Canoodles and turtles

The first part of one day involved the first canoe trip of the season (Friday, May 20th). A conifer had fallen across the spot where my neighbour lets me park the canoe and launch it. While the family does forestry work, they are pretty busy.

I cut the branches on Thursday. All I needed was enough space to drag my canoe across to the dock in the background. All I had was the 400mm lens on my camera!

Friday, May 20th, back for my first canoodle of the season. This required my putting the canoe onto the heavy-duty wagon perched on top of the life jackets, dragging it along the highway up the road, to the amusement of many...

A lovely canoodle. I took a photo of this mom and daughters sitting having morning coffee.
I asked if I could take their photo.

"Sure," said mom, "as long as you don't put it into the newspaper!" I did not!  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯



It was really windy in the lake, outside this bay, and my arms had a good workout. Lots of sunbathing turtles in the calm bay. A pair of loons in the open water.


My short canoodle done...
I had to wade into the water to rejig the posts. It's all mud, and the water is much shallower than in previous seasons. Water levels are down 30%, they estimate.


Ducks and turtles are everywhere. I spotted this friendly pair on my way home from my client's house!
 

In the meantime, the Cedar waxwing is back. I hope she creates a nest in the pine tree again! [Cedar waxwing tales] The first photo, for your amusement, it was perfectly focused before she jumped off the branch. The second photo, from last year when s/he gathered burlap for the nest.

Two owls and Butch raccoon

That was a fun event.
May 31, 6:30 a.m. went the check on my owls. I heard Butch raccoon at their tree. The foliage is out, and I couldn't see any owls. Suddenly, one owl landed on the branch just outside the nesting cavity, and both owls went after it, escorting it away. It ran like a bat outta hell! They are excellent parents.

  

June 1st 

She was looking in all directions for predators. This must be the most dangerous time for the chicks. I coughed, and she turned right around to look at me!

Handy work in the yard and at the pond

Maggie Magnolia has two blossoms this year. You can see how I protected it! Sadly, Bambi has nipped the top. Another project, a tall branch, and wrapping.

On the frog pond front, only one momma wood duck has prepared a nest. This is terribly late, and I'm wondering if the early spring, and hot weather turned off their hormones.


I'm happy to note that one female was on the pond, and she's laid 8 eggs (more or less!). You can see Daisy looking for her chipmunk friend. I also managed to find some poison ivy near the wood duck nesting box. sigh.

It was a busy day, the other day. I replaced two hose reels, after researching them for through sales flyers. This one on the back of the house. We are only watering judiciously.

There is an engineering error in #2. Both the hose and the reel are made by Yardworks. When the hose is rolled up, it blocks the flow. I've been trying to undo it only a bit, to water the goldfish pond nearby, but I have to unreel the entire hose. I snipped off the black protector, and it sits better now. Silly engineers!


 I was serenaded by three tree frogs in the dead elm beside me as I worked, as well as the tree frog that inhabits the water barrel. I took him out once, but he seems to find bugs inside the barrel!

Book Review: Greek Mythic History

I recall studying myths in high school, as well as doing my B.A., but I have forgotten most. This is a good book for serious scholars, which is well-organised, with an exhibits and images list, index, list of ancient authors, as well as maps.

Europe has always had an amazing history, but the writings by those who spoke of the gods was mythic in proportions!

From the back cover

 As far back as the fifth century BCE Pherecydes and others attempted

Hecataeus World Map, 500 BCE

to integrate city-state stories into a coherent mythic Greek pre-history. Science unavailable to ancient sources helped guide author Spencer Clevenger to critical insights and intriguing results. In "Greek Mythic History," he weaves myths concerning gods, kings, and heroes into their intended time and place and offers a concise retelling of Greek myths from a historic perspective. Capitalizing on modern discoveries, Clevenger tells the story in chronological order, starting with the creation of the cosmos and ending in the Dark Ages when poets began to write down their myths and stories. Neither history nor mythology, the stories depict what history might be if the myths were interpreted more literally.

[BCE: Before the Common Era]

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@Barrie Summy

Book Review: No Time To Cry

I'm so behind on reading!
I try to read mysteries at night, more serious books, such as biographies or somesuch, in the daytime when I have a moment. I finished this book on the back deck, watching a bluebird pair flit about. We haven't had bluebirds, not that I've seen, as they like open farmland. It made me think of the Bluebird of Happiness.

No Time To Cry

This is a powerful biography. You can read the first few pages here.
 I cannot imagine such terror, yet it goes on in the world around us. If you wonder at the life of a refugee, you should read this well-written book. There are a few typos, but it is a book rich in beautiful images. Just when I think that the brutality, the hatred, and her terrible losses overwhelm, Ms. Leinvebers switches back to her current life, in my hometown of Toronto. She's notice the beauty of a garden, the richness of the world around her, and the hope that remains.

Vera Leinvebers is a Latvian-born Canadian, who made a life for herself playing piano, educating and teaching, despite her horrific saga. She is a beautiful person, despite her life circumstances, and it helps me understand my students who fled war and trauma, such as the Gulf War, and those who fled their precious homes in Asia ( i.e. Vietnamese Boat People).

Sadly, tyrants continue to dominate their precious citizens, at the great cost to humanity. We must not forget the past.
This is a book to add to the list.  The book doesn't explain the war at all, but presents the story from her experiences and point of view as a child in an interesting series of flashbacks.  She doesn't follow a timeline, illuminating flashback through a series of vignettes after we know she is safe in Toronto.

She illustrates her indomitable spirit, her positivity, and trying to live in the present moment, despite many, many losses.
I was curious about the death of her parents, although she did not choose to illumine that part of her life.

I have read many books about WW II, many survivors have come to Canada. Some Holocaust survivors have gone around the province, talking to children. It is a powerful message. This is one of those books.

• People like Eva Olsson, for example. 



Eva Olsson

• Viktor Frankl's book, about being in a camp was inspiring. 

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@Barrie Summy

Book Review: Beyond Therapy: Igniting Life Focus Community Movements

Beyond Therapy

Beyond Therapy: Igniting Life Focus Community Movements 

(Nonfiction - Group Psychotherapy, Social Psychology) 

Here is one I should have read when I was doing my M.A. in Counseling Psychology. It develops good strategies for creating a life focus group, and would benefit mental health professionals, as well as those who work with people, such as teachers. 

Groups have been a good way to meet, talk, about books, people, issues, and this will help those who facilitate such groups. It teaches one to honour diversity, while creating a community. It will help one to establish the higher purpose, personal enlightenment, in the fast-paced world. Too often, the news brings stories of those who hurt one another, those more concerned with finding selfish pleasures, the "Me" generation, rather that respecting one another. 

From the book:

Author Erving Polster examines the role of “life focus"in three of society’s most familiar activities: ordinary conversation, the arts, and religion. He shows the life focus movement to be an indivisible complement to just simply living. In proposing a paradigm shift from psychotherapy’s priority for changing people’s troubled lives into the complementary purpose of illuminating their lives, the author invites the participation of many people who do not seek remedial treatment for emotional or psychological problems.

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@Barrie Summy