….. thanks to Jennifer Nicole Wells
For this week’s photo challenge Jennifer chose the word Horse. Last summer I photographed a number of horses in Italy. They were all in large public squares and were obviously working horses.
…..thanks to Cee for hosting Odd Ball Photo Challenge
Some of my odd ball photos come from experimenting with my camera and my different lenses. Here are a few at I took at the cottage the last two weeks.
…..this week’s photo challenge is friend
Frances is ready to play with the newest ‘dog’ member of our family, sweet little Olive.
…an opportunity to pull out the ‘zoom’ lens
As you know from previous posts I’ve inherited a zoom lens that I’ve been dying to use on wildlife. My moon photos were a complete bust but I’ll try again when the weather isn’t quite so frigid.
A few days ago, before the snow storm hit, a squirrel was darting around on my deck looking for water. I grabbed my camera and started shooting through the glass of the patio doors. The first few had too much glare because I was shooting at an angle. Then I was able to get a shot straight on and it made a big difference. I wanted to say ‘huge’ but I’m trying to avoid that word as much as possible.
I was hoping to open the doors so that I could get a shot that didn’t happen through a glass window (a dirty on at that) but as soon as I did that the squirrel took off and look who showed up (3rd photo). If the squirrel hadn’t run away when I opened the door , Frances’ presence would have scared him off for sure.
….it definitely wasn’t love at first “bite”
Puppies and old dogs don’t always mesh. A and J were looking forward to introducing their new dog, Olive to G’s and B’s older dog, Lucy.
The experts say that there’s something about puppies that older dogs recognize as being non-threatening. They instinctively know that these frisky young pups, although somewhat annoying to older dogs, are harmless and in need of nurturing and gentle instruction in the hierarchy of the canine world.
I guess Lucy had not read the chapter on caring for pups. A while back she had been attacked by another dog in the dog park and in her defence she has been wary of all new dogs that she meets. Olive learned very quickly that Lucy was less than pleased to meet her. We ended up keeping both dogs on leashes in the house during dinner time. Food issues between two dogs can be quite unpleasant and since Lucy is about four times bigger than Olive we erred on the side of caution during mealtime. 
As the day progressed Lucy relaxed a bit, literally, and slept on the couch while Olive pranced around the house and stayed clear of Lucy. Luckily Lucy doesn’t feel the same way about our granddaughter. Winnie can sit on Lucy and dress her up and Lucy reaps the rewards at dinner time when Winnie drops food by her high chair. It’s what I would call a symbiotic relationship.
Winnie is a little unsure of Olive. She’s not used to such an ‘active dog’ but over time I’m sure she will grow to love Olive as the rest of us have. As for Lucy, I think that she will stay out of Olive’s way and be somewhat territorial but time will tell.
The next challenge will come when the girls bring Olive over to our house to meet Frances.
” Say what??? Who’s coming over for dinner?”
….environmental messages from our grade 5s
Last week I spent 3 days in the Kawarthas with 59 grade 5 students. The days were filled with great learning opportunities about the environment, survival practices from the past, games played by indigenous peoples and songs sung around the campfire. Most of the activities were outdoors and involved scavenger hunts, archery, night hikes, fire making and a game of survivor amongst herbivores, omnivores and carnivores. During free time the students could continue playing outside or pick up one of many games that were available to them in the lounge.
Every meal, students took turns setting the tables, serving the food and cleaning up, including washing the dishes using the large industrial dish washer. There was lots of food (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack) and no one needed to go hungry. The kitchen was impressed with how much salad this group ate.
After supper two of us were responsible for organizing hour long activities for the students to participate in before the evening program began. I took on the role of planning an art lesson. During the day I had students pick up things from the ground to use in a nature collage. Days before the trip I cut up about 80 pieces of cardboard to use as our background material and I brought bags of magazines and pieces of assorted papers.
I instructed the students to come up with a piece of art that gave some kind of message about protecting our environment from global warming or saving wildlife from poaching and/or loss of habitat. They were free to use any of the materials that I brought and the things that they found in the forest. The students were completely engaged and came up with some very interesting works of art. Here is a sampling of their creativity.
….most wildlife at the cottage is pretty much unseen
When I arrived at the cottage last week I heard from a couple of my neighbours that a fox and her four kits lived close by. Usually the fox stay back in the woods but this mom and her family have been seen during the day checking out the area around the cottages looking for handouts.
The second night at the cottage I heard a very loud and strange sound. At first I thought it was the young man next door sneezing loudly. When I heard it a second time it sounded more like a woman screaming. The third yelp was clearly closer to the cottage and the sound was a half animal and half human cry. After several strange screams I heard the neighbours start to come out of their cottages.
D from next door was walking up the road with her head lamp on and soon saw that the noise was coming from the mother fox. She continued with her crying for a little while longer but we have no idea why she was so traumatized. Eventually she left and the rest of the evening was relatively quiet. There has been some speculation that the fisher in the neighbourhood may have gotten one of her kits.
Like I said earlier much of the wildlife on the island stays out of site and in the evening when you’re walking along a path you have to be careful not to step on the toads. One evening I went to the water barrel to wash my hands and I heard a rustle in the leaves. When I looked down I saw the biggest toad I’ve ever laid eyes on. With the aid of my lantern I was able to get a couple of shots of him before he jumped away.
….the grade 2s can’t seem to get enough art assignments
After Easter, when some of my students returned from extended holidays the last of the artist portraits were finished and I promised that I would post their work on my blog. So here goes:
For the students who finished earlier I introduced them to to doing line drawings of animals and then filling them into with pencil and erasing parts to highlight light areas, markings and fur or skin texture. I had learned this technique from Carla Sonheim. I like to challenge this class because they are so open to trying new things. I showed them my samples of the elephant drawings I had done using this technique and then I provided them with photos of a variety of animals that they could choose to draw.
We started this last week and it was suppose to be a filler activity for those students who had finished all their work but at the end of this week’s class almost every student had made at least one of these drawings. Can you tell that Easter just passed when these were finished?
….thanks to Cee for hosting Share Your World
How many siblings do you have? What’s your birth order?
I have two younger sisters. I am the oldest child in the family.
The three Winkler sisters.
In a car would you rather drive or be a passenger?
I like to drive but I also like being a passenger. I guess it depends largely on who the other driver is. If I’m with my father I prefer to drive and if I’m in an unfamiliar city than my host can drive.
When you lose electricity in a storm, do you light the candles or turn on the flashlight? How many of each do you own?
We are well prepared for a blackout. We don’t have electricity at the cottage so we are well versed when it comes to using candles, oil lanterns, kerosene lamps and battery operated lights. We have flashlights that we use initially to light the candles. I couldn’t tell you how many candles we have, probably dozens because I buy the big packages of tea lights. At home we have two oil lamps and at the cottage we have at least twelve.
List at least five of your favorite types of animals? (any animal to domestic to wild to marine life)
My favourite animals are:
dogs
chipmunks
elephants
rabbits
panda bears
Our Prime Minister with the Panda cubs at the Toronto Zoo
photo courtesy of: http://www.flynewsonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/667.jpg
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful that my cold didn’t last very long. Lots of vitamin C, liquids and cold medicine and one day off work seemed to help. I’m also grateful for the week off, March Break, and being able to spend more time with my family. I’ve seen my granddaughter twice since Friday and all my daughters were over on Sunday.
My father had another fall last week and he didn’t tell me about it until Saturday. Luckily nothing is broken and he’s just bruised and sore. At least this time he seems to be in a much better mood and isn’t depressed like he was two years ago when he fell down a ravine. He turns 90 this year and is in remarkable good health. For that I am grateful as well.
This week I’m looking forward to lots of rest and relaxation. I’m hoping to visit my father and try to meet my oldest daughter for lunch one day this week. Last week was not a good walking week, partially due to my cold, so I’m aiming to get back to my daily goal of 10 000 steps. If the weather cooperates I’m hoping to get some good photographs on my walks.
Mama Cormier 