June 24, 2008

I didn't take the camera when I went jogging this morning but I noticed that my "fluffy dinosaurs" now have white bums! They are getting their adult plumage and you can even see where the white cheek patches are going to be.

The construction is still going on. This building has the brick on the other side already.

The parking lot was full at the old Nepean City Hall today. I asked a parking lot attendant, having never seen them or signs before, what was going on. He told me that was a graduation. Whatever happened to using the gym at school?

This is where the voles hung out in the winter. It is nice to see that they have pretty yellow and purple flowers and tall clover at the back to enjoy. I suppose they'd have to stand on their tippy toes to see it, however.

They've just been mowing a swathe of grass by the path and not the whole thing so far this summer.

And now there are parking meters on this side of Centrepointe! There never were meters before now. I wonder if there was a memo at city hall saying "bonus to any employee who finds new places to put meters."

In the 12 years I have been living here, I've never noticed there was a parking problem that needed meters.

April 30, 2008

Today, I went through the park to look at the back of the construction site.

I haven't been biking through the park since I saw that they had cut a swath across the path and replaced it with loose gravel. Even with the grocery bike, it's difficult to negotiate loose gravel. And I don't really know what this trench was in aid of. I would think the sewer and other connexions would go out to the road in front.

Standing at the gravel, I took this shot. I don't know why the fences are always down and why they are so bent and beat up.

I took the above (dark) picture and am putting it up here so you can see the difference between my amateur shots and a shot made from the same place by someone who knows what he is doing with a camera.

Quite the difference, eh?

Finally, here is what I was writing about when I said the backs of the houses will be smack up against the bike path. Where the path bends, it comes within about 10 feet of the foundation wall of that building. Maybe they will move the path?

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.

January 12, 2008

The sun is still warm enough to melt some things, like thin snow on top of dark pavement, but winter has returned.

The internal path had been plowed around Centrepointe Park but it wasn't scraped enough to prevent the freezing of slush into ice and so walking is dicey on some parts of the path. You have to tiptoe around the edges of the path where there is crunchy snow which creates traction. I didn't walk back through the park. But it was very nice to see the sun (it has been so grey lately) even if it does come with colder temperatures.

The main paths with the yellow painted stripe down the centre (what I call the NCC paths) are bare and dry except for this one persistently flooded spot behind the bus station. I think the only way to fix it is to dig it all up, raise the height of the path and then re-pave it. Putting some drainage tiles leading away from the path under the grass would be good too.

December 28, 2007

What I saw today was bunny tracks.

A few years ago, I saw a rabbit most days when I walked by the Centrepointe Theatre. He seemed to hang out on the hillside (very steep but not deep) that ran down to the driveway access to the theatre basement. I saw evidence of him in the early winter but then nothing until one day in the Spring, I saw his little body as the snow melted under one of the trees beside the building. It was very sad.

Today, I noticed bunny tracks for the first time in the years since his demise. There is some cover on this hillside - some sturdy evergreens. But it doesn't look like there are many resources and I am not sure where the rabbit would have its home. In this third photo, the dark grey at the top of the photo is the driveway at the bottom of the steep slope.

I'm pleased that the bike path behind the Baseline transit station is being kept clear. Now I can walk in relative quiet and saltlessness, instead of trekking through the station itself.

I also noticed the fir trees covered in picturesque snow forming a wind break at the edge of the giant parking lot that once belonged to Nortel but now belongs to the City. They looked so classic that I snapped their picture, even if the picture itself is not great. And it was a grey and dull day today but for all that, nice and mild. I'll take this over 30 below any day.

November 28, 2007

It is minus 14 C out there this morning and I don't think I'll see what I saw yesterday along the bike path, as I was out without my camera. I was walking along and I heard this noise. It was a repetitive noise, not very loud and kind of low. Low in pitch and low in where it was coming from. It wasn't mechanical, although it repeated very quickly - sh-sh-sh-sh. I started scanning around to see what might be causing it and that's when I spotted the married pair of Mallards by the side of the path. They were standing in (for them) ankle deep water and they had their necks stretched out with their beaks as parallel to the ground as they could get them. And they were eating the grass under the bit of water. They'd grab the grass and squish it through their beaks and do this so rapidly that it made that noise I heard. They were so absorbed in what they were doing that they didn't even look up at me as I stopped and stood not two feet from them to watch them. And they were still there three hours later when I walked back the other way.

November 26, 2007

We rented a car for the weekend and so we drove everywhere from Friday to this morning and that really puts a crimp in walking leisurely around the 'hood, I must say.

After the snows of last week, it is mild today and we are finally getting the patio furniture into the garage for the winter. I suppose it should have been done before now but I think we were hoping for one more day, warm enough to sit out, even if we had to wear coats. Now, we can always get out the folding lawn chairs, I suppose.

Today, I mostly took pix of the bike and foot paths. For years, I have bemoaned the fact that some of these paths are not plowed during the winter, even when there is plenty of evidence that people use them. When especially snippy, I would gripe that you just don't rate unless you have four wheels and an engine.

This morning, as I went over to the college early, I took this photo of the bike path as it bends behind the transit station. Sure enough, there were plenty of footprints but it hadn't been plowed.

Imagine my pleasant surprise to discover, later in the day, that the path had been plowed! This picture was taken looking north, The transit station is on my right and this is the path that goes behind it. I didn't explore to see how far north they had plowed but it looked like it continued on under Baseline at least. They didn't plow the part that curves to link up with the main east-west path, that part I took a photo of this morning, but you could go straight and then make a hard right turn if you were on a bike.

I decided to walk into Centrepointe Park on my way home, to see what was happening there since I hadn't been out on the weekend. I noticed as I got to Centrepointe Drive itself that the centre bollards keeping vehicular traffic off the bike paths had been removed to allow the plows in.

I pushed the signal to stop traffic so I could cross the street and as usual, cars went through on the red light. I guess they think that you can't get out on the road that fast and they have time to sneak through as the light turns red. This woman came barreling in pretty fast and then did stop, but only after she was halfway across the "stop line". I had my camera out to take the previous photo of the missing bollard so I turned around and snapped one of her. I have a theory that it's the speed that makes people even more impatient and warps their judgment.

As I headed toward the park I was surprised to see evidence of plowing. In my more than ten years here, I don't think I have ever seen the park paths plowed, even though a lot of people walk out of the subdivisions behind the park to access the bike path to get to the transit station.

I noticed that some folks had been ready with their cross country skis and had been out enjoying the fresh snow.

And then I saw that the whole of the internal pedestrian path around the park has been plowed! Not very well in spots and there was ice to stumble over, but it's a start. I am happy to see this because I think it encourages people to get out and walk even in the winter and that's a good thing for everybody.

At this point, the person driving the plow got off the path and caught a huge chunk of sod and curled it up like a wave.

Finally, I noticed that someone had been out rolling snow to make a snowman. Given the right conditions next time (the snow has to be the right kind of sticky, for those of you reading who don't live above the 40th parallel), I think I may have to go do that too. It has been years since I made a snowman.