Small Progress Report

 It's been a somewhat crazy week, which galloped by so fast that I almost missed it! Several days of very hot humid weather followed by several days of rain; it is raining today, and cool enough for jeans and a long-sleeve T-shirt. My older daughter in Northern Alberta province has already had a frost warning....

I am very fond of my mountain ash tree, grown from a $19 sapling more than twenty years ago. However, the poor things is half dry and brown. As we couldn't find any insect damage, we called in an arborist. He didn't know what it was either, but took photos to put on an arborist website; we got the word yesterday, our poor tree is suffering from a bacterial infection, called fire blight. I wondered if we should consider cutting it down, but the arborist recommended letting it leaf out next spring, to see if the infection was still present. We could make an informed decision then.

After I got the tree, we discovered several very young volunteer mountain ash trees had grown up in various parts of the garden, parts of which we keep tidy but essentially wild. I hope they don't get sick either. Our area is currently dealing with an outbreak of emerald ash borer, an insect that eats at the tree inside the bark; the trees inevitably die. Also in the garden are three mature black ash trees, much treasured by our First Nations' people, as they use this wood to make their traditional ash splint baskets.

We also have to keep an eye on those trees, as they are quite valuable when mature....

The Persian rug has filled out a little; I find I can do the solid or outline areas, and the borders are do-able for me as well, despite the seriously blurry vision. However, the detailed corner sections, while roughed in, will have to wait until I have a diagnosis of what is bothering my aging eyes, as the colours on the graph I'm following blend into each other, creating colour blocks that are just not there.

On the stair situation in the wooden shoe factory, I am going to sort out how big a battery pack I will need to run about five warm LED lights; if it is compact, like a coin battery, I can leave a small section of the stairs removable, for battery replacement purposes. However, if I need a bunch of AA batteries, with their very limited working time, I will have to come up with something else. The lights in my Tudor house are run on a battery pack of 4 or more A A batteries (seven grain of rice bulbs), which will not even manage the lighting for one day of display. I really don't want to become dependent on plugging into the wall at shows, etc., as display areas with electricity are usually scarce and rather more expensive, plus you have to navigate wires etc. I also find the weight of either battery packs or transformer units tends to break the very fine wiring used for dolls' houses.

I do wish I was more comfortable with electricity!