First Icebreaker of Sping

CCGS Pierre Radisson breaks ice near Clark Island in St. Lawrence, east of Cornwall, Ontario, March 21, 2019

Moonrise, March 19, 2019

Moonrise, March 19, 2019, just before spring equinox

Piastres not in use in Ontario

I was speaking to a store clerk in French today and I used the term "10 piasse" (Ten dollars) and she blinked a little and corrected me to 'dix dollars' - I thought about it and realized I only heard piastres in Quebec (I haven't spent much time further east so I cannot say if it is in use in New Brunswick.) After looking a little on the internet, I see that "piastres" was on dollar notes issued by banks in Lower Canada and Quebec in the 19th century, and the word comes ultimately from the Spanish 'peso'. The Spanish had found large amounts of silver in the Americas and their coinage dominated much of the world - even the Japanese yen derives from Spanish and Mexican coins that were in circulation in Asia.

Butterfly emerges from chrysalis, Giant turtle fossil

Butterfly exhibit, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa

Giant Turtle fossil

Maple sap collection

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

First buzzard of spring!

They're back! A big mass of black rose up off the ground where it probably was eating something - I thought it was a turkey at first but it flew way up in the tree.

Turkey Vulture, Urubu à tête rouge, Cathartes aura,