Dorothy is a very feisty, energetic independent 89 year old who lives in her own house by herself. Three times a week she drives her little truck 30 miles return to visit her husband who is on personal care.
Dorothy is a fierce defender of parks and land set aside for natural areas. Her knowledge of native plants and animals is vast. There's very little she hasn't seen or done. She's been a great mentor for me.
The other night we were at a naturalist meeting and she said, "I've just got to tell you this story. Only a group like this would appreciate it."
Tuesday was garbage day and at 9:30 AM Dorothy set out the garbage. She left her kitchen and went out the passage door of the garage. Of course, she left both doors open. Her neighbors have been complaining about mice. As Dorothy entered her kitchen she saw something flash and thought "Oh boy, I've got a mouse." A second look showed her that the flash in her house was a least weasel. These are little guys about 4 in long.
The weasel scampered into her bedroom. Dorothy quickly closed the door to isolate him while she thought of something to do.
She had an appointment right away so decided to leave the weasel locked in the bedroom , so she thought, while away on her appointment.
When Dorothy came back she peaked in the bedroom to see if her visitor was still there. Well, yes he was , curled up in her blankets and looking out at her. So the door was closed again for Dorothy to think some more.
A few hours later , she thought she'd look again. This time the weasel scampered off the bed into the closet. Dorothy grabbed all the bedding and took it outside hoping the weasel was in the bedding and would stay outside. No way.
Well, maybe the weasel could be chased out. In her words. "The darn thing would come in and out of the closet." Dorothy sat on the bed to think. The cheeky little beggar jumped up on the bed and came over beside her and looked up at her. The weasel would actually sit on her lap. Every time Dorothy moved the weasel took off. This plan was going nowhere.
Dorothy decided to get a bag and her leg brace. The curious weasel inspected the bag and finally went in whereupon Dorothy quickly stamped on the bag opening trapping the weasel inside. The knee brace was to secure the top of the bag and off she went outside with her little friend. It was midnight and Dorothy started at nine.
Dorothy could hardly tell her story as she was so amused by what had happened with the little weasel.
Now weasels have a bit of a reputation. They are fierce with their prey and people are afraid of them. With humans they are very curious and do no harm. I'm afraid I could not do what dorothy did even if I know the weasel is friendly
Yes, this is the first party at Hiawatha House! Everybody is invited. See the big crowd behind me? They all have their hands raised and are clapping!
I wish!
But there is a milestone of sorts on Hiawatha house tonight.
This is my one thousandth post! How about that?
I started Hiawatha House in 2008. I think I wrote two posts.
In 2009 I wrote about 50 posts, but most of my time was taken in discovering how blogger worked. I wore out a copy of "Blogging for Dummies."
I don't remember 100 posts of 500 posts. I do remember looking at 880 and thinking,"This is getting close to 1000 posts.
When I started in 2008 I had no idea what was involved in writing a blog. I only knew that I wanted to write and keep up some writing skills.
I think it was about 30 or 40 posts before I got a comment. I was surprised by the notification as I didn't know that's how you got a comment. The comment really excited me. Jen at Cottage Country Reflections was the first blogger to make a comment. Connie at Far Side of Fifty was the next to visit and make a comment. These two will never know how much encouragement was given just because of the comments.
The 1000 posts have been a lot of fun. I've met many fantastic people through the blog. Relationships developed through blogging have been quite unbelievable.
I never ever thought that I would write 1000 posts!
So tonight is a happy time.
We've been cruising along through March and April with above average temperatures. It's been downright pleasant. It's a long time since we had overnight frost. It's been windy from time to time but overall very pleasant. It's been so pleasant that I've ridden 100 km (62 mi) on my bike. One day we had a high of 27C (83 F) .
So this was not normal April weather. We usually get snow and lots of overnight frost. We can also get very nasty blizzards.
Well, it had to end. It cooled off Friday. Yesterday morning when I went birding it was miserable 4 C(37 F). In the afternoon it started to rain and about 6:00 Pm snow started and turned to huge wet flakes. Most of the snow melted as it hit the ground. We did accumulate about 2.5 Cm (1 in).
So it was just a matter of time before we got some cold and nasty weather in April. ...and we could still get more.
Now it got to 0 C. As you can see the bleeding heart is developing quickly. If it cools off slowly these hardy plants can withstand lots of frost as most the moisture leaves the plant cells so the cell doesn't expand and break.
I have been silent for a few days as a topic wasn't coming to me. I wanted to continue with another bird topic. I couldn't find what I wanted.
So in my research I happened to find a couple of things that I had forgotten. The common loon is being considered for becoming Canada's national bird. The loon is a fascinating creature with it's captivating call. I have camped by lakes with some resident loons. They start early in the morning and it's hard to ignore them. Many times they call is in the night. However, the call is haunting and well known and remembered by those who hear it.
The loon is also a distinctive shape and does the disappearing act by diving and staying under water and then quietly surfacing in another area. The coloration is as well known as it's call.
Our one dollar coin has a loon on it and we love to call the coin a looney. Have you got a looney? Now I should have remembered that the loon on our one dollar coin and is one of our favorite birds and one of the birds being considered for our national bird.
Loon also stands for some derogatory meaning. Crazy as a loon. Looney.
So I hope that the loon gets chosen for our national bird. We're one of the few countries without a national bird.
Alberta' provincial bird is the great horned owl. I remember the process of making that choice. They wanted children to make the choice so programs were set up in the school for kids to make the choice.
Now our national mammal is well known and has been for a long time.
Yesterday I took a birding group out for two hours on very beautiful day. We found lots of birds : black capped chickadee, crow, magpie, robin, cedar waxwing, downy woodpecker, red breasted nuthatch, white breasted nuthatch, mallards, red tailed hawk, house sparrow and an unidentified gull. The gull was about 2000 ft above us.
Now somebody gave us a bit of a lesson as some of us , including me, usually say seagull instead of gull! So smarty pants told us that there's no sea around us and to remember it that way.
If you look this up you find that seagull is informal and gull is the proper term as there are many species of gull. So there!
As a little guy I spelled seagull as "seagle" as in eagle. Now that goes too far and is just plain wrong even if you are in gr. two.
There are many other situations where we have a formal usage and an informal usage. So if we are writing in a formal style we would use the formal term.
So do you have examples of formal and informal terms?
Our town has an anti-bullying bylaw and yesterday someone was convicted and fined $500.00 under this bylaw. The person convicted? A 79 year old senior who uses a cane for walking!
I know this senior well as he lives two blocks from me. He constantly complains about the neighbors around him. (They're all idiots!) He complains about the police. (They're all real idiots.) He complains about local politicians.(They're all total idiots.) His complaints have escalated over the 15 years since he has been retired.
Now this guy would complain about his neighbors over many things: parking in front of his place, noise, neighbor's trees, neighbor's kids playing. He would yell at kids going by. He walked into a neighbor's house without permission. He also walked into my house without being asked in.
Now he constantly called police and bylaw officers to make complaints. As far as I know none of his neighbors were ever charged. He wormed his way into top police officers to complain about his neighbors and that nothing was done about it. He talked to city officials and local politicians. No charges were laid and officials tried to reason with this man about how the situation should be handled.
In the last two years he made 23 complaints to bylaw officers. Of course these complaints have to be investigated.
The 23rd time bylaw officers were called was because a car was blocking his driveway. When the officer arrived there was no car blocking the driveway. That's when the officer laid the bullying charge. This man constantly used officers to harass and bully his neighbors. None of us appreciate a visit from a bylaw officer about a complaint. When the complaint is without merit we really get upset. People were really being bullied by his use of city officials. Officers time was taken from other work.
Now his behaviour could have been handled under more serious charges. The whole episode is very sad. Somehow, I don't think the $500.00 fine is going to solve anything. I would think he will probably become a bigger nuisance. Some people won't allow themselves to be helped. Living in urban areas we have to be flexible and have a little give and take and common sense. Common sense was lacking in this case.
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| City Hall Park |
While I'm on the topic of sound or no sound, I should touch base with one of my original topics to post on. On my very first post I listed some of the things I was interested in and would post on them from time to time.
One of the topics was music. Pleasant sound! I don't think I've made very many posts about music.
My association with music is very limited. I'm not musical. I don't play any instruments and I can't sing. However, I do enjoy listening to music. My choice of music is very wide. In other words I listen to many different genres of music. That variety changes from time to time as new areas of music are discovered and once enjoyed music is forgotten.
I like listening to radio where information is given about the music...lots of information...history, performers, techniques, how the music is put together, basic music. Music is much more meaningful when you know more about it. I like listening to Randy Bachman on CBC. He calls his show"Randy's Vinyl Tap." He plays good old rock and roll and has tons of obscure information and stories.
Now I admit that I don't listen to modern commercial music at all. I am a way behind. I have excuses. Much of today's music is aimed at teens or young people. There's too much music to keep up in all genres. Some music I don't listen to such as modern country or rap. So I listen to radio stations that specialize in providing a wide variety of music and all kinds of background information. I started listening to much more jazz and blues. I like old time country and rock and roll. I like classical music. I've discovered classical religious music. Now I need a lot of help- to understand what's going on there
I like to listen to music that doesn't have commercial success but it's out there and is played. There are many good local bands and singer/ songwriters. There are some odd ball music shows like Roy's Record Room which airs on CKUA. Roy plays music that was recorded on old discs. You never know if you're going to get country and western, blues jazz or anything else.
So I'm not entirely about silence as I covered in my last post. I can listen to a lot of music in a day. I haven't downloaded much music but I realize there's lots out there to choose from.
Now how about you? Do you have special musical talent? Do you have just one variety of music that you follow? Any hints about some good music to listen to?
