Yuk ! Lily Bugs, Stink Bugs !

This summer the lily bugs hit hard. There has been so many of them. They practically destroyed all the lilies on the front yard. It’s a pity as they actually are both colorful and beautiful.

Lily Bug

The picture of the red lily bug isn’t sharp enough because I had to hurry as these bugs are super quick to drop themselves and hide. 

Stink Bug

Today I saw an other kind of bug. A black/orange one. He was on the other side of the house, in the Day Lily flower bed. The stink bug, on the other hand, was in no hurry. Or maybe he tried to fool me by not moving. Making me believe he was dead or invisible. I took a couple of pictures.Then grabbed him with a plastic bag, turned the bag inside out and stomped on it. Ugh, I don’t like to do it but, had to, after all the damage they do to my flowers.

Watch up all beetles ! Stay away from my garden ! Don’t touch my flowers ! Next summer I’ll fight you hard !

Get well Soonest Quismo

Poor thing, he has problem urinating. Before we realized what was wrong he urinated twice on the chair cushion, the sofa, in both his and Quam’s bed. Ufff, that was a lot to wash. Luckily we soon understood it was his way to tell us he was not feeling well and that it hurt to urinate. At the veterinary clinic they took blood tests and made ultrasound examination. There were no stones but the vet said he could see some crystals.

Now he is on Loxicom 0,5 mg/ml for 5-7 days and Therios 75 mg for 10 days. The medication makes him vomit. Uhhh, he vomits a lot. Always on a rug. Why do cats always vomit on rugs ? I have now washed two rags. Here’s Quismo inspecting the result of the other one. I think he approved it.

Dear Quismo, get well soonest ! ❤

Farewell To The Beetle

Six years ago I wrote about how happy my husband was when he came home with an old, 1972 model, Volkswagen, a Beetle. (my post on June 25, 2008) He bought it in the spring 2008. The paint was cracked and flaking. For a couple of weeks he and two friends of his gave the VW a facelift. His friends had the knowledge and equipment. They stripped the old painting by sanding. I don’t know about the two others but Leif was, all over, the same color as a carrot every day when he came home. When the project was finished the car looked brand new.

Now the time for the Beetle has come to an end. At least with us. It didn’t pass the requirements of the technical inspection anymore. In our opinion the costs to fix it are too much. Yesterday Leif took it back to the man he bought it from six years ago. A last 150 km drive. I don’t know is he going to repair it or not.

I know Leif is feeling sad and is going to miss it. I have to say I too found it a little sad. Specially it was sad to shoot the last pics and wave goodbye. But, who knows, maybe the Beetle still, someday will be on the road again with an other happy driver.

Last Strawberry Candy For The Summer

Yes, this is the last Strawberry Candy Lily flower for this year. I hope there will be at least twice as many stems and flowers next summer as there was now.

Flyboarding

Yesterday we took a trip along the harbors and shores of Helsinki. Even though it was cloudy it was warm. We like to watch the boats. There were many. Sailing boats, cruise ships, tourist bus boats, all types of boats.


I happened to look at the right moment and shouted to my husband look, look. He was wowed and wondered what on earth is that. I was proud to be able to inform him that it is a flyboard. He wondered how is it that I know what it is. I told him about the blog of an awesome young woman, Lesley, which I follow. Three weeks ago I didn’t even know there existed such a thing as flyboard until I read and saw pictures of it on her blog. She loves to experience EVERYTHING. I warmly recommend her blog to anyone who like to read about all kind of adventures. http://bucketlistpublications.org/

My first picture I took from a far distance. I zoomed in full zoom. I was almost sure that the picture would be totally blurry. I was lucky. The picture is pretty okay despite the distance. We drove closer. Now I could shoot more.

 

What a disappointment when the camera battery soon showed empty. Why oh why didn’t I charge the battery in the morning. At least I got some pictures of the young woman who quickly figured it out, after a few splashes into the water, how to balance and stay above the water. She did very well but did not get as high up above the water as Lesley in her pictures. Myself, would I try it, no I don’t think so. Not at this age neither am I sure I would have even if still in my twenties or thirties. I’m sure it’s just as much fun as it looks like.

Catherine Woodbury Daylily

Yesterday was the first time my Catherine Woodbury had three flowers at one time. One on each stem. Of course, I took pictures of them. I read online that it has a light fragrance. I have not noticed any but when the next flowers are in bloom I will put my nose into it to find out what it smells like.

Carnation With The Scent Of Clove ~ Dianthus Caryophyllus

I bought two carnation plants in the middle of May. This pink, purple and a bit of white one in the pictures and an other one in pink. In May the nights are still too cold for young plants to stay outdoors so I took them indoors every night for a couple of weeks. Already the first night my husband said there’s a scent here that has not been here before. What is it ? It took us a while to figure out it was the small carnation plant with just a few flowers at the time. It was a nice, familiar scent. Then my husband said, now I know it’s the scent of some spice, in fact it’s the scent of clove. Yes, he was right. I knew I had some ground clove in one of the kitchen cabinets. Just to verify it really was the same scent I took the packaged down from the shelf to smell it. Yes, definitely, the ground clove was the same scent but stronger even if it turned out the date of expiry expired long ago.  I like the scent of the flowers. It has become a habit to me to every morning and evening go out on the terrace to smell the flowers. The package of ground cloves I threw away.