Goose on a roof, fiddleheads

Geese can also mistake wet flat roofs for bodies of water.

Fiddleheads at sunset. These can be steamed and eaten and taste like asparagus.

At a suggestion from a Japanese friend, I tried them as tempura - very good - much better than just boiled.

 

Classic Cosplay

 

Flintstones family cosplayers. Glad someone appreciates the classics, CAPE Expo, Benson Centre, Cornwall, Ontario, April 20, 2024

More pix from CAPE ( Cornwall & Area Pop Event )

 2024

Rainbow and Seagull over St. Lawrence

 

Confused Goose

Confused Canada goose in a parking lot - they sometimes mistake a wet one for a lake. 

 

Osprey at dusk, moth on flowers

White Flowers, moth

Osprey

 

First Rainbow of the Year

Double rainbow with supernumerary arcs, 15 April 2024

 

Forrest, but not Gump

 I sent a package to a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia today - I notice the street name in the address was Forrest, very likely named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate General and first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

Oh no, O.G.!

 

"O.G (sic) Simpson is dead." - CBC Radio One, Ottawa. I remember watching the O.J. chase on TV and chatting about it online on a BBS.

Total solar eclipse April 8, 2024

Wow! As soon as the sun broke from behind the moon, it was like being on a movie set with a spotlight on you! Very unnatural! I did not see the approaching shadow, but it was a bit overcast. (15:27.23)

Started around 2.12pm (14:14.11)

14:46.12

Some sunspots are visible 16:19.35

 

More Crocuses, some in snow

Early spring snowstorm:

Crocuses from earlier:

Winter's thunderous return

Sudden return of winter! I heard thunder when the wind was blowing harder.

 

I got a new cat. I named it Krystal after my late friend who died on this day two years ago.
 

Easter Sunday Swimmers

 I saw the woman in a cow outfit crossing the street and I figured they were just going to take pictures - they actually were going to swim - the man went in and said the water burned. Swimmers, Glen Walter,Ontario March 31, 2024.

First Turkey Vulture of Spring

 

First turkey vulture of spring. More of a sure sign than robins, some of which overwinter here. One of a pair riding thermals.  Urubu à tête rouge (Cathartes aura) vautour aura. 

Rabbi Reuven Bulka

 Rabbi Reuven Bulka was a prominent figure in Ottawa, appearing on CFRA radio and in the Ottawa Sun where he promoted Kindness Week. 

He died in 2021 and his granddaughter Rikki Ash has published a book this month about him called "Canada's Rabbi"  

My friend went to his Modern Orthodox synagogue and she said he said it was OK to watch baseball on the Sabbath because - and I braced for an explanation citing Talmudic authorities - "Jews like baseball. But only during the playoffs!" or the World Series!

Record breaking first crocus

March 14, earliest crocus I've seen

 

Ladybug wakes up

Ladybug that woke up for spring on the dishrack by Portmeirion plate

 

I don't really remember.

I really don't remember what happened the night I took this photo. I think it's better that way.

 

No, RCMP divers weren't attacked by giant eels in Newfoundland

 Cressie is one of the many cryptids that appear in lakes in North America in popular legend. (Joe Nickell, Skeptical Inquirer, Volume 33, No. 4, July/August 2009. p.18) It's supposed to be an eel-like creature up to 25 feet long, although no photos have ever been seen of it.

RCMP Scuba divers were reported to have seen eels 'as thick as a man's thigh' when they attempted to recover the body of a pilot who had crashed his plane into Crescent Lake in Newfoundland sometime in the 1980s. Nickell says that the RCMP were unable to confirm this account and I wondered if there was any media accounts of a fatal plane crash. I contacted Memorial University archivist Nicole Penney, who had been quoted by the CBC in their 2019 story about the cryptid and she said the story came from an oral account in their files. 

Penney contacted an aviation historian who knew someone who was a pilot who lived in the lake's neighbourhood. From their information, Penney sent me the story of a fatal plane crash near Crescent Lake, which happened in Robert's Arm in the early 70s, which seemed to be the one the informant who gave the oral account was referring to. 

The aircraft was really a home made glider piloted by Maxwell Anthony, and it crashed suddenly in a downdraft while returning through the narrows of the harbour. The story mentions ice, and does not mention any dive crews being called, so the glider may have crashed and remained on the surface of the ice. The story was described in "Moments in time : a cultural portrait of Green Bay, Newfoundland." Green Bay Economic Development Association.Springdale, Nfld : Green Bay Economic Development Association; 1994"

What I learned today

Learning more about fentanyl and other drugs. Went to a seminar given by a pharmacist whose practice is mostly with drug users and the mentally ill.

One reason there are so many fentanyl deaths is it's very potent - a small amount (like a few grains of powder) can kill. I had been hearing weird stuff like dealers were putting it in other products on purpose, but why kill your customers? And sell them something that would have vastly different effects than what they wanted if they wanted a stimulant like cocaine rather than a sedative/analgesic like opioids? He said it was because low-level dealers might have been cutting up a batch of fentanyl, or the even more potent carfentanil, on a table one day, and been cutting up a batch of cocaine on the same table the next day, and the small amount of fentanyl that remained behind got mixed up in it - the same thing could even happen with marijuana.

I also learned about something called "Lean", a drink with codeine or hydrocodone mixed in to some kind of juice or soft drink, sometimes with a bunch of Skittles mixed in to cover the bitter taste.

Ring around the sun before rain

Yes, it did rain. Ring around the sun, contrail casting shadow on cloud above it.

 

Ground Fog Panorama, near Summerstown, Ontario

Ground fog panorama

 

St. Lawrence River, Johnstown, Ontario, bridge to USA in fog, Liminal Image

 

Bangkok phallus lucky charm. Jokes make themselves.

I convinced this lady from California to buy this phallic lucky charm in a market in Bangkok in 1998. As I predicted, it was quite a conversation starter back in L.A..

 

Muzzle brake, M109 Howitzer

I got out of my car and noticed I was parked under this thing. Muzzle Brake, M109 Howitzer, Royal Canadian Legion, Cornwall, Ontario. It could fire a shell with a nuclear warhead.

 

Meadow Vole trails under the snow

 Eastern meadow vole, Microtus pennsylvanicus, Campagnol des prés trails revealed by melting snow

Dropped Scrunchie Made Me Remember

Krystal always wore one on her wrist when it wasn't in her hair. 

 

Earthquake

 Earthquake woke me at 7:37 a.m local time. 3.6 magnitude near Huntingdon, Quebec. It felt like a large truck was passing by. I didn't feel the aftershocks. (Image Earthquakes Canada)

 

Egret

 

Mushrooms, violets, and horsetails

 

Mr. Blockhead

You can insert a nail all the way up your nose. Warm-up act for Juno award winner Art Bergmann, at the 10 Day Cafe, Stratford, Ontario 

 

Phone booth where immigrants sought shelter

Marty's Corner Store, Glen Walter, Ontario, Old Highway 2. Phone booth was where in 2000 five immigrants were abandoned in minus 15 weather without winter clothes. They were from China and Korea and were probably waiting for someone to pick them up to take them across the St. Lawrence to the USA. Phone booth and store now demolished.

 

Bryggen, Bergen, Norway 1982

 

Sugarcubes, 1992

 

Bjork, Einar of The Sugarcubes, Masonic Temple, 888 Yonge Street Toronto, April 13, 1992

Ed Broadbent, 1936 - 2024

 Former federal NDP leader Ed Broadbent died today - one of the nicest people I've ever interviewed. 

photo: Broadbent Institute | Institut Broadbent

Progress Gala -- Ed Broadbent

Bear's Head

Bear head welded by Kyle Thompson,  item was at 2023 Art Basel Miami Beach

Dec 8, 2023 – Dec 10, 2023

@kytho.metalcraft

 

Covid-19 vaccine booster, feel fine.

Covid-19 vaccine booster, feel fine. Pfizer again, no probs except for trivial injection site soreness . I couldn't get the new vaccine as soon as it came out, contrary to what the US CDC recommended, as Health Canada recommended only getting it after six months since the last vaccine

No celebratory gunfire this year

 Usually at New Year's there is celebatory gunfire from fully automatic AK-47s along the St. Lawrence. I didn't hear any this year - I guess they were thinking that it would remind people of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.