So I was on the way home with Mouse and bumped into Andrew Colbert playing outside the Bagel Shop. Since I had my Zoom on me, I flipped it on. Check it out. Continue reading “Bagelshop Blues”
What a Beautiful Day
It is a gorgeous day today in Ottawa. When I came out the door to walk the dog there was a cardinal on my frozen(!) birdbath. I love feeding the birds (my birds, I often think), despite the squirrels and those nominal birds, the pigeons. I inherited my birdbath from my parents’ house in Toronto, and it reminds me fondly of my father. It is made of cement, and has a squirrel climbing the base. It came from a peculiar cement casting shop in Fesserton, Ontario, a small town on the way to our cottage on Georgian Bay. My father and mother bought all sorts of stone creatures from this shop and they festooned their “funny farm” near Fesserton with them, a strange property they bought on a whim as it saved us when the weather or the nightfall prevented our getting to the cottage by boat. Now they festoon our house in Ottawa, and having caught the bug, we also have two large lions guarding our front porch bought from the same shop.
Here is a picture I took a while back of some Raspberry Finches enjoying the bath.
Vote Today October 25th, 2010
McGuinty’s Men – Voter Beware
In two of the most prominent Ontario cities, Toronto and Ottawa, the McGuinty Liberals are trying to get their men in. In Ottawa it looks like a done deal for Jim Watson, a testimony to the short memories and fiscal imprudence of Ottawa voters. In Toronto, it is a tight race, with Ontario Minister of Health, George Smitherman battling it out with business man Rob Ford. Grab hold of your wallets, Ontarians, we are in deep trouble. Smitherman has overseen a flurry of scandals in the Minstry of Health, at a time when patients, not bureaucrats, could really have used the money. Instead it is gone – gone to consultants and used to pay ludicrous severances. Let us hope that at least in Toronto the McGuinty’s are foiled. Cities in debt, the province in debt, all that money is going to come out of our pockets eventually. Thank goodness provincial governments can’t print money.
Vote Today – even if you cannot prevent a Watson Mayoral victory, you can send a message. If you don’t vote, you lose your voice.
The Mouse That Roared
Our dog Mouse (our last was Wolf, son of Bear, dog of RedBeard) frequently gets walked at the Bruce Pit dog park in Ottawa. If you have a dog, you should know that they (and you!) are much happier and balanced when well-exercised. No-one reinforces this message in the public eye more and better than Cesar Millan, the “Dog Whisperer”, who will shortly be coming to Canada, and to Ottawa in particular. We would all do well to listen to Cesar’s messages of balance and humility, and to think more about what it all means in the grander context of humans who are in turn subservient to our “masters”, that is, our governments and their public institutions. Continue reading “The Mouse That Roared”
The Mouse That Barked
We are dog-people, and have had dogs pretty much all our respective lives. Our current hound is “Mouse”, a Bernese/Aussie rescue puppy from a pound in Alma, in northern Quebec. (We think we could have stumbled on a new breed, the Bossy 🙂
We thought, given the size of her paws when we first got her, that she was going to be Enor-mouse, but she stopped growing, and thus became simply “Mouse”. Continue reading “The Mouse That Barked”
Ski, Snowboard, and Travel!!!!
We are shortly heading off the to ski, snowboard and travel show to pick up some gear for the youngest lad, who has grown like a weed since last year.
Show opens at 10am this morning, at Lansdowne Park. Check it out!
ben