Lilac Time

     Flowering trees and shrubs are at their peak here in Alberta. Early wild flowers are also in bloom. I found 10 species yesterday while I was doing the spring bird count. I had binoculars and no hands to look after the camera.

     In my sparse yard,  the lilac is the leader of the pack. My lilac has a very deep purple and is popular with my neighbors who like to get a bouquet. One time a neighbor decorated a wedding with my lilacs.

    Now I learned a few thing about photography and light. I hope it sticks with me. So light conditions were bright but poor for taking pictures.

I couldn't get this one in focus as there was too much light somewhere else.

Would a Little Standardization Help? Me?

      I drive a 2014 Honda CRV. It's got lots of bells and whistles. I'll never discover or use half of them. The car gets me where I want to go and that's all I need.

     A few weeks ago I got another ding in the parking lot so this week the CRV was in the body shop to get repaired. Insurance gives me a rental while my vehicle is getting repaired.

    The rental agency really messed things up.  My insurance made arrangements for the rental car. The rental agency was to pick me up at the body shop. They weren't there. The body shop phoned the rental agency and they said they would be there right away. The rental agency phoned a few minutes later to say they were running behind so the body shop took me to the car rental agency. 

     Well the car agency acted as if they'd never heard of me and didn't have a vehicle close to what I wanted.

      The only thing they had was a large pick up. They said we'll phone you as soon as we get something. Of course, they phoned a couple of hours later. 

     I went out to start the truck and go back to the rental agency. I looked at the key! There was no metal part sticking out! How was a supposed to start the truck if there was no metal piece on the key. I puzzled. Finally, I said ah ha. The blunt plastic end is what fits into the slot. Voila! The truck started. I didn't have to embarrass myself and phone the rental agency.

    Now at the agency the truck had been started. When I got home somebody was on my yard. I quickly stopped the truck and got out to talk to the people on the yard. I did not have a chance to notice that this key was different until I got back in to start it..

     Now the next vehicle had just a plastic oval with lock, unlock on it. No key again. This time you had to have the oval plastic thing in the vehicle and put your foot on the brake and push a button to start!

     Now you'd think there could be a little harmonization in this world when it comes to starting vehicles. 

    So is it just me or is there a problem? Should I know how to start every dang vehicle that's out there? Should car companies puzzle their brains to come up with different ways to start vehicles?

    There has to be an easier way. After all, it's not too long before we have cars that drive themselves. Now how will I start the car that drives by itself?

Dull Images

      In Alberta we have a mix of atmospheric conditions right now. We've had a mix of shower and thunder clouds through the afternoon and evening. We have about 70 forest fires burning at this time. Then we  have our regular brown atmosphere from the oil industry.

      I looked at the skies and saw some possibilities for photos. It was very dull and cloud formations were not sharp. So I decided to take some photos and see what I got. When I first looked at them I was disappointed. Then I saw that I got exactly what was out there. It was just plain dull.

    I took these a few minutes before 7:00 Pm. Today our sun sets at 21:38 or 9:38 PM. The second photo faces west and there should be some brightness. 

    So for some just "try it" shots I learned a couple of things. I am satisfied that I got what was there.

To the west

An Epiphany!

       A few weeks ago I posted "We Threw the Bums Out" . We had an election and a party that had been in power for 44 years lost the election.  Election results were shocking. A party that held only four seats in the last session won 54  seats. It was a major change.

      Yesterday, our new premier, Rachel Notley and her cabinet were sworn in. 

      This ceremony was like no other. It was held outdoors. The weather was perfect for the day. 10000 people came to the event! There were families with young children, young people ... a wide variety of people. There was no dress code so tee shirts and shorts and many other variations were seen. The ceremony was brief and not too quiet or solemn. After the swearing in the new Premier and her cabinet immediately went out in the crowd and mingled with the people. People were not expecting this and were surprised. Many people had photos taken with the new premier and lots of photos were selfies. What a sport! There were several bands that played . There was free ice cream! People had a great time.

     Now before this we had old , rich white men in suits who were sworn in. Not that there's much wrong with old white men. I'm one of them. The ceremony would take place in the Lieutenant Governor's mansion. The premier and his new cabinet would move to a swanky hall where a sumptuous feast took place. Only the bigwigs attended.  Ordinary people were completely excluded  from this government event.

     Yesterday's event got me thinking. We are always complaining about so many people who don't vote. We know few young people vote. 

    So my epiphany is that if we involve citizens in political events instead of excluding them , we may increase voter turnout. 

     I think yesterday's event should have some influence on increasing voter turnout. Young people were exposed to a government function. It was fun!  

     I hope that many of these people will become voters because of a positive experience with an important political event.

I Part With Another Treasure!

     As most of you know I am a senior who's trying to downsize so that I don't find myself in a pickle later on. I have posted about various things that I have parted with...canoes, cars, scythes, pianos. It's a long list. I've been at this for years. I didn't know I had so many possessions(junk). I've also written about how I hate garage sales.

     Once in a while I part with something that has some history to it. Today I sold my Ti plant. I got my Ti plant 45 years ago in the same month my son appeared. Ti plants were popular little things as giveaways at various events. You were given a two in. piece of log and told to put it firmly in soil and leave half uncovered. A month or two later a nice green shoot appeared. It wasn't long before I had to repot it.

     After about five years it would reach a height of about three feet and the top would get pretty ratty. That was time to repot it. I'd cut the top off about 2 in below the bottom leaves. I'd put it in a jar of water and in about two months roots would be growing and you could put it back in the pot. Meanwhile I had cut a couple of logs off the bottom stem and rooted them. I had plants at school and I don't know how many kids got Ti plants.

    So the other day we decided to part with the Ti plant and advertised it on Kijiji. It went to a nice home!

    Ti plants are supposed to be good luck. Put a Ti plant at your door and it will bring you luck. Kaye at Musings will correct me if I'm wrong!

    So today, my 45 year old Ti plant wen

to a new home.

Pleasant Blog Conversations

      Blogging intrigues me. I do a post once in a while on some aspect of blogging. I think the last  post I did on blogging was about bloggers who just disappear. Poof! They're gone. No goodbye! I've done a post on blog comments. Today is another post on comments.

      The blog post together with comments becomes a genuine conversation. We write a post which says something or shows something. The topic can be a standard for a particular blogger or like me, I post about anything that happens to be rolling around in my head.

      I like to make comments on other bloggers's posts. People write very interesting things which promotes a reaction. As in a conversation, we reply and add to a comment or question for more information or validation. I follow some very excellent photo blogs. They are the kinds of things that catch your eye. Some photo blogs cleverly mix photos with prose or poetry.

    On my blog I reply to comments that are made the first day after the post. My conversation can say thanks, add to my post, widen the scope of what I said or just plain kibitz. Kibitz comes from teaching days where I had to carry on several conversations at once.

    I really have to be happy about the type of comment I get. I feel that someone has read the post and can make an honest and respectful comment. Some people have a great sense of humor and it comes through in the comment. Some people will always expand my thoughts and I will say , "Why didn't I write that?" Sometimes I'm just plane wrong. I like someone to tell me when I'm wrong. I get about 10 to 20 comments per post. I couldn't respond to any more. I only have so much time for blogging.

    I'm not sure how many active blogs I follow, but there is a limit to how many blogs I can comment on per day. I get frustrated on days when I'm busy and can't take time to think about my comment.

     Each blog and blogger is different. Each blog you open has something new and different.

    So with all the back and forth of posts and comments a very pleasant conversation takes place. Non bloggers don't know what they're missing.

The Rookie

      I've been including odd photos at the end of my posts or else blogger sees fit to pick photos and I don't want them. So if I put my own photos in and blogger leaves me alone.

     Okay, the last photo happened to be me in my first year of teaching. You see it's the only school photo I have that's scanned! Because of comments on the last post, a post topic came into my head. The photo was a very poor scan of a picture.
  

     So I was reminded of my start in teaching. It was as many of the things that happen to me. I bumbled into teaching without any clear goals.

     I surprised myself by finishing high school in 1957. I never had a goal of finishing high school. I bumbled along from year to year and finally it was over. Many boys at that time dropped out of school in gr. 8 and stayed on the farm.

     When high school was done I had to think fast. I really didn't want to stay on the farm with my Dad. What could I do after high school. I decided to try teaching and if I liked it, that was it. If I didn't like teaching, I hadn't lost much.

     At that time you could take a one year program and then teach. I entered the program at age 17. The year was fun and very different for me. My high school class had eight students. There were 400 students at Teachers' College. The program included some basic methods classes. We had a very good class on teaching primary reading. There were some academic classes and a few fine arts classes. At  the end of the year we were given an interim standard teaching certificate. We could teach for three years and then we had to take more classes. 

     I found myself finished Teachers' college and looking for a job. As I'd gone to a one room country school this is a job I applied for. At 18 I was a teacher in a  one room country school house . Pretty scary! EH?Most country schools were being closed at that time.The school I taught at was on its way out. As some of you  noticed there were only 10 students. A school with just ten students was not economical to keep open. There were 3 grade ones, 2 grade two's and one each in grades three, four, five, seven and nine. I really liked teaching the grade ones.

     I had a very enjoyable year so much so that I decided right then that I would stay in teaching. The Superintendent was most supportive. Harry would quietly show up and stand in the doorway until I saw him. He'd give me the nod and I would go out on the steps and talk to him. He was checking that I was not having problems and give me a few pointers and a pat on the back. Sometimes he'd come and dismiss the kids for an hour and talk to me.

   My first year teaching is one that stands out over all the others. I often wonder how an 18 year old was able to give instructions for a year. The community were most supportive and good to me. They wanted me to stay another year but I had decided to enter university.

     Nine years earlier when I was in grade three in a country School. That country school just happened to be named Hiawatha!