National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

This is the second annual day to commemorate the horrors committed against Indigenous People.

Sept. 30 is also Orange Shirt Day, which honours the story of Phyllis Webstad, a former residential school student who had her orange shirt taken away on her first day at a residential school. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation is encouraging Canadians to wear orange as an act of solidarity.

 

I bought us orange shirts from a First Nations company. I'm not going anywhere today, I will wear my shirt. I am overwhelmed with the talk of a new gun club out our back yard, across the wetland. My anxiety has kicked in. The OPP have recertified here for 22 years, but this will be a private gun club. More on this another day. 

Finally the pumpkin plants I'd grown from seed are blossoming. It's a bit late. They'll never amount to anything. I'll have to figure out something different for next year! In the meantime, our local farm has lots.

The orchid is doing well, four blooms now!

I submitted this to iNaturalist: Rusty Tussock Moth; Orgyia antiqua

I've my warm, cozy slippers on! They were a gift from my friend, Natrice.

Our furnace is on in the morning to bring up the heat. The season is changing. It was a mere 2 C. this morning. Critters are on the move. They are looking to hibernate or migrate. We're just going to hunker down. The other day I spotted Clover and her fawn. The fawn was hunkered down under the tree, sheltering from the rain. 

The trees are wearing orange. I watched as JB fetched our mail.

Tornadoes- what do we know?

Skywatch Friday

Yes, we watch the skies.

I know that while we've had recent hurricane-like weather in Ontario, it is bad in the mid-US.

Five F5s (the worst) a year in Tornado Alley is normal, with 1300 tornados a year being average.

They only kept stats since 1925, when there were 800 dead.

The truth is: hot wet, cold dry, systems meet and cause these storms. They are predictable, May/June, for example, but unpredictable when they will touch down.

Aug. 2009

Those who watch them- do not see trends.

Dec., 2008

I'm glad to be living away from such, although we've had enough winds to keep us on our toes.

I've been in Muskoka hurricanes, and they aren't any fun. This devastation makes me grateful to live in North America, with infrastructure, EMS crews, Hydro teams who work hard after storms.

The storm chasers are scary, as they seek to film the tornadoes. They are, apparently, eminently successful!


On May 24, 2011 a violent tornado struck the community of Newcastle, OK. ... A number of motorists made the choice to shelter from the tornado beneath the H.E. Bailey Turnpike Spur overpass on State HWY 76 overpass. The results of this action are revealed in graphic detail on this video. IT IS A MYTH that highway overpasses provide any sort of shelter from tornadic winds! On May 3, 1999 during what is regarded as the preeminent tornado outbreak in Oklahoma history, people were killed and/or suffered horrific injuries after doing the same... TVN's own Reed Timmer, then a naive freshman meteorology student, narrowly avoided being engulfed by the Bridge Creek F-5 by doing the same thing, and has publicly spoken against this practice ever since. DO NOT USE OVERPASSES AS TORNADO SHELTERS!!!!!
For more information on this subject, please visit this link.