temperatures so I might get a chance to walk or skate along the frozen water again before spring!

I’ve been slowing completing a few paintings, not really happy with the way they look right now which often gets me kind of stuck.

I started another macrame piece I’m super excited about though!

It’s coming along and just about finished now. I’ll pop it into the shop soon 🙂

I love the colours on this piece! I need to be using more colours for sure, they make me happy 🙂 and I need to add all the external happy I can get when I’m living through the winter months!

I’ve been trying to correctly identify the birch trees I have here. I’ve been interested in tapping them this spring for the birch water and possibly try and make syrup too!

I am thinking they’re yellow birch. I know those do grow in this area, the other two types that grow here naturally are mountain white birch and white birch, and mine look like neither of those, of that I’m quite sure.

Some of them have so much red and copper tones they look like Chinese red birch, but no one planted those here and they’re certainly not a native species to the area, so I’m doubtful that’s what they are.

So I’m loosely calling them yellow birch for now and I’ll keep researching and see what else I can learn. Apparently the time frame for safely tapping birch trees without damaging the trees is as little as a week or so. You want to tap them just as the buds are forming in very early spring, when the trees have excess water flowing through them. If you tap too much or at the wrong time you can really harm the tree, and I certainly don’t want to do that!

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I posted about this old piece from a couple years ago. The photograph is one I took at the old farm outside Edmonton Alberta, back around 2017 or 2018. This species, along with several other similar jumping spiders were plentiful that year and made for some super interesting shots!

I believe this type is a Bold Jumping Spider, or Phidippus audax. Another common type in the area is the Phidippus johnsoni or red backed jumping spiders. Both were plentiful that year and while only one has “bold” in their common name I can assure you both are quite friendly and would hop up on the camera, or my shoulder or legs as I was filming. While I’m not super scared of any bugs, I was not a fan of this and definitely shrieked a few times while taking the pictures! 😂

Either way, he made for a cute painting, and I guess it’s something I can add to the short list of things I’ll miss about living on the prairies.

There is a type of very small jumping spider here that I’ve noticed so far, and the big black beach spiders here in Newfoundland are very similar to the species that lived in the basement of the Edmonton house, some type of wolf spider looking species.

Plus the house here in NL has TONS of orb spiders on the outside of the house, they catch thousands of “dandy long legs” (people here often use that name to reference both Opiliones and Crane flies).

So I still have plenty of arachnid friends around to keep me company! 🙂

I love the natural world.

There’s not many creatures that gross me out or frighten me, and aside from mosquitoes and the little biting midges that annoy me in summer, there’s nothing I’ll kill on sight for no reason.

There is beauty in the very tiny creatures that we live amongst, and if you take the time to look around you, you’ll find it too ❤️

Much love and peace to you!

Now for the memes!

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Knotilus daily pond is a series of photos of the pond near my home, some bloggery about the homestead and the creations, it’s then finished off with some choice memes.

Some days here are breathtaking, others will be gray and dull, I’m happy to share the different looks of the pond all year long 🙂