Perth's Garlic Festival

 August 13, 2011

Skywatching in Kingston

On a wedding anniversary trip to Kingston, Ontario. For those who like sailboats, and the wind farm on Wolfe Island.

  

  

Visit more skywatchers

Wetland, frogs, salamander, wet kittens

Thank goodness we had rain overnight Saturday, as well as the big dump over night last night. We haven't had significant rain in weeks. Brief showers, but not enough to fill the frog pond. Tree frogs croak on the branches, in vain, since there is nowhere to lay eggs. This guy sits in our mailbox waiting for night when he can find a meal.

The leopard frogs sit in the dewy grass until the twins scare them onto the gravel. The pond is a great place for the twins. They do not realize, however, that the lily leaves cover the water.
The bog is getting shallow as August heat causes them to evaporate.

We have been in the forest grabbing rocks for the garden.

I found a salamander.
Blue-spotted Salamander 
(Ambystoma laterale)

Buster helped me! I buried it under the leaves, convinced Buster to take off, and we moved away.

Such fun in the wetland. Buster took a flying leap for feline kind. 

Buster looked like a drowned black rat!

Algonquin College Students in Perth

Hard work!

I applied to teach in the new Early Childhood Education (ECE) program in Perth. Not even an interview. So sad. With a BA in ECE, B.Ed., M.Ed. in curriculum, and 25 years teaching special needs students, you'd think I'd get an interview at least!

That said, my work life is over. I am content to volunteer and pay it forward.
I believe in these apprentice programs. This is where the jobs are. No one in Ontario needs complain about not having work. These are training programs that lead to real jobs.

Looking for a Career in the Trades That Will Take You Far? The Perth Campus Specialty Trades Programs can help put you above the competition. Heritage Masonry, Heritage Carpentry and Advanced Housing are all exciting options to take your skills to the next level. Read the attached PDF for more information.


 Those at Algonquin College were hammering away, and filling and repairing the cracks. Amazing buildings in Perth! It dates back to 1816. I'm feeling somewhat old and cracked myself!

 

'Soft on crime' and polls

You can tell when it is an election year... both federal and provincial in Ontario.

Polls, polls, polls. Shrill politicians shrieking their disgust with (choose one!)...

An 'uneasy alliance'
MPP Randy Hillier (suspenders), Michael Schmidt's (vest)
at the Newmarket courthouse in February of 2009
to show their support for Michael Schmidt
 in his court battle for legal raw milk.
Jack MacLaren 'This land is our land'

a) party in power, mistakes were made
b) opposition party candidates are rhetorical idiots
c) too much money spent
d) not enough money spent
e) scandalous behaviour [see b)]
f) promises to cut taxes AND improve services
g) too many in jail
h) too many not in jail

Tim Hudak is the Conservative opposition leader. As always, opposition gets press by presenting headlines...

• Cohn: Hudak Tories take a page from Harris era to dupe us on debt
• Hudak Tories roaring toward a majority: Poll
• PC Party: $6.1 billion investment in health, Ottawa South candidate Jason McDonald supports

Elections Ontario

The ruling party also seeks headlines...of course, new initiatives must make sense, add up, and be affordable.
When you slip the veil of rhetoric and anger off Tim Hudak, the numbers just don’t add up,” Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli said.


*Work Programs

Ontario could see chain gangs under Hudak's Conservatives

 TORONTO – Ontario could see chain gangs cleaning graffiti and raking leaves along highways and in public areas if the Progressive Conservatives form the next government.

Yet, they have those who work in the community, supervised and learning to work long and hard. There is boredom in prisons. I'm not talking about the ones we see on TV, or the ones where hardened criminals exist. Most of our inmates need help. Seldom do they get it. Take the young woman, Ashley Smith, who committed suicide in an Ontario prison. [Ashley Smith, 19, prison inmate commits suicide by hanging herself ...]

Bala Habitat building finished!

Ontario Conservatives would force prisoners to work if they form government. Nothing like forcing them; although some go to school in the prison, trying to achieve a high school equivalency. Many are uneducated, undereducated, or have mental health issues. Why force them to work? Would you want someone in your community who was forced to work while incarcerated. I prefer those with whom I worked on a voluntary creative writing program. They were eager to learn, write and share their lessons of greed, petty crime; mistakes were made.

Provincial prisons house offenders awaiting trial, as well as those serving less than two years for offences such as break and enter, assault and drug trafficking. There are currently 8,488 inmates in Ontario facilities. They are overcrowded, and having their own difficulties. But 

Why the crime rate is irrelevant ‎ Ottawa Citizen - Paul Tuns - 31 Jul 2011 Statistics Canada reported recently that crime is down five per cent, and serious crime is down six per cent. ...

They have work programs on a voluntary basis: the site manager reported work crews from Beaver Creek that worked at the  Bala Habitat site. This is a rewarding and positive experience for all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*We can blame the federal Conservatives for this attitude of mistrust and punishment 'tough on crime', rather than rehabilitation. Their ubiquitous flyers in the mail were ridiculous.

After the storm: a rainbow

After a couple of days of much-needed rain... a rainbow.
There were apparent tornadoes in south west Ontario, they dumped rain, wicked winds and hail. All we had was rain in Perth.

On Twitter:

Goderich, Ontario

Incredible videos out of #Goderich. Our thoughts are with everyone in that area. http://t.co/OMw3Er4






Golf ball-sized hail.

My pet peeve, while I embed the YouTube videos, my viewers count toward the video author's number of views. The media, specifically Canadian Press, embed reader videos on their websites, putting advertising that the viewer must tolerate in order to watch the video. It doesn't seem right to me, that they should profit from this.

News stories:

Updated: Power outages reported across Toronto after thunderstorm

Sunday’s storm produced gusts of wind close to 90 km/h and dumped 40mm of rain in only 10 minutes on some parts of the city. 

Goderich in state of emergency after tornado rips town apart

An Environment Canada official, Randy Mawson, confirmed that it was a tornado with a severity of F2 to F3 on a scale of F0 to F5. F0 is minor damage and F5 is when an area is completely flattened.

Tammie Dube was in her home, watching the storm and marvelling at the size of the hail, when she heard a strange noise, like an approaching train.

This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls. 

-John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914) 

Kingston's Fort Henry photos

These are my photos! We visited Kingston for our Aug. 22nd anniversary.

• This lovely young lady was back to Queens in the fall!
• Kingston - my videos

We also visited Fort George, in Nova Scotia, back when...2008!

Kingston - our anniversary, my photos

 We visited my late mom's good friends. Saw lots of water, pigeons, and had room service!
Fort Henry was quite the place. I did several videos, just for the fun of the sound and the excitement.

• Kingston's Fort Henry photos
• Kingston - my videos

From Kingston Trip

Sir John had a grand time!

JB lived here back in his university days!

Sir John always smiles!