Brand new butterfly warming its wings in the sun ☀️
This is Val des Monts, Quebec, in August. I saw this during my morning stroll.
Here are some interesting butterfly facts:
Butterflies Can't Fly If They're Cold
Butterflies need an ideal body temperature of about 85 degrees Fahrenheit to fly.1 Since they're cold-blooded animals, they can't regulate their own body temperatures. As a result, the surrounding air temperature has a big impact on their ability to function. If the air temperature falls below 55 degrees Fahrenheit, butterflies are rendered immobile—unable to flee from predators or feed.2
When air temperatures range between 82 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit, butterflies can fly with ease.3 Cooler days require a butterfly to warm up its flight muscles, either by shivering or basking in the sun.
A Newly Emerged Butterfly Can't Fly
Inside the chrysalis, a developing butterfly waits to emerge with its wings collapsed around its body. When it finally breaks free of the pupal case, it greets the world with tiny, shriveled wings. The butterfly must immediately pump body fluid through its wing veins to expand them. Once its wings reach their full size, the butterfly must rest for a few hours to allow its body to dry and harden before it can take its first flight.
Butterfly Wings Are Transparent
A butterfly's wings are covered by thousands of tiny scales, and these scales reflect light in different colors. But underneath all of those scales, a butterfly wing is actually formed by layers of chitin—the same protein that makes up an insect's exoskeleton. These layers are so thin you can see right through them. As a butterfly ages, scales fall off the wings, leaving spots of transparency where the chitin layer is exposed.
Butterflies Taste With Their Feet
Butterflies have taste receptors on their feet to help them find their host plants and locate food. A female butterfly lands on different plants, drumming the leaves with her feet until the plant releases its juices. Spines on the back of her legs have chemoreceptors that detect the right match of plant chemicals. When she identifies the right plant, she lays her eggs. A butterfly of any biological sex will also step on its food, using organs that sense dissolved sugars to taste food sources like fermenting fruit.
Butterflies Live on an All-Liquid Diet
Speaking of butterflies eating, adult butterflies can only feed on liquids—usually nectar. Their mouthparts are modified to enable them to drink, but they can't chew solids. A proboscis, which functions as a drinking straw, stays curled up under the butterfly's chin until it finds a source of nectar or other liquid nutrition. The long, tubular structure then unfurls and sips up a meal. A few species of butterflies feed on sap, and some even resort to sipping from carrion. No matter the meal, they suck it up a straw.
A Butterfly Must Assemble Its Own Proboscis—Quickly
A butterfly that can't drink nectar is doomed. One of its first jobs as an adult butterfly is to assemble its mouthparts. When a new adult emerges from the pupal case or chrysalis, its mouth is in two pieces. Using palpi located adjacent to the proboscis, the butterfly begins working the two parts together to form a single, tubular proboscis. You may see a newly emerged butterfly curling and uncurling the proboscis over and over, testing it out.
Butterflies Drink From Mud Puddles
A butterfly cannot live on sugar alone; it needs minerals, too. To supplement its diet of nectar, a butterfly will occasionally sip from mud puddles, which are rich in minerals and salts. This behavior, called puddling, occurs more often in male butterflies, which incorporate the minerals into their sperm. These nutrients are then transferred to the female during mating and help improve the viability of her eggs.
Butterflies Often Live Just a Few Weeks
Once it emerges from its chrysalis as an adult, a butterfly has only two to four short weeks to live, in most cases. During that time, it focuses all its energy on two tasks: eating and mating. Some of the smallest butterflies, the blues, may only survive a few days. However, butterflies that overwinter as adults, like monarchs and mourning cloaks, can live as long as nine months.
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Getting up the nerve to jump!
A rather large rock face and immediate deep water provides a fun leaping off point for those with nerve to step off the cliff at Lac Saint Pierre, Quebec, on August 15, 2022. Another casual afternoon with family and friends, pontooning on the lake in perfect temperatures.
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Pontoon boat slips under low metal bridge
This is Lac Saint Pierre, Quebec, on August 15, 2022. Just a casual afternoon with family and friends on the lake in perfect temperatures.
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Dollar Store - Isle "C" for 🇨🇦
Looks like The Dollar Store is gearing up for Canada Day.
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O-Train: Tunny's Pasture to Bayview
The O-Train is a light metro transit system in Ottawa, Canada. There are two lines, the electrically-operated Confederation Line and the diesel-operated Trillium Line.
The name "O-Train" was based on the classic Duke Ellington signature tune "Take the 'A' Train", which refers to the New York City Subway's A train. Because Ottawa is a bilingual city, the name had to work in both English and French. In French, it is pronounced similarly to au train, as in to travel "by train".
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Backyard Winter Timelapse at 432 Hz
A sunny day. All my cameras loaded and ready to go. A fun way to pass the time.
The music track is called, Drifting at 432 Hz - by the Unicorn Heads
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Sliding Sidewalk Silliness
My friends and I were waiting for an overnight flight from Los Angeles California to Sydney Australia.
If you wait around long enough, you start to come up with things to keep you from boredom. We all had our neck pillows on. Here’s what we came up with on the ‘people mover’ moving sidewalk,
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The Roar of Snowmobiles!
It’s a bright, sunny day here on Lac Ste Pierre in Quebec Canada, and Canadians are out on the lake buzzing around and having fun!
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Snowmobile Trails — There are 230,000 miles of marked snowmobile trails in the United States and Canada.
Big Business — Snowmobiling is a $22 billion business in the United States and $6 billion in Canada. The industry is responsible for more than 90,000 full-time jobs related to manufacturing, dealerships and tourism. Snowmobilers spend, on average, $4,000 per year on snowmobile recreation, and they raised $3.2 million for charity in 2011.
Sales Are Up! — There were 130,000 new snowmobiles sold worldwide in 2012, which is 6,000 more than was sold in 2011. The United States accounted for 49,000 and Canada 40,000. Other significant sales were in Europe and Russia.
Average Joe Snowmobiler — The average snowmobiler rides 920 miles per year, is 43 years old and has an annual household income of $65,000. Breakdown by gender is 75 percent male, 25 percent female.
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Cosmic Winter Drift
Cosmic Drift by DivKid is the mesmerizing music track that goes perfectly with the hypnotic footage that time-lapse sessions always produce.
Val-des-Monts. Quebec. Canada. Early February.
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Children Timelapse
Many years ago, LONG before there was decent software for the task, I gathered all of my children’s school photos and attempted to cobble them together.
“The great paradox of parenting is that it moves in both slow motion and fast speed.”
“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different.” - CS Lewis
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Oh! Canada! -17 Celsius
A hearty Speedo-clad Canadian patriot expressing himself at the Trucker’s Freedom Rally in Ottawa.
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Ottawa Winterlude!
Winterlude is held in Ottawa Canada every February
Winterlude was created in 1979 to celebrate Canada's unique northern culture and climate
Organizers were inspired by our ancestors who would gather to enjoy each other’s company during the long winter months
On average, 600,000 visitors take part in the festivities
on the Rideau Canal. The “world’s largest skating rink”
Winterlude runs smoothly thanks to 800 volunteers
Loving winter outdoors AND staying toasty warm inside… THIS is Winterlude!
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Each winter, the historic Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, becomes the Rideau Canal Skateway, the world’s largest skating rink.
The Rideau Canal Skateway was first opened during the 1970–1971 season. The idea to turn the Rideau Canal into a skateway came from then-newly appointed NCC chair Doug Fullerton. In January 1971, a team of NCC employees armed with brooms and shovels turned his idea into a reality. They cleared a small section of ice between the Mackenzie King and Laurier bridges near the National Arts Centre.
It was then extended as a six-metre-wide skating track on the canal ice surface to Dows Lake, a distance of about 5 km. At the area between the bridges, lighting and music were added to increase the enjoyment of skating in the evening. Despite the heavy snow and many hours of overtime, the NCC crews managed to keep the skating area cleared.
That season, hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors made their way onto the ice to start a new winter tradition. Our knowledge and expertise in the science of ice have come a long way since then!
Today, the Rideau Canal Skateway winds over 7.8 km through the heart of the Capital, and is a key site for Winterlude celebrations in February. The average skating season is 50 days, but the record is 95 days (1971–1972 season).
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Polaroid Timelapse Days
I spent some lovely days at the family cottage in late autumn and I couldn’t resist setting up some full-day timelapse’s. … day after day.
I hope you enjoy them. I used a Canon 80D and a G7X, along with my GoPro 4 and iPhone 13. Quite a mix! I cut the footage to the music of DavKid. The track is called Polaroid Memories. I know I have a few of those. I bet you do too.
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Honking Canada Geese in formation. Gotta move fast before winter!
An early November Quebec morning on Lac Ste. Pierre. Canada geese, migratingto southern agricultural areas for the winter. They fly in a distinct “V” pattern, where one goose is the leader and its flock follows behind in a v-shape.
Canada geese fly south to their non-breeding sites to avoid the cold. They'll stay in their non-breeding sites all winter. They’ll migrate back north to their breeding sites in April, May or Early June
When they fly in formation, theycreate their own unique form of teamwork. As each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird immediately following. ... Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Canada geese can travel1,500 milesin a day if the weather permits. These birds tend to fly around 40 miles per hour during migration, though that can increase up to 70 miles per hour if they catch a strong tailwind.
To reduce the effort, geese often fly at night when the air is calmer, or in the day when there's a helpful tailwind; they avoid flying into a headwind that would blow them backward. In addition, they have another energy-saving trick.
When the Head Goose gets tired, it rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point. That’s teamwork!
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Flaming Guitar
My 1980’s Fender Stratocaster, resting by the fire.
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Yes, I'm a southpaw 💪🏻😁
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1970's Vintage Italian Bakelite Electric Coffee Percolator in Action!
Good morning! Time for a piping hot espresso, courtesy of our vintage Velox Ferrara electric coffee percolator, made primarily of bakelite and aluminum and designed in the 1950s. This one makes a single cup but BOY is it good!
Velox has been manufacturing electric coffee makers in its historical Ferrara, Italy location since the 1920s.
An espresso machine brews coffee by forcing pressurized water near boiling point through a "puck" of ground coffee and a filter in order to produce a thick, concentrated coffee called espresso. The first machine for making espresso was built and patented in 1905. An espresso machine may also have a steam wand which is used to steam and froth liquids (such as milk) for coffee drinks such as cappuccino and caffe latte.
Espresso machines may be steam-driven, piston-driven, pump-driven, or air-pump-driven. Machines may also be manual or automatic.
And in case this is your first time hearing about bakelite:
Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, better known as Bakelite, was the first plastic made from synthetic components. It was developed in New York in 1907.
The creation of a synthetic plastic was revolutionary for its electrical non-conductivity and heat-resistant properties in electrical insulators, radio and telephone casings and such diverse products as kitchenware, jewelry, pipe stems, children's toys, and firearms. The "retro" appeal of old Bakelite products has made them collectible.
Bakelite was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark on November 9, 1993, by the American Chemical Society in recognition of its significance as the world's first synthetic plastic.
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How I Make Rick Simpson Oil
RIck Simpson Oil is ideally made from heavy indica strains that are known for their pain-reducing, anxiety-reducing, and calming whole-body effects.
This year I chose a strain called “Big Bud”. And was she ever! Coming in at just under 12 feet tall! (365 cm) (look up. Waaay up)
In Canada we can legally cultivate up to 4 cannabis plants per household, which is what I did.
This was my yield. You should make sure it’s as dry as possible. You really can’t over dry it.
The results of 4 plants will easily squish into one bucket. Crunching it into smaller pieces will make the filtering process a lot easier and way more efficient.
If at all possible, work OUTside. Alcohol is highly flammable and you’ll be boiling it!
You’ll need the following materials.
4 plants, dried and crushed
2 large buckets
24 x 500 ml Isopropyl alcohol - as pure as you can get it. 99% (you may not use all 24 bottles, but anything unused will be fine for next year)
1 Stir stick
1 mesh filter (something with larger, more porous holes for the first filtering stage)
2 large coffee filters (for the final, more refined filtering)
A Rice cooker
A cup
syringes. You can use 1, 5, or 10mL sizes. I suggest you make almost all of them the 5mL size, with perhaps a few 1mL size that you can give away to someone who wants to try it.
Ok. Let’s get started. Pour in alcohol until the material is completely covered. I believe I used 13 bottles
Give it a proper stir and let it soak for at least a few minutes. The longer the better to a certain extent. Five minutes should be plenty.
The first, BIG FILTER STAGE
Pour the material through the big filter into the empty bucket.
Personally, I like to do this twice. I add fresh alcohol, stir it again, and then pour it through a second time. I want to be sure I get as much of the oil extracted as possible.
Put the waste material in another container for eventual composting.
FINE FILTER STAGE
We’re going to filter the material much more finely now, using a coffee filter.
I do this stage twice, as well, using a fresh coffee filter each time.
OK. Here is the sum total of all your material, finely filtered and suspended in solvent. Now it’s time to heat it up and boil off the alcohol.
Turn on the rice cooker and fill it up to about 3/4s full.
Put the lid back on. It will come to a boil. And the alcohol will start burning off.
Continually supervise and add more material as the alcohol continues to boil off.
Gently swish the cooker around periodically to release all of the solvent and to protect the oil from too much heat
Near the final stages, I suggest adding 10 drops of water (to further ensure that the oil doesn’t begin to burn)
Once all the alcohol has evaporated, turn off the rice cooker - if it hasn’t done so already, automatically. Now you’re ready to extract the oil into syringes. REMEMBER, the oil will begin to cool very rapidly and as it cools, it becomes less and less fluid and more gooey, so make sure you’re well organized and prepared so you can work fast when you get to this point.
Packaging it in syringes makes for easier oral consumption, topical application, and storage.
And there you have it.
Your own pure batch of finest quality, Rick Simpson Oil.
To your health and happiness.
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Cottage life! Burning brush while smoking cigars and listening to Christmas tunes.
Just a day in the life during Christmas holidays in Quebec.
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Liquid cloud drift timelapse meditation
A crisp November early morning mist on the water 4-minute drifting Timelapse from the shores of Lac Ste. Pierre in Quebec, Canada.
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Satisfyingly CRUNCHY frozen stream
December 1, 2021. One of our first, below zero (Celsius) days here in Quebec. It’s hard to resist walking on this stuff. Much like popping bubble wrap 😊
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Morning sun melts frost on grassy field - Timelapse
In northern climates such as here in Quebec, Canada, it is not uncommon for a grassy field to be covered in dew, and then frost on a cold fall morning.
Frost typically occurs on cold, clear nights when atmospheric conditions cause objects, including grass, to become colder than the surrounding air. Depending on the conditions, frost can be light and scattered or heavy enough to kill annual plants and cause perennial plants to go dormant.
Grass blades move water through them for nourishment, but this moisture can freeze inside the grass during a frost. However, a light frost generally doesn't freeze the ground. Frost over several nights can lead to visible signs of damage, depending on the grass species. The dead grass will eventually become thatch that nourishes the soil below as the new seeds germinate and grow.
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Quebec country backroads - driving timelapse
Take to the highway won't you lend me your name
Your way and my way seem to be one and the same
Mama don't understand it
She wants to know where I've been
I'd have to be some kind of natural born fool
To wanna pass that way again
But I could feel it, oh
On a country road
Walk on down, walk on down, walk on down
Walk on down, walk on down a country road
- James Taylor
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Psychedelic undulating Lac Saint Pierre Lake - Timelapse
Mid-afternoon zoom out time-lapse.
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Autumn leaf rake and burn - Timelapse
Autumn leaf color is a phenomenon that affects the normal green leaves of many deciduous trees and shrubs by which they take on, during a few weeks in the autumn season, various shades of yellow, orange, red, purple, and brown.
In some areas of Canada and the United States, "leaf peeping" tourism is a major contribution to economic activity. This tourist activity occurs between the beginning of color changes and the onset of leaf fall, usually around September and October in the Northern Hemisphere and April to May in the Southern Hemisphere.
A green leaf is green because of the presence of a pigment known as chlorophyll. When abundant in the leaf's cells, as during the growing season, the chlorophyll's green color dominates and masks out the colors of any other pigments that may be present in the leaf. Thus, the leaves of summer are characteristically green.
Chlorophyll has a vital function: it captures solar rays and uses the resulting energy in the manufacture of the plant's food – simple sugars which are produced from water and carbon dioxide. These sugars are the basis of the plant's nourishment – the sole source of the carbohydrates needed for growth and development. In their food-manufacturing process, the chlorophylls break down, thus are being continually "used up". During the growing season, however, the plant replenishes the chlorophyll so that the supply remains high and the leaves stay green.
As autumn approaches, with daylight hours shortening and temperatures cooling, the veins that carry fluids into and out of the leaf are gradually closed off as a layer of special cork cells forms at the base of each leaf. As this cork layer develops, water and mineral intake into the leaf is reduced, slowly at first, and then more rapidly. During this time, the amount of chlorophyll in the leaf begins to decrease. Often, the veins are still green after the tissues between them have almost completely changed color.
Deciduous plants were traditionally believed to shed their leaves in autumn primarily because the high costs involved in their maintenance would outweigh the benefits from photosynthesis during the winter period of low light availability and cold temperatures. Other factors involved include insect predation, water loss, and damage from high winds or snowfall.
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