June 25, 2008

Here's that building that I mentioned yesterday, with the brick on one side, from the side with the brick.

Doesn't this building look awfully (as in "awful") close to the bike path and the hedge?

I usually bike through the park but I decided to walk to the library which is why I got this photo.

That's right. Someone stopped to enjoy sitting in the shade of some trees in the park, to enjoy the natural environment, and to have their cup of coffee. And then they spoiled it for everyone else by leaving the empty cup when they left. Shame on you. (To forestall the question, yes, I picked it up and put it in a bin by city hall.)

On a more pleasant note, I noticed killdeer in the park for the first time this week. I saw one running away from me and stopping to hunker down every few feet. it wasn't the "broken wing" decoy they usually use but it was close.

A wildlife photographer, I am not. I figure they must have a nest near by but I'm not going to look for it for fear of jeopardising the babies. I'm amazed that birds like this that just lay their eggs on the grass manage to survive year after year. I know that killdeer young hatch way late and can run about earlier than other birds but still - they must be so vulnerable.

May 2, 2008

On my way to the grocery store this morning, a route that takes me behind the bus station, I passed a young man picking up garbage. He had a large green garbage bag and a large paper yard waste bag. I didn't stop because I was on a mission but I noted that he was not wearing an orange safety vest. That, coupled with it being a Saturday, made me think he was not being paid to do this. On the way home (only 30 minutes later), I saw that he had been joined by two women, also each with a green garbage bag and paper bag. The plastic bags were those fancy types that don't puncture. They were wearing gloves and had long handled grabbing devices.

[An aside: I thought there was a major brand called "Grabbit" but when I Googled it, I only got software with that name.]

As I biked toward the first woman, I stopped and asked if she was a volunteer and she said that they were volunteers and had decided to walk around Centrepointe and pick up garbage where it needed it. I thanked them and said we all appreciated their efforts. Me especially.

I think it sets an example when people do good works. And I think there is validity to the broken windows theory of urban living and prevention of vandalism. If you see a lot of trash strewn about, maybe you won't hesitate to throw your empty Horton's cup into the mix. But if you are looking at a garbage-free space that looks nice, maybe you will hesitate before dumping your own trash on the ground. So kudos to those volunteers and maybe more will be inspired to do good works.

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 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.

December 7, 2007

Last night on his walk home, Peter noticed some nice lights right in the immediate 'hood and went back out to take a snap after I brought him the camera. I have a giant bucket of lights in the basement and haven't deployed them since we lived in the country. One day.

On the way down Centrepointe this morning, I thought I would try to give an idea of how tall the snow banks are. I stood right next to one and placed my hand on top of it, without bending over to that side. Granted, I am only 5'2" but I would say my old Labrador would have had a hard time seeing over them!

The photo doesn't look like much but the sky is really dark in the north, past the hedge. It was about 8:30 on the morning when I took this one, and it was snowing when I headed home at about 11 am.

Here's the bike path on the way home. If you look really closely, you can see the snow against the buildings. You can always click on the photo and it will take you to Flickr where you can make the photo larger. It looks like a plow has gone by on the left (or south) side of the path and hasn't returned to clean the bit of drifting snow that is starting to accumulate on the right side. I am not sure why the snow is interspersed with spots of bare pavement, however.

This is what an excess of road salt looks like. This is over at the old Nepean City Hall and the salt has been this way for several days now. I had a comment yesterday about too much salt and this has been one of my constant gripes over many years. However, I am not sure if complaining to city hall (or whoever) would do much good. I fear we would get a response that said something about better too much so people don't fall down, sort of thing. And the amount of salt is not consistent so I think it depends on who is putting it down and how they were instructed, etc. I do remember the days when I had a dog and the poor thing would end up holding one paw in the air and then she would have to stand still so she could hold two paws in the air, because the salt stung her feet. Maybe a petition is in order?

Finally, this garbage thing has always been an issue with the condo and probably always will be, I don't have photos but this morning on my way out, I noticed one particular blue box piled very high and precariously with plastic items. They were a foot above the rim of the blue box and I had a feeling that the garbage collectors might not be too careful when they picked up that box. Sure enough, on the way home I saw that all the garbage had been picked up but that beside the overturned blue box were many yogurt containers, a jar, a plastic bottle, and some other things - all of which had been perched on top of the other contents of the blue box. I have learned that it is not in the garbage collector's job description to pick up stuff that falls out of the bag, or in this case, off the top of the recycling box. It is up to the homeowner and garbage-putter-outer to make sure the garbage is contained and in such a format that the garbage collector just has to grab it and toss it in the truck. So let's be careful out there people.

November 22, 2007 "First snow"

Yesterday was the first day we had snow this season, but I didn't get the photos up until today. And then there was more snow.

Yesterday was slightly warmer and we had less snow than today. The skateboard park was quiet and empty. The slopes aren't long enough the attract people with sleds.

When I walked by the split in the bike path in the morning, nothing had been shovelled and there was evidence that at least one person had braved the conditions on his bicycle.

Later in the day however, both sections of the path had been plowed. This seems unusual to me because I don't remember ever having seen the branch of the path that heads toward the river cleared of snow in the past. I wonder if there was a new snow clearing person and they just wandered off down the path without knowing it wasn't part of their job?

Later, when I got to the corner of Woodroffe and Navaho, I saw the usual mess that has prompted me to buy waterproof boots. There are street plows and sidewalk plows and they don't seem to coordinate with each other, so snow piles up on the corners, right where pedestrians need to cross the street. Then when it is mild, a giant deep puddle forms because the snow is blocking the drains.

In addition, as I pointed out earlier, the poles that have the buttons on them to push so you get the "walk" signal, are surrounded by dirt which turns into mud and here is evidence of that.

Even though it was mild, the maintenance folks at OC Transpo had been out distributing more salt than you can imagine. I know they don't want to have people fall but this is ridiculous. And couldn't they use sand, as it is far less corrosive than the salt? When I had a dog, I couldn't walk the poor thing anywhere near the bus stop because the salt would hurt the pads of its feet.

When I left the house this morning, I saw bunny tracks on the driveway in the fresh snow. This is common all winter long but I always find it a pleasant sight. Still, I worry about where these bunnies spend their winter.

I walked by that abandoned chair, making a mental note to remember later when it disappears (finally).

Then I passed this flurry of footprints in the parking lot. It seems to be a combination of pigeon and rabbit tracks and they organize around some sort of food that left crumbs.

It was good and windy and still snowing when I walked home, and I wondered if the conditions met the criteria for a blizzard. They didn't. I looked "blizzard" up first at dictionary dot com and it said a blizzard has to have sustained winds of at least 56 kph and visibility has to be reduced to less than 400 metres. The Wikipedia article (at the link above) says the winds have to be 40 kph, visibility has to be less than a kilometre and this has to last for at least 4 hours. In any event, I don't think this will rate as a blizzard.

November 20, 2007

Back on November 5, I noted a pile of cardboard over at Plunkett and wondered how long it would be there. It did stay for several days, but then one day, it was gone.

Now, in the same location, it has been replaced with an upholstered chair. The chair actually looked pretty good and its four wooden feet were sitting on the seat cushion. After last night's rain however, I am not sure what condition it wil be in.

Yesterday, I thought I would follow up another earlier post by showing the paving that has been completed on Centrepointe. I didn't examine it up close so time will tell how bad it might get over the winter.

I thought I'd take another shot of the construction site itself. They hauled away one of the big high hoes but there is still one working in the site. But there are many survey marks now and the crushed stone has been deployed so I think it is time for the foundations. As I was taking the photo, I noticed a small flock of geese coming in for a landing, and as I zoomed in on them, I saw the small garbage pick-up truck, trundling around the park. The garbage does get picked up nicely in the park but you rarely see them at work, doing it.

When I got home, I saw someone had been hired to not only clean out the gutters but fix them as well. Good work!

Finally, this morning, I looked out the back window and noticed something white at the exit of a downspout. When I went to look, I saw that it was snow! There wasn't snow anywhere else and it is above zero, but there it was, nevertheless. I am guessing that precipitation overnight congealed at the base of the downspout. But usually, it would come in the form of ice, not snow, so it is still a bit of a mystery.

November 5, 2007

On my walk this morning, I wondered what I might find to blog about and although I noted a pile of trash, I didn't take its picture right away thinking, there has to be something better than this! Then when I got to the Centrepointe Theatre, I noticed two highway coaches idling by the theatre entrance, together with a catering truck in front of them.

On my second pass some hours later, I noticed an 18 wheeler in the loading dock too. When I got home and finally read the paper, I saw that there was a show about whirling dervishes happening tomorrow. That probably explains the plain exterior of the buses. Usually, musicians' shows are travelling billboards.

Since all I had at that point for the blog was a photo of a mysterious bus, I decided I would take a picture of the garbage. That's my shadow. I wonder how long this will take to disappear?

The leaves are still falling and so the yard people are here again today, with a truck full and more to go.

And that's when Peter let me know that all the news boxes at his bus stop had been run over before he got there this morning! So I ran over to take a picture and they were standing upright but the poor orange one on the end was pretty mangled. The pole for the stop is bent too. Someone said a car had jumped the curb and scattered all the boxes but that they had been put back soon after the accident. I guess no one was standing at that stop when it happened and thank goodness.

November 4, 2007

It has turned into a grey sort of day but I hadn't been out for a walk so we took a turn around the hood, this time including Millrise. It seems that without the dog, I don't get over there any more.

These starlings were having a noisy meeting at the top of this tree. They make quite a variety of sounds. I know a lot of people don't like them but they can be quite entertaining to watch.

I'm never sure what will prompt me to take pictures on a walk but today, it seemed to be bird feeders. I admired this nice feeder, as it had a copper roof and a mesh that would keep out squirrels but allow small birds inside to access the seeds.

This pretty feeder was next and silhouetted against the red leaves, it made a nice picture.

The big acorn was cute but I'm not sure how practical.

Peter spotted a giant paper wasp nest, right on the end of the branch of this big maple. I hadn't noticed it at all during the summer and I'm hoping the residents of it have left for good. It looks fairly tattered so maybe it can be knocked down safely. I think we should leave something like this to the experts.

As usual, there is always someone who forgets to bring in the garbage container, even though pick-up was three days ago.