Friday 12 February 2021

Gramma Camp – Week 23

I am so upset. We were looking forward to March Break. Ontario is cancelling it. Sorry, deferring it to April 12th. Our kids were so anticipating it. Our dippy health dude says they are safer at school. Seriously.  Our kids have worked so hard. Lecce, the education minister's former (private) high school, is giving everyone TWO weeks off. 

 The OCDSB has 17,000 students in virtual school (OCV) which began Friday, September 18th. We've been plugging away at it! OCV Elementary has 13,000 students, divided into six campuses according to their home school. The secondary school supports approximately 4,000 students. Today (feb. 12) is a PD Day, thankfully.


There is a contest to create a new logo, with each class choosing the best of their class. Josephine's was chosen from her class of 35. Isn't that an honour?! She is always sketching. Today they reviewed a bunch of them, I think 10, which they voted on.

Wednesday


OK, back to our day. Our 20 minutes of exercise comes in the afternoon, at 1:30 or so. 

Isabelle tried to feed the chickadees by hand. So did Jos. It didn't work.

Isabelle was down in the meadow, holding her hand up for chickadees. 

Thursday


We had 15 deer!

Dinner was from Kothu Lab. It is Sri Lankan, and yummy. All made to our spice levels. Isabelle likes the spice. 

Back to our outdoor trek. I showed Josephine what our young buck's antler might look like. We didn't have too much snow between now and when he lost it. The sticks fool us all the time.
Down at the point, tracks of some sort!

Another loss leader! The stick fooled us, as it was buried in snwo.

The Barred Owl

We kept on walking, hoping for the best. Remember our rabbit tracks?
Down between the large cedars, on the edge of the wetland, I saw something fly. It was the barred owl. I pointed it out to Jos. I didn't have my videocamera, nor my reading glasses. 

It flew to another tree, and we could see it was holding a rabbit. Jos took the camera to try and focus on the owl. It was tricky, as there were so many branches in the way.



Josephine was thrilled, as was I. The owl flew off to the forest, and onto the ground, where it was safer to eat her prey.

13 comments:

Anvilcloud said...

It would be nice to give the schools at least an extra long weekend at that time. I understand that there is a lot of burnout -- or at least edging that way.

Tom said...

...we are cold, but you beat us!

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
It will be interesting, in ten years time, to observe how this batch of students pulls out of the mess from C-19. Indeed, I have said all along, it is the social effects that will have the biggest impact long-term and the psychologists and sociologists and anthropologists and statisticians et al will have fodder for their cannons for years to come! YAM xx

RedPat said...

Wow - that is amazing to see the owl with its dinner.

Kathy G said...

I remember how excited I was to have a spring break whether I had any plans or just slept in and do nothing. Hopefully the weather will be even nicer in April, though.

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

Kids worldwide seem to get the short end of the stick on this pandemic.

Spectacular photos of the owl. With a rabbit no less.

We came upon a sharp shinned hawk guarding a baby squirrel it was having for dinner. It flew off with its dinner. I was impressed at its strength.

Christine said...

Congrats to Josephine!

Gaelyn said...

I so enjoy going for walks with you through the snow and making discoveries but this owl sighting was over the top. BTW, doesn't the time it takes to get bundled and unbundled count towards exercise?

DUTA said...

We live in interesting times.
I don't know about other countries, but in my country, they (the government) make great efforts to show that they are trying to bring things back to normal. That means schools, physical schools, not virtual ones. So far, failure. They reopen schools; after two weeks, they close again. It's called the 'harmonica': open, close, open, close.
There's fear and a feeling of upcoming disaster in the air. There are parents who refuse to send their kids to schools. Teachers are getting the vaccine, and there are plans of vaccinating kids too. In the meantime, kids are supposed to wear masks - it's not so successful; it depends on parents' authority.

Olga said...

It has been quite some time since I have seen or even heard an owl and I miss them.

Karen said...

Thank goodness the kiddies have four days this weekend. I always appreciated a holiday in April with my big family. We weren't a family who traveled any further than the grandparents, so it was great they could get out and about in better weather. But times were different then...
Good shot of the owl! Amazing. We saw a big owl swoop down and grab one of those little white weasels in the yard a few years back. He gave us the evil eye and went on to finish his/her lunch. It's my understanding the owls are mating right now so I keep hoping to hear them.

William Kendall said...

The owl is quite a sight to see.

As far as I'm concerned, a premier who shows his attention to education ended in the eighth grade has no business making any decisions about education.

Cloudia said...

You are carrying on brilliantly!