April 29, 2008

Almost May! We have had a run of extremely beautiful weather which ended yesterday and I think I have been outside the entire time and so not blogging. I even have a tan line on my arms! But now it has got cold and damp which is more normal for this time of year so I will post a few pix.

I took this photo of the construction site on the 18th, one of those gloriously sunny days. The roof trusses are in place.

Here it is on the 28th (a grey day) and there is plywood on the roof now. There are several other buildings going up too - I should go take pix of them. Some of them have their back "yards" (we assume it is the back) smack up against the bike path in the Centrepointe park. I can just imagine them sitting out on a nice day, staring at people walking by within a few metres... maybe they'll put up a fence? I'm still not convinced about the planning.

My few tulips are up on the back now - the crocuses have long since faded. Peter has taken some pix of tulips downtown but has only seen one full bed of them in bloom. These are some daffodils by the old Nepean City Hall. they were under a layer of snow fencing all winter but they are looking good now.

This is that tree in the 'hood that was buried in snow up to its first fork. Who'd have thought it would ever be seen again?

April 16, 2008

More Spring today! By 5pm, we had achieved a temperature of 16C (60F), the sun is shining, the birds are singing. I got my hands dirty in the garden, although I only spent a few minutes out there. It seems my thyme survived being buried under 4 feet of snow and it is growing and green!

Some neighbours were out talking about gardening. One fellow was already raking. I'm not going to rake even after the last of the snow goes because the lawn is too tender right now but it will soon firm up. I talked with another neighbour and she told me that she has actually seen the nefarious beaver in Centrepointe park! She was walking her dogs in January during the big thaw we had then and the animal walked right across the path in front of her. And her dogs went crazy of course. We wondered and don't have an answer for where the beaver came from. But she said it has done even more extensive damage in the park. I may call the animal control people to have it removed to a more suitable location because it isn't doing our trees any good out there.

I notice there is a roof line forming on the first of the new housing units to go up.

There are still unmelted piles of plowed snow all over the place, but most of the rest of the snow has gone.

Except for here on the bike path. I rode out this afternoon to see how far I could get going north to the river. Some of the bike path had been plowed in the winter, as evidenced by the grit all over it. But when I got to the Queensway transit station, it suddenly stopped. I guess they figure no one walks north from the Queensway. I walked the bike over the small bit of snow and ice at the station but when I crossed the road and headed toward the creek, I decided to call it a day when I saw quite a bit of snow still on the path. I could have walked through it but it probably would have gone over the tops of my running shoes and I didn't need wet feet. I figure there must have been one huge drift here, for this fallen (not plowed) snow still to be unmelted.

April 15, 2008

I can't believe it has been an entire week since I blogged. I've been busy but I guess the 'hood has been quiet. After my gripe about garbage, I spent about an hour (maybe less) picking up garbage along the route I always take to get out of the 'hood. It filled four shopping (grocery) bags. Later, I went for a walk where I don't usually walk (now that we don't have a dog, we just don't get around the other parts of the 'hood like we used to). I was appalled at the quantity of garbage strewn all over. Especially bad was one location where an entire row of houses places their garbage on garbage day (if you don't have a garage and a driveway, you put your garbage out in a collective spot). Nobody had ever picked up one thing over the winter, from the looks of it. We have got to take more pride in where we live! Of course, for me, "where I live" is the whole darned planet but for most people, it should be a source of embarrassment to see your garbage that didn't get picked up, sitting day after day by the road. Anyway.

It's great how quickly but without fanfare the snow is melting. It just keeps shrinking, day by day and even the giant piles that overwhelmed trees are shrinking.

In the last few days, there is evidence that street and sidewalk sweepers have been out. I even saw one in action today. This stretch of sidewalk was particularly grim, with mud from the construction site caking it.

Speaking of construction, the above ground structures are going up fast. This unit caught my eye for how very close to the road it is. Centrepointe isn't a highway and it does have a 40 kph limit but it is still busy and I wouldn't care to have my house that close to it. I wonder if the front doors of those houses will face onto Centrepointe? If not, they sure won't have any backyard to speak of.

The melt water still covers this part of the bike path in a shallow pond. The ducks and gulls enjoy it. In the morning, you can catch ducks sitting around the perimeter, snoozing with their heads under their wings. This morning, two gulls were busy preparing to make more gulls. But soon the surface water will be gone and the water birds will move down to the river or any of the several creeks that feed the mighty Ottawa. The geese have been spotted flying back north too. I know they can seem a nuisance but I am pleased we are on a flight way, as they are the harbingers of the seasons.

April 8, 2008

This time I'll start with something nice and then move to more complaining about garbage.

It's hard to believe that this path has emerged down to the asphalt. I figured when we were climbing over 3 feet straight up to even GET on the path, that it wouldn't melt until May. But melt it has and we are rewarded by bare pavement - sprinkled with bits of dog poop that weren't picked up over the winter.

Speaking of picking up...

These are just two of the many blue rubber bands discarded at mailboxes.

Here are six more bands, two of which are not blue (the other thing is a contact lens case - goodness knows why someone didn't go looking for it). I have had mail come bundled in rubber bands. If I want to look at the mail while still standing at the box, I put the band in my pocket or around my wrist until I get home. Why on earth would I throw the band on the ground? I can re-use it at home or I can throw it in the garbage at home. If you pick up mail at the same box every day, you have to now look at the discarded rubber band every day. I just don't get why you would want to do that.

These are the plastic wraps that larger bundles of mail come in. It is my theory that the mailman himself discards these on the ground because I don't think individual mail comes wrapped in the plastic. I will eventually complain to the central mail-place-whatever and hopefully these things won't continue to be discarded. But as for the residents who live here, who throw garbage on the ground, the only audience I have is themselves. You wouldn't throw garbage on the floor in your house, so why would you do it on the floor of your common area? Just because you share the space with others is no reason not to care about it. And that goes for your front yard and driveway and the street in front of your house.

It occurs to me that perhaps people are annoyed or perturbed by the rubber bands. And in being so disturbed by them for whatever reason, they take them off their mail bundles and toss them on the ground in contempt. All I can say is "good grief". If there is some sort of consensus that rubber bands are annoying, then let us speak to the post office and prevent them from arriving in the first place.

April 6, 2008

The weather alternates between freezing and really nice - around 10C or 50F.

This was the first pair of ducks I've seen this Spring. Ducks tend to mate for life and I recognized this male from last year because he is missing a foot.

It is pathetic to see him struggle in the snow without a webbed foot on one side. I am sure I don't know how he manages to swim in a straight line.

But his wife stays near him and waits for him to catch up. They must manage all right together because here they are again. I wish them well.

April 2, 2008

Okay, I wasn't going to complain about garbage but really...

You know you threw that particular box away, after you bought the Shark vacuum cleaner (as well as that Delissio pizza and those eggs). Just because the garbage guys didn't pick them up for whatever reason, doesn't mean you can look the other way every time you pass by them, lying by the side of the road. It was your garbage the first time and until it's gone for good, I think it's still your garbage. So please pick it up and try to throw it away again. Thank you.

Also, now that they've banned smoking on OC Transpo premises, we get this yuk factor. Butt buckets anyone?

Okay, back to the no complaining, especially as it was ultra beautiful yesterday. We've gone back into the deep freeze today, especially with the wind chill, but yesterday it was plus 13C and sunny and a joy to be out. Oddly, the construction site was empty, devoid of human life.

This sidewalk is covered in the kind of sticky mud that clings to your shoes and then builds, mud upon mud. Best to use the one on the other side of the road for now.

There's not even a pretense that people want to keep skating. Winter is over and we want spring!

I wonder if the bark on this bush has been stripped by hungry rabbits? I'd have to examine it more closely to be sure. But why only this one and not the ones beside it, I wonder?

It had rained all morning but when the sun came out later, it was a nice contrast to the lingering dark clouds. They were being pushed out of the way in a hurry by the stiff winds.

I noticed the usual lake of melt water in the middle of this part of the bike path. I think I'll have to avoid walking there for a while.

And they shoved so much snow out of the way, so many times, that they broke this fence at the transit station. One of the many casualties of winter.

April 1, 2008

Not an April Fools joke (I loathe practical jokes in any event).

It's a terrible photo but I couldn't wait to make it better to share it. These are my crocuses coming up! All Winter, I have been staring out the upper window, off at the horizon or at the cardinal in the top of the tree next door. But I have obviously failed to look down until this afternoon. I was opening the windows because it is so balmy - currently it says it is 13C (55F) - and chanced to look straight down. That's when I noticed that not only had the snow melted from the corner of the yard but that my crocuses were out and blooming! Of course, I still can't get over to them without tall boots but soon! Actually, sooner than I think because I have a netting over them to keep the squirrels away from the bulbs in the Fall and I don't want them to grow up through the netting so I will have to get out and shovel. But it's worth it.