Black Squirrels

As mentioned in a comment to the last post, we definitely live in the land of blood-sucking critters! Leeches, ticks, mosquitoes, gnats, deer flies, and much more. However, we also live where the native squirrel is gothic black. That's right, our neighborhood squirrels are Black Squirrels. Their neighbors are little red squirrels. To be honest, the first few times I saw the black squirrels it was a little unnerving - they are awesomely similar to shadows on trees. I imagine this is a successful adaptation to plentiful predators in a dense forest, but coming from areas with no black squirrels it took some getting used to. According to Wikipedia (I know, not always the most accurate), black squirrels are native to North America, having been here pre-European conquest; they are a subgroup of grey squirrels. Sounds plausible, but I don't know how accurate.

How I Spent My Summer

We convinced the girls to get in and sit in a canoe this summer on our most recent camping trip. From Tata's vantage point:

I wish i could post more of them surviving our completely uneventful paddling trip, but because of the tandem, high-pitched screaming on this quiet lake we only managed to take one picture. Nugget Lake also has a thriving leech population.





At our house we have a sweet frog and toad population. There is at least one tree frog that regularly takes naps in our rain gauge. I love this little frog and talk to it a lot when I pass it on my way from the back door to the steps down to the garden during the day. Unfortunately we haven't yet upgraded our digital camera and close-ups are blurry. But you can get a feel for how cute this little frog is here:


I wonder if frogs eat leeches?












And yes, we had a really fun housewarming/40th birthday party a couple weekends ago. There was Border Morris dancing with torches, tons of wonderful comments about the magical, fairy-like atmosphere of our house and the woods into which it is nestled, and good drink. Plus very out-of-town overnight guests. It's been so long since we've had guests I had forgotten what fun it is. So, get on out here and spend the night! The girls would especially find you entertaining.

And FLC begins again tomorrow. None too soon for Mama!