Colourful beetle and spider

"Get your camera!" My wife saw the neatest, little beetle crawling on a piece of stainless steel in our backyard and she wanted a picture; Even more, she wanted to know what this colourful, metallic little beetle was.

According to the Internet, the beetle pictured above is a chrysochus auratus or dogbane beetle. It is beautiful in its iridescent shell and common right across the United States and southern Canada. I read that it prefers milk weed and dogbane for dinner. This makes sense as we have a field with lots of milkweed and dogbane right across the court from where I live in London, Ontario.

While shooting the little beetle, another little fellow showed up eager to pose for a picture. This was a spider with the green abdomen and striped yellow/brown legs.

A search of the Internet failed to turn-up a likely candidate for naming this beautiful little critter.

My guess, and it is just that, is that this is a hunting spider out on the prowl. I don't imagine it ever spins a proper web.

If anyone has a suggestion as to this little spider's correct name, I'd be interested in hearing form you.

English Morgans in Canada's London

An umbrella serves as a quick, temporary tonneau cover.

Back in the '50s and '60s Morgan roadsters were sold in two places in Canada: Windsor, Ontario and Burnaby, British Columbia. Today they are not sold at all, at least not in Canada, at least not new. A dispute between the Canadian government and Morgan Motors has kept the unique, little roadsters from being imported into the country for decades.

My Morgan is well down towards the end of the line.

After more than a century the Morgan automobile company is still building cars in Malvern Link, England. There is still a Morgan dealer in Canada — located a little north of Toronto in Bolton, Ontario. CMC Enterprises, run by Martin and Steve Beer, may not sell new cars but they do a damn fine job of keeping old ones, decades old, reliably on the road.

My British racing green Morgan Plus 4 is one of about half a dozen Morgans in London, Ontario. Because of their past availability, Morgans seems to be concentrated even today in Canada in Southwestern Ontario and southern British Columbia.

Sunday my wife and I took our Morgan north to Durham, Ontario where we linked up with about a half dozen other Morgan owners to tour a llama ranch and later tour a small, craft brewery in Neustadt.

There are quite a number of llama ranches in Ontario and from the spiel given by the owners of the ranch visited Sunday raising llamas is good business.

The owners have three farms devoted to llamas. Mostly they sell the wool sheared from the South American beasts but sometimes they sell the odd one to another farmer to use as a guard animal.

Llamas will protect a herd of sheep from coyote predation, for instance. The docile looking animals can be quite fiesty when pushed and they don't take any pushing from coyotes.

Flowers, not grass

My day lilies are doing nicely this year. It make me think that I should follow the lead of some of my neighbours — put in flowers and other decorative plants and rip up my front yard grass.

I envision a pavement stone walkway curving around the front yard with lots of hostas filling in the open spaces — at least, in the early years.

Flowers are so inviting. I mean who stops to smell the grass?

Heat wave rolls over London

Yesterday a record fell that had stood since 1918. Yesterday the high in London hit 36.4°C. I believe that's pushing 98°F on the old scale.

Fiona, at not quite two, insisted on going outside, running smack into a wall of heat. I filled her little, blue wading pool, dumped her bath toys in the water and let the naive little thing head outside to play. Damn, but it was hot!

Playing it safe, I sat on the grass beside the pool. Every now and then I took some cool, pool water and splashed it over my head and face. I would drip some on my bare arms.

Fiona watched and exclaimed, "Gaga!" Then, imitating me, she'd do the same. We sat together enjoying the fiercely hot day, our heads dripping wet.

Blackfriars and Londonlicious

Roulade of Basa

Some years ago, the Blackfriars Bistro opened as a very small neighbourhood restaurant. Today it is still a very small restaurant but its fame has spread across the city. Staying small and staying true to its original vision has been a successful business plan for the little, niche restaurant.

After being hospitalized in California last summer with a serious heart problem, traveling outside of the country is now on hold. I have discovered getting travel insurance is almost impossible.

My wife and I are spending our time, and our money, enjoying London, Ontario. Luckily, London is a fine city offering lots of stuff both for residents and visitors alike.

Roasted Chicken Supreme

At one point, both my wife and I lived just west of the downtown core in a neighbourhood bordering the Thames River. When a small, neighbourhood restaurant changed hands and moved upscale — The Blackfriars Bistro was born. We both loved it immediately.

Today we live in what many call the suburbs. Yet, we are only about a ten minute drive to the Blackfriars. Yesterday we celebrated a birthday with a visit to our old haunt. The dinner was as good as expected plus a little bonus — we benefited from the annual Londonlicious event.

Londonlicious is a local restaurant festival featuring almost 30 local eateries all offering a $25, three-course, prix fixe menu. The menu offered by the Blackfriars can be found here.

Last year my wife and I traveled across the States to the California coast in my old Morgan. This year we are enjoying a staycation in London. Our Londonlicious meal would have been a delight if we had encountered it anywhere on our six thousand mile route last year. It was doubly delightful enjoying it right here in town.

Double Vanilla Bean Champagne Sorbet

Flowers: One of the wonders of summer

Forgive the easy shots of lilies but they are beautiful and they are part of summer in London, Ontario.

I don't have a green thumb, or a green anything for that matter. When it comes to lilies, I buy 'em; I plant 'em; I enjoy 'em. Now, you can enjoy 'em, too.

London raptor

It's call was loud and raspy and impossible not to notice. Walkers stopped walking; Joggers stopped jogging. It didn't take long to spot the source: A large, noisy hawk perched on a high limb overlooking the park.

The hawk's call attracted this photographer.

Hawks are common in the London, Ontario suburb in which I live. The Ingersoll glacial moraine runs right through Byron. The high ridge of land has rather steep approaches and raptors hover in the strong updrafts.

The open fields in the subdivision are well populated with mice. Those with homes bordering the fields hate those mice but the raptors love 'em.

During the fall migration, half a dozen large raptors of assorted species can often be sighted hovering in the steady updrafts seeking a quick meal, while literally hundreds of birds pass overhead possibly on their way to Hawk's Cliff near Port Stanley on the north shore of Lake Erie.