November 17, 2007

I forgot I took these pix on Thursday.

They are preparing the gardens at the old city hall for winter.

I think those are irises beneath the snow fencing. They have some lovely very dark purple irises that I enjoy every time I walk by in the early summer.

We took a turn around the park this afternoon and it was a real pleasure to walk into the park and see a bright kite flying.

It was a windy day and pretty cold - about 3C. The kite was initially tethered to the children's play structure at the edge of the park but later, we watched the kite flyer walking across the park with kite in tow.

It always looks better the real life but I snapped this photo anyway, when an airplane crossed the sky right where the kite was.

The geese were out in force today. You'd think they'd be seriously packing their bags to head south.

Instead, they were swimming in line in the pond (I think that is a dog collar on the post),

pooping everywhere - look at those poop logs!

and walking in several different directions at once. One group finds something interesting over the hill and another group heads for the pond. All with deliberation.

We noticed that a section of the metal chain link fence was missing over at the construction site and some orange plastic fencing has been put in its place. You always wonder if someone stole the fence or what happened to it.

November 15, 2007

Just a few pix from other days. I haven't had the opportunity to use them yet and so saved them for days like today when I had nothing.

Two days ago, they paved the road in front of the construction site. I guess they have finished hooking up the sewer and water lines and whatever else runs under to road and now they are paving the hole.

For a couple of years now, the condo corporation has been gradually replacing all the windows in all the units. It's a good maintenance thing and the units are more than 20 years old (I think they are closer to 25) so it's money well spent. We got our windows last year and I have noticed a difference in drafts.

Over at the old Nepean city hall, they have drained the reflecting pond in preparation for turning it into a skating rink. They even have a real Zamboni to clean the ice!

November 13, 2007

Last night was the Annual General Meeting for the condo corporation. I had decided that it was time I volunteered to serve on the board, on the basis that being on the board is one of the obligations of ownership and so I put my name on the list for the election that night. At the meeting, I got up and said why I was running for the board and in addition to the "obligations of ownership" line (scintillating I am sure!) I also said that I liked the community that was our condominium association and how I thought I could contribute to it if I was elected.

As it turned out, I was elected and so I'd like to thank all those people who voted for me and who said even before the meeting that they'd like to have me on the board. I hope that for the next two years I will be able to maintain the good works done by previous directors and that maybe I will be able to think of ways to save our association money here and there and make things even a little bit better.

I have been musing about an article I saw in the Citizen of November 3, 2007, where it was reported that condo owners were looking to reduce property taxes because they were already paying for things like snow removal through their condo fees. I'll see if the board has already been looking into this at our first meeting next week, before I go off and reinvent the wheel.

Suggestions were also heard about having a sort of Welcome Wagon for new members and improving communications. The new condo website was unveiled, which I think is an excellent means of getting information out to many members of the association. Of course, there are some folks who do not have computers and who do not access the internet so we still have to think of them. And being welcomed to a new neighbourhood should really come in the form of a personal touch. But this is said with the mindfulness that all work done by not just the board members but everyone else in the community is voluntary and so people should only be doing what they have the means, especially in time, to do.

Another topic of interest at the meeting was the hedge that divides our property from the new construction site next door. This hedge is as old as the subdivision which is to say, about 25 years old. It has grown very tall and apparently, it was supposed to be trimmed fiercely over the last few years to bring it down to a manageable size. On my way home today, I noticed for the first time what a state it was in and took this picture. The shorter hedge belongs to the community at Plunkett Court and ours is the raggedy hedge looming beyond it. I have a feeling that some time in the not-too-distant future, the whole thing may need to be ripped out and replanted. Nothing lasts forever, especially not living things and all that construction right beside this part of the hedge may not be doing it any favours also. It will be a wrench for the people whose property backs on to the hedge, to lose that privacy for a while. But my own property backs on to a chain link fence and we can see right in to the yards of the people who live opposite and yet we manage.

Lest We Forget

November 9, 2007

Preparations for Winter are proceeding apace. Unfortunately, some of them are inconvenient, at least to me.

They have removed the bike rack from the south entrance of the Loblaws. Initially, I thought it was to make room for the outdoor Christmas stuff, but there is still room for a bike rack. I guess it has something to do with snow shovelling. I don't ride my bike in the snow, although some people do. But it hasn't snowed yet!

For now, I will park at the LCBO, as they still have a little rack there.

As far as the geese go, they are still eating grass in the park! I think they had better get going soon or there will be no room in Florida for them.

And the construction site is busier than ever, lots of machinery, big holes, piles of dirt and gravel. It will be interesting to see what work they do after the ground freezes solid and the snow flies.

November 7, 2007

I see that this blog is soon going to have to turn to more writing and fewer pictures.

On the way to work, I noticed that almost all the leaves have fallen from the oak tree in front of the old Nepean city hall. There is a real chill in the air AND a wind chill. But nothing else to blog about. Until Peter sent me a photo that he'd taken in another neighbourhood today.

There are good reasons to be happy that we live in the neighbourhood that we do. We have a nice community here and I have never seen anything like the above photo happen near here.

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.