MICRO SHOVELLER

      We have had lots of snow falls but none of them have been heavy deep snows. We've had some heavy wet snow which is difficult to shovel as it is very heavy. Then it doesn't fall off your shovel like it should. I don't mind shoveling light dry snow. It's light and you can easily move it away from walks or drive ways.

      Now I can handle snow shoveling. I might be  bit slow but I get there. Yesterday we were lucky and looked out the window to find Brandie, from across the street,  shoveling our side walk.

     Now from time to time the micro manager says she would like to get some fresh air and she goes out to shovel snow. She does an excellent job and the walks are clean after she's finished.

      Now the micro snow shoveller doesn't like photos taken of her. This photo is not flattering. However. she does very well at 4' 10" and more than 80 to shovel all the snow sometimes.

      She has had the winter cap for about 25 years. She got it in her cross country ski days. 

BIRD WATCHING FINISHED FOR THIS YEAR

     Some of you know that I lead a bird watching group every Saturday morning.

     Yesterday was our final day for this year. There comes a time when it's too cold for binoculars, cameras and fingers. We start to see very few birds as we don't have many winter birds.

     Yesterday was dull and cold . I didn't think we'd see much. However , our list included:Canada geese, black-billed magpie, common raven, downy woodpecker, black-capped chickadee, boreal chickadee, red-breasted nuthatch, white breasted nuthatch  and northern flicker.

     I sent the group around a 1.5 km loop and I went back to the nature center to get coffee and cake ready. Yes, we have coffee and cake on the last day. They were supposed to be back before three and they weren't back. So they had a story. They had almost got all the way around when they encountered a mother moose with two calves on the trail. When she lowered her head they cleared out as fast as possible and had to walk all the way back around the trail. They were excited about their experience.

   Birding has changed a bit. Camera optics are better than binocular optics. Many times someone gets a good photo and we use that to identify a bird. The camera has a photo and it doesn't matter if the bird flies away.

   So we had our cake and coffee and talked about what we'd seen over the summer and look forward to next year. This year we saw about 90 species. There are a little over 200 species in this area.



    One of Lynette's photos that brings in the detail.

MORE SUNSET

    My post from Nov. 5 is in need of some refinement.

    One thing that would have made things easier to understand is that the sun set at 4:52 PM . So at 6:00 Pm when I took the photos it was basically dark. There were just some great colors showing and I wanted to try and pick them up. 

   I received some good advice. It's too late to look through your camera for the right settings. By the time you find info on your camera the scene is gone. But I get it that I have to look these things up  and learn them before the scene presents itself. 

    I hate to admit it but I took these photos out of my window. Since I live in an urban area, if I went outside at ground level I would not see any of this. I  know that there are great places in the country that would give me a good view.

    A tripod. Yes, a tripod would be very helpful instead of leaning up against a wall, fence or car.

   So I will continue trying things and I hope you continue with pointers and advice.

Did I ever say I liked clouds?

SUNSET

    About 6:00 Pm out of the corner of my eye I noticed that the sun had set and it was almost dark and continued on my way. Then I stopped ans said," I think there's something out there. So why not try a photos.

     Well I figured out one thing that it's hard to focus in that light. I also found out that I'm pretty wiggly and things get blurry.

     So it was minus 8 C and about 6:00 PM.

    The white strip is the neighbors fence which was lit by the street light. The things that look lights on the left are where snow is piled up on the mountain ash berries.

     I think I need more practice on sunsets!

I HATE SHOPPING

    I know I've told you several times that I hate shopping. Once in a while I just have to shop and I whine all over again.

    It got down to the point where I had only one pair of jeans without holes and they were becoming very close to having a hole. Now on the yard I always wear jeans with holes ...lots of holes. But I never go off the yard with a pair of jeans that have holes.

    So the Micro manager took me off to the best jean buying place. Oh no. The jeans I bought the last time  ( five years ago) are not sold anymore. The other jeans cost 70 bucks a pair and I'm not paying 70 bucks for a pair of jeans. 

    What to do? I finally settled on jeans of less quality and less price. It didn't seem right but that was all there was. So after an hour I walked out of the store with something I really didn't want.

    By accident we stopped in another store because the Micro Manager wanted something. As we were walking through the store, what did we find but the exact jeans I wanted at a good price...40 bucks!

    So I ended up going home with four pairs of jeans. Now I'm not buying four pairs of jeans at this stage in my life. I might not wear all of them out!

    So today was one more day of shopping. First we took back the jeans we didn't want and then we stopped at the mall again to look for what the Micro Manager wanted.

   Now that was two days of shopping in a row!

   That was painful.

THOUGHTS ON HALLOWEEN

    Halloween here means that 20 to 25 kids show up at your door to receive candy.

    However, I started to think about Halloween. I went to Wikapedia and found more than I ever wanted to know. I was aware that Halloween was the celebration on the evening before All Saint's day. It is thought that it originated in Celtic times. The changes in Halloween over time are interesting. They go into great detail about various religions and people. Each group had their own way of celebrating.

    What I as really thinking about was how Halloween has changed over my life time.

    On the farm we didn't do Halloween at all. In school we did something which I don't remember. It was probably to color a witch or pumpkin.

    During the 60's in the Arctic we didn't observe the evening.

    When I came to Red Deer in 1969, I moved to a fairly new area of town. Most residents were young and had kids so there were many kids around. You had over 100 kids visit your house. There was also some damage done. Some things were turned over. A few eggs were thrown. Gradually the evening became only the receiving of treats. Now malls have events for kids so fewer kids than ever tour the neighborhood.

    When my kids were little in the early 70's we took them out "door knocking" They were crazy about this. I remember taking them one cold and windy night. I wanted to go home but they wanted to keep going. One of them was still a preschooler.

   
The sad little boy won best costume at the school dance with this costume.

     A very large scary ghost.

      Somebody who wanted to collect for UNICEF one year.

     When my son was about 14 one Halloween he wanted to go to his friends place about 8 Halloween evening. They were just going to fool around in the house? But he asked me if he could take my bike. He came back in about an hour. The next spring when I got my bike out it was covered with egg. He and his friends had been out riding bike and throwing eggs at each other and I only found out about it in the spring.

   So Halloween used to be a bit of a wild affair in the early 70's but has become a very tame affair.

   That's a big change for 50 years.

SUNRISE

     A couple of days ago we had a spectacular sunrise that I happened to see.