You Dirtier Rat!

Posted on 29 October 2018 by Isabel Gibson

Today, CBC Radio’s morning show in Ottawa carried a story about a local Honda owner who’s having trouble with squirrels eating the soy-based plastic in his car. “Meals on Wheels,” some wag named the piece. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Squirrel eating berry from flame bush.

Squirrel enjoying non-soy-based berry in lieu of wire insulation.

Now, this played neatly into my own biases against squirrels, and my views which really are not fit for family conversations. But in looking for the link to this piece, I naively Googled “squirrels eating soy-based plastic.” That oughta do it, right?

Wrong. I had to add “CBC Radio” to get the story I heard. There are other stories. Many others. And this is not just a Squirrel Issue: It appears to be a Rodent-Wide Problem. Continue reading →

Posted in Laughing Frequently, Photos of Fauna | Tagged , | 10 Comments

The Shimmy

Posted on 27 October 2018 by Isabel Gibson

The shimmy is not to be confused with The Shake. Although it can’t be separated from it, either. Not entirely.

Anyone watching the American League Championship Series (and the East Division Championship Series before that) will have heard commentators remarking on a little hip swivel by Boston batters, usually as they grin and dust themselves off after safely completing a double or triple. Sometimes it’s over so fast I’d have missed it without the voice-over alert: When they’re not sliding, it can become one with the motion of pulling to a halt atop the bag.

Apparently it started in an August slump, as a way to celebrate extra-base hits, and a way to motivate a little extra effort. Down against the Marlins, Boston shimmied their way to an 11-run breakout inning and went on to win the game. Continue reading →

Posted in Sports and Exercise, Thinking Broadly | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Street Scenes, Edinburgh

Posted on 23 October 2018 by Isabel Gibson

I know I’ve been busy travelling when I’ve missed posting on-purpose photos from a trip: shots I wanted that required me to get out of bed early, dagnab it, in the hope of finding streets empty of people.

In planning my few days in Edinburgh in June, I looked online to see what photo opportunities it offered. In addition to obvious highlights — the three bridges over the Firth of Forth — I found a site citing West Bow. This short, curved street offers colourful facades and an elevated sidewalk, or a sunken roadway, depending on how you look at it.

3-photo collage of West Bow Market from different elevations

West Bow and the other street scenes I found along the way led to me learning about the keystone effect.

Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Built Stuff, Through Space | Tagged | 8 Comments

Where are They Now?

Posted on 19 October 2018 by Isabel Gibson

Ask Google,

Where are they now?

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Or I could just tell you what happened when I did. Continue reading →

Posted in Day-to-Day Encounters, Laughing Frequently | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Smile!

Posted on 17 October 2018 by Isabel Gibson

Smile! You’re on Candid Camera!

This catchphrase is burned into my memory from my yute. Rather less clear to me is which version of the show I actually watched. It ran in different incarnations between 1948 and 2014 (!), but I likely remember it from the 1960s. That seems odd, because I wasn’t watching TV at 10pm, but life is full of these little mysteries. Continue reading →

Posted in Laughing Frequently, Photos of Built Stuff | Tagged | 8 Comments

Is the Woods Is?

Posted on 16 October 2018 by Isabel Gibson

The woods is shining this morning.
Red, gold and green, the leaves
lie on the ground, or fall,
or hang full of light in the air still.
– From “Grace” by Wendell Berry

The woods is shining?

There it is again, that whole thing about collective nouns — Is they singular or are it plural? — but if we can just set that aside for a moment, I think we can agree that Wendell is onto something(s) here. At this time of year, the woods does/do shine and the leaves hang/hangs full of light, as we saw on a trip across the river to Gatineau Park, home of Kingsmere, several outlooks, and some nearer vistas. Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Flora, Photos of Landscapes | Tagged , | 8 Comments

What to Do?

Posted on 14 October 2018 by Isabel Gibson

What to do on a late-in-the-season walk at Chapman Mills Conservation Area? Just the usual . . .

Play with the bridge.

3-photo collage of Vimy Memorial Bridge in Ottawa Continue reading →

Posted in Mortality, New Perspectives, Photos of Built Stuff, Photos of Flora, Thinking Broadly | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

USMCA

Posted on 12 October 2018 by Isabel Gibson

Ear worm. Brainworm. Stuck song syndrome. Involuntary musical imagery (INMI). It goes by lots of names.

 . . . a catchy piece of music
that continually repeats through a person’s brain
after it is no longer playing.

Continue reading →

Posted in Laughing Frequently, Music Videos | Tagged , | 13 Comments

Browsing

Posted on 11 October 2018 by Isabel Gibson

No, not the sheepish activity, of which we saw a fair bit on our tour of Ireland. The other activity, per Merriam Webster.

Browse \brauz\
2b. to look over or through an aggregate of things casually,
especially in search of something of interest

Or, for today’s purposes, perhaps an even more apposite definition comes from Dictionary.com:

3. to look through or glance at casually or randomly:
“He’s browsing the shelves for something to read.”

Continue reading →

Posted in New Perspectives, Photos of Built Stuff, Thinking Broadly, Through History | Tagged , | 16 Comments