Wonderful Nature - Thread

[BlackCurtains]

HoM, I hope the wasp problem solves itself soon!

[Heart Of Midnight]

As soon as I was able to boast that the wasps had stopped coming downstairs, now they have gotten there again from somewhere. 
Recently one crawled at the top of the stairs, on the floor in the dark! Fortunately, the cats were sleeping elsewhere and my husband noticed it. Before this one wasp was "sitting" in the downstairs toilet. It was cleaning its antennas.
I still feel bad about killing them, but I have to do it so that they don't sting my cats.  A beautiful and interesting insect.

[Heart Of Midnight]

It's freezing outside! Lovely! The thermometer shows -2 °C.  I've been waiting for the frosts so much and at night like this it's the best. Not just because of the wasps, but because I love it! It should also be freezing on the night between Monday and Tuesday.

I went outside to admire the starry sky and trample among the icy leaves.

[Artemesia's Garden]

It's freezing outside! Lovely! The thermometer shows -2 °C.  I've been waiting for the frosts so much and at night like this it's the best. Not just because of the wasps, but because I love it! It should also be freezing on the night between Monday and Tuesday.

I went outside to admire the starry sky and trample among the icy leaves.

That sounds so perfect! How lovely. The magnolia tree in our garden has dropped around half of it's leaves now. But the oak trees in the spinney and the cherry trees are still fairly green, so I guess we are still waiting for a real frost.

[Heart Of Midnight]

That sounds so perfect! How lovely. The magnolia tree in our garden has dropped around half of it's leaves now. But the oak trees in the spinney and the cherry trees are still fairly green, so I guess we are still waiting for a real frost.

That joy didn't last long!  The temperatures have been +10 °C again. Even at night time. But it's been raining almost every day and I like that. There is already snow in northern Finland, but here in the south we will have to wait a long time for it.

The wasps have not been seen outside the house anymore, but today one flew indoors again. 

A couple of days ago we had a real scare, because one of my cats had caught a wasp and carried it in his mouth to the kitchen! The cat dropped the creature from its mouth to the floor, then shook its head and ran away. I killed that creature with a fly swatter.
I screamed in panic to my mother; "Now that wasp stung Hector in the mouth!" The cat was hiding on top of the wardrobe and licking its lips. I got the cat in my arms and mom gave me half a hydrocortisone tablet. I managed to give it to Hector and he swallowed it well! I've never once had to medicate that cat, it's a wonder that it was successful on the first try!
We searched the phone for the number of an on-call veterinary clinic, but luckily we never had to call them because nothing serious happened to the cat. Its face or mouth did not swell and breathing was normal. After a few hours, it continued its normal cat life again.
I believe that the wasp might have tried to sting the cat in its mouth, but it didn't quite succeed. Or it was biting with its jaws, its stick-like feet were tickling, or it just tasted really bad to Hector, which made it shake its head and lick its lips.

[BlackCurtains]

I'm so glad Hector was okay! Good job giving him the medication. Giving meds to cats is hard.

The same thing here happened with the weather. It was nice and cold at night and during the day it was cool, but then the temps went back up to the high 80s and I had to close my windows and put the AC back on.


This morning after I fed Aster I sat down at my desk. It was still semi-dark outside. I keep my blinds halfway up in the living room and that window faces the street. I was looking out the window and I thought I saw a squirrel in the road. It wasn't moving, but looked like it was sitting up. I thought it had been hit by a car and was stunned. I was going to go out and see it and try to help. That's when I got up and closer to the window and noticed it was just a stain on the road 

I took a picture. You can see how I thought it was a squirrel, right?!

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[Heart Of Midnight]

Yes, it does look a bit like a squirrel.  At least if you look quickly and it's dark.

---

We got a victory over the wasps!  They are finally dead!
On the last day of October, one large wasp flew outside the kitchen window. I believe it was the queen. It was there for a while until it flew away, perhaps to look for its wintering place.
It's already quiet inside the house too, but I'll let the tapes stay in place until probably next year. In January I could rip them off.
Maybe now we could take it easy and finally go to the toilet in peace, and not have to constantly look at our feet and other places where those creatures liked to be. And there is no need to run after the cats to investigate what they have found again.

[BlackCurtains]

Yay to no more wasps!

[Heart Of Midnight]

  The first snow! It arrived at night on the 5th of November. In the morning it was already gone. Fortunately, I went to take a few pictures and stand outside for a while enjoying the snow.

(My Halloween string of lights got a snow coating.)
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[BlackCurtains]

Oh wow. I really love that last picture

[Heart Of Midnight]

It's snowing and it was snowing all day Wednesday! Snowfall will continue today, Thursday and maybe even Friday!

Last night I admired the hare that came to the bird feeding place to see if there was anything to eat on the ground.

[Artemesia's Garden]

Beautiful photos HoM!

We have had some tree work done today, a willow and a yew. They are both native species here so I thought I would mention them. They are the last two trees we needed to work on and were too big for us to deal with.

The willow is an osier willow, cracked into three substantial and (now) equal sized trunks which produce whips every year. We had the most recent large trunk pollarded to 6ft so we can still collect the whips and use them to make plant supports etc. It had hornets in it this year so hopefully they won't come back again (sorry hornets). The yew is an Irish yew so is upright in form and possibly slightly more golden in colour. It split due to storm damage so we had the main trunk cut back to about 3ft to regenerate from a clean cut. It's already sprouting from the bottom and sides so I'm sure it will be great in a few years.

[BlackCurtains]

I can hear the racoon having a fit I sounds like he's fighting but I don't hear another animal. Maybe they put out a cage and trapped him and he's freaking out. I don't know, I can't see anything since it's 1am. I don't like the sounds he's making. It doesn't sound good

edit: I don't see a trap. But the way into the woody area slopes down so maybe there is one in there. I need to get my mail and I'll take a closer look.

[Heart Of Midnight]

Artemesia's Garden, thank you.
On Saturday, I took new snow pictures from the yard. It's snowed a lot! Fortunately, it's light snow, so it won't affect the electricity, and at least it won't damage the trees yet. Then we would probably be in trouble if the thermometer showed plus degrees!

BC, Did you find any signs of a struggle or a trap? 
In Finland, the raccoon dog doesn't have a beautiful voice (grunts, whines, howls, doesn't bark) and it is a relative of the raccoon, so I would think that they certainly have a similar voice.

In my old place of residence, in the countryside, they used to visit our bird feeder to eat the seeds that fell on the ground, even in winter, although they usually hibernate. In the summer, the raccoon dog couple even brought their little puppies to our yard to eat old fallen seeds and the sprouts that grow from them.  Such cute furballs! (Even though they are harmful animals for Finnish nature.) While following them, we could hear a lot of different sounds that were like something from a horror movie!  If I remember, I can post pictures of them here sometime.

[BlackCurtains]

I didn't see a trap when I checked my mail but there isn't garbage strewn about the mailbox center anymore, so maybe he was trapped and they took him away by the time I went out. I haven't heard anything since. I hope he was released in a nice area.

The racoons in Florida are very small compared to their northern brethren, as are a lot of common animals. The cows here are small too, though there is a small farm and they have a longhorn bull and he's giant

I would love to see a picture of the racoon dogs! I think they're so cute