Red the travelling Dal visits Canada

[Lejays17]

OOh! that's so exciting about the butterflies hatching while Red was there to see them off.

Ahh, so not breeding as such, but helping out nature to get them started okay. Still very cool! And then you get the "not=fun" bit of nature happening with the %&%$# deer eating the gorgeous flowers.
we did some gardening today, and there was a magpie hanging out in the yard displaying no fear of us doing what we were doing - it came quite close to us and was poking around the cut branches & pulled out grass.

The foggy beach shots are very atmospheric, delightfully creepy and beautiful at the same time. and yay for minimal mozzies at the time too.

[davidd]

That first pic of the lighthouse through the fog had me muttering out loud, "I want to be there! I want to be there!"

Red is just having too much fun! Scenery and science and more scenery and even more science! Ideal vacation in my book!

"Sophisticated flight cage" made me laugh. But it sounds like it has served its purpose for many a generation of butterflies!

How the heck do you "tag" a butterfly without injuring it?

The "I'm not allowed to drive at night" also had me laughing.

This has been a fun-filled adventure filled with laughs! What a great visit Red is having with you!

I want to come visit there. When will you be opening a vacation rental?

(When will travel be allowed again???)

[Alliecat]

Ugh, I gotta do these in smaller batches.  Having to change all the sizes between Dal House's "small" requirement and here, takes forEVER.  And even when you tell Flickr to sort chronologically, it still mixes them up.  >sigh<

I’ve heard that butterflies are naturally attracted to bright colours, so that may be why they preferred Red’s hair to her hands. What are the pretty bright red flowers?

They're gladioli.  
The hatchlings have an instinct to climb, until they reach something they can hang onto easily.  So if I put them on a doll's hands, or shirt, they'll inevitably climb into her hair.

...so not breeding as such, but helping out nature to get them started okay.

Yes, they are endangered, or threatened, or whatever "official" category they've been given now... many years ago when a bunch of neighbours in Ontario tried to stop the trashing and housebuilding-on of a lovely little nature area, Monarchs weren't considered threatened enough for anyone to care that the area was also a nursery for many caterpillars.  I like to try to give them as good a start as possible.  In the garden, they may fall prey to spiders, parasitic wasps, or viruses.  Not to say we don't have casualties in the jars too, which always makes me feel really bad.  But I figure a few more might survive than if they were all outside.

How the heck do you "tag" a butterfly without injuring it?
I want to come visit there. When will you be opening a vacation rental?
(When will travel be allowed again???)

Well, for what it's worth, they are now allowing in suitably-poked-and-papered travellers....  I'm not gonna say anything more on the general state of travel and other things...  

Tagging butterflies.... a sticker.  I tagged for Fred Urquhart's program for many years growing up.  One of his grad students discovered the wintering site in Mexico.  I got a whole whack of stickers from him every year, as did many others, which was what helped delineate the migration routes.  You rubbed the scales off the largest panel of the forewing, on both sides, and folded the teeny sticker over the front.  They worked really well.  I even patched broken wing vanes with them on occasion when they got injured in a box or crimped in the net.  Monarch Watch in Kansas is doing sticker-tagging, but it's a big round thing that goes on the hindwing and, when I tried them, they didn't stick.  If I recall, as well as having to buy them, they were only good for one year.  Good luck guessing how many you should buy.  And after finding 1 or 2 in my yard after I launched the butterflies, I didn't get any more.  Too bad... it was really fun chasing butterflies as an adult for Science.  


------------------------------------------------------------------------


"Hi everyone!  Thanks for reading my adventures in Canada.  We've got that vacation mood... where you want to pack in as much as you can because you feel the time passing.
"Today we went lighthouse-ing.  It was a beautiful day (except for mosquitoes).  Some of these pictures would've been a lot prettier if some idiot* hadn't forgotten the polarizer.  That's what you get for not taking the whole camera bag.  Anyway, Alliecat took a ton of pictures again, so here they are."

*not me



"This is the lighthouse we saw the other night.  It's called Swallowtail and is the best known on the island."






"The boardwalk was reconstructed as it would have been long ago.  The lighthouse and keeper's house have been extensively restored."



"Alliecat says I was on that.  Too bad I was in a box."






"I borrowed a camera."



"The old keeper's house."






" "



"You can see lots of seabirds and whales here."






"We were bummed that the tower wasn't open today.  I really wanted to go to the top.  Alliecat knows people she should have called....
"Anyway, the lighthouse was built in 1859 in response to a shipwreck nearby in which 21 sailors drowned.  It had lighthouse keepers until 1986 when it was de-staffed and automated."






"Helllooooooo...."



"O Ca- na- da....."



"There are 4 ferry round-trips a day with one boat year-round, and three extra round-trips with a second boat in the summer."



"...and it's an hour and a half each way, so going anywhere is never spontaneous."






"This cupola was airlifted by Coast Guard helicopter to here from another island in 2015 and Alliecat was here to watch."



"Lighthouse-keeping could be dangerous, if not from weather, then from accidents.  This lighthouse keeper's wife was killed trying to light the lantern in 1936 when it caught fire... and so did she."






"I was too short to reach the mallet to ring the bell.  (It weighs 2000 pounds!)  Someone asked what I was doing.  He wanted to know if travel dolls are like geocaching.  Um.... no.  Don't leave me in the middle of nowhere for someone to find!"



"Glad I'm getting a ride up these 54 steps!"



"Herring swimming near shore are diverted by the net curtain into the circular part of the weir, and from there they're basically vacuumed out.  This is low tide."



"Another lighthouse!"



"This one is locally called 'The Whistle', properly 'Long Eddy'.  It used to have a steam-driven fog whistle, and was built in 1874."



"This deck is brand new and will have a memorial plaque for a lady who spearheaded a lot of the restoration."






"Maine is 7 miles away across the channel."



"Tourists as well as locals come here for sunset (the normal kind... but maybe Sunsette could put on a show?).  We left when it got too people-y."





Red at Whistle by Alliecat09, on Flickr

[Elfy]

More than one lighthouse? How totally cool is that! Amelia, who has been to lighthouses here before s agrees that the stairs are always difficult for dolls to navigate, and she’s a Pullip, so taller than Red. Not only was she in a box in the ferry, she was in one with a spider.

[Lejays17]

All the lighthouses are so cool. We need to go visiting our ones this summer again. I particularly liked the one with Red holding the lighthouse in her hands.
We haven’t tried that particular shot before.

And thanks for the info on how you tag butterflies, it’s very interesting.

[davidd]

Does the lighthouse tour mean you have recovered from your painting injury?

Okay, the one with Red "holding" the miniature lighthouse is too funny! Shots like that are challenging enough to manage with full-sized people! That was rather brilliant! I'm sure the photographer agrees!

On foggy nights, can you hear multiple fog signals from your house? If so... one more reason why you live in the Best Place In The World™.

"The Whistle" looks compact enough that constructing a replica in Pullip Scale might not be a completely unreasonable project.

Was the stand-alone cupola rescued from the lighthouse (Ross Island, wasn't it?) that collapsed a few years ago?

[Loona]

Ah, the things you miss out on when you leave for holidays! But it's awesome to come back to a ton of pictures, especially ones like these! Red looks like she's having a great time with you! How long she'll stay?

All the beach photos are awesome - the beach is always a great place to be, regardless of the weather (ok, maybe with the exception of too heavy storms, when it is still coo, but can get dangerous). I really like the lighthouses too, and I'm glad your injury didn't hold you back from making the trip in the end. I hope you are healing properly!

The library looks like an awesome place to work at - and to be, especially for children and young souls. I also don't remember having such awesome stuff in our local libraries, but, then again, when I was a kid we didn't yet have internet and all this overwhelming technology to distract us from reading.

All the monarch pictures make me wish we also had them around - they look wonderful in all 3 forms they have! Alas, they aren't found here, I've only ever seen some in a butterfly house in Germany. Butterflies in general no longer seem to be that common here anymore sadly, which is strange because just a few kilometres and a border to the west, in Austria, there's a much bigger variety of them. I wonder what the difference might be... Nymphalis io, a species that used to be common-ish in my childhood, is still pretty common there, gathering in big-ish groups around certain blooming bushes, even in cities, is seldom seen here anymore, even in nature. I was squeeing at the first chrysalis picture, and the husband came over to my desk to see what was causing it. He said they look like peppers that Red is harvesting

[Alliecat]

More than one lighthouse?

3 here, 4 more on nearby small islands, others elsewhere along the shorelines.  Only 1 is still staffed.  Kind of sad that the longtime tradition is gone.  I've really enjoyed talks by former lightkeepers at the museum.

I particularly liked the one with Red holding the lighthouse in her hands.
We haven’t tried that particular shot before.

I look forward to your version on your next lighthouse trip!

Does the lighthouse tour mean you have recovered from your painting injury?

Okay, the one with Red "holding" the miniature lighthouse is too funny! ... That was rather brilliant! I'm sure the photographer agrees!

On foggy nights, can you hear multiple fog signals from your house?

"The Whistle" looks compact enough that constructing a replica in Pullip Scale might not be a completely unreasonable project.

Was the stand-alone cupola rescued from the lighthouse (Ross Island, wasn't it?) that collapsed a few years ago?

No  It was probably more time on my feet than I should have had.  Waiting to see whether my toenail is going to come off

Thank you.  Yes, she does

Yup.  Two.

That would be fun!  You should do it!

Nope.  This one came from Duck Island.  The remains of the collapsed one, which were pretty decrepit, were incorporated into a replica on the museum grounds.  I was on the ex!pedition to retrieve the pieces.

Ah, the things you miss out on when you leave for holidays! ..

Red is here for just 3 weeks.  Glad you enjoyed the butterfly pix.  Nymphalis io is really pretty!  Too bad you don't see many anymore.  Is there a lot of pesticide spraying, or destruction of wildflowers or other habitat?
... Wait... you got HOLIDAYS????


...

Augh... so much for "smaller batches".... but when I get going taking pictures..... >shrug<

------------------------------------------------------

"We did another tour!  Alliecat's August home improvement plans got scuttled, so she says she might as well have a mental-health week and drive me around."






"It's almost the right size for me."



"The 'haulup' is where fishermen work on their boats."









"Hmm.. which one should I pick?   ... Oh, never mind, the crew here might be right about sailboats."



"This is the ferry to a neighbouring island."



"Another beach!"






"Fog drifts in off the water on hot days."






"Made my mark too."



"This 'whale' climbing thing is in a new playground on the beach."



"Guess this is as close as I'm going to get to a whale."



"Lobster traps come in lots of colours."



"I like the colour of that building..."



"One finds traps and buoys piled all over.  Each fisherman has a different 'mark' -- the paint combination -- on his buoys."



"This mark used to belong to an old fisherman whom Alliecat did some fisheries-department observing with.  And once upon a time, she and some other observers helped paint buoys.  She said these look pretty rough now."



"Another lighthouse!"



"This one is at the southern tip of the island.  It's not super photogenic, but the cliffs are fabulous."



"Oh poop.  Alliecat said it would probably be foggy down here."






"So, does this mean we get to come back another day?"



"See the fog halo behind me?"



"Some historical stuff.  A tiny island nearby, that we can't see in the fog, is in territory disputed by both Canada and the USA.  Because of various treaties, there is a 'grey area' around it where both countries fish.  But the lighthouse is staffed by Canadians, to keep Canada's claim on the island."



"Spot me in the picture!"


"Another beach, but we didn't hike down cos of Alliecat's toe."



"I found a lobster!!"

[Elfy]

Red’s becoming quite the beach comber. I love her shirt. Will she share the lobster with the others?

[Lejays17]

Red really looks like she’s having a great time. And seeing so much stuff!

I like the shots of her on the whale & with the lobster. And the fog on a hot day is so weird to think of.

[davidd]

You were on the ex-pedition to retrieve the pieces?!? When they had to try to dig parts out of the sand on the beach?

You have done so many amazingly cool and exciting things!

And now you're telling us about being a fisheries observer!

You're like, "girl scientist" and "girl reporter" and "girl adventurer"... oh, and "girl sailor" all rolled in to one!

What was the name of the movie I watched recently? Oh... right: Joan Lowell: Adventure Girl! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_Girl

There needs to be a sequel: Alliecat, Sunsette, and Friends: Adventure Girls!

Are those spectacular cliffs on your island? They look hundreds of feet high! I have been picturing the island as being relatively flat. Apparently that is not the case.

(300 foot cliffs, so sez Wikipedia. Wow! Cool!)

The small lighthouse is simple but rather cute!

[Alliecat]

I love her shirt. Will she share the lobster with the others?

She says thank you, and no, she didn't bring it home.  It wouldn't fit in the car  

And the fog on a hot day is so weird to think of.

Yeah, different kind of fog on those days.  Warm air moves over cold water and the moisture in it condenses in a layer over the water.  So on hot days there may be a fog cloud sitting out on the water but not on land.  The southern end of the island is foggier (it's narrower; there's more land to dissipate or raise the fog as you go north).  The fog clouds come creeping up the shoreline in the evenings.  It can make for some weird and sometimes cool effects.

You were on the ex-pedition to retrieve the pieces?!? When they had to try to dig parts out of the sand on the beach?
What was the name of the movie I watched recently? Oh... right: Joan Lowell: Adventure Girl!

Ehh.  Sometimes it feels like the fun things in my life have been works of fiction too...  Few and far between, sometimes.  And now I'm doing a whole lotta nuthin again
The lighthouse parts didn't really have to be dug up; they were just scattered around on the shore.  The heavier pieces had to be secured so they wouldn't wash away before a truck could get in to remove them once the ground froze because the track was too soft otherwise.
And yes, up to 300' western cliffs, sloping down to shore on the east side.
Also, nobody looks good in oversized oilclothes splattered with fish guts and lobster bait. Sometimes you see interesting things, but it's long days and hard work.

------------------------------------------------


"We visited a harbour on the weekend.  Yay, Coast Guard."



"Pouting cos she wouldn't let me sit up on the edge.  Anyway, more lobster boats."



"We thought people might like to see the difference between low tide..."



"...and high tide.  The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world.  Here it ranges up to 29 feet."



"Alliecat's beach at high tide..."



"...and not quite low (it would've been dark)."  
"And we didn't get to go on the beach all the PTFCo crew get photoshoots on, because Allie can't walk far."



"I'm supposed to send a postcard home.  So Alliecat got me one and Samantha helped me write it."



"AND....  Look what I got!!!  I can't wait to try it out."



"Oh kay... yep, I can do this..."



"Woop!"



"We did a pic for 'sports' on Dal House."



"What helmet?   Can't you just glue my head back together?"

[Elfy]

So now she’s a skater girl!

[davidd]

Thank you for the link to the lighthouse article. Did the restoration-replica ever get built?

Lovely weather again, and more lovely photos! The water looks glassy smooth in the harbor.

The tide photos are just too cool! Look at that: Bay of Fundy! Do you have to go far to see the bore tide? Can you see it from the island?

And... skater girlz? How cool! To my surprise, I saw a couple of longboard skater girls here in our tiny western town the other day - jus' li' Waikiki! I was stoked, brah!

And a skateboard ramp? You guys are much more hip and current there than I would have ex-pected!

Helmets? Bah, who needs helmets? Especially when super glue is near at hand!

[Lejays17]

The sports photo with the bike sent me down the rabbit hole that is Etsy, and we now have a folding mountain bike & two pool floaties on the way.

I contemplated a skateboard for them for a moment, but they don't need that much encouragement. I do like that red's is a neat souvenier of her time there. and I laughed about the "no helmets, superglue is fine" comment.

wow, that's a huge difference in the tides, especially the one in the harbour wth the boats.