Saturday's Critters

Hello friends,

I'm joining up with Eileen at Saturday's Critters today. Stop by and see all the other fabulous creatures featured there. Have a wonderful Saturday!

This is a resident Salmon Crested Cockatoo at the Bloedel Conservatory located in the Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada.

Entrance to the Blodel Conservatory

A cockatoo is a type of parrot. See the distribution of the cockatoo in the image below.

Image credit:  Wikipedia

As you can see in the first photo, the cockatoo was at rest and  and very placid. I got several photos of him staring at me intently.

A few minutes later he was squawking loudly and putting on quite the show.

 I think he enjoyed an audience of more than one. Either that or one of the children agitated him.

In any case, it was fun to see the bird in action. I wasn't quick enough to capture it hanging upside down on the branches with feathers puffed out.

My Little Garden

My little garden has been subjected to a lot of heat so the flowers aren't doing quite so well. I water them it but haven't much energy in this heat to really spend time deadheading. Pansies don't do so well in excessive heat and they do need regular deadheading. All the other flowers are also struggling. My anemones which I thought were going to do very well bloomed early and promptly died.

The loops got into the cabbages and the beets but I still haven't caught any of them. There seem to be a lot of ants this year too. My little cherry tomatoes are now starting to ripen but the romaine lettuce is so-so. Good thing I don't really grow the garden for food. At this point, I am experimenting to see what will grow but hope soon that I can actually grow a bit for food needs. The only food I expect to harvest from my garden are the cherry tomatoes and the hot peppers.

The cherry tomotoes should be ripe and ready to use soon.

This busy bee was so excited flitting from plant. It really didn't know where to land but kept coming back to this red geranium. 

I've had a particular species of  butterfly come by daily too but I'm afraid I don't know the name. It is a simple, pale yellow coloured butterfly.  But the birds who used to like to splash at the bird bath, haven't been around. I'm guessing they too like the shade. Plus with all the smoke around, I think it would be hard on their little lungs. At least it looks as if my garden is feeding the butterflies and the bees, if not the humans and the birds.

Thank you for your visit.

I've got some treats lined up in the next few posts so I hope you will drop by again soon.
 

Enjoy the rest of your week!
xx

Birthdays & Fireworks

Hello friends,

I trust those of you in Canada and USA had a wonderful July 1st and July 4th respectively. It is wonderful to celebrate birthdays.  Canada is now 148 years old and USA is 239 years old.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile know I love fireworks.

On July 1st Canada Day I was able to watch fireworks from my patio. Though I don't have the best view I did manage to see some good bursts of colour and I did not have to deal with trying to make my way along with thousands of other people to get home after the display ended.

A few nights later, I captured a fantastic fireworks display on television. Seattle had a fabulous display of lights and I had a front row seat on my sofa.

 

This year the Honda Celebration of Light will celebrate 25 years of free fireworks in Vancouver.  Here is a little promo for the event that will be held July 25, 29 and August 1st. This is a fireworks competition and this year's competitors are: China, Brazil and Canada.  I don't watch every year but whenever I have, it has been thoroughly enjoyable.

To My American Friends

Night Skies Around Vancouver

These night sky photos were taken hurriedly as "drive bys" or "walking bys" in various degrees of night sky.

The first 3 photos were taken on the Lion's Gate Bridge connecting Stanley Park in Vancouver with North Vancouver and West Vancouver.

This next photo was taken from the Salmon House on the Hill restaurant in West Vancouver where a few of us gathered to celebrate my nephew's graduation from university.

A photo of the graduate and his girlfriend who also graduated but on an earlier day in the week.

Both of them will commence their master's level studies in their respective fields come September and are now on much deserved holiday.

Church in the 'hood. Photo taken with cell phone in late evening.

Joining with Skywatch Friday. Have a look at the beautiful skies from around the world.

Thank you for visiting my sky post.
Have a wonderful weekend!