Trip to the Zoo

Last week Erika and I took her kids and Dana's to the zoo while Dana was at school.

The kids had fun at the Splash Park while Eri and I sat and watched.

Jack and Ben hving fun in the water ( background)

Hannah did a great job taking care of Charlotte.

Watching the Polar bears from down below.

Polar bear from above.Following the peacock wherever he may go.
Hannah and Charlotte on the equator.
Hannah tries to catch a butterfly.She got it!

So, what have I been reading?

A friend from one of my past gigs asked me this the other day and got me to considering. It is an interesting question. The short answer is: quite a bit, really – some good, some great and some horrid. After a quick look around the library, here’s what I found:

· Terry Jones, Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic. This was a Father’s Day present from Andrew. Great choice! But definitely an acquired taste. The Hitcher’s Guide to the Galaxy (a trilogy in 5 parts) is still an all-time fave. Jones continues the insane satirical stabbing of social norms.

· Dan Simmons, Drood. Not sure about this, but it kept my attention for over 700 pages, so it can’t be all bad. The main characters are Charles Dickens, Old London (especially the dark, under bits), and the narrator is Wilkie Collins. Here is a short, related story. The other day when I took Penny to Paris for lunch (and to walk through a graveyard), we found a funky bookshop on the main street. One of the books I bought was Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, the other was the next on this list. Moonstone is reputedly the first mystery novel in the English language. Now what were the odds of finding that in Paris, Ontario? Now, don’t tell me I don’t know how to show a girl a good time. Have not read Moonstone yet.

· Robertson Davies, High Spirits. The introduction alone is worth the price of admission. These are ghost stories that R.D. told at an annual Christmas gala dinner while he was Master of Massey College. They are delightful, and the use of language and humour is lovely. Still being read, but will be completed really soon.

· Timothy Findley, Spadework. TIF tends to be dark, and this one is disturbing. Not sure I like the ending, but that is OK. I will be re-reading Pilgrim, another dark TIF story.

· Neil Gaiman, American Gods and Anansi Boys. Read AB first, then gobbled up AG. Both excellent yarns based on Carribean myths.

· Wilber Smith, Assegai. Interesting historical / geographical story. Really bad. Apparently this guy has written tones of books and they sell. Rather like romantic fiction to me.

· Christopher Moore, Bite Me – A Love Story. I am a fan of most of CM, but this is not his best. Still has the insane humour, but this one has no teeth (so to speak).

· Michael Crighton, State of Fear. This was given to me by a Dutch guy in Obidos, Portugal. It is a yarn about eco-terrorism by a well-respected best-seller. The story is OK, as one would expect, but the footnotes and the bibliography are wonderful. Worth looking into.

· Michael Connelly, The Last Coyote. One of a whole bunch of very readable, attention holding, easily digested whodunits I have devoured. I like the genre if the story is engaging and driven by the characters. Not at all like The Da Vinci Code. Don’t get me started.

· Donald E. Westlake, Get Real. Part of the group of less-that-satisfactory whodunits. There are rather a few of these out there. Not truly bad, amusing in spots, but not quite up to prime time.

· Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This is long, but it held me throughout. When I finished, I called a dear friend and advised her that this is the book weshould have written. There are two others (of which I have one) in the series. I am saving the next one, but not for too long.

There have been other readings, but they are related to mundane things like control, South American fish, governance, African fish, risk, aquatic plants, financial chaos, filter systems, politics, photography, history and personalities. All interesting, but with a limited audience.

– 30 –

"Bird" house

OK, so we have our lovely old birdhouse in the clematis, with the enlarged entrance courtesy of a Downy woodpecker. Some Chickadees built a nest here several years back, but it failed. Earwigs love it most years, but nothing thus far this year.

And Penny says, "Come quickly, there is something in the birdhouse", so I do and a face peers out the door at me. Big brown eyes, little black nose, beige snout, black/brown forehead, rounded little ears. "Cutie". Gotta grab the camera. Last I've seen of the cute little varmint, but I think it was a small squirrel - black or red.

Something is obviously inside the house as seen here using funky exposures. Bedding, I suspect.

So I unscrew the cleaning catch at the bottom of the house to allow the side to open if it wants to. I'm not thrusting my hand in there! Some hours later, this is the result. Definitely some kind of nesting material. That's that, says I, "Cutie" will move on.

Late in the day, this is the scene. Seems the varmint has not moved out, but is rearranging the furniture.

And this is today. Still cannot get a picture of "Cutie", but she is still working on the abode.

More later if anything further develops.

Happy anniversary

We went to Rodney's Oyster House (King near Spadina) to make use of the "gift" certificate I bought at Jack's big fundraiser. One of the best certificates you will ever see, done on an oyster shell.

Th event was part of a visit by Marnie & Gord Goodyear. They descended to Markham all the way from Bracebridge for a couple of night in the Garden Room. And some Bugger Bridge (I won - again). And we all had a great night out at Rodney's.

Then out to Lemon Bistro last night for the "official" anniversary celebration. Great food and company as always. The family who run the place are lovely hosts.

Erika telephoned to wish us a Happy Anniversary. We always liked her best. Bwahahaha.

Ben's egg

Eri and Bennett and Charlotte came over today after sleeping in from the Calgary trip.

Ben found a robin's egg on the lawn. Must the the 2nd or 3rd batch this summer.

So, we had to have a picture of the egg. Good thing, it is about to disintegrate.

Ben forgot to take it home.

After the after

This is the new tree, settling in. It will look fine in a few years as it fills out. Some pruning of the inner criss-cross branches may be needed, and the leaves are small and growth not too vigorous yet.

The town handled the whole thing well - clean-up and replacement.

Now, on to other things.

Before and After

Magnolia tree before and after

the fall.

Some excitement

So, while waiting for Andrew to continue his current tirade, I thought I would share a few garden pictures from today.


Oh, yeah, and maybe a shot of what we found when we came home last night. A very large branch from the maple in the front yard, actually, the Town of Markham's tree, broke with the extra weight of last night's rain. That's all it took.

Missed the house by a couple of feet, didn't touch Penny's car in the driveway, but completely trashed the magnolia tree (sob).

Dumb clowns!

What if it is entirely about belief?

This post is triggered by the post of #1 Son on May 12, 2010. See -

http://ourblogloo.blogspot.com/ OR take the link somewhere to the right to Andrew and Ali's blog.

Andrew went on at some length about belief and religion and spirituality and the Darwinian atheist scientists and such. Very worthwhile read, if, perhaps, a tad dense. The trigger for Andrew's tirade was The Atheist Tapes from the BBC. However, he and I have been browsing some books over the past couple of years that are related. With Andrew pointing the way, I have devoured The God Delusion and Darwin's Dangerous Idea, not necessarily in that order. If I understand Andrew correctly, an incredible assumption at best, the hard-assed scientist atheists have left no room for spirituality in their discussion. In fact, they seem to deny it any relevance. Not a good thing, in Andrew's view.

What follows is essentially a series of unsupported assertions. You may see where they are going, or may not. In my view, each assertion is supportable. Others may not agree.

Not everything is known. There are many mysteries remaining, and, in all probability, may new mysteries to be discovered.

Mysticism derives from, and is directly related to, mystery: the unknown.

Any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic.

All religions are suspect, being essentially about power (control) and money.

Spiritualism is directly related to religion; is the bastard father of religion.

The human condition, if faced rationally, is almost too painful to bear. This is the source of all spiritualism.

Humans, faced with something unknown and unknowable in the current state of knowledge, will make up a story to cover the void. This applies equally to science as to any other methodologies. The differences among methodologies is the realm of acceptable proofs and the possibility of changing the fundamental story (discussion).

Although something believed may or may not be true, belief is not knowledge.

The fundamental proof of god's existence goes something like this: There must be a god; I need there to be a god. Therefore god exists.

The problem with the spiritual experience is its completely personal, unprovable aspect. It is, simply, a belief system, not a form of discussion. This opens gates that pollute all thought. Once belief is established as a form of acceptable truth, anything goes. Harper is proving this daily.

Spring miracles

The lilacs are coming out (almost),
The ferns are well up,
The wisteria has never had as many flowers as this year,
and the back yard is in full gallop.

Happy Spring!

Other people

Last of the series. These are all pictures taken and posted by other aquarium nuts. They are (mostly) part of a monthly "contest" run on the KWAS forum, a great hangout for people like me.

The quality of the pictures haas become rather good over the past year or so. The true pros (there are a couple) do not enter this, but they sometimes share their work.

I might get close to some of these, we shall see.

I appreciate the comments. Here's what comes next:

Experiment with depth of field,

Experiment with white balance,

Try different ways to get great sharpness.

Then I will work on cleaning off water spots and algae.

Then I can try re-arranging the tank for aesthetics.

I bet you can hardly wait to see the results.

Yet more

Andrew, those Photoshopped images look great. I have an open

source program - Paint.net. Supposed to have all the features one would need, but may be a long learning curve.

The scratches on the glass cannot be buffed out. There are three classes of aquarium: showcase or display (no scratches), fish room (scratches ok, not too much else), and hold water (no leaks, but anything else goes).

Most of mine are in the "Fish room" category, but there are large areas without scratches. I was not bothering with avoiding scratches, just want to start getting the exposure, focus and subject under control.

There may be some scratches on these pix, but not many. Water spots and algae are easily cleaned (again, I have not bothered - yet).

First picture is a female Red Cherry Shrimp. She is about 3/4 inch long. The yellow "berries" are eggs which will hatch and be born live. I have hundreds of these things. They eat some types of algae.

Picture 2 is a close-up (Ready, Mr. DeMille) of one of the silver angelfish.

Picture 3 is a Neon tetra as few see them. Looks like a little old man. Depth of field is really small.

#4 is a Malaysian Trumpet Snail about 1/2 inch long. On the fish forums, they are called MTS. They dig through the gravel and help keep things clean. And multiple like crazy.

Number 5 is a very close-up of a baby Convict cichlid about 2 months old.

The last one is an albino bristle nosed plecostomus, male. Great algae eaters, non-aggressive and "cute". They are real characters. Several people around Toronto are breeding them. This guy is about 2.5 inches and may grow to about 4 inches. I finally learned how to feed them.

Now, these are "better" than the previous group IMO because they are sharper and more interesting. Maybe.

Will I really have to go through the whole post-production, Photoshop thing?