Here, March definitely came in like a lamb. Wind was light and it was clear. It got nasty in the afternoon with lots of wind. However, when March arrived it was nice. I should mention it was minus 16 C (plus 2 F).
Now I like weather sayings and once in awhile I will look for their origins. Origins usually turn up some interesting information. I couldn't say facts or even fake facts but I'd be wrong. Research has uncovered various theories as to why we have special weather sayings. Origins are ancient. They may have a religious aspect. Many refer to agriculture. Others refer to stars and constellations in the solar system.
Origins for in like a lamb go far back and come from various sources. The Leo constellation is high in the sky in March. Some think this influenced the lion part. In many places lambs were born at this time of year. In like a lamb sounds better than in like a kid! Religious beliefs come into play as well.
One thing I notice is that the sayings like groundhog day have a European origin. So I sometimes wonder if the southern hemisphere has the same sayings or do they have their own which apply to their schedule? I'm looking for comments from some Australian followers. I'm sure there are many sayings for African weather. Are any of them the same as what we have?
There are other weather sayings that are not common and we don't know about them.
So do you pay attention to weather sayings? Do you like the sayings?
The photos are from Mar. 21 2013.
Four nights ago our microwave went dark. It stopped in the middle of heating our supper. It silently quit and went dark. That was it for a hot supper.
Now when the microwave quit I realized how dependent I had become on it and how much I used it. It was difficult to be without it.
So half the supper was cold. The next morning, no hot cereal. No hot morning coffee. My soup for lunch had to be done on the stove. I can't remember the last time I heated soup on a stove. We kept running to the microwave only to discover again and again that it wasn't there. We suddenly realized how many times a day we used the microwave.
The microwave was still on warranty so we had to take it back to the store. There was a hassle at the store but finally they agreed to replace the microwave. But , they didn't have one like mine. they checked other stores. Finally they found the right microwave but it takes a few days to get here.
Now the last time the microwave died we just went out the next day and bought a new one. Unfortunately, this time we have to do without the microwave.
Now all this whining has made me look back and wonder how we lived before microwaves. In my Mom's case she spent more than half her life without refrigeration. We didn't cook so much at one time so we didn't have leftovers. Now we make large amounts of food, refrigerate it and then warm it up with the trusty microwave. Want coffee? Boil the kettle and throw a teaspoon of instant coffee in your cup! Remember instant coffee? It's been 20 years since we had instant coffee.
So now on the fourth day without a microwave we are getting used to the routine. We're not going to the microwave only to get a shock when we realize the microwave is gone. I haven't stopped looking over for the time on the microwave clock.
Maybe Thursday we'll have the new microwave!
Did you ever get a problem where you worked for hours trying to set things up but couldn't find a solution.
That's what happened to me today. I told you about my 150 species count. As usual , I get a good idea but I don't think it through to the end. I knew I wanted to set up a list that would show all birds spotted, the spotter, location and date.
Now some people would say that's easy and I'm sure it is. They would say set up one of those little boxy squary things and away you go. I've never learned how to use that handy dandy program.
So I tried about 4 or 5 things and found out they wouldn't work. Put the list on my word processor and transfer to face book. It doesn't work. I wanted to pin the list to the face book page so that it was obvious and people could see the additions. The face book page is too narrow.
Finally, during supper, I said I'll bet the blog would work. So I've worked another hour and yes, the blog does work.
You won't see it on this blog but on Natural Wise.
So now I feel much more relaxed and when I get all the reported birds typed in I will be happy.
So go over to Natural Wise and have a look at the list.
Do you ever get a problem that is so difficult that your head hurts?
This year on July 1 is Canada's 150th birthday. There are many events and celebrations planned. Not too much has been advertised yet. Most events will take place July 1. However, other events will take place in the summer season.
Now I think most readers know that I lead a bird watching group on Saturdays. We don't go out birding in the winter so I have extra time to think about things. Now that could be dangerous.
I came up with the idea that we look for 150 bird species in our city and surroundings!!! So this is one event that will run most of the year. People will report bird species that they see to an email address. Yours truly will sift through the sightings and make an official list of species sighted. This idea was met with enthusiasm so here we go for a Canada birthday project.
With this project we will be celebrating Canada's birthday.
I also hope that this project will get some publicity. The local paper picked up my project proposal to members within 24 hours so that was great publicity. With publicity I hope that birders will get to know other birders. I hope other people just generally get an interest in birding.
I also hope that the public becomes aware of the importance of natural habitat in the health of bird populations and other wildlife.
So wish us well in finding 150 species this year and around July 1 you can wish us happy birthday.
As of today we've found 35 species.
Most of you know that I'm a bird person and lead groups of bird watchers.
Most of you know that I'm not very organized and describe myself as random chaotic. I get many things done. I just keep at it.
Well I had to learn something new this week.
I counted the species of birds my bird group saw from Sept. 1 to Dec. 15 , 2016. I was surprised that they had found 45 species. I was impressed.
So the next innocent thing I thought was that I should report this to our newsletter. This is where things went off the rails.
I wrote out all the bird names and submitted them to the writer of the newsletter. Now I've known the newsletter writer for a long long time. She's good. She's damn good. She's written six books and I know that it's hard work. We are fortunate to have her write our newsletter.
Our awesome newsletter writer asked me if I could organize my bird list according to the AOU. Could I use capitals and dashes where required? Now this is asking a lot of somebody who is well ,sloppy. Besides , I'd never heard of AOU. I had a suspicion of what it was . I didn't want to display my ignorance and ask newsletter writer.
So I hit the Internet and found out AOU means American Organization of Ornithologists. Cool! Now what are they telling me. The ornithologists have a system of writing bird names that they have agreed to and it's very strict. I had given my list of birds to the newsletter in the order we saw them.
To reorganize a list is tough. To reorganize to a system you don't know is a challenge. First, I used an old list. Then I found an up to date list . I finally got my list done and sent it off. Well wouldn't you know. In a list, the bird name does not start with a capital unless it's proper noun like "American"!
What I had was a pattern to follow and none of the other rules.
Well, I learned how to do a bird list properly. I'll know better next time.
Since it's Canada's 150th birthday this year, we will try to find 150 species of birds. There are about 260- 170 species in this area so we should be able to get 150 species for Canada's birthday.
cackling geese...not Canada geese. Cackling geese look exactly like Canada geese but they are only about 1/4 the weight.
Today we lost a Canadian classic: Stuart McLean a beloved Canadian storyteller.
Stuart had a radio show, the Vinyl Cafe. where he read his own stories about a fictional family of Dave, Morley , Stephany , Sam ,Arthur the dog and a whole neighborhood of various neighbors. You felt as if you were part of this neighborhood and listened every Sunday for the episode. Most people could see themselves and many people they knew in his stories.
The stories usually centered around some inept behavior that brought about mayhem. One of Canada's favorite stories was "Dave Cooks the Turkey." It was read at every Christmas season.
Stuart also included some unique Canadian music. He loved to find great performers who were not well known. I discovered some interesting music by listening to Vinyl Cafe.
Stuart also took his show on the road. It was extremely popular. I went to see him when he visited our town.
Stuart published a number of books with his stories. I have "When We Were Young" and have read several other of his books.
Stuart has won a number of literary awards and an Order of Canada.
I will miss Stuart McLean. He sort of glued us together as a Canadian society.
The other day Connie from Far Side of Fifty was talking about buying a new car. She had a few "needs". She wants a car that drives itself, avoids accidents, stops at garage sales and antique shops and lets you read and maybe have a snooze. Well, such a car is almost here. It still costs a lot of money.
Shortly after reading her post I heard an interview on automation and what it may or not do to our economy and society. The possibilities for automation are endless and the technology is here. Money is the main issue for not going automation all the way. It's not just the equipment that costs but changing the whole system of transportation and assembly.
I like to watch videos of auto assembly plants. The worker controls a device that grabs a part , lifts it in place so that the worker can use his high speed screwdriver and attach the part. Automation is one of the reasons that made the rust belt in the U.S. Automation has taken away millions of jobs.
Writers are not going to be spared the job loss. Today the beginning of a sports story is generated by a computer. The writer fills in the details like the score. Hey, I wonder if this works for college assays? Just think it would put cheating out of business. I wonder if this works for blog posts? Blogging would really become easy!
Several years ago I posted on the same topic. I found machines that would pick oranges. How many pickers would lose their employment?
What is going to be done with the millions of people who are replaced by automatons? The interviewer didn't have an answer.
Most of my life I have heard about shorter working hours and more leisure time. It hasn't really happened. The sad part is that there are many very low end part time jobs with low pay.
Science may have the automation but does society have a way to live with automation?
Hard work by my neighbor , Barb , to take down my birch tree. In the forest most work is done by machine and very little is touched by hand except for machine controls.
