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.

Happy New Year!

I took these pix back on the 30th and here it is, the new year already and no new pix! It is so nice that the interior path in the park is being clearing this year. But the back of this bench poking out of a snowbank shows how much they have had to work at it. I don't know why the picture is crooked - I don't think I was standing with my right leg in a hole.

I spotted this squirrel keeping an eye on things in the copse of trees by the old Nortel buildings.

I wonder if they are digging through the snow to find the nuts they buried in the summer? I haven't seen any evidence of tunneling and it would probably take them all day. To add insult to injury, we are currently getting even more snow. I know we can always look out the window, but I like some web cams for giving me a view of other parts of the city too. At any given moment, you can see what is happening up on Parliament Hill. And for comparison, the spider cam points south.

November 6, 2007

Not much of a blog entry today. Didn't see anything walking to or from school.

But when I got home, I saw that the yard people were still busy clearing away the leaves. They must have taken a powerful blower to my front step because everything including the door panels was covered in dirt and dirt was resting on the leaves of my geraniums along with more leaves. I wonder what it would have sounded like if I'd been home at the time?

This doesn't look like much but it represents about an hour's work, planting bulbs and then stretching mesh across the bed to keep the squirrels out. I like squirrels but they can go get their own dinner.

I had more bulbs that I could fit in the one side garden so I stuck the leftovers in the other side. I trampled the dirt down but expect to see evidence that squirrels have discovered the bulbs here later. I decided to do bulbs only in the one side garden this year so that I could get annuals planted in the other side before the bulbs were finished in the Spring.

October 27, 2007

Yesterday after work, we dropped by Marshy's for a drink and to do the crossword puzzle. There is a small group of puzzlers who gather regularly at Marshy's and we partly compete and partly share answers, depending on how hard the puzzle is that day, which paper it is in, and who shows up. I bring over the one I clipped from the Citizen and Marshy's gets several copies of the Sun, so often we do both.

We discovered that Brad Marsh has just started the Brad Marsh Bar BQ & Grille "Great Prize Give Away" this week and the first prize was being drawn that very afternoon. Every week, Brad will draw a ballot for a Senator's jersey and less often, he will draw for more expensive prizes. I put my ballot in the box for the Grey Cup tickets. Then Brad asked me to pull the winner from the jersey box and I chanced to draw Darren Boyd's entry. I don't know Darren but when he accepted his jersey, he proclaimed that he was the Zamboni driver at the Merivale Arena, so that's what I am reporting. Anyway, it was fun and he seemed pleased. In case anyone was wondering, it was 16C that afternoon and therefore, Brad was wearing shorts. I, however, was not.

On the way to Marshy's, I stopped to take a photo of the debris remaining from Friday morning's garbage pick up. Oftentimes, the crows and squirrels have managed to pick things out of the bags and then leave the paper and other inedibles behind. In the spots where more than one household deposits its bags and boxes, there is usually a concentration of these leavings. Today however, I noticed that the debris was made up of the stuff that remained from last week! I sometimes get tired of looking at the garbage lying there, day after day, and so I pick it up. This week, I didn't and it was still there after the second garbage pick up. You'd think that the person whose garbage it was in the first place might recognize it and pick it up him or herself. Or not.

This morning, it was raining steadily and Peter thought the pumpkin at the front door looked nice in the light. Later, the rain let up and I went for a walk.

In spite of it being a damp day, people still like to get together and do something outdoors. This group was just finishing a game of frisbee football and it looked like they had had a great time.

Rounding the next bend in the path, I came across a red squirrel who ran up a tree and then stopped to shake his tail and scold me. We don't have many red squirrels compared with grey and black ones so it was a treat to stand and watch him until he ran up the tree and out of sight.

While I was trying to get as close as possible to the red squirrel, I noticed this thing on the ground. It might have been a nest but I didn't want to examine it too closely for fear of bugs or things more squidgey than that.

Heading across the parking lot for the park, I was reminded that, as far as I recall, the two outbuildings have never been in use in all the time that we have lived here, which is more than ten years. They may house washrooms and maybe no one wants the responsibility of maintaining them but I don't know for sure.

This is a very cute water "park' for the kids in the 'hood - obviously closed for the winter.

This was just pretty.

On the way back, the sun came out and I wanted to capture the contrast between the dark sky in the east and the lit leaves in the foreground. Sometimes, it's better to be there. And even if I made a little movie with the sound of the geese coming in for a landing, as they were then, you would completely miss the smell of the wet larch needles that completed the effect.

Finally, just as I was about to turn out of the park and into my own 'hood, I saw a bunny! As soon as I snapped his picture, he bolted around the end of the hedge and completely disappeared.