since anne marie wasn't there yet, i started my gardening activities with some watering. as promised, anne left me some straw which she put in a plastic pot. i layered some straw around my baby bokchoi.
EJ came to water her garden too. i hadn't seen her in a while, she told me the reason was because they'd moved. and not just recently, but nearly a year ago, back in september, to huron village. it took them a while to sell their old place, which finally sold in december. they tried buying a house on crescent street, but there were 13 other bidders and the winner was someone who was able to pay in cash. so that was the reason why i haven't seen her in nearly a year. the garden is actually far from their new house, but EJ said she didn't want to give it up, having gardened there for 8 years after being a long time on the wait list. their new house is a double decker, they live on one floor while renting out the other.
after EJ left, that's when anne marie showed up. the wood hyacinths she gave me were not whole plants but just the seed pods. she gave me a bunch, but in hindsight, the seed pods looked a bit green and i don't think they're rip yet. i'll still plant them regardless, but i doubt they're going to germinate.
after i dusted my plants i returned home by noontime. i filled a bucket with water and soaked the hostas, planting one of them in an empty corner of the backyard near the basement entrance. i still have two more bunches to plant; if i can't find any place in the backyard, i'll take them to belmont and plant them there. i also watered the front and back yard while i was out there.
i got to my parents' place by 12:30pm. my mother was supposed to have an afternoon eye appointment but discovered it was actually for this morning so she'd already come back from the ophthalmologist. she was wearing sunglasses inside the house because her pupils were dilated. even though she couldn't see very well, she still made some wonton soup for lunch.
i showed my mother the new (and final) season of kim's convenience on netflix; she ended up spending the rest of the afternoon watching it in the living room, even though she had air conditioning in her bedroom (my father installed one of the window AC units today).
my father and i were back outside doing yard work on anoher 90+ degrees day. it really wasn't all that bad, hot yes, but it wasn't very humid, a dry heat. maybe my humidity tolerance is much higher having spent time in areas of the world where it gets even more humid. definitely an AC indoor room is more comfortable, but it wasn't impossible to work outside.
my father said he saw a medium rabbit and a bunny this morning while he was watering. not sure how they're getting in! we restacked the long wooden logs in the southeastern corner of the yard, elevated them slightly so critters would be less likely to hide underneath. we pulled down all the climbing ivy on the wooden fence and i inspected the fence perimeter along the eastern wall. i didn't see any place where rabbits could've dug into the backyard, but i shored up the defenses anyway, cut back some ivy, added more soil, then made a short wall using bricks. i planted a winter squash seed mix along the western side of the basement entrance. if they sprout we'll get some bonus winter squash, if they don't it wouldn't be a big deal. i scooped some compost into this new winter squash bed. i found an extremely large grub, nearly the size of my pinky finger. i ended up reburying it in a leaf pile near the quince and rose bush. in hindsight, i wonder if i should've kept it in a container, so when it does pupate, i can see what kind of beetle it is. given the size, i wonder if it's a rhinoceros beetle? i planted 3 zucchini seeds in RB3, and my father sprinkled some cilantro seeds around the perimeter. finally, we expanded the fencing around the outside chrysanthemum, as we noticed some leaves close to the fencing have been nibbled on.
around 4pm i decided to take the drone out for a flight. even though it was sunny, it wasn't ideal. the warm temperature might overheat the drone, and it was also surprisingly windy, that i got high wind warnings a few times. this was only my second time using the ASUS tablet. when i tried it out last wednesday, the app did crash on me a few times. the video would get stuck, but i was still able to use the tablet, it didn't completely freeze everything. this time around i flew it around the house, and i noticed some video freezing issue. it was long enough that i backed out of the DJI fly app, then came back in. that results in the total loss of the video feed, and luckily i was within eyesight of the drone and manually brought it back to the landing site.
with a fresh battery, i tried my mother samsung S9+. that phone works like a champ, never once had a freeze, though because of signal loss, occasionally the video quality would drop, or the image would freeze altogether if i completely lose RC connection (only for a split second). the S9+ is a great DJI drone phone. the only thing i noticed was when i went to go take photos, it was much slower than the ASUS or my pixel 3XL.
finally with 10 minutes left of battery life, i tried using my father's moto G7. that also worked very well, though i did notice when i first connected the phone to the drone there ws a split second before the video feed came in. i flew it around a bit above the house, actually decided to see how high i could reach before the 5-minute battery life warning beeps starting and i was forced to land. all was right until suddenly the fly app crashed on me. it was just a few seconds, but with the battery nearly drained and i had no idea where the drone was in the sky, i was a little harrowing. finally i had video again, and was able to guide it down to the landing pad.
so it looks like the ASUS tablet isn't a great fit for the DJI mini 2? i'm going to have to test some more. another thing i wanted to try is going back to the native pixel launcher on my pixel 3XL phone (i normally use nova launcher), with hopes of using less system resources, thereby allowing the fly app to perform better. another thing some people do is turn off video caching, or record on-screen video using a third party app, not through the DJI fly app.
for dinner we just had leftover barbecue from yesterday. i left around 7:45pm, got back home by 8pm. there's a good chance i may come back tomorrow around noontime to mow the lawn before the possibility of spot showers later in the afternoon (around 2pm) extending into tomorrow night. tomorrow's another 90+ degrees day, but it seems to be the last one, as more moderate weather is moving into the area come wednesday.