…thanks to Cee for hosting the Fun Foto Challenge
For more than 20 days we’ve been collecting garbage from the our parks. All of this trash is man-made.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Anything Man-made
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Category Archives: About Me
Midges – Is there a way to repel them?
…they’re back in swarms that literally get up your nose and into your mouth
It seems to be a particularly bad time for midges. There are swarms of them along the waterfront. This seems to be our second wave. The first one happened a month ago. The good news is that their lifespan is pretty short and they don’t bite.
Today on our hunt for trash in the park we came across an unusually nasty swarm of them. It was a very warm day and because we were working hard they gravitated towards us. Midges are are attracted to us by carbon dioxide in our breath and the smell of our natural body odour and sweat.
On Facebook one of my friends suggested the we apply Vicks Vapour Rub to our bodies. When I looked it up I did find a site that suggested that eucalyptus repels Midges because they don’t like the smell. Not sure that I want to go to a drug store for a jar when I know that they won’t be with us for much longer.
I have discovered that my COVID mask has come in handy for keeping those nasty little bugs out of my nose and mouth.
My Messy Journal 30 Day Challenge
….30 days to fill an entire art journal with messy pages
I know it sounds a bit strange but the challenge came from Kara Kramer, one of Carla Sonheim’s guest artists from her year long class called 2020: Words and Pictures. The idea is to be loose and free and fill the book and then come back later and using prompts add more to the pages. I’m still in the filling the book stage. Here are some of the pages of the 42 that I’ve done so far.
58 pages to go!!!!
Among the Rocks
…Col. Sam Smith Park is mostly made from landfill
This beautiful naturalized park in Toronto (south Etobicoke) is a gem in the neighbourhood. I remember years ago in the 1980s when dump trucks were lined up to unload their bins of landfill into Lake Ontario to expand the park. As a result an artificial harbour (now home to the Lakeshore Yacht Club) was created. It is skirted by grasslands punctuated by trees and set within the rocky shoreline. The lake-fill area also contains a wetlands habitat with wildlife-viewing platforms, while elsewhere among the tree-lined paths and lawns are playgrounds, pavilions, and a sport field.
This is one of the parks the Trish and I go to pick up litter. When you walk along the pathways you’d think the park is pretty clean but when you walk along the rocks you can see where people have partied and where the waves have deposited waste (mostly plastic) from the belly of the lake.
Here are some shots from the surface of the rocks and then what we’ve found between them.
New Flower (May 22, 2020) – Frilly Yellow Tulip
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Instant Colour
….after a forced trip to Costco
I needed my winter tires taken off my car. I haven’t driven very much since this isolation started back in March. In fact I filled up just before this started and I was down to a quarter of a tank when I filled up again two days ago. That was 8 weeks between fill-ups.
Anyway I digress. I got an appointment at the Tire Centre at Costco very easily. I booked on-line and took the first appointment available. So on the 13th of May I drove to Costco at 9:30 in the morning. I walked straight into the warehouse past a huge line-up of people waiting to get into the store to shop.
After I dropped off the car I had an hour and a half wait so I decided I might as well join the line and pick up some flowers for the yard. It took about 30 minutes to get inside. Once inside I felt completely safe. There were very few people in the building and the check out was very organized.
An hour is a long time so I ended up buying more than I had planned to but I did only purchase things that I needed or would need shortly.
When I got home I arranged the flowers in the front and back of the house. That blast of instant colour made my trip to Costco all the more worthwhile.
A Cool and Blustery Day
….but the fight against litter continues
Originally we had decided that it would be too wet today to go trash hunting but there was a pause in the rain this morning so Trish and I decided to go and collect a few more bags of litter before the rain started up again. We went back to the park on Third Street where we’ve already been twice to clean up.
One thing that we’ve discovered is that a lot of garbage comes directly from the cars that are parked along the street. Instead of opening the door and walking 20 steps to the closest garbage can they simple toss their garbage next to the curb. We also noticed that someone who likes high end beer simple left six empty bottles among the rocks. Luckily none of them were broken but it would only have been a matter of time.
I think this is what you call ‘jumping for joy’ when the job was done for the day.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – A Sense of Tasting
…thanks to Cee for hosting The Fun Foto Challenge
Is anyone else as obsessed with food as I am during COVID-19? I suspect that most of us are if all the posts and Tweets and Facebook entries are any indication. We all started with a fetish for baking bread and then buying yeast and flour became a challenge. When we discovered that we could still buy bread and our waistlines were beginning to expand we backed off the bread baking craze for awhile (fresh baked bread is so much more tempting than store bought).
Many people were more concerned with having enough alcohol in the house. We’re not huge drinkers but I have to admit that I bought into the need for wine at the beginning and braved going out to buy several bottles. I wasn’t comfortable going into such a busy place even though the distancing rules were being followed. I wiped down all the bottles as soon as I got home.
Now that the those bottles are long gone I decided to try and order wine on line from two of our local wineries and my husband ordered beer from a local craft brewery. Both arrived within days and much faster than our grocery orders.
One way to combat boredom is to try and make our meals more interesting. My husband is the cook and I’m the baker. I haven’t done a lot of baking but I’m itching to do more. On the other hand my husband has made some fabulous meals during all of this. Here are just a few.
Clean-up in Aisle 9
…actually the clean-up has been in our local parks
Two weeks ago my neighbour, Trish, decided to give herself a 30 day challenge and go out daily (weather permitting) and pick up trash in our parks. When I found out what she was doing I decided to join her on her Day 3. For the last 10 days we’ve been out together, grocery bags in hand, and have been picking up litter from our beautiful parks.
We are very lucky where we live because we are surrounded by parks and parkettes. So far we’ve tackled six different areas. Some of the parks are so large we’ve had to go back a couple of times and one park is so big that we have enough work for the remainder of the challenge.
Much of the litter is trash that has fallen from people’s pockets and from the garbage cans on collection day and then picked up by the wind. Most of what we find is hidden under shrubs and trees and between the rocks on the shoreline. Unfortunately a lot is the result of people being too lazy to walk a hundred feet to one of the multiple garbage containers set out all over the parks.
We’re finding a lot of plastic bags, take-out containers, coffee cups, pop and beer cans and lots of cigarette butts and disposable lighters. Close to building sites styrofoam is our number one find. Our most unusual finds have been chairs, a bicycle lock and a broken umbrella.
The nice part of doing this is that we’re meeting a lot of the people in our neighbourhood. They are all very appreciative. Some of them have been inspired to do the same thing and take a bag with them on their daily walks. On my first day one of them called us over and left us each a bag of homemade cookies on the edge of their porch. While doing this of course we’re doing our best to stay 2 metres apart. In the first photo Trish is with her daughter and they live in the same house.
Here are some of the photos taken on Days 1 to 10 for me. Trish just finished day 12. Looks like we may take a break today. It’s pouring rain.
In Search of Food
….our presence brought them closer than I expected
Normally the geese and ducks at the pond swim away when I try to get closer to them for a good photo but today they came right up to the water’s edge and reached over as if they were expecting us to feed them. Judging by the number of empty plastic bread bags that were lying around I suspect that’s exactly what they were looking for.
Despite signs posted in the park not to feed the water foul bread the public does it anyway. Bread is not a natural food source for ducks, geese and swans and I’m sure that a diet with too much gluten is harmful for these beautiful birds.
