insect survey

I'm starting to work on some tree sketches in preparation for my office tree painting. I've never really drawn trees before, so I figure it would probably be a good thing to practise first. I'm also aware that I'll be using pretty inexpensive acrylics that will be fairly thick and not as easy to mix as high-quality paints, so that will be an interesting (but fun) challenge. The sketch above was done in Corel Painter 8 with the Thick Acrylics brush, based on a tree that Jeff and I saw on Molly's Island. Not exactly sure what kind of tree this is, sorry.

Many thanks to our friend Walter for watering our garden and sending us photos of renovation progress during our cottage stay. I am SO hyped about finally being able to move in in a couple weeks. Our tentative official move-in date is Saturday, July 23rd...FOURTEEN MORE DAYS!

A few days ago, I got a mosquito bite on my left eyelid. I had slathered insect repellant on almost every other square inch, but the little bugger got through my defenses. The following morning, I woke up looking like Bill the Cat and unable to see out of my left eye. Ugh. Swelling seems have finally disappeared today.

I generally don't mind insects, though I make exceptions for the ones that want a piece of me (deerflies, mosquitoes, no-see-ums, etc.). The mosquito is definitely on my "kill without a qualm of guilt" list. My favourite insect is the dragonfly, partly because it eats mosquitoes but also because of its fragility and the colour-shimmer of its wings in the sunlight. When one lands on me while I'm swimming, I'll tread water and try not to dislodge it so I can watch it up close.

INSECT SURVEY:

What's your favourite insect?
What's your least favourite insect?
If you find a spider inside the house, do you squish it or carry it outside?
If you find a wasp inside the house, do you squish it or carry it outside?

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Barenaked Ladies, Messier Objects and sunrises

(Just found out that any e-mail delivered to my mailbox between 1 am and 9:20 am EST on Monday morning has been lost because of a mailbox server problem. If you sent something to me around this time, I'd very much appreciate if you could re-send, thanks. Apologies for the inconvenience!)

I took the photo yesterday morning at the cottage. Not a bad way to start the day, really. Couldn't upload the high-res version to Flickr, sorry; we only have dial-up at the cottage.

Hope you all had a good weekend! Did anyone out there actually attend the Live8 concert? Not having cable tv, I only became vaguely aware of it at the end of last week. When we were heading up to the cottage on Saturday, Jeff and I visited a rest stop on the 401 just north of Canada's Wonderland.

While Jeff refilled the car with gas, I visited the restrooms; on the way out, I nearly walked into Ed Robertson and Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies, then Jim Creeggan about thirty seconds later. No one else seemed to recognize them (!). Figures I had left all my stuff in the car, else I might have asked for a quick photo or autograph. Turns out they were performing in Barrie that day as part of the Canadian Live8 concert event.

Spent yesterday evening rereading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in preparation for the arrival of the newest book in a couple of weeks. From time to time, Jeff would call me outside to look at a Messier Object or something else interesting in the sky. We saw the International Space Station pass over twice; so strange and wonderful to think of two people being up there.

To you Americans out there: Happy July 4th! And happy birthday to Paul Kwinn!

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