Beautiful Rivers

So it is Friday again (thank goodness), although I forsee the weekend being packed with work of one type and another. The second half of my big term project is looming - I need to design a weir or dam to create a resevoir and fix up some bits I missed in the original report.

The mightly, little main restigoche river is undeniably one of my personal favourites (and I don't even have a clue how to fly fish.) Its a salmon river, although most of the Salmon i saw were small enough to fit in the palm of hand. I did see some pretty impressive fish that summer.

Its still raining here. It didn't seem much rainier than its been all fall, but apparently Toronto had record rainfall and certainly many of the small creeks I saw today were flowing full to flooded. I wonder what the return period of this storm system is (I thought I heard 1 in 5 year). Meanwhile, Southern BC is taking a beating from storms and rain. I hope they get a bit of sunshine to let them dry out. Flooding is scary - I can't imagine having my house flooded and everything ruined :(.

On that not, I'm going back to work. I have an idea what my dam should look like but I need some prelim values for soil stability and flow rate. I get to play with HEC RAS (cool program - see the link on the side.) I've been continuing to add to my links. If anyone would like me to add their page, drop me a line and I'll link you up.

Cheers,

Jennith 

Cape Breton (and Newfoundland)

Here is a shot from Cape Breton Highlands Park in April. I hope one day to camp their (and do some serious hiking) in the fall.

I've included a link to Tourism Newfoundland/Labrador until I can track down a Newfie with pictures of their province that I can post, having never been there. Oops... or my parents. Newfoundland is also high on my list of places to visit should I ever have the time/money/opportunity to do so.

Cheers...

Jennith 

Northern Ontario

I could live up here in the land of blue lakes and rocky shores. (Land of the Silver Birches Lyrics apply in their entirity to me) Especially if one of the best people I know in the north is still there whenever I get a chance to make a decision about where to live next.

Today was a day of necessary, but unexciting tasks. I rust proofed my car and got a flu shot. I'm muchly happy with the municipal (and recent American - as well) election results. Mayor Hazel McCallion took her 11th term as the mayor of Mississauga with 90+% of the votes. I was telling my office-mate about how lucky we were in Mississauga and he was duly impressed by our loyalty, love and luck to have a mayor that sucessful in our town. Given its rate of growth, size and demographic that there aren't more complaints about Mississauga than there are (mainly with respect to transit) Says and awful lot about Mayor McCallion. I don't know what we'll do when she's not able to be our mayor anymore. It'll most certainly be the end of an enviable era. I propose we build a pyramid in her honour to house her remains, so that we can continue to consult her beyond the grave if necessary and pay our respects. Sillyness aside...here is the link for Mississauga election results and an article on Mayor McCallion.

Oh and here is a random happy story to make everyone feel good.
Cheers,

Jennith 

Ottawa

 

Big Skies in Alma Beach

I believe this falls into the assorted coastal NB catagory.

I thought I'd alway include a link to this wonderful Toronto Star article on Bob Rae, Liberal Leadership hopeful.

I thought it was a nice humanistic look into a person who I feel would protect core Canadian values and has the charisma to put the liberal party into power.

The First Response Mixer Conference was fun this weekend, my apoligies to my family members who were working without me... I'll make it up next week. A big thanks and wow to Gabe for cleaning our room and doing lots of Laundry... I'm totally amazed!!

Cheers,

Jennith 

Bombs Away

• I"m working my way towards more scenic pictures. Here is a lake somewhere in Kananaskis country. Another place I could live without too much arm twisting.
  
  Inspired by a concurrent MSN conversation, here are my current top 10 places I'd like to live.
  
  1. Whitehorse/Dawson City/The Yukon
  - I don't know the area well enough to have an actual preferance but I'd like to see the tombstone mountains for certain
  
  2. Northern Vancouver Island - actually anywhere in BC where the mountains meet the ocean would be fantastic or in the north
  
  3. Newfoundland/Cape Breton - two of the rockiest, most beautiful parts of Canada with the nicest people
  
  4. Yellowknife - we simply have family history there and its up north.
  
  5. Labrador/Iqualuit/Repulse Bay/Innuvik - anywhere in the high arctic
  
  6. Thunder Bay, Ottawa, Sudbury, Timmins, Kenora, Rainy River - medium-large northern Ontario town with a small town feel and lots of bogs
  
  7. Coastal New Brunswick/Nova Scotia - Gabe really likes the ocean and maritimers are as friendly as northerners - St. Martin's, South or North Shore - a place with red cliffs and beaches and waves and the tang of salt in the air
  
  8. Scotland - lochs and moors - who could want anything more, other than neighbours with excellent accents
  
  9. Churchill Manitoba - Polar Bears and a train
  
  10. The Canadian Rockies - Canmore, Banff, Jasper, Revelstoke, Hinton - there are few places more breathtakingly beautiful in this county of breathtakingly beautiful vistas
  
  Cheers
  
  Jennith

 

Not Quite Dressed for Glacier Hopping

Continuing on the out-west theme - Here I am in sandals on the Columbia Ice Fields. You'll also note that it was windy, and I regrettably (for all the pain suffered brushing my hair back at the car) did not restrain my hair from the windy turmoil.

Guelph has a strange habit of heating the behjeebers out of the Eng. Grad offices on the weekends, then freezing us all week. Right now I'm pretty warm - but often I find myself wishing I had a hat, mitts and extra sweater.

Cheers,

Jennith 

Hang On Geoff

I'm sure many of you have seen this picture or its cousins from other cameras taken in the bad lands...

It was the only time I've been to the Tyrell Museum (dinosaur) and I must say its a fantastic must-see stop on any tour to Alberta.

Did he survive...? Well, not too badly - all those trips to the Grotto must have done the trick.

Cheers,

Jennith 

Doe!! Another sunrise and more Kashechewan Stuff

Well I thought I'd throw in some more Kashechewan links from the Globe and Mail.

1. Last October
2. Ottawa's Soln: Move to Timmins
3. Critics fear for remote reserves
4. Running for the Shadows of Dispair

The last article is pretty depressing, but not completely off the mark - alcoholism and unemployement are serious problems in Kash. I do understand that the Federal Government is giving them the choice. My concern is that they haven't put all the choices out there - and while time is of the essense in terms of overcrowding and the post-flood conditions in Kashechewan - I think somehow, something is missing in terms of solutions. And the journalist didn't capture the sense of community and attachment to the land that the people had - she missed that essence of community that always impressed me in Kashechewan, even though I was an outsider. Kids do watch TV and play video games there - but they also play outside, they have a quality that city kids lack - even if I can't put a name to it. As tough as it was for me, as a green first year teacher in a tough situation, I've often considered going back and I still think fondly of my students - they were the only class I ever have - They certainly made me crazy some days, but I never found them hard to like and I respected their knowledge of the outdoors. They had great senses of humour and living in that community was truely important to them. Sometimes a family would move to the south, for a job or for the opportunity to get better schooling - but they came back because they missed their community, their home, their land and their friends and family. I'm not sure a stranger can get a sense of that easily - but I believe its value is beyond measure.

I hope that the people can find their strength and make a choice that works for them and preserves the best parts of their community while allowing them to remove the cancerous aspects of drinking, abuse and disease that is keeping them from happiness.

Cheers

Jennith

Doe!! One more picture for the road.

Ha! I'm procrastinating heading down stairs for a bit of excerise of the step-yoga-pilates variety. However, I thought I'd post one more picture of the prettiest lake in Ontario - Doe Lake. Especially now that I'm going to school with a bunch of my campers. :D

Cheers,

Jennith 

Favourite Out-West Picture.

I think this is Bow Lake by the Numteejaw (sorry - not a clue how to actually spell this) in Banff National Park in 2004. My friend is inspecting the aquatic invertabrates I believe. 

Me on top of the world

Here I am hiking in Canmore (Ha Ling Peak) with my friend Scott (taking the picture) - probably one of my more insane hiking endeavors, but at least I was in tip-top shape at the time. Its pretty much straight up and straight down with a pretty spectacular view of Canmore at the top. I have a lot of exercising to do to get back into shape for all the hiking Amanda has promised to drag me on.... Yippee for happy, healthy goals.

Jennith 

Pointing the Way to the Loons

Here is a sound bite meant to tempt your camping soul. Well, you have to click on the link to Cottage Life Magazine and then on the link to "hear the loons' call". There are two calls a wail and a tremolo.

In other links - for the development types... I mentioned my friend Mike in Mali. He's very well written as he describes his experiences in Mali.

Alright, I have a few more pictures to post tonight. So I'll continue above.

Jenn

Sunday Creek, Algonquin Park

 

Algonquin Park 2006

 

Kashechewan unsolved

Ooops... there goes the sun. I'm suffering from a day of trying to relearn statistics.

Kashechewan. I don't know what the government is up to, but I can't see them choosing to move from the James Bay Coast to Timmins (see Toronto Star Article). These are people who hunt routinely and count on wild game for a real contribution to their food supply (healthy food supply might I add, having lived their with a good job, I could not afford healthy food at the store - so I lived off of processed carbohydrates, frozen vegetables , hotdogs, ground beef, apples and white bread). I guess moving south would solve some of the cost of living/employment issues, however, it would not be the same community, nor would it be possible to maintain their way of life. While, clearly the leaders of the community are wisely taking their time to discuss it at Public meetings, my gut feeling is that the idea won't sell well. Place is a part of community, and the different between the topography, geology and geography of Timmins is huge.

More Kashechewan Articles
1. Smooth Rock Mayor surprised
2. Troubled Reserve Could Move
3. Flowery words, poisonous water

Before you think to yourself how reasonable it would be to expect Northern Aboriginal Communities to relocate to the south for less costly services and more opportunities - consider how you would react if your community - particularly a small town, close-knit one - were basically told that you should pick up everything and relocate to a place of someone elses choosing. There would be outrage.

I as a former resident (albeit temporary) of Kashechawan, school teacher and recent civil engineering graduate, understand better than most the challanged and expensive of providing infastructure to northern communities. Some of the problems are engineering problems, some of the problems are the same ones that stereotypically haunt our native peoples, while others are simply logistics and demographics. This solution however is the conservatives forgetting to tally the non-monitary costs and impacts. Where the reserve should relocate is only one element of the equation - how the town can be made an economically sustainable and healthy community is an entirely different dimension of the problem.

Jennith
Flowers on the trees and the birds and bees, little boys with scrapes on their knees 

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

I was just commenting on the rain this morning, then this afternoon (shamefully looking for dirt on Brittany Spears) I came across this Toronto Star Article on the unusual drearyness of the last 2 months. That said, we do have a brief blip of sunniness occuring in Guelph at this moment... and the butterfly pic - taken last July on another dreary day.

Rain falling each day
Unrelenting deluge makes
Grass green, souls weary

Cya,

Jenn 

Dutchman's Breeches

At least these aren't as blurry as the violets in the post below. I really need to get out with my camera - I'm doing some serious digging to find stuff I haven't already posted. As for the violets I posted them direct as a edit post in blogger and picked them off from a thumbnail where they hardly looked blurry at all... anywho... I must run run run to the far ends of the earth...

Jenntih 

Keep your eye on the ball

Here is me loosing at pool... or should I refraise that as Gabe sharking it up at the 20/20 club.

I once played with 3 members of his clan all at once, and found myself sadly, sadly outclassed.

JP 

Can't beat a good view or bad spelling

Well, I've been working on transferring the rest of m y photographs from my old computer to this one - just for those times when I've run out of recent pictures and have to go digging through my stock. I may have even posted this one before - but its a place that I've am looking forward to visiting so yeah for a nice view - hopefully I'll end up with a full card of nice pictures to post here. If it would ever stop raining here I might get some from close by... but alas.. it keeps a raining.

As for the bad spelling, I have to admit that I often check my site stats to see where my readers are coming from... most of the time it is a direct hit, and I can't tell anything, sometimes its from a search engine - which is usually fun to try and figure out what search words end up at my site and in a few rare cases I can guess if so and so who is linked to my blog has come to visit me from theirs. Today, I followed the link to a search engine source, only to find that someone had ended up on my blog because neither of use could spell "priminister" correctly... my apologies for my spelling, but how embarassing is that. Hopefully, they found what they wanted. All I had was a picture of statue of a prime minister, seagull on head, and seagull excrement from head to mid chest. Probably not exactly what they were hoping to find.

Cheers,

Jennith