July 2, 2008

Interesting how Minto has its own building wrap, custom made just for it.

Interesting how it's not made in Canada. But then, maybe they don't make building wrap up here.

A couple of days ago, we were out for a bike ride and down by the Ottawa River, which is still high for this time of year - all that rain! Peter bikes by here every morning and he said, keep an eye out for a log where ducks are always sitting, and sure enough, there it was. It was raining fairly hard when I took the picture, and still, they were all sitting in a row on that log.

Yesterday, on Canada Day, we decided to hang out at home, rather than fight the crowds downtown. We knew the Snowbirds would be buzzing the Hill at 11 so we went out to see if we could see them go by. And there they were! They even had smoke on for a moment, maybe to test before they got to the Hill. We waited for a while but they didn't come back, but we could hear them off in the distance.

We strolled over to Nepean City Hall and except for a few people, the place was deserted. The fountain always looks nice.

And there is a garden off to one side with some benches in the shade that seems to be a bit neglected this year. There was a sign explaining the garden but that too, is missing. Plus some dorky vandals had broken a couple of slats in the benches. Why do people prefer to destroy things? I don't know.

So there I was, sitting out the back, reading, when movement caught my eye and I saw a large brown rabbit slowly hopping by. I stealthily got up and whispered for Peter to please get my camera and then I followed the rabbit around the side of the house.

He didn't seem to be in a hurry or on a mission.

Peter got a close-up of him. He had really large eyes and small ears.

Then he hopped around the corner to our neighbour's front door and went right up on the step.

He started going after something in the cracks where the step met the house but we didn't know what it was. I threw him a piece of carrot and he turned and sniffed at it and then completely ignored it, even when he decided it was time to move on. Curious.

March 31, 2008

I have noticed dried thistles poking out of the snow lately and realize that they are the source of the phantom voles I think I see:

You can see how, at a distance, I could mistake this large thistle head for a mouse all hunched up and having a bad hair day.

This is that tree that was and still is buried by the snow plows. I thought I saw branches from which the bark had been chewed by rabbits but I can't see them now or in this photo.

However, I did see rabbit foot prints hopping up this snow bank and onto the roof of this carport, so I may have been right that rabbits have been chewing the bark in the high branches of trees that they would never normally have access to. Time will tell - in the Spring when the leaves start out, the girdled branches will likely be dead. At least, I know that when young trees are girdled (bark chewed off all the way around the trunk), they die.

Every day, you see lost things like a single mitten, obviously fallen out of someone's pack or pocket. And I usually try to put the item up somewhere where it will be seen if the owner travels the same route again. I am not the only one who does this:

In a 20 foot stretch of sidewalk at the transit station, I came across two found items hung up for the owner to see.


I saw hundreds of webbed foot prints beside the bike path.

At first I thought they were duck prints but then I realized I had not seen any ducks but I have seen seagulls. And I guess they are not "sea" gulls but just some other sort of gull. At any rate, it looks like they were having a meeting at this mud puddle!

February 28, 2008

Sometimes depending on the mood, I remember that Very Odd alphabet rhyme by Edward Gorey: "N is for Neville, he died of ennui", only I always think it is Nigel, maybe because that was my uncle's name, but he didn't die of ennui.

It's not that I really have ennui so much as that I have nothing new to write about the 'hood. We have had more snow and more snow and today it is c-c-cold out there. Today started at minus 22 C (-8F) with a windchill of -30 (-22F). I have determined that I am not going to go outside today - it's too much bother. Two pairs of pants, two hats, scarf, mitts, big socks. I get to the point where I just don't want to any more. I am longing for all the things that Zoom mentioned in her blog about what Spring has to offer. Mostly, to be able to leave the house without boots and three additional layers.

But I do have to say in its defence that the sun is noticeably, appreciably stronger. Even walking home yesterday in the wind, I could tell it felt warmer because of the sun. The Equinox is only 20 days away! And despite the temperatures, the sun is melting the snow wherever it can get a purchase on dark pavement.

Here's the bike path behind the transit station. In spite of the cold and the blowing snow, there is still some bare pavement here and there.

The wind has blown the snow into ripples like sand in a desert. I suppose in the desert they say the sand looks like snow drifts.

The wind is relentless and blows the fine dry snow into the path.

Sometimes, the snow drifts get more sculpted than in other places.

At home, that snow is now above the place where the branches come out of the tree. Previously, it had got close to that height but then we had the January melt. But now it is higher than ever.

As I was taking pictures, I noticed rabbit tracks and it appears that this athletic bunny hopped UP the mountain of snow. On his way to where? Maybe it is a treat to be able to eat the branches high up in a tree - something a rabbit would never get to do in the Summer. At least, I don't think rabbits can climb trees.

But squirrels can. Here are two robust looking squirrels' nest. I hope they are safe and relatively warm up there today.

January 11, 2008

This blog tends to be more about the weather than anything else, but weather is a big thing up here, I guess.
That wind we had two days ago really was fierce and blew parts of houses off and trees down. We didn't have any damage here in the hood thank goodness. And now Winter is back, even if it's not that cold. We had had a little snow over night and then freezing rain in the morning, followed by plain rain. It's above freezing now so we won't have the horrible results of the Ice Storm of 1998 following up today.
On my way home, I saw several bunny tracks but couldn't find a clear enough imprint for a photo. Then, right in front of my own garage door, I found this set in a track that went all around the house and into the back yard.

You can tell by the toenails that this bunny was hopping from right to left. His front feet are in the "back" - they are the pair set close together. He plants his front feet and then swings the hind feet forward and that's why the hind feet prints (they are wider apart) are in front of the front feet.

January 9, 2008

We've been having quite the thaw for the last few days. Here's what the circle in front of Nepean city hall looked like on December 17:

And here's what it looked like today:

You can see the bushes now.

For the last few days, we have had thick fog, as the air temperature has soared to 10 C or above (50 F). It is spookily quiet, especially early in the morning. This photo doesn't do it justice but my batteries died the day before when it was thicker.

Today I took notice of how much snow had disappeared off the "bunny hillside".

But there was plenty of evidence that new bunnies were busy (look at the centre of the photo). Today the wind was ferocious. If there had been ice on the ground, I wouldn't have been able to make any headway at all. The weather folks say it is gusting to 60 kph (38 mph) but I think it is even stronger than that.

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.

December 11, 2007

It's snowing now but it was just threatening to do so when we took a walk in the park. Peter took the following photos and you will notice some of them are much better than my usual, which is why I'm giving him the credit up front.

They have just paved the roads at the construction site! I don't think they have foundations in but there is asphalt down on the roads. I wonder if it is to make plowing snow over the winter months easier? I would think that the heavy machinery will tear it all up by the time construction is finished but I also guess they know what they are doing.

The burbling fountain at the entrance to the Centrepointe Park has been shut off for the winter (obvi!).

Here's the sun, trying to shine through the clouds and not being very successful.

On the other side of the street, by city hall, the ice is being put in at the outdoor rink. This is normally a reflecting pond (not very deep) and they take most of the water out and then make proper ice with a Zamboni. It still looks very rough so I think they have more flooding and scraping to do.

I didn't hear exactly what they were saying but I assume they are going to be working on the ice. The hose is out and ready to go. And I found it interesting that two of the people were wearing hockey helmets. I don't think I've noticed that before but it makes sense to wear a helmet if you are going to be working on ice.

These small trees (or are they bushes) have all their seed pods still hanging on them.

And these too.

Not sure what kind of tree this is but the berries make a nice colourful touch to the winter scenery.

Finally, look at all those bunny tracks! I am not sure how many bunnies made them but they are everywhere. I can only hope they have a nice warm place to spend the night, somewhere I suppose, under all those trees.

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.