outdoors

Fluffy caterpillar

A caterpillar on green grass
Image description: A fat, kind of fluffy caterpillar with a black body with light yellow markings and tufts of white hair is slightly curled on some green grass.

We used to keep these in jars as “pets” when I was young.

I feel like we saw more of them then but perhaps I just spent more time crawling around in the grass where I’d have a better chance of seeing them.

This one was on my swing yesterday and I got him to climb on a stick so I could return him to the grass.

I didn’t name him nor did ai put him in a jar.

One of my favourite views

I love the way the ‘gateway’ to my yard from my patio looks.

I feel relaxed just looking at this photo.

A photo of a backyard as seen through the opening in a patio rail. There are flowers in pots on the patio.
Image description: a photo of part of my yard and patio. Near the centre of the photo is one side of the opening in my patio rail where the steps come up. On the right is the patio rail and post with some sunflowers in a pot with a beam of sunlight on them. On the left side of the photo is a green pot with purple flowers growing in it. Through the opening is the sun-dappled grass in my yard, in the middle distance an orange lawn chair and my square fire pit, and in the far background is a wooden fence with a small shelf, raised a little from the ground, with three flowerpots on it.

Ducks!

My sister and I went swimming this morning, in the rain, at a local pond.

Some ducklings had the same plan.

Small ducks swimming in a pond with another duck walking towards the water.
Image description: a photo of some ducks swimming and walking up to get in the water at the shoreline of a pond with a pebbly beach on the right, the water on the left, some trees and greenery at the top of the photo.

Making the most of warm weather?

OK, to be clear, I am not complaining about the heat.

It’s warmer then I prefer it to be, but it beats the hell out of being too cold for this time of year.

However, the heat leaves me stuck with another overthinking dilemma.

Because we have so little good weather, I want to make the most of warm days by being outside, doing fun things.

But we actually have a heat warning here today.

And I have work to do.

So what counts as making the most of a beautiful day when there’s a heat warning?

I shouldn’t really spend too much time outside in the heat, it’s not good for me. It’s possible it’s even unsafe.

But it feels weird to plan to spend the whole day inside where it will be cooler when we have so few warm days.

Basically, I end up spending the whole day thinking: When should I go outside? Is it too warm? Has it cooled down enough by now?

Aside from my own tendency to overthink, and I can hear generations of mothers and grandmothers and Girl Guide leaders telling me to get outside and spend some time out in the sun. Saying that I shouldn’t waste a beautiful day by staying inside.

Now, obviously, I’m not going to spend too much time outside and put myself at any risk. but it would be a lot easier on my brain if I could calm down the overthinking about needing to make the most of a sunny day.