Details to Follow

What a day we have had! Casa Loma, followed by the Royal Ontario Museum and then up the CN Tower in time to watch the fog roll in. All three of our cameras currently say "battery depleted" which is pretty much how I feel at this late hour of such a busy day, physically and mentally depleted and ready for my bed. Especially since I have to work in the morning. Sadly, my guests will be leaving then so our adventures are over for now. I shall give you more details tomorrow and since I can't download my photos, I shall leave you with this vintage shot of Casa Loma that I found on the Internet:

Patience

You may have seen this video already. I got an email about it a few months ago and never seemed to remember to go back and check it out until recently. Now that I've seen it, I highly recommend you take the 6 minutes to watch it, both as an exercise in patience and because the work of art which paper artist and bookmaker Randi Parkhurst is demonstrating is so fascinating, and the original music provided by Laura Inserra is so calming, it's worth it!

I especially like the quote which is displayed a little more than halfway through the video: "How does a person have the patience to do art? Creating art is a joyful experience and a person requires no patience for pleasure."

Patience from Glowing Heads on Vimeo.

Company Coming

I'm having some people come stay with me this week. I thought it was going to be for one night only but now it appears it will be at least two and possibly three. Not that it matters how long they stay, I'm very much looking forward to having them visit, but when I went away for the long weekend, I thought I was ready for the visit and all of a sudden I'm not. For example, I have run out of toilet paper, am getting low on milk and should pick up some extra breakfast food items. I've had a few of my shower curtain hooks break in recent weeks which led to feeling the need to change the shower curtain liner as well.

I'm also at that point in the year when psychologically, I really need to clean out the inside of my car. Floor mats pick up so much dirt over the winter from salt and snow melting off wet boots, they look totally disgusting by the time spring rolls around. You don't notice it when it's cold and grey outside but all of a sudden, it's sunny and there is this dirty mess at your feet that you notice every time you climb in and out of the car. It's not worth it to clean the mats too early in the spring season but we've had such wonderful warm, sunny weather the past few days, I am itching to get the car cleaned out. So I'm hoping to squeeze in a trip to the car wash before my guests arrive to use that nice, big vacuum they have.

I'm also checking out various websites in order to help my guests plan their visit. It's hard to narrow down all of the wonderful attractions that Toronto has to offer into a mere day or two but I'm working on it! Some of the highlights will definitely include: the Royal Ontario Museum, Casa Loma, the Eaton Centre and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Optional items (time and weather permitting) are the CN Tower, City Hall (check out the fabulous photo above!), the Bata Shoe Museum, Dundas Square, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art and the Textile Museum. Things that will probably have to wait until a future visit: the Science Centre, the zoo and the Botanical Gardens.

Happy Easter

Did the Easter Bunny bring you a basket this morning? Or have you been having an Easter egg hunt? We always used to find baskets of candy and other special treats hidden around the living room when we were kids. I think my favourite year was the one when I found a Partridge Family record album in my basket!

I went for a walk on Friday having assigned myself the task of taking pictures that made me think of Easter and/or Easter eggs. Here is the result:


1. Easter colours on a kid's riding toy (I had to "Kinnear" this shot, a term I learned from Kate McKinnon, when you sneak a photo without looking in the viewfinder so the subject doesn't know you're taking the picture i.e. of a celebrity when you don't want to intrude on their privacy - in this case, I didn't want the child's mom to know! as it happens, I didn't even get the kid in the shot!)

2. tree scar 3. neon "egg" 4. water thingy

5. a stone basket 6. hens and chicks 7. toys in the supermarket window 8. spirit ball

9. markings on the road 10. wire cover 11. green "egg" 12. pink cross

13. handcuffs (on a tree - wtf?) 14. sidewalk gum wad 15. convenience store lilies 16. graffiti

Signs of Spring

Another unusually warm spring/feels like summer day here in Toronto. I thought you might enjoy this collection of photos I took yesterday of these signs of spring:

1. bags of soil at the grocery store 2. a bumblebee waking up 3. washing the car

4. raking the lawn 5. leaf bags for pickup 6. a busy playground

7. this bud's for you 8. tulips leaves 9. crocus

10. young girls in shorts 11. tufts of new grass 12. pine cones on the ground

A Good Friday Indeed

Whatever your religious affiliations (or not), here are some of my reasons why it's a feel good Friday:

1. Record breaking warm temperatures - today's temperature of approx. 22C broke the record for highest temperature on this day set more than 40 years ago and far exceeds the normal high expected for this day on the calendar which is only 9 degrees!

2. It's humid, so it seems even warmer.

3. It's a stat holiday, so most of us could sleep in and not go to work today (my sympathies to those who did have to).

4. I filed my tax return this afternoon - gotta love online preparation software and filing. Okay, my refund is less than $100 but at least I don't owe anything!

5. I didn't have much on my "to do" list for today and I actually got everything done!

6. Which left time for a nap, curled up with my sleeping cat.

7. After my nap, I went for a nice long walk and took lots of pictures (which I shall share with you over the next 2 days).

8. Ended my walk with a trip to the variety store for an ice cream sandwich. Yum!

I hope your Friday was good too!

Meet Nova

I just got home from a walk to my bank. Forgot it was the first of the month and had to put some money in an account before the auto withdrawal that comes out of that account every first of the month! It's a beautiful afternoon, by the way, warm and sunny although rather windy but it's a warm wind which makes it quite tolerable.

As I walked into the bank branch, I was dismayed to see a line up of at least eight people (I've never had more than one person in line in front of me at this particular branch before - I guess the combination of the long weekend and the first of the month brought everybody out). But I was quickly distracted by the sight of a young guy holding...are you ready?...a peregrine falcon!!

Of course I went right over to see what was what, especially since no one else seemed to be paying any attention to them, even though everyone noticed they were there. It was kind of funny and sad to watch, really - how people would look, do a bit of a double take and then turn away. Doesn't anyone have any curiosity any more? Never mind that it was a beautiful bird, no more than a foot high and rather small in size, not at all threatening - not to humans, anyway!

The guy's name was Kyle and he introduced me to Nova, who is a male about 10 months old. Kyle works with The Canadian Peregrine Foundation and takes the bird to schools and places like the bank (who is one of their sponsors) so people can learn about the birds and the Foundation's various programs. http://peregrine-foundation.ca/ (for a bit of amusement, move your cursor, you'll see a bird flying around).

If you click here, you can see Nova's web page which has pictures of him when he was first born. http://peregrine-foundation.ca/programs/education/edbirds/nova.html. He doesn't look at all like he did when he was a tiny, fluffy baby covered in downy white fluff! (okay, "fluff" probably isn't the scientific name for it.) Here's a closeup of how pretty he is now. He's not fully mature yet, which will take another year or two. Apparently his feathers and markings will change colour as he gets to be an adult but he won't get any larger.

I was sorely tempted to touch his beautiful feathers but I restrained myself. He seemed quite calm but his eyes were always in motion as he checked everything out. Kyle stroked his feet with his bare right hand from time to time while we talked and sprayed him with water (to keep him cool), which Nova really liked. The feathers around his face started to puff out, which meant he was enjoying himself, and then he gave himself a big shake.

He eats quail meat, which is gamier than chicken and doesn't have all the artificial ingredients added to it that commercial chicken does, so it's better for the birds.

Peregrine falcons came close to extinction back in the 1960's as the result of DDT poisoning but conservation efforts have helped in reversing the trend. Not everyone knows that there are several nesting pairs of peregrine falcons in the Toronto area, two of them right in the heart of downtown. If you click on the "Live Webcam" link on the Foundation's website, you can see the locations and see what the birds are up to.

All in all, a very exciting trip to the bank! As much as part of me rebels at the thought of any wild animal living in captivity, I recognize the importance of programs like this in preserving various species and I am grateful for the opportunity to see this magnificient creature up close and personal!