Driving on backroads near Petersfield MB, we finally found a convenient place to stop. We’d seen sunflower fields in several places, but finally found a place where I could get in close, even in sandals.
Unfortunately, the plants were largely past their prime and were facing away from me, with no access on their far side.
Petersfield, 2017
Thus says Wiki about Harvey Locke:
Conservationist, writer, photographer.Recognized global leader in the field of parks, wilderness, wildlife and large landscape conservation.Founded the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, with the goal to create a continuous corridor for wildlife from Yellowstone National Park in the United States to the Yukon in Northern Canada.Co-founded the Nature Needs Half movement. Named one of Canada’s leaders for the 21st century by Time Magazine Canada.
Born in Calgary, he now lives in Banff.
He was interviewed on CBC Radio recently, and didn’t mention Edmund O. Wilson’s biodiversity movement, Half Earth Project, but the connection to his own Nature Needs Half movement seems obvious to me. It’s almost 45 minutes, but he’s an articulate and interesting speaker.
“You know, Miz Buckman, you need a license to buy a dog, or drive a car.
Hell, you need a license to catch a fish.
But they’ll let any butt-reaming asshole be a father.”
““ Keanu Reeves as Tod Higgins, in Parenthood
Ouch. The movie’s from 1989, but Keanu/Tod could have been talking about today’s self-appointed political commentators.
You need a license to buy a dog, or drive a car. But they’ll let any ignoramus spew political invective on Facebook and Twitter. Continue reading
The original: I wrote about Stan Rogers as a national treasure.
The follow-up: On CBC’s Q, Tom Power interviews Stan’s brother, Garnet, about his new memoir about their life on tour. The unvarnished version. It’s a good reminder that even our treasures aren’t perfect. Nor need they be.
Want more? Garnet’s book, “Night Drive,” is available here.
I don’t hold grudges, I just have a good memory.
In a bitterly contested Scrabble® game three years ago, my computer opponent played “vext” and the computer judge didn’t peep. Until then I had never even thought of such a variant. Since then I have been unable to think of much else: The incident is etcht on my memory. Continue reading
Given where I was and when, Merlin tells me that this is likely a ruby-throated hummingbird. The lack of any ruby flash on the throat tells me that it’s likely a female or an immature male.
With an overcast day, lighting conditions were good only intermittently. With skittish birds, I couldn’t get any closer than about 10 feet. What’s left after cropping are small files indeed.
I am more or less resigned to never getting any National Geographic shots of these birds (Hope still blooms elsewhere), so I’ve learned to enjoy the ones I do get. After all, they represent my best efforts with respect to both the technical aspects (shutter speeds and ISO limits) and timing (waiting not so patiently for the sun to emerge from behind a cloud and the hummer to emerge from the woods). Continue reading
The seniors’ residence where my mother lived had an enclosed garden with a stream running around its perimeter.
This video follows up on a post my mother wrote in March about the residents’ wild-duck-watching club. After spending some time this spring watching and filming the ducks, I noticed apparent imitation that I would otherwise have missed.
It was the day of the solar eclipse, but we weren’t in the zone of totality. That was bad, but it got worse.
It started out completely overcast and then rained for a while during the period of partial coverage. The quality of light outside the window never changed.
But even though there was no visible effect from the eclipse, the day wasn’t a total waste. As I peered out the window into the gray day, I saw an odd shape.
It’s really hard to hide well.
In trying to describe this photo (one of the behind-the-scenes things required/possible when I upload a photo), I was stumped for the flower name. I guessed “daisy” but figured that was likely wrong, so I checked with the gardener. It’s a bronze osteospermum, and I quote Wiki on this matter:
Osteospermum /ˌɒstiəˈspÉœËrmÉ™m, –tioÊŠ-/, the daisybushes is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the Calenduleae, one of the smaller tribes of the sunflower/daisy family Asteraceae.
So there you have it: It is a daisy. Sometimes we know more than we think we do.
How did I forget about Valdy? I stumbled across him again while looking for someone else on YouTube.
A folk and country musician, he was hitting his popularity peak just as I was hitting my twenties. His hits, like Rock and Roll Song and Yes I Can, were gentle, melodic songs well-suited to his voice and to his home on Salt Spring Island. Continue reading
Posted: 2025 Jun 13
Thanks to John Whitman for this slightly dismayed face from downtown Ottawa.
This space is available for other submissions.
