THREE STRIKES

       I attended a Teachers' College in 1957-58. It was organized as a glorified elementary school. We were organized in classes and the whole class moved throughout the day. We were together for everything for the whole year. We even had coed phys. ed!

      75% of us were rural kids from farms or small rural towns. About 50% of us were right out of highschool and the others had done other things before attending the teachers' college. So most of us started the year and didn't know any other students. Since we were in the same class all year, we made some great friendships.

     At the end of the year all of us went our separate ways. About half of these students never taught. They decided they wanted to do something else. Many of the girls got married.

    I soon moved far and wide. I saw very few of these people after I finished teachers' college.

    So every once in  awhile I will google a name. You find some people that you know of.

    The other night I googled the names of three  guys that were my former colleagues.  I found obituaries for all three of these guys. I had not seen them from the day we left teachers' college. What a shock! We had been together for a year as 18-19 year olds. 59 years later they were gone. Two of these fellows made a career of teaching. One did not teach and went into business.

   I spent a year with 400 students and often wonder what happened to them.

    So I made three strikes and missed on each one. 

    How about you? Have you kept in contact with students from a long time ago?

BIRDERS

          I lead a group of birders every Saturday morning for a couple of hours. There are enough interesting areas in town to keep up our interests. We are fortunate to have many natural areas that were left by past residents who had a great  vision. Very little is being left today as it is being developed.

          So when we go out we generally  find the usual suspects and once in  while we see something very different and interesting.

          Last week we spent our time on a trail between the river and a golf course. We saw: Cormorant, Crow, Canada geese, Mallard, Song sparrow, Red-winged blackbird, Common goldeneye, Raven, Robin, Black-capped chickadee, Red-breasted nuthatch, Bald eagle, Downy woodpecker, Magpie, Boreal chickadee, Greater yellowlegs.

         Now the greater yellowlegs was an interesting find. The bird was on the trail and dead. Some predator had captured the bird and was probably sitting in a tree above the trail when it was disturbed and dropped its prey. Now no gory photos. The head had been pulled off the bird as some predators like to eat the head first.

       The other find was Bald eagles nesting. I knew the nest had been there for a few years but this was the first time I had been out when the birds were nesting. The nest was across the river but Jurgen got a great photo. You can just see  the female's head above the nest.

YOOHOOOO...

      You'll never guess! I had lots of snow on the ground again this morning! Yes, about 4 cm (1 1/2) .

      Calgary had lots more snow and Banff in the mountains had 20 cm (8 in ) of snow this morning.

   
        About 4 :00 PM the snow had melted.

YOU'LL NEVER GUESS!

     I had snow again. My mind has been blank on good post topics lately so the snow came and gave me one of my easy topics.

     Fresh snow is fairly normal at  this time. We may be getting more than usual this spring.

     Our days become very long so plants develop rapidly and reach maturity before the fall. Right now the sun rises at 6:20 and sets at 8:48 for 14 hours and 28 minutes of daylight.

     New blades of grass poking out of the snow.  The types of grass we plant are able to withstand these conditions.

     

  
     The view on my street this morning.

     A rather peaceful looking dwelling.

  
     My blue bells are doing well at the side of my house . The snow didn't hit this area.

     I have seen times when these blue bells have been covered with snow but they are not harmed.

POST TOPICS

      Sometimes I have to work very hard to come up with post topics. Good topics? that's another thing.

      However, the post topic gods have been very good to me for the lat few days.

      It snowed again! That's right. Snow Sunday morning and now more snow on Tues morning. that's very lucky for post topics.

     So this morning at 7 AM it started to snow and snowed for about 2 hours and when finished we had 5 cm (2 in ) of snow.

     By 3:00 PM the snow was gone. we had a high of 5 C (40 F).

     It's quite common to get snow in April and not unknown to get snow in May.

THE EASTER BUNNY CAME LAST NIGHT!

   Yes the Easter bunny visited last night. I looked out my window this morning and my yard was full of rabbit tracks. It doesn't hurt that we had fresh snow so the tracks were obvious. 

   So I went out quickly looking for treats! Well, after looking all through the yard I found nothing! Well, maybe I will go back to believing the Easter bunny is a fake. 

    All kidding aside , we had a nasty day weather wise yesterday. It was dull, windy, with a little snow and about minus 2 C (28 F) all day.

    It snowed overnight so footprints showed in detail.

    Now with all the tracks, I think I had more than one rabbit. I'm guessing three as I've seen three together this week.

    So footprints in the snow leave a story of what went on overnight.

    This morning was cold minus 7C (20F) and clear.

NATIONAL SIBLING'S DAY

      April 10 was national sibling's Day. It's a day for us to recognize and acknowledge the relationship with siblings. 80% of us have siblings

      I quite often write about national days. Some of them are very frivolous such as National Cupcake day. I happen to think that there is some very well worthwhile value to National Sibling's Day. I wrote a post about it last year.

      The surprising thing about National Sibling's Day is that it's a very recently organized event.   The idea was originated in 1997 and in 1999 April 10 was put aside for National Sibling's Day. Some states have declared April 10 to be a holiday

     There is a similar day in India which has a much older origin.

     I took the opportunity to tell my three brothers that they are the best brothers I could have ever had. I told them that they are each very different and that they have supported me in their own way. I thanked them for being my brothers.

     It's also an opportunity to mend some fences. Not all siblings have a good relationship. Just maybe if the day is celebrated some siblings may be able to rekindle a relationship. 

     My two children have no relationship at all . They had a fight and since they are very good with words they said some hateful things to each other. With the Internet words can fly back and forth very rapidly and there isn't much time for reflection. . Since one lives in Chicago and one on the west coast, they have no trouble avoiding one another and the schism does not cause any awkward problems. However, as a family we would be much happier if we had a regular relationship. So today I emailed them requesting that the hatchet be buried.

    A belated Happy Sibling's day.