Act as if it was impossible to fail

Photo of King City United Church by B. Wallace

My new year's greeting, in the headline above the photograph, was written by Dorothea Brande, American writer of the last century. I am starting 2010 with this thought in mind. I hope it motivates others who read it.

Charles Long ~ brewer's labourer

The photo at right shows the Old Malthouse in the village of Langton Matravers, in Dorset, England. It is a couple of kilometres from the English Channel and also that part of England's southern shore known as the Jurassic Coast. For the last 100 years or so, the Old Malthouse has served as a school, but before that it was a brewery, lived in and operated by Charles Chinchen Edmunds, a maltster and brewer. In 1881, in a cottage next to the Old Malthouse, lived the 75-year-old Charles Long, his 77-year-old wife, Betty, and their 26-year-old grandson, WilliamLong.
Charles Long was my great-great-great grandfather and at age 75 he was employed by Charles Edmunds as as a brewer's labourer. My great-great-great grandmother, Betty Long, kept house, while my 1st cousin (3 times removed) William Long, worked as an agricultural carter. I came across this ancestral information, last night, while checking online 19th-century British censuses, as part of my ongoing research into family history. I thought it was somewhat interesting that I had discovered one of my great-great-great grandfathers worked in a brewery as it was just earlier this year that I switched from regular beer to non-alcoholic beer. I couldn't help but wonder if Charles Long turned over in his grave, a time or two, when I made the switch.
BtheB

First Snow Buntings arrive

It's December 1st and I photographed my first Snow Bunting of the season, today, in the Queensville Flats, north of Holland Landing and just south of Cook's Bay, on Lake Simcoe. There was a flock of about 50 of these pretty birds and I had a heck of time trying to get them to stay in one spot, long enough to take a picture. I didn't have a tripod for my telephoto lens, either. This one was at the back of the pack and kept looking over its shoulder as I followed it. There is some indication of its distinctive colour patterns and I'll get a much better shot in the near future, I hope.
BtheB

Stumbleway of dysrationalia

I've always tried to walk a balanced path when it comes to the environment; protecting the planet on the one hand, while making a living on the other. I always felt during my lifetime that I was, more or less, in lock-step with successive national governments on the subject. Such a concensus was purely coincidental I thought, for I was no expert and the governments had experts aplenty. Now, with granchildren on my lap, I feel worlds apart from the Conservative stumbleway of dysrationalia that passes for a highway to health for our environment and economy. I see pragmatism as a useful tool for the daily coping of Canada's existence, but I lament that there seems to be no sensical vision or goals for a sustainable society on our increasingly fragile earthscape. I am baffled by our national leader's inability to think and behave in a rational manner despite adequate intelligence. It's like a bad dream. Surely, there's no mystery here and we, the people, can expect that leadership seeks goals based on evident reality. I want to wake up from this bad dream and learn that Mr. Harper has also awakened and is smelling the roses while there are still roses to smell.
BtheB

Colder than a witch's heart

Here's a photo taken at Niagara Falls many decades ago. My better half, Linda, sent me this as part of an email which asks the question: "Who says there is no global warming?" Apparently, in 1911, Niagara Falls completely frozen over and people actually walked along the upper edge of the icy precipice. Colder than a witch's heart is how my granfather, Sid Thomas, would describe wintery scenes like the one above.
BtheB

Another Don Flucker photo

Here's another photo by Don Flucker, of Ladner, B.C., that is just too charming not to be shared. It's a Mute Swan with a cygnet hitchhiker. I get the feeling that most things centre on the water in Don's part of the world. It is after all in the Fraser River Delta, which empties into the Pacific Ocean. I read recently however, that all the waters around that part of our western coast have unofficially, or semi-officially, been re-named the Salish Sea, in recognition of original aboriginal settlement.
It occured to me that the word sea is not common usage in the west. Westerners seem to call the Pacific an ocean, while easteners seem to refer to the Atlantic as the sea. Anybody out there who has lived on both coasts and can comment on this?
BtheB

B.C. bird photos by Don Flucker

Fraser River Bald Eagle

Mute Swan and cygnet

Wood Duck

These great photos were taken by Don Flucker of Ladner, British Columbia. Don and his wife live in a floating house, with a spiffy trawler tied up out front. They're near to the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary, which sits on the edge of the Pacific, in the Fraser River delta, about an hour south of Vancouver. In addition to eagles, swans and ducks, Don sees lots of other neat species such as Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese.

Don is a person I was acquainted with many decades ago, here in Ontario. I was reacquainted with him last week when his brother, Dave, still here in Ontario, emailed some of Don's bird pictures to me. I've since exchanged a few emails with Don and have discovered, among other things, that Don and his delta neighbours host 80,000 Snow Geese each winter! I had to admit to Don that my next Snow Goose sighting would be my first Snow Goose sighting. Don told me that he has sold several, large-format prints of the terrific eagle shot above. No kidding. I will share others if I'm lucky enough to have Don send some more my way.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB

Another new-camera photo

Kortright Sugar Shack

I was out today, shooting some pictures for a friend who is publishing a history book next year, and found myself at the Kortright Centre for Conservation, near Kleinburg. Although I didn't find what I was looking for in the way of pictures for my friend's book, I did take the photo above of the sugar shack at Kortright. I love my new camera, but have to admit that anyone with a camera could make this setting look beautiful.

BtheB

More new camera photos

Fox Sparrow

Blue Jay

Here are some backyard shots taken this weekend. The Fox Sparrows will be around for another week or so, while the Blue Jay I expect will be around all winter, especially if I keep stocking up the bird feeder with the 'Ultimate Mix' from The Maple Barn Store. My new telephoto zoom lens is so powerful that I'm having trouble getting the focus just right. Between my less than perfect eyes and the hip-hop behaviour of birds like the Chickadee and Red-breasted Nuthatch, it's a challenge to get that perfect shot. Ahhhh, but that's the challenge. Stay tuned in and we'll see what we can capture in the lens.

BtheB

New Camera

I got a good deal recently on a new digital 35mm SLR camera and two lenses, one of which is a 70-300mm F/4-5.6 zoom lens. I haven't a clue what the numbers mean, but above are a couple of shots I took this past weekend at the Koffler Scientific Reserve in King Township. I was quite pleased with my beginner's effort and am really looking forward to taking lots of my own great birds and critters shots, instead of plagiarizing those of friends, acquaintances, and complete strangers on the internet. The bird is a southward-migrating Yellow-rumped Warbler who stopped by to have lunch with me. The White-tailed Deer was one of three does that were flushed by a group of field naturalists, on a hike at the scientific reserve, which is also locally known as Jokers Hill. I was helping with two hikes at Jokers Hill that day. The hikes were billed as "Trees & Fungi - Friends or Foes?" For the record, they are both. Everyone seemed to find the hikes interesting and enjoyable and I found some time to do my own thing; the results of which are pictured here. Please comment if you wish.

Say cheese, BtheB

Words that caught my Thanksgiving eye

Interesting words appeared on the front and back pages of the Life section in my Globe and Mail newspaper today. On the front page was a headline with these words from author, Michael Chabon: "A father is a man who fails every day". It was like a punch. I was sure I knew what Chabon meant without reading the story. In an interview with Dave McGinn he goes on to say the minimum behaviours for being a good dad are paying to raise your kids, paying for their upkeep, and sticking around. He goes on to say the most important part of being a dad is to just be there for your kids, what he calls emotional presence. He says he doesn't always meet the standard, but he tries. I like to think I tried to be there for my daughters, but there was always that "...nagging sense of inadequacy", as Chabon puts it. Hence, the every-day failure syndrome.
The other sobering words, on the back page of the Life section, were from Alfred D'Souza: "For a long time it has seemed to me that life was about to begin - Real Life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid - then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life." Well, thanks for the insight, Alfred, but I hope this doesn't mean I have to give up dreaming.
Pictured below (photo by Auralee) are the grandkids, for which I am always thankful.
HappyThanksgiving and please comment if you wish.
BtheB

The Rage of Hurricane Bill

My good friends Mark and Deb, of Boutiliers Point, in Nova Scotia, have passed on photographic evidence of Hurricane Bill's rampage, last weekend, in their neck of the woods. Boutiliers Point is on the southern coast of Nova Scotia, about half way between Halifax and Chester. Mark and Deb and their two young sons live just a stone's throw from the ocean. None of them are native maritimers but they have lived there, for many a year now, and have a deep respect for the Atlantic and for what it can throw at the unwary. They were forewarned of Hurricane Bill, of course, and took the appropriate measures, as the huge storm roared up the east coast.
They were unscathed inside the house, but it was a different story outside. Below is an amazing photo of the front of their home, showing Hurricane Bill's impact. Some people are just damned lucky, I guess. Please comment if you wish.
BtheB

Riding the rails in Vivian Forest

My wife, Linda, and grandson, Will, are pictured above riding one of the many steam trains at the Richmond Hill Live Steamers club property, in the Vivian Forest, east of Aurora. If this isn't a bunch of fun, for young and old alike, then I don't know what is! It was a great time for all involved: grampa and gramma, the moms and dads, and four grandkids. We all got to ride for free, although donations are greatly appreciated. These train-crazy folks are located at 15922 McCowan Road, a couple of kms. north of the Aurora Sideroad, in Whitchurch Township.
They have two open houses each summer when the public is welcomed to come and ride. They are the weekends after Canada Day and Labour Day. You can also visit Sunday afternoons from May to October, between 1-3 p.m., to view the goings-on, and if you're lucky, you may be allowed to ride also, but no guarantees. If you've got kids, mark Sept. 12 & 13 on your calendar right now. That's the next Open House for the Richmond Hill Live Steamers. I noticed on my calendar, the 13 of September is also, officially, GRANDPARENTS DAY in Canada. Have fun and maybe I'll see you there.
BtheB

Farewell Jokers Hill

This then is King's roof
Jokers Hill crowns the moraine
10,000 years young

My six months as a student ,in the Naturalist Training Program, at the U of T's Koffler Scientific Reserve, on Jokers Hill in King Township, has come to end. The photo and haiku, shown above, appear together on the last page of a photo-journal I kept between January and June of this year. I made a copy of the journal, which has over 80 photos, for each of my classmates, plus the director and associate director of the Koffler Scientific Reserve. Each time I look through it now, I have a pang of regret that this special time in my life has come to an end. My professor, Ivana, and my 19 classmates, were so enthusiastic that I could barely wait for each class to roll around. We all became friends in a setting, on top of the Oak Ridges Moraine, that has few rivals in York Region. Below are a few other pictures from my photo-journal highlighting the lush rolling realm that is KSR at Jokers Hill.

3-year-old granddaughter admonishes me

What do you do when you forget to wish your 3-year-old granddaughter a happy birthday on the exact day? Well, the next day you out to Tim Horton's and buy a really decadent donut with strawberries and cherries and yoghurt icing and present it with a flourish, while hoping that she's forgotten you were AWOL the day before. Emmy was delighted with the treat I had brought her and was busily munching away when I announced: "Now that you're three years old, you can eat all the donuts you want". Her mother instantly leaped in with: "That is not a new rule!" Emmy immediately piped up: "That would make me sick". To which her mother smugly remarked: "Look at that, only three years old and smarter than her grampa already".
Harrumph! So, not only is my memory failing but I'm not that bright either. That's Emmy, in the photo above, admonishing me. I actually bought two donuts at Timmy's, because I knew I couldn't hand Emmy a donut and not have one for for her sister Brawley. As it turned out, Emmy shared her donut with her sister and gave the other one to her dad. Me? I went home, chuckling to myself, and had a peanut butter sandwich. Please comment if you wish.
BtheB

Fuchsia Rodent

I wrote back in February about White-footed Mice living in the treetops at the Koffler Scientific Reserve, in King Township. Well, my naturalist-training classmates and I were back at it again last week. We went on another hike with Dr. Monika Havelka, of the U. of T., in search of another White-footed Mouse. Finding the critter was easy enough. It was another matter when it came to measuring him, determining his sexual maturity, and putting an ID tag in his ear. But the Doctor had lots of experience and things went routinely for her. Her final item of research was to facilitate the tracking of of this little mouse's comings and goings by coating him with fuchsia-coloured powder. The powder trail that the little guy leaves behind is readily picked up by a UV light source, and is a valuable tool in research on this small mammal species. The powder, by the way, is not harmful to the mouse and wears off in a few days. Until that happens, though, he probably looks like a rock star to his buddies.
BtheB

Dirty Bird Joke

Off-colour jokes, with a birding theme, are not so easy to find. Sometimes, you have to depend on friends. My friend, Pieter, the Squire of Toad Hill, in the Mulmur Hills, sent this candidate along today.
I took my 92-year-old dad to the mall to buy some new shoes. We decided to grab a bite at the food court. I noticed he was watching a teenager sitting next to him. The teenager had spiked hair in all different colours: green, red, orange, and blue. My dad kept staring at him. The teenager would look over and find him staring every time.
When the teenager had had enough, he sarcastically asked: "What's the matter old man, never done anything wild in your life?" I quickly swallowed my food so that I would not choke on his response, knowing he would have a good one, and in classic style he did not disappoint.
"Got drunk once and had sex with a peacock. I was just wondering if you were my son?"
BtheB

Archaeologist for a day

The young fellow, pictured at right, is Scott Eckford, a member of the Toronto Region Conservation Authority's Restoration Services. He is holding a Indian arrowhead, or as archaeologists call them "points". It was the only really exciting artefact that 3 TRCA staffers and 6 volunteers, including me, found during a 5-hour archaeology research survey of a field on Jim Rainey's farm in north-west King Township. It was a learning experience for some of us. I learned a couple of things.
#1. Walking back and forth, bent over, across farm fields, for hours at a time is a back-breaking pastime.]
#2. You have to be very, very patient to be an archaeologist (45 man-hours produced one arrowhead). Plus there was lot of pre and post-activity involved by the TRCA folks.
Was it worth it? As a first-time experience it was very interesting; mainly because there was a lot of information exchanged. King Township has largely been overlooked, archaeologically, among Greater Toronto Area municipalities. The Royal Ontario Museum did numerous digs in King, decades ago, but the sites were never officially registered. And the fate and whereabouts of the ROM's artefacts, from those digs, is questionable. There's even a suggestion that they may even have been put out with the trash - inadvertently.
But the situation is changing. With ever increasing development pressures on King Township, organizations, like the TRCA, are trying to leap into the breach when it comes to the study of King's human history and prehistory. Can you dig it? Well. if local archaeology sounds like something you may be interested in, go to http://www.trca.on.ca/ and click on the Claremont Archaeology Festival icon to find out about TRCA's first-ever archaeology festival on June 7. You and your family can just be observers or you can actually help in the excavation of the remains of an 1870s era blacksmith's homestead.
As for me, I heading to bed early tonight, to rest these weary bones.
BtheB

Backyard warblers keep dropping in

Connecticut Warbler

Tennessee Warbler

Bay-breasted Warbler

Three more warblers have shown up in the cedar hedge in the backyard. Connecticut, Tennessee and Bay-breasted Warblers all dropped in this afternoon after a rainfall. They had all been brought to ground by the rain, just like the other warblers noticed in the last couple of weeks. This spring is turning out be quite productive for backyard warblers and Linda and I are loving it. All three internet photos, above, were taken by a fellow named Brian E. Small.

BtheB

Birds to booze - I answer the call

The word went out. Volunteers were needed to assist the Toronto Police Services. Were Tamils running amok? Point duty at some intersection where the traffic lights were out? Did cruisers need washing? Coffee and donuts, somewhere? No, none of the above. A few community-minded individuals were needed, however, to imbibe enough alcohol, as to make themselves intoxicated to the point where police officers, in training, could readily recognize an inebriate, even when the inebriate was well beyond being able to do so himself, or herself.
With no selfish thought for myself, I appeared at the designated time and place, to do my duty. I was filled with civic pride. Being full of emotion was quickly replaced by being full of a pleasant-enough Sangiovese. Sangiovese gets its name from the Latin 'sanguis Jovis', (the blood of Jove). Jove, or Jupiter, according to Roman mythology, was the king of the gods. As my grandchildren call me Grandpa Jupiter, or approximations thereof, such as Jupa and Goonda, I felt things were off to auspicious start. I felt the Blood of Jove also set me slightly apart and above the other participants, who had chosen to relegate themselves to beer and that mean spirit, Vodka.
I learned that drinking 40 ozs. of red wine, over the course of two hours, takes away any sense of auspiciousness, much less a sense of balance. I did not fall over, however, and was cheery and cooperative throughout the testing that followed. I was asked to walk a straight line, hands at my sides, toe to heel, turn around and return to my starting point. I was asked to stand, hands at my sides, on one foot, with the other foot held out in front of me and count to 30. I was also asked to touch the top of a pen, held 12" from my nose, and then, without moving my head, to follow the pen, with my eyes, as it was swept from side to side, in front of me. Apparently, I failed every test and was declared "arrestable"on all the scoresheets. I was asked if I thought I could drive an automobile at that point. I said no. At least, I got that part right.
Late in the day, I was delivered by a police constable into the hands of my son-in-law, Hector, who saw that I safely got home. As I walked away from the experience, I thought about getting intoxicated, free, right under the noses of the cops, without be charged with anything. Part of it had been great fun. My ex-boss, Murray, who had recruited me for this affair, and I had laughed our heads off at several points. But there is just no ending this blog on a humourous note. Getting drunk like this was sobering. The kind of testing I was put through has been standard practice in the U.S.A. for years, and it is now coming to Canada. It's one more tool for police officers to use in the fight against drinking and driving.
My retirement is full of lessons, and this was one of the serious ones. I missed a day of monitoring birdboxes at Cold Creek Forest and Wildlife Centre on this day, but I have a new appreciation for how lucky I am to have the opportunity to enjoy another day.
Please comment if you wish.
BtheB