Deep Winter

Northern Cardinal (m)

Winter arrived suddenly after a hot summer and long autumn season. We have received a lot of lake effect snow from the relatively warm, open waters of Lake Huron along with days of dreaded "mixed precipitation". Just before Christmas I bought snow tires for my 4 wheel drive vehicle and I have been thankful for them several times in the past month. I also bought "snow tires" for my feet in the form of vibram-soled Sperry winter boots. I prefer driving on ice to walking on ice and the new boots have eased a lot of anxiety about falling. (Here is a link to an Ontario study about the best winter boots for staying upright) 

There has been little time for birding and trail walking this month but I have been out on a couple of occasions. American Tree Sparrows, with their bi-coloured beaks and distinctive chest spot look for handouts along with Juncos, Chickadees and Nuthatches.

American Tree Sparrow (banded)

The river is home to "snowbirds" from the near and far north. Bufflehead ducks, Goldeneyes, Mergansers of all types, and other small diving ducks fish in fast-flowing open waters of the Grand River. I haven't made it down to Lake Ontario yet this winter where many other water birds over-winter.

Bufflehead (m) Duck

One afternoon I heard a lot of anxious bird chatter and looked up to see this Cooper's Hawk patiently waiting for his next meal, or, perhaps he was just sunning at the top of the tree. No songbird would dare fly in close proximity to this swift hunter.

The same day, we found a couple of American Robins in our neighbourhood digging in the dirt close to houses where the snow had receded. I usually see a few Robins in January but they are often by the river in berry thickets. 

The pictures below were taken last week. The first was after a beautiful snowfall and the second was taken the next morning as people were rushing to work. Our region has built multiple roundabouts to replace traditional intersections. I have mixed feelings about them as some people are still confused about how to navigate multi-lane versions. The car in the picture left the road at a roundabout near our home, accelerated up a sloped yard right into the townhouse. It took a day to extract the vehicle because of the structural damage to the building. I don't mind winter driving myself, but I am wary of other people who are not comfortable driving on ice and snow.

In spite of winter hazards, there is still time for fun. Our dog loves to chase a sled down the nearby slopes of the old city dump, affectionately known as Mount Trashmore. We are expecting a January thaw this week but hopefully it is short-lived so winter sport venues can enjoy a profitable season. Winter is not my favourite time of year, but I will make the best of it, especially as I see the days getting longer and pointing to spring.

Whimsical Diversions

The old man on the dementia ward held a cabbage patch doll, a boy, dressed in a blue sweater and overalls. I watched as he cupped the doll’s head in his hands and stared lovingly into its face. 
“My little boy, my dear little baby,” he said as he raised it up and kissed its forehead before bringing it to rest on his shoulder. The tenderness he showed toward the doll was very real and touching. 

As a child I truly believed my toys came to life when I wasn’t looking. I was influenced by Enid Blyton’s books and delighted in the magical world of fairies, pixies and elves and goblins. I tried to believe in Santa for as long as possible, if not for myself, for my younger brothers. I still like to imagine little woodland creatures living under a Mayapple leaf or inside a Jack in the Pulpit wildflower. I would like to be one of Tolkien's almost immortal elves.

I watched the French movie Amélie for the first time this summer. I loved the scene where Amélie takes her father’s garden gnome and sends it with a stewardess friend on adventures around the world. In July, CBC carried a fun news story about a lady in British Columbia whose garden gnome was stolen. The “thieves” returned the gnome weeks later with a hardcover photo book of its adventures through western United States and into Mexico. So when I saw a garden gnome in a clearance sale for under $10 at a hardware store in September… I bought it. 

Mr. Gnoddy is a bobble head gnome who has been quite busy since he came to our home. He has his own Instagram account and has found many other travelling gnomes online. When our dog sees Mr. Gnoddy, she knows it is picture time and generously poses beside him. He has been to Montreal, Quebec City, Gatineau, Ottawa, Kingston, Toronto and several places in between. He is going on his first flight in January. Perhaps he will be able to publish a photo book as well. 

Rein Poortvliet was a Dutch artist who is best known for his paintings and books about animals and gnomes. A Gnome’s Christmas is a delightful story book about the traditions of these little people. The larger volume, Gnomes, was a best seller when it was published in 1977. It reads like a fanciful biology text and may raise some interesting questions from younger readers.

Adults who follow whimsical diversions, from Beatrix Potter to J.R.R. Tolkien and many in between, have enriched our lives with interesting literature and art. Like the old man in the hospital, these make believe characters represent something true and memorable within us. We are never too old for imagination and play. 

Logos and Mythos

Trent Evans was a Canadian involved in making the ice for the hockey tournament at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. He secretly placed a “loonie”- our dollar coin- under the surface at centre ice. He did tell the players of the Canadian men and women’s hockey teams about the talisman and both teams went on to win gold medals. The “lucky loonie" was retrieved and is now in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Similar coins have been placed beneath the ice at subsequent international hockey tournaments and the Royal Canadian Mint has released a commemorative edition "lucky loonie" for each Olympic Games since 2004. 

Logic would tell us that the teams won gold medals because of skill and hard work. But adding Mythos to the formula added confidence and initiative which may have contributed to the victory. Having a ritual or physical lucky charm can decrease stress and anxiety, give a more positive focus and an illusion of control. Superstitions can provide meaningful psychological benefit, giving a sense of power thus diminishing negative emotions such as helplessness. 

My best friend from childhood is a tenured professor at a Toronto university who has published several books and is one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. We had brunch together this past weekend and she shared how the number “5” or better still, “55” had significant meaning for her. Both of us were born in 1955. When applying for her doctorate program her application form had her special number on it. She sets her alarm for x:55 AM and goes to bed and x:55 PM. When she bought her current home, she knew it was the right place because the street address was “55”.  And of course her vanity license plate includes the number 55. I have known her for over 50 years and was not aware of her private idiosyncrasy. 

Medicine is an interesting field where Logos and Mythos go hand in hand. Medical practitioners are well educated scientifically but patients are emotionally vulnerable and need more than facts. When we visit a doctor we expect a diagnosis, adding great pressure to quickly provide a name for our ailment and a prescription for an appropriate remedy. Imagine going to a doctor and coming out without a diagnosis and a concrete treatment plan! Misdiagnosis is a huge problem and the overprescription of antibiotics and pain medication is at crisis levels. Using inert formulas as medication can bring about real physiological cures in what is known as the placebo effect. Placebos were used frequently when I first worked at a hospital but they are now only given with patient consent, which erases their value in my opinion. Brian Goldman is a Canadian doctor who has an interesting show and podcast on CBC Radio One called “White Coat, Black Art”. He explores the “art” of medicine which has not changed all that much over the millennia. 

Most of us have some interest in mystical and supernatural phenomena. I wrote a post a few years ago about the ghost, Francine, who supposedly haunts our hospital. We blame all unexplained events on her, from call bells that go off in empty rooms to consistently similar visions reported by patients at night. I do not have Logos to accept or refute the presence of ghosts so Mythos prevails.

Is faith different than superstition? Many times religion becomes “religistition” - a mix of faith and superstitious belief and ritual. There are people who seek indulgences, works, or a trail of “signs and wonders” rather than focusing on a faith that quietly sustains the soul in good times and bad. I see God at work around me and use prayer as preparation for my day. But it is easy to slip into rote prayers, expectations of blessings, and pronouncements of finding "God's will".

The human mind is very susceptible to suggestion. Superstitions change the way people behave either by increasing fear and anxiety or by boosting confidence, performance and positive outcomes. Knowledge is a combination of logic and intuitive insight which is not always present in balance. Mythos varies culturally and from person to person and helps explain the gaps in Logos which we all experience. How boring would life be with nothing but logic?

April Fools Day

One of these event photos is my April Fools Day trick. What did I NOT do today??

I went shopping at an American chain store in Canada with my daughter before she drove back to Ottawa.

I braved blizzard conditions and a breath-taking north wind for three hours at an almost deserted conservation area. The sun appeared between snow showers but the wind prevailed.

I saw my first Meadowlark and Song Sparrow of the season. A Sandhill Crane flew above me into the sun. There were no Bluebirds or Tree Swallows, but then, there were no flying insects either.

I came across a few clumps of blooming Snowdrops along a sheltered and southerly facing section of a trail.

Autumn and Spring met together in this photo. Several times I thought I saw a bird flying by but it was only a leaf in the wind.

I came home and cleaned the house from top to bottom, gathering a pail full of dog hair before garbage day tomorrow.

Phantom Phone

Life sometimes produces more questions than answers.

Our phone rang close to midnight, startling me even more when I recognized the number belonged to the hospital where I work. I answered and heard nothing but a crackling rhythm on the line. The calls to our home continued in the evenings two or three times a week and then at 3 AM on Sunday morning a week ago.

I contacted the administrator to ask what could be done to stop the calls. I suspected a fax machine was dialing, but the phone in our treatment room was identified by the communications department as the source of the calls. This room is locked when I go home and no one should enter the area until we return the next day. 

The lady in the communications office suggested that if I call home from the phone during the day, someone could push the redial button and call our number again. I do phone home sometimes, but who would push the redial button in the middle of the night, and why? My manager suggested changing the door lock and staff who work nights became the first suspects.

The next day I was in the room charting at a computer table away from the phone. I heard a dial tone and listened to the speaker as the phone called the last outgoing number by itself. I heard the familiar crackling rhythm and realized that no person was responsible for the mystery calls. I contacted the lady who had been investigating to report what had happened. 

“Impossible!” she said. “There has to be a physical force to activate the redial button.” 

There was no visible physical force and a co-worker confirmed that the phone dialed on its own. That afternoon I called my work voicemail number before leaving and sure enough there was a mysterious message awaiting the next morning. Personally, I was relieved that the calls to our home were not from someone trying to harass us.

The night nurses on the floor say a call bell goes off in an empty room from time to time. They are sure our resident ghost Francine, a nurse who died at the hospital when it was a TB Sanatorium, is active on our unit. 

I believe there is an electronic malfunction in the telephone and a new phone has been ordered. 

But if the calls continue on another phone... 

October 1, 2012- Update

The phone was not replaced but the calls stopped as suddenly as they started a few days after I wrote this post. Very strange indeed!

  

Papa's Little Girl

She stood less than 5 feet tall when fully grown and shrunk more as she aged. A strong accent revealed her French-Canadian heritage.

“I am short because Maman ran out of goods. I was her 18th child, the baby of the family born in 1927.”

Nine chubby babies died as infants from fevers, nine survived.

“That is why Maman always wore black,” she explained.

“Papa worked as a lumberjack in the Ottawa valley until he saved enough money to buy a farm. He was a good father, always cheerful and optimistic. Anytime Maman was fretting about something he would put his arm around her and say,
“It’s not so bad now, everything will be fine."
And Maman would laugh." 

Her childhood was happy, surrounded by a large family. Papa used to carry her on around on his shoulders because she was so small.  Maman could plow a field as well a man and the children looked after each other outdoors while she worked. She kept a garden, made bread and big meals. Papa loved his animals and had to hire someone to slaughter them for food. The children had one outfit worn for school, play, church and sleeping until it was full of holes and had to be replaced. They were not rich in material goods but this was life in the 1930s in Eastern Ontario.

Papa sold the farm when he got older and died soon afterward. A sister took Maman in, but Maman would not eat and died at the the age of 84, a few months after Papa.

The tiny lady is now 84, sick, frail, and recent events are difficult to remember. Her children are too busy with work and life to visit much, but warm childhood memories bring a light to her eye and smile to her face.

“It’s not so bad now, everything will be fine.”

After all, she was Papa’s special little girl.

Random Ramblings

Scene in a local park March 24, 2012

Here we are at the start of a new week and one wonders where the month of March has gone. The furnace is humming for the first time in ten days as we approach more seasonal temperatures for this time of year. Spring is firmly established even though we may see a little more snow around here. I bought a pair of Bogs rain boots and hope to have a chance to walk some muddy spring trails. Their colours and designs are bright and youthful, but my orthotics fit inside so I figured they were appropriate for middle-aged people too.

Bogs are not as cheap as my old black rubber boots which had no support at all. But then nothing is as cheap as it was. It seems that food has taken a big jump in price this month. Peanut butter is a staple at our house but a 1 kg jar is now priced at $6.77. That is nearly double what I paid a few weeks ago. Someone donated several cases of peanut butter to the food bank yesterday and young volunteers handed a jar to each person who came in for lunch. I read that the peanut harvest somewhere was poor and that some food banks cannot afford this staple right now. Meat is also much more expensive recently. Some sad little 1 kg chickens wrapped in styrofoam and plastic sold for $12 at a national chain grocery store this week. Since when are whole chickens over $5 a pound?

Peanut butter donation

So I shopped yesterday at the market and our local Indian and Chinese grocery stores. Vegetables are so fresh, varied and inexpensive at these places. A friend from work forwarded me a YouTube link about Dr. Terry Wahls, a TEDx presenter who reversed her MS symptoms by changing her diet. You can take 15 minutes and watch it here, but I will summarize her plan. Dr. Wahls recommends 9 cups of fruit and vegetables a day;- 3 cups of greens, 3 cups of high sulphur and cruciferous vegetables, and 3 cups of brightly coloured fruits and vegetable including berries. Make sure you eat a little seaweed weekly too. If you have any room left over for more food, choose organic, unprocessed items. I watched a little, old Chinese lady in front of me pay for six big bags of baby bok choy. I doubt she eats the SAD (Standard American diet). Her traditional way of eating is what this doctor has now discovered is sound and healthy.

Talking about the SAD...We eat too many processed foods. Period. We discover a supernutrient and think if some is good, then more is better. Recent studies show that high doses of many vitamins and minerals (Vitamin E and calcium are two examples) are not beneficial and can be harmful. People are confused by conflicting media reports. Soy products have been eaten for centuries. Today highly processed, GMO soy products are added to so many foods, including protein drinks and energy bars, that some people now believe soy is evil. Eating edamame, miso, tofu and tempeh in moderation is how eastern cultures have used these traditional staples in their diet with good health effect.

Lots of greens to choose from at the Chinese supermarket

You can look all this up on the internet. In fact, you can look anything up on the internet but please double and triple check your sources. Raven, who passed her first birthday this month, has always been a “pukey puppy”. She started throwing up every time she drank from her water dish which was generally after she ate. We changed her food and I started making rice and chicken for her. She still threw up but seemed healthy and happy. So I asked Google why my dog threw up like this and discovered it is a common problem with larger dogs. Several sites recommended raising the food and water up from the floor and using a smaller water dish. So we put her dishes on a small wood step the girls used to reach the sink when they were small, and put a small dish inside her big water bowl. She hasn’t thrown up since. Dakota used to stretch out on the floor when he ate which was intuitive on his part.

xkcd web comic

I wonder how I would have found this information 20 years ago? Encyclopedias were useful if you needed to know the history of industrial Europe but practical day to day tips were not at your fingertips.

Technology is not a replacement for everything. We have a new chaplain at the hospital. She is a beautiful, serene African lady and I hope to get to know her better. She spent time with one of our more challenging patients this week and then charted that she provided the ministry of listening and presence.

I wrote that down...ministry of listening and presence. Beautiful.

Sometimes there is no counsel or action which can remove what has happened in the past or change the present situation. We prefer to talk and offer solutions but listening requires discipline, control of a wandering mind and the biting of a quick tongue. Good listeners are a rare and precious find.

 Is life a series of random events? It depends who you listen to. Here are two sides of a random coin.

So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.
Sidney Poitier

The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
He delights in every detail of their lives.

Psalm 37:23

South Winds of Summer?!

Fun with food- my breakfast this morning

It looks like we slipped into summer after a week of spring and I truly hope it does cool down soon so the fruit trees do not flower before our last frosts. I cannot deny enjoying the sunshine and warm temperatures as I planted my early vegetables yesterday. Chives, green onions, chard and cilantro are already green and growing and the arugula, leaf lettuce, snow peas and carrots should be up soon. It is easy to grow greens from early spring to late fall. We have an abundance of local produce available at good prices at local markets so I do not plant a lot of vegetables. Rhubarb, tomatoes and beans will round out my "crop" this year.

One of our daughters is travelling in Turkey this week and wrote last evening,

 "Just got in to Cappadocia. Drove through a snow storm on the way from the airport!! Looked like driving on the back roads in the winter. It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow though, so the snow should melt, which is good as I believe we are outside all day tomorrow."

(Follow the link above if you want to see images of the area she is visiting)

She packed for spring and summer but got winter.

Enjoy today!!

February This and That

In my last post I reminded myself not to use "busy" as an excuse. After all, I am happy to be able to be out and about every day and involved in interesting activities. Blogging has taken a back seat in this interesting life. Here is a little rundown of what is new lately...

Last year I received a coupon from Trip Advisor for a free Shutterfly book. (I wrote several reviews for Trip Advisor and this was my reward). Shipping was free in the USA so I sent my book to family.
During my recent trip to Mexico, I saw the book and some calendars I had also designed. I was very impressed with the print quality. I did three more books of my Mexico time with family and decided to design others with pictures from holidays in the past three years. Back in "the day", the cost of buying and developing film would exceed the cost of these books. Shutterfly has special pricing posted frequently (I got 40% off in January) so you can complete your project and save it until the price comes down. I have been uploading and arranging photos from our Western Canada trip and will start on our Nevada-Arizona-California trip soon.

I started working on a new unit this month and have gone from treating strokes, hip fractures, amputees and the like on a slow rehab unit, to a caseload of geriatric assessment and mental health patients. The work is physically easier for me but I find I need to research and upgrade some skills with this different population. There is so much stigma with mental illness. These people often present with physical symptoms from their disease and the medications they take. We have a new longer term mental health unit at our hospital and the staff are enthusiastic and interesting to work with. They treat the patients with respect and dignity and I look forward to getting to know the team.

Last night we drove home after dark through the countryside and admired the crescent moon and the bright, bright light of Venus. This week is superb for skywatching. My dad told me he was out looking at the night sky in Mexico but in our part of Canada, the skies are cloudy much of the time so I am not in the habit of star gazing. Tonight Jupiter is the planet nearest the moon. You can check the skies at this site. 

This on again-off again winter has led to the earliest start of maple syrup production in our area. Birds are moving in different patterns as well. We have driven around looking for out of the ordinary birds. Yesterday we visited our daughter in London, Ontario where a Ross' Goose had been seen all week near her home. We walked through Springbank Park and did not see it, but this pair of Hooded Mergansers was on the Thames River and a mature Bald Eagle flew above our heads. It was very icy for walking (and driving) so I wasn't as thorough in my searching as I would be on a warmer day.

It snowed twice this month and I made a snowman for the birds with the packing snow. Raven enjoys running around outdoors in the yard, the dog park or the woods. She sheds like crazy and her feet get full of frozen ice and snow. She likes mud and digging and throws up easily when she eats or drinks too fast. But we love her anyway and most of the time she is no problem at all.

This is my third year enjoying a vegetarian (mostly vegan) diet. My meat-loving husband likes most of the dishes I serve even though he eats them as sides. The internet is full of great ideas and I rarely use cookbooks anymore. Here are two yummy recipes I tried this month (1) (2). And talking about print media... We have decided to stop our newspaper subscription after 35 years. It costs $16 a month for paper delivery and $4.95 and month for full internet access to our local news. With a computer, Kindle and iPad, I seldom turn pages of a paper book anymore.

Here are some of my favourite iPad apps and most are free. You will have to look them up in the Apps Store.

Word Ladder by Sporacle- fun and fast word game
BBC iPlayer- I just watch free stuff
All Recipes- I paid $4.99 for this and use it often
CBC Music- Free streaming of many musical genres
Apollo Browser- great free web browser that syncs with my computer's Firefox history and bookmarks
Notability- Write with your finger, a stylus, or use the keyboard
My Fitness Pal- Track food, exercise, calculate nutritional info of recipes. It even allows you to scan barcodes with an iPad or iPhone camera...very cool!
Dell Voice- A free phone! You get a number and can call landlines free of charge across Canada from your iPad or iPhone

That's all for now folks!

Elizabeth Rieke Hefley- Nature Artist

Chickadee by Elizabeth Rieke Hefley

A while ago I was contacted by Nebraska artist Elizabeth Rieke Hefley requesting permission to paint one of my photographs which was posted on Flickr. Today she sent me a print of the painting and I love the tones, the detail and the life in the picture. It looks much better than the photograph and I can hardly wait to frame it. Here is her own description of her work.

My work is a combination of my interests in biology and art as I have always enjoyed wildlife. My paintings highlight animal diversity, capturing their character and spirit. I particularly enjoy working on endangered and threatened wildlife. I work with oil paints from reference photos. Particular attention is giving to portraying the textures of the skin, fur and feathers of the animals. The paintings are not only art pieces but also a way to educate on the incredible beauty of animals. I am particularly fond of frogs and am currently working on a show that will be all frog oil paintings. I am primarily self taught after going to college for math and biology and entering graduate school in Entomology. I became very passionate about conservation and education. Painting animals was a way to combine all my passions.

Do You Want Change?

A provincial election is a couple of days away. Some are quick to point out the inadequacies of the current party in power and call for change. Personally, I do not see anyone offstage who would do a better job. Canadians as a whole do not have the political polarities of our American neighbours. We do not claim a particular party as a birthright or a representative of our religious faith. Our Conservatives sit well left of America’s Republicans and Canadian Liberal policies also travel the middle of the road. The New Democratic Party shakes things up a little and they do enjoy growing popularity with our young adults. We accept our social programs and accompanying taxes without much fuss. Canada is a good country to live in and we have avoided the side effects of global economic woes to degree. 

Change on a personal level often brings more reaction than change on the political level. And small changes seem to upset people more than large changes. I hear more complaints about changes to Facebook (a free and optional service) than from a patient who has lost a leg and his independence. Our hospital received funding for new beds requiring staff line shifts and new hiring. There is more whining going now on than when we had bed closures and big staff cuts in the past.

Recently Blogger informed me via a pop-up window that the new “Dynamic Views” template was now available. I fiddled with the latest settings and promptly reverted to my old familiar design. Then I asked myself why I was not willing to give a totally new look a fair trial. After all, the pages load much faster, the template is compatible with all browsers and has more potential with mobile devices and tablets. The clean, minimalist views compete with new micro-blogging sites like Tumblr. (If you really like information in your sidebar or have a commercial blog, these changes are not recommended).

I like it!

Our local paper featured an article on drabble last week. What’s a drabble?
A drabble is a fiction story that’s exactly 100 words long. One of our universities held a competition for the best drabble and the winners’ entries are in the article. The stories are different, even strange and quite a change from the prose I am used to reading. I find the idea very compelling in a world that wants information and entertainment in a nutshell. It matches the new, pared down blogging interface.

After listening to the recent election debates, I wish our politicians would change their style to non-fiction drabble. There is nothing minimalist and clean about this campaign.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come

It rained solid on the weekend and the forecast is for showers all week. This little Common Yellowthroat cheered me as it sang its spring song in the soggy swamp. Life is very busy right now but in a good way. Have a great day!

Twitter and Twitter

The weather has not been the greatest for spending time outdoors after work. Constant spring rains have left the ground saturated, trails muddy and slippery and the atmosphere damp and chilly. The price of gas has also dampened my motivation to travel to my favourite trails in the region. (This week it is $1.39 a litre and a fill up for my Honda CRV is well over $60.00)

There is a lovely pond at a water pumping station near our home. When our daughters were young, we used to bike there in the evenings to see “the ducks and geese”. In those days I did not look for the many other birds which pass through or nest there seasonally. Yesterday I spent time looking for new arrivals around the pond and adjacent bush. The frogs were in chorus and many bird tweets were recognizable. I sat on a bench with my binoculars enjoying the peaceful evening and counted 21 species in a few minutes. And here are my evening twitterers...

Eastern Phoebe

FOY sightings: Eastern Kingbird, Myrtle Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Grey Catbird, Pied-billed Grebe, Spotted Sandpiper

Other sightings: Eastern Phoebe, Belted Kingfisher, Tree Swallow, American Robin, Bluejay, Chickadee, Northern Cardinal, Canada Geese, Mallard Duck, Red-winged Blackbird, Ring-billed Gull, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, House Finch

Yesterday was also election day in Canada. We voted earlier and the polls did not close until 9:30 PM. This is the first federal election where social networking has been widely used by candidates, news outlets and voters. Elections Canada banned posting or tweeting election results in the east before all the polls closed in the west. But Twitter is ungovernable and thousands of tweets spread news of local results. One user in Australia offered to post information on Twitter sent to him by email from Canada. The hashtag #tweettheresults was used heavily.

I have never had a Twitter account and the thought of posting my every move and thought (or reading the same from other people) was obnoxiously narcissistic in my opinion. But this year it was apparent that social network use was an invaluable tool in organizing the uprising in Egypt. The attack on Osama bin Laden’s compound was reported on Twitter by a user who did not even realize what was going on near his home. Twitter finally tweaked my interest enough that I set up an account in order to monitor the election results.

And I was intrigued by the real time commentary of ordinary people across our nation. The election results varied greatly from what the pre-election polls predicted and I wondered how much influence the tweets had in the end. It was a good night to start using Twitter in order to gain an understanding this network although I did rely heavily on my teacher, the Becka.

I am not looking for followers but I am following a few sites of interest. Already I see that twitterers have the attention span of fruit flies as trending topics around the world today are far removed from the discussions of yesterday. But they are a force for change in our ever-changing world.

In Hiding

A Northern Cardinal sat motionless in a tangle of red dogwood branches as yet another snow fall blanketed the trees and ground last weekend. I walked along a beautiful trail which wound around eskers, drumlins and kettles created by retreating glaciers eons ago when global warming began.
Seasonal warmth is slow in coming this year, but March is often a drawn out farewell to winter like a guest you wish would leave at the end of a long evening.

February was a short but eventful month. The hospital is busier during winter months and the past few weeks have been no exception. My online time has decreased to the point where my mother wondered if I was unwell as I was absent from Skype and Blogger for days at a time. No, I haven't been hiding, but in semi-hibernation at times with ...

my new Kindle. I had a hard time deciding between a Kindle and an iPad as an eReader. Overall, I am pleased with my choice as it would be easy to get distracted by all the other applications on the iPad. I read more books in February than I have in a long time. The Kindle has a very poor and unnecessary web browser, but it is almost too fast and easy to purchase and download books from Amazon. I like the font size options, the highlighting and note making features, and the portability of the unit. Like other electronic devices it can freeze. I took it into work one day as a co-worker was interested in getting one for his wife. Wouldn't you know, the screen froze and I could not access the help menu to figure out a fix. I had to wait until I got home to look up the problem on the internet. A hard reboot was required and there have been no further glitches. But my friend decided it was too complicated to give as a gift. A large number of books are available for download, many of them free of charge. Not every author has agreed to e-versions of their books so some recent best sellers are not available in this format.

We went to Toronto yesterday and spent time in the World's Largest Bookstore and a BMV shop. Both bookstores are near the Eaton Centre just north of Young and Dundas. I left without a single purchase and questioned the future of large book sellers like this. The Kindle has a grey scale screen so books which rely on graphics, colour charts or photos cannot be viewed properly. So I will still be tempted to buy hard copies of birding guides such as The Crossley ID Guide.

Thanks to all who commented on the last post concerning our dog Dakota. His mouth and face have healed nicely and he is doing well for his age. I will end this rather random rambling with a picture of a bird feeder found hanging along the winter trail. The childish paint job and message reminded me of what is really important in our busy, busy world.

Wordless Wednesday: Random Guerrilla Art

Along the Thames River, London ON