Spiders

oh spiders.

Honey is Bee Vomit

I'm cute, pet my furry head.

True Story. If you think honey is made from flower nectar you are only partially correct. An important part of the process is what happens inside the bee. Bees use their digestive systems to process the nectar by swallowing and regurgitating it several times before finally depositing it into the honeycomb for evaporation and storage.

While this sounds gross, it helps remove some of the water and natural yeasts present in the nectar, which could otherwise cause the sugars to ferment. Ripe honey is shelf stable and never spoils. Honey comes in various tastes and colours, depending on the type of flower nectar the bees collected. For example, clover honey is mild tasting and light in colour whereas buckwheat honey is bolder tasting and darker. Honey may also darken or become a bit stronger tasting with age, but will keep indefinitely in a sealed container at room temperature. If older honey crystallizes, simply warm it up until it turns clear.

And that is all that you needed to know about Honey.




 Honey-Honey by Feist

Honey honey up in the trees
Fields of flowers deep in his dreams
Lead them out to sea by the east
Honey honey food for the bees

Honey honey out on the sea
In the doldrums thinking of me
Me on dry land thinking of he
Honey honey not next to me

Even if he wanted to
Even if he wanted to
Even if he wanted to
Do you think he'd come back
Would he come back

Oh no..

Honey honey out on the sea
In the doldrums waiting for me
Me in my boat searching for he
Honey honey food for the bees

The Clear Wing Humming Bird Moth

I'd like a coat made out of moth fur please

I just learnt about this insect on the radio. I was listening to some nature programme ( I think, I can't always be true) and they were talking about how rare it is to find a Hummingbird in the North West Territories of Canada. They have had eight reported sightings since 1989 so really, you have a better chance of seeing a UFO than a Hummingbird. This woman on the radio claimed that she saw one, at first thinking it was a Dragon Fly and then realising that its movements didn't match those of a Dragon Fly- it was more like a Hummingbird.

However, with the rareness of Hummingbirds in the Northern Province it was suspected by a nature specialist that it was more than likely a The Clear Wing Humming Bird Moth- a moth whose habits mimic those of a Humming Bird perfectly and only being a touch bit bigger.

That, to me, is a BIG moth (see video below)

Doesn't it look like a flying Lobster in a Bumble Bee disguise? Moths don't bother me unlike spiders so I find this pretty interesting but I know my friend Laura hates them. She hates all bugs but Moths are one of her top 5 most hated bug.

What do you think, does this moth creep you out?




picture borrowed from Google Images

Dear Spring

Dear Spring,

I am very pleased that you have arrived to stay with us for the next few months. Though your brother winter has been very kind to us, still, we are always so pleased to see you- minus the spiders.

Please take the spiders with you (while they are still small) when you leave in June- thank you!

Love from,

What I Learnt About Today: Spider Pill

So while working at work (amazing, I know) I was listening to a radio show on the CBC. They had mentioned some interesting discoveries/ inventions in the world of medicine. One being Nanoparticles and how they can be used to potentially aide in the recovery of cancer (still 10 years or so away from that in Canada) and something called a Spider (EEK) Pill. Yes, Spider Pill. The scientist being interviewed explained this Spider Pill as being a camera the size of your run of the mill vitamin that is ingested and used to explore the inner parts of ones gastric intestinal system. Reminds me of a movie I watched in the 80's called Innerspace.

So, if you happened to be an "ideal candidate" (currently the only ideal candidate appears to be pigs) you would arrive at your doctors office and he would give you this thing (thing being the technical term for camera right now) about the size of a vitamin to swallow. After about 30 minutes or so the doctor would then activate the Spider Pill causing tiny little legs to sprout out (for real! Creepy isn't it!!!) so they can then control the camera like a mechanical toy to walk around your insides and scope out potential issues. This is all wireless and disposable. Once all areas have been explored and issues have been addressed you would be sent home to allow nature to take it's course, passing this as though it were breakfast.

They mentioned that Canada is about 2 years away from gaining this type of technology; the main concern being that doctors and scientists are concerned what little walking Spider Pill legs might do to our delicate insides (agreed, that is a good thing to be concerned about). As I mentioned above they are currently testing this on pigs which appears to be going quite well.

The intention in this invention is to create a more accurate, comfortable alternative to the ever popular colonoscopy (amongst other things). To read a more intellectual article on the subject I found this write up about it in the Telegraph.UK

Spider Pill Article

I tried to find images of it but all I could come up with were REALLY creepy pictures of gigantic spiders where are not my favorite things so you'll either have to search yourself or let your imagination go wild!

What Might Lurk On The Patio

The patio. It's a scary place right now. There is a spider web the size of Australia.. actually there are two so one is Australia and the other is New Zealand. Both very scary and both I am sure have some big ol' spider watching over them that, I'm sorry to say (call me shallow, call me narrow minded, call me ignorant- call me what you will!) I really don't want to meet.

Spiders are very scary to me I will avoid them at all cost. Check out this spider I found at my family's country house:

for real. This is a REAL spider. I found it September '07 on the fence post. I've never seen anything like it in my life- EVER! We don't have meaty spiders like this in Canada- or at the very least not in Alberta. The ones we have are usually fairly wispy with the exception of a Wolf Spider that lends its self to thicker legs but it never gets larger then the end of a pencil (the body that is.). THIS spider (said picture above) was almost 2 inches in diameter (!). After spending some time on Google I finally decided that it was a Araneus gemmoides (Cat Face or Jewel Spider) and 100% harmless.

And that is your spider lesson for the day. No need to thank me, it was truly my pleasure. Perhaps I'll share with you someday the 15 minute video of me trying to capture another spider that I had found in my condo. It truly is enlightening.

Photo credited to ME! Actually my mum because I was too scared to get that close even with the digital zoom.

A Long Overdue Post About My Holidays

So I went away for 15 days at the start of June (yes, that long ago.)- went along on a road trip to the far west coast of British Columbia. The main objective was to get to the pacific rime- a stunning little area along the western shore line of Vancouver Island. You will find old growth rain forests with lush towering trees, whales and other wonderful sea monsters. I'm going to keep this short and sassy but I do think that these pictures need to be shared.

Went to a place called The Enchanted Forest my whole life I have always driven past it with my parents on our way into BC. This time I was the one driving the car so I got to do what I wanted!


The whole forest was filled with little scenes depicting different fairy tales and nursery rhymes. It was allot of fun for a big kid like me.


yaaargh!

tea for two

me and a creepy bunny.



Arrived in the Sunshine Coast which is just north of Vancouver. Saw this Starfish imprint on the doc.



arrived in Tofino which is a small town in the pacific rim. This is a cute little place to eat called The Botanical Gardens.



statues in the gardens



Went on a small hike through an old growth rain forest- look at the size of that tree!!! can you see me in there?





The boardwalk through the old growth forest

the beach in which our cabin was in Tofino.

Mussels

dried up drift wood along the beach.

Beach in Tofino

Sunset from the cabin

Morning beach walk in Tofino

They don't call it Long Beach for no reason

the picture says it all

another old growth forest

Me and the big tree

In Nanamio- a city on Vancouver Island

saying goodbye to the mountains- for now.

When I Know It's Actually Summer

Summer has OFFICIALLY arrived! I know this NOT because of the warm weather or the flowering gardens or the fact that my calender tells me that June 21st is "the first day of summer"... I know that it is summer because I got my first mosquito bit on Saturday! It happened sometime between the beer run and the cake run during a friends backyard birthday bash... I felt the little bugger bit me and I slapped him hard. I've been relishing in the whole "scratching it good!" feeling since.

I'm fortunate- unlike most of the other people in my life, I don't get bitten that much.. the bugs don't really bug me. I run from wasps because they are just mean and spiders are... spiders are a whole other story.. ugh. I just find them a little creepy- NOT that I have anything to worry about living where I do... I just don't like all those itty bitty furry legs. Mosquito's though- they would rather dine on the other people then me. I'm like leftover Jell-o to them- tasty but who'd want boring ol' Jell-o when they can have Chocolate Mousse , Crème Brûlée or Pecan Pie.

However, take me to the sea side and put me on the sand in sandals and watch as the sand fleas eat away at my tender feet! Sand fleas totally dig Jell-o, I think! It's really not that horrible, I end up with about a half dozen tiny red bites along the tops of my feet and ankles that last for about a week. I get optimum scratching out of them and the mosquito's still don't bother me! Plus it means to me that I was at the beach and that I had fun- THE most important thing in my life... To have fun.

Queen Bee

I am the queen of Google- well maybe not the QUEEN but I do Google a lot. My reasons for this are divided into two part ...

• Laziness: I make Google do all the work looking up web pages that I know the address for so I don't have to type them in (more on this mentioned below).
  
  
• Anal Retentiveness: I'd rather take the extra time Googling then messing up the address bar history with misspelled and single use addresses. I get a little anxious when someone comes over to use my computer and they type the address into the bar "improperly". Not putting "www" before the address sends me into a bit of a silent mental fit. Though I'd never address it with the person (That's not fair to anyone, I do realise that I am being neurotic.)- I just smile and let them keep typing "Facebkok,com" promising myself that once they do leave I will clean up the history and make sure everything is back to normal. *snickers* Normal.

My initial intention was to write about a woman's blog that I came across with Google. I found her blog fascinating purely on the fact they were personal glimpses into her day to day life. She comes across as very warm and easy to relate to. I really enjoy that in a person. I was hooked after I read about her encounter with some wasps. Horrifying (to be in her shoes) and fantastic (to be able to read about it in her words- she has a great sense of humour.)!

Click here to see for yourself!

With that being said, I'm not going to write about what I was originally going to write about. I'll save that for another day.