"The Birds are back."
"Pardon." I said to the strange, dog-walking lady.
She pointed ominously up into the skeletal trees and said simply, "Look."
With a sense of dread and foreboding, I slowly turned and looked in the direction she was pointing.
In the City of Vancouver, there is a cluster of eight trees or so that serve as a seasonal home to hundreds of Great Blue Herons.
In case anyone is wondering what absolutely no pride looks like, wonder no more.
On February 20, 2008 there was a total lunar eclipse, full moon and a clear sky. It was an amazing sight. Something to be frozen in time by my fabulous Nikon D40 camera.
Here is my attempt with a 55-200mm zoom lens, a tripod and a remote control shutter release.
And, following is my Dad's picture with the same camera, free-hand, with a 70-300mm zoom lens which has a great internal stabilizing system.
Recap: I planned, set up a tripod, used a remote so as not to touch or move anything and got something that looks like a preschooler's visual interpretation of his pet turtle. My Dad walked out of his house, hoisted up the camera and snapped a picture that is worthy of the NASA website.
Stanley Park is the oldest urban forest and park area in Vancouver. Many great photo-ops, like this beautiful swan, along the walk.
While I've been away from home with work this week, Luna has decided to reside at Chez Le Pound.
The timeline: I left home Sunday, Hellhound bolted from the kids on Monday, the kids finally grew the balls to tell me she was missing on Thursday and we phoned the local SPCA to find her today (Friday). I return home tomorrow with my flight landing roughly fifteen minutes before late check out at the Chez. I'm thinking of rounding her stay out to a full week.
I'm not a bad pet owner, The Ex is. This dog is his dog. However, while he lives the glorious life a world traveler, I get to feed her, pick up her crap, brush her and, now, post her bail. While The Ex is in the country, he takes Hellhound for visitations and treats her like her place is somewhere above The Thirteen Goddesses of Greek Mythology. Nice for her; major behaviour problems for me when I get her back.
Naturally I have handled this in my usual reactive fashion and fired off an email to The Ex filled with reprisal and loathing. Because that's worked so well for me in the past.
Seriously, I don't know what it is. I'm waiting to hear back from Cornell University. I'm sure I'm really high on their priority list.
"Hi, this is Kim.... there's this bird in my tree...." Went well.
Vancouver in December.
After having three Vancouver flights canceled due to inclement weather, it was very cool to see this in the rear view mirror.
Here in Fruitvale, we received a HUGE dump of snow. Now, after gracefully exiting the little World of Me, I have watched the news and discovered that this phenomenon is not isolated to my little valley. There are crazy meteorological happenings everywhere!
Just look at this! Crazy!
"No, the menagerie is not looking for new members."
Liam and I found this guy just outside of Marmora, Ontario. And, he's still there. I was strong.
Newsflash!
Hockey fans are psychotic.
I snapped this photo at the Belleville Bulls Junior A hockey game against the Peterborough Petes last night.
The referees called this as a "no goal". I showed the picture to my friend, Cindy, on my two inch camera screen, and said (a little too loud, apparently),
"I'm no expert but that puck looks in to me."
You know how live TV productions have that 10 second or so delay / buffer before they actually go live to air; a little built-in censorship per se. Well, I need that to be implanted somewhere between my brain and my mouth.
I did a full body startle as no fewer than ten zealots were gathering around me yelling that I needed to immediately take my camera to the ice and show that referee my picture.
Have I mentioned my personal space issues?
Second Newsflash of the day: the people running the hockey games have better cameras than I have. For example the one that is mounted directly above the goal net specifically for the purpose of recording whether or not the puck fully crosses the goal line.
On another day, I may have done exactly what the hysterical masses were telling me to do but, yesterday was a good day. A day wrought with discretion. A day that my torch and pitchfork would stay in the barn and I would not lynch a referee.
Good choice; wasn't a goal.
