FALL SCENES

      I was out a few days ago to get more photos. This set of photos is from the same place as the last photos. It's less than 100m from my house. There is the odd photo where you see a house but it's not mine.

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD

      Yesterday' I noticed some places where there where some good photo ops. Yesterday was not good for getting the photos as it was too bright. So I though the next morning would be better. It was a good time for photos. 

     All these photos were taken in the close behind my house. All of them were taken less than 200 meters away around 9 AM

FALL COLORS

       There have been a number of excellent photos on leaves recently. It's very appropriate because of the fall season.

        These photos reminded me of some school activities about 75 years ago.

        I had an excellent teacher for grades 3,4 and 5. She was far ahead of her time when it came to excellent learning projects. One of them was on leaves. 

       The whole class of 17 from gr one to nine would spend an hour or two wondering around off the schoolyard collecting leaves for a project. So in this little field trip we observed many different plants. She didn't know the names but we observed plants. 

      I think my technique for this has weakened but I hope you can see the outline of a leaf. 

      When we got back to the classroom we chose leaves to make a tracing with our pencils. Of course, we had to arrange the leaves in an interesting manner. Then she displayed our works. We did not have a bulletin board and I don't think scotch tape had been invented yet. Thumb tacks were used to attach our work to the wall. 

      So my teacher evaluation hat says that she could teach many things with just one item. Every moment to her was a teachable moment. 

MY STREET THIS WEEK

      

 

DISMAL FALL SCENERY

       Scenery this fall is kind of ragged and pale. The colors are paler and many of the leaves have been damaged by the very dry summer we had. Trees shut down because of the dryness. Many of the leaves have brown or black spots which indicates damage to the leaves in the summer.

      I was out to one of my favorite places...Michael Obrien Wetlands. It's an artificial wetland developed to treat storm water before it enters the river system.

     Ordinarily it is beautiful in the fall. 

FALL COLOR

                    Last Sunday afternoon I spent a couple of hours at the Michael Obrien Wetland in Red Deer Alberta. This is a man made wetland which takes street runoff and runs it through a number of ponds which have plants which help to clean the water before it enters the river system. It's a very successful natural system. 

                  It was a very beautiful fall afternoon . I walked for the two hours and the Micro Manager sat on a bench. 

SO MANY QUESTIONS

                              Part II

     Many of the questions in this list could be talked about all night. So writing brief answers doesn't do them justice , but it does make me think about things. 

• favorite color 

                 Well again I don't have a favorite color. When I was a kid we had 7 or 8 basic colors in our box of crayons we had for school. Now there are hundreds of colors and I don't keep track of them.  

           favorite food/dish/meal?

               I have a good appetite and like food. I'll just be very direct and come out and say my favorite is everything my Mom cooked! Now I hope you don't take offense because I've eaten your food and you're a very good cook. . My Mom , your Grandma was a very good cook. We had meat , potatoes and veggies. She was the best baker in the whole world...cakes, cookies pies, bread, desserts . Oh ya. She always gave us a hunk of bread dough to play with! All this she did on a wood burning cook stove . Not only great food came off that cook stove but it was warm to cuddle up around when we were little kids. I will never forget Mom's Christmas dinners. I will never forget all the baking she did for Christmas. I would like to be able to eat it all again. 

• if you hadn't been a teacher, what else would you have wanted to do for a living?  what did you dream of being when you were a kid?

      When I was a little kid all I ever thought about was being a farmer. It's the only thing we knew about as we hadn't been exposed to anything else.  I became a teacher by accident. Close to the end of gr 12 I knew that I would "pass". I didn't get along with Dad on the farming business. He encouraged me to try something else. His suggestion was nursing.  Nursing did not interest me in the least. . So the only thing that interested me and was doable was to go to Teachers' College. Looking back. I chose the right thing. I really wanted to do something that was outdoors. Working with wildlife interested me. To this day I'm very interested in birds , animals and plants. 

• did you always want to move far from home when you were younger (and went north) or was that just a happy accident?  

              This is really two questions. I am and was an introvert. I didn't want to leave home however, staying at home and farming was not an option. The first year I was away I was very, very homesick. However , you get used to being on your own. Going north was an accident. As I little boy I was keenly interested in the north. I read many books about life in the north. The planning of Inuvik started about 1950 and they started to build in the early fifties. There were quite often items in the paper which I read. I followed developments. However, I never had any thoughts of going there. Years later I applied for a teaching position in Canada's Northland and they placed me in Inuvik.  

WHAT IS THIS TREE TRYING TO TELL ME?

     What's this tree trying to tell me? It's a linden tree right across the street from me. It's too early for fall . Or at least I think it's too early for fall.  But this tree is definitely starting to show fall colors. Other trees in that area are starting to show a change of color.

    So here goes. I might as well like fall colors.

NATIONAL CRAYON DAY

     Today is National Crayon day! I sometimes have to comment on some of the national days that are observed from time to time. So I'll probably have half of my readers upset with me.

   Okay, I'll admit that I'm not arty at all and that colors don't play a big role in my life so when fusses are made over crayon colors I have to say ,"Give your head a shake." Every year my Mom bought me a standard 7 or 8 pack of new crayons for the start of each school year. Then one year some kid had a 12 pack of crayons. The standard pack today is 24. I think you can buy a 64 pack.

    Crayola makes a big fuss when any colors are changed. This year they are ditching, oops , retiring dandelion. Dandelion has been around for a long time and a new color is going to be added. As usual a big deal and process are made to name a new color. The new color hasn't been chosen yet.

    Now the adult colorers (I don't think this is a word) may have something to say about my making fun of naming crayons. Apparently coloring for adults is a great activity for adults and seniors these days. In fact, I am somewhat interested in adult coloring for a pass time.

    Maybe I could color inside the lines now that I'm a senior!

    However, I think this day is a very blatant advertisement for a brand of crayons. . Looking at some of the different websites it's a very smooth skillful advertising ploy.

   After all, they got me to look at it!

   What about you? Do crayon names impress you?

 

SKIES

     The sun is just rising when I get up these days. I noticed on a couple of days that there was a pretty colorful sky. I tried. I took photos out of the window. Excuse? I would have to go a long way before I'd find a better shot.

     Now we are at a special time for the moon. It's closer to the earth since about 70 years ago. the next time it's this close will be 2034. I took these tonight because it might be cloudy if I wait until tomorrow.