Sunset on a Perfect Day

Okay - its hard to imagine a perfect day in town, but it was a good day.

I should point everyone to my brothers site to look at the amazing pictures they've been posting.

The cover of McLean's Magazine - which I haven't read any of yet - bears the ominous title of "World War 3". Certainly, the crisis in in Lebbanon is a frightening development in a series of Middle East/North African region conflicts. Perhaps, the title jars me because of the truth beneath it. No question that half the problems in the Middle East have been exacerbated by world wide meddling with the Americans and Russians cold war legacy high on the list and European and Multinational bussiness not far behind. I'm actually fairly ignorant of the situation, but I suspect that the little I know is but the tip of the iceberg of what I don't even want to know. This conflict bears little similarity to earlier wars this century - if you can even draw many parallels between the 1st and 2nd World War. But I guess this time most everyone has a finger in the pot and at the very least a stake in the oil supply. I guess this is not a good blab to put under the heading of perfect day - but I was refering to the day the photo was taken 3 weeks ago.

Aside from the disturbing headlines - today is a minty-herby day. A 25 cent herb sale at the superstore allowed me to pick up 12 pots of herbs including orange mint, pepper mint, chocolate mint, lemon thyme, green and purple sage, bee balm a maybe something else. Heck - I might go back for more - except that we don't have anywhere to plant them. My attempt at growing herbs from seed ended with no sucess - but this could be the beginning of a herb gardan - and the soil I picked up could make it possible to reseed the lawn.

Anywho, enough rambling.

Jennith

The Resiliance of Maples

Maples are nearly impossible to kill. I have attempted to "thin" the cohort of teenage maples that have sprung up on our property of their own accord over the last 20 years. Given the tools I have available - the best I can do is prune them to the ground. Unfortunately, they have all bounce back and suckered into life. Of course I was thrilled when many of the shrubs, particularly the grape vine, di this - in the case of the maples, it is becoming frustrating.

These are silver maples living near Orono, Ontario - not in my back yard. But the picture brought my own murderous toils to mind. Proof that I'm part forester at heart. Its always fun to impress people by differentiating between Norway and Sugar maple and explain what is going on. That said. I think I want a Ginko, they are pretty cool. A sort of status plant for biology students. My other garden plan is to buy some more mint seeds and try again. Maybe in a pot this time with all nice soil. Gardening is really quite fun.

Anywho,

I ramble.

Jennith

Cheers,

Jennith

Parents Spouting Everywhere

More correctly, I supose it would make more sense to describe babies as "spouting everywhere", however, I've mostly been talking to their mothers and sometimes fathers - so to me it seems that the parents are sprouting where there were none before. I supose it's more like metamorphosing - transforming into the diper-bag lugging, stroller discussing, picture taking, exhausted humans whom all of the symptoms are caused by having a child.

I guess it is just the age that I am, or at least my friends are that are causing this trend. I'm certainly not at that stage of my life -being still a student which results in lugging big bags of text books, drinking coffee and and also being stressed and exhausted.

So, here is at least one of the cute little critters that drool and poo and stuff. I scratch my head but they do make for great photos.

Jennith 

Dragonfly Artified

And if you play with picasa enough they even look cooler! 

Another Dragon

Dragonflies, according to Up North, once had wingspans of about 75 cm (2.5 ft). This one isn't small, but he's not the size of a small eagle either. He does look furocious (drat that isn't spelt right). Hey, I even wish my eyes were that colour. 

The Falls Return

These falls were included in an earlier photograph posted this spring. Here they are again on a sunny day from the bridge rather than the stream side. There were no kayakers this time, but the temperature was in the high 30's. Its mind boggling to consider the engineering in the Trent Severn waterway and I shudder to think how much the ecology of the lakes and rivers involved were changed by the introduction of locks and diversion of flow between basins. Still the falls are pretty and nature seems to have survived our meddling.

Cheers,

Jennith

Treearch

Thoughts for the day. . .

Well, one thing to point out is the inclusion of a cluster map on my blog. So far it isn't very exciting, but hopefully it'll change over the week.

I've been reading my brains out, trying to synthesis information into a field plan. My room, as a result, has the look of a post-slimer library (for those of you old enough to remember the ghost busters.)

Alex is whistling away in the background, loud enough that I can hear him upstairs. I really need to start doing yoga again - as I've become about as flexible as a ceramic dish and my legs keep cramping up when I try to run.

Otherwise, life is quiet.

Jennith 

Petroglyph Turtle

I can add Petroglyphs Provincial Park to my list of provincial parks visited this summer. This turtle was slowly making his way across the road so we had to stop and take pictures until he was out of the way of the 4 turtle mashers on my car.

I figure he was one of the inspirations for the artists chiseling 3 in deep carvings into marble 600-1100 years ago. Gabe kept imaging what it was like hiking through untamed woods filled with poison ivy in 30 degree weather and then chiping away at rocks. (It was 35 degrees there yesterday and wicked humid too.)

There are quite a few parks that I'd like to see, however many of them are quite far away. Kawartha highlands isn't open for business yet, but it looks exciting.

Cheers,

Jennith 

Prepare for Takeoff

I've always been fascinated by dragonflies. This one has the look of a fighter jet. I realize that I'm no where near the level of writing I hoped to achieve on this blog site - I simply don't have time to write the mini-essays that I had intended to originally on a regular basis.

Besides which, as a person who may be looking for employment in a year, it is unwise to express any opinions publically - so I'm a bit restrained in what I write and I feel even that could be judged. Not that I have any particularly radical opinions, I just don't dare express anything unequivically until I know what i'm allowed to admit to publically. Heck - I suspect it is unwise to say anything identifying online given that perfect strangers, some possibly malicious in intent, could read this at any time. So, between busyness and paranoia my hands are tied.

There, I think I just broke all the rules by writing that. But I ramble. . .and ungramatically at that.

Jenn 

Window View

 

Tying the Knot on a hot sunny day

I didn't catch the ministers name, but he deserves points for being a first rate wedding minister. He was serious at points, but mixed in a healthy dose humour and fatherly advice to the new couple with refreshing sincerity. Its also probably the first set of wedding pictures I've ever seen where most of the wedding party was wearing sunglasses. Of course they both look wonderful and in love.

Amanda took this picture during the ceremony owing to her isle seat.

JP 

A Good Old Barn Dance

Here is Amanda in the reception area before supper - note the day lillies and butterfly theme. 

A Butterfly Wedding

Our trip to Krista's wedding was awesome! It was great seeing Amanda again, not to mention Krista and Pam. It was a fun group of people. It was also one of the nicest wedding venues I've ever seen, held at her fathers place on a lake. They had a butterfly theme - and they let live monarchs free at the end. The colours were orange and purpole with daylillies as the main flower. Thanks to Krista for inviting me. 

Ooops, wrong lady bug picture

Red mantled Queen sits
Atop the Monarchs flowers
Awaiting dinner

Here is the one that didn't have a blurry bug 

Wilmot Creek

Here is a picture of the main stem of the Wilmot Creek. It is probably higher than normal in this picture given the recent dousing of torrential rain we had on the 10th and 12th (taken on the 13th).

The banks are well vegetated with plants I'm actually not familiar with and there are tonnes of birds and insects (including mosquites). The whole area is still fairly rural and quiet. Its a great little place to sit and read. 

Wilmot Check Your Watershed Day

Wilmot Creek is part of the Ganaraska Conservation Authorities area. I am volunteering as part of their Wilmot Check Your Watershed Day event which is a neat multi-partnered initiative to use local volunteers to gather watershed data. I went to the training event last night and met some of the neatest people. One gentleman had been living in the watershed since he was eight and took the time to point out all the coolest places in the watershed. Another was a teacher-camp counsellor-outdoor ed (probably girl guide leader type) who was just lots of fun and had her own neat stories. Not to mention the enthusiastic MNR guy and the local fisheries biologist who were both cool and knowledgeable.

So, here is the link to the Check Your Watershed Day brochure. If you are really keen, they may still be looking for a few more people (Wilmot is east of Oshawa though) It'll be a day of measuring small streams on back roads.

The picture above is a ladybug on milkweed flowers taken near a small park on Concession 5.

Cheers,

Jennith 

Alpine Lakes

Chill mountain waters
A vista of stunted trees
The short green days wane 

Alpine Meadows

There are few ecosystems as pleasant and breath-taking as alpine meadows with their amazing bright coloured flowers, pothole lakes and stunted trees. This was taken in sunshine meadows in Banff about 2 years ago. 

Cooler Places

With it being rediculously hot and humid I really wish I was here - although at the time I actually was here and taking this picture I was wearing leather girly sandals and walking on top of the columbia glacier - talk about cold feet.

My Uncle Stevie is probably the person who inspired me to take pictures. He used to travel to crazy places like ecuador and india - returning with fabulous photos of these amazing places - not to mention stories of people he met and so forth.

Cheers,

Jennith 

Classic Doe Lake Campfire Sunset

 

Sunrise Sunset - Doe Lake Girl Guide Camp

Sunset - I think the first Sunday that campers were there in July 2004 taken from Good Neighbours.

Found a neat looking site that I want to take a look at later on Saving Energy: http://www.energyhog.org/

If you are in to watershed or other modelling - here are the two best USACE sites:

http://www.hec.usace.army.mil/software/
http://chl.erdc.usace.army.mil/chl.aspx?p=s&a=Software!0

In other news - Liam is finishing up his chess tornament today. Way to Go Liam!!

Cheers,

Jennith 

Other places I wouldn't mind being

Kananaskis Country, powerful skies and a soon to be married fisherman - The beauty of the mountains is just breathtaking and they have fantastic rivers. Not a bad place for a photographer and an water resource engineer - except for the lack of Ocean in Alberta.

I'm in this kind of hyper-space that is racing in a zillion different directions, however - I suspect that bed is in the near future for me - long day tommorrow.

Sit Ups tommorrow - at least 30! There's a goal and maybe some lawn reseeding. I wonder if any of the mint seeds I planted will come up. It was an old package - so i'm not sure if there were at all viable.

Night,

Jennith 

Cape Breton Mists

Late April in Cape Breton is hardly out of winter - in fact there was still several feet of snow on the other side of the Cape - forcing us to flee to Yarmouth and fairer weather.

This is a place I most definately want to visit again - preferably in the fall when the leaves are changing colour. It amazes me how many beautiful places are in this country. 

Tintaglia on the Cape

Gabe was wistfully reminiscing about the ocean today - so I thought I'd post this picture taken at Cape Breton Park last spring at the end of the end of the road. 

Take me to your leader

Aliens bearing large white snowballs from Europa have arrived here on earth.

Hopefully I don't get my butt kicked for posting this one - but I just thought it was entertaining.

Possibly you'll be able to see more pictures and hear all about what happened at www.araska.org should he ever update his blog.

Cheers,

Jennith