December 28, 2009

I scan the ocean every morning when I get up.  It's never exactly the same twice,
and even varies enormously during the course of the day. If I am lucky, I get to see something like this log, with no fewer than 7 cormorants riding on it as the tide sweeps along. Although they were a long way out, there was no need for binoculars, because one of them was hanging his wings out to dry - no other local bird does that. It's interesting that we actually have more water birds in winter than in summer.

AND LOOK, ANOTHER LOG AND 3 MORE FRIENDS! 

December 19, 2009

Mycologue's office is being renovated, which means torn apart, insulated, dry-walled, painted and carpeted. But my main concern was my computer, which had to be discombobulated during the process. It has more cables coming out of it than you can shake a stick at, as the picture shows. While the carpet was being laid, I was apparently unable to concentrate on anything... However, as this blog proves, I eventually managed to reconnect everything, and all is well again. The main difference is that I am now working in relatively civilized conditions, rather than something that looked like a hurricane had just passed through. I wonder if it will have any positive effect on my productivity? Perhaps I will be able to find things a little more easily, but only, as Laurie points out to me every day, if I "edit" my hordes of hoarded papers.

November 30, 2009

...sorry all, i seem to have forgotten to post these last two entries until now! -c

Today as every day, I scan the ocean for signs of life, not once but many times,

since the panoply changes every few minutes -

perhaps that makes it a palimpsest.

A bunch of ducks float slowly into view,

riding the incoming or outgoing side

(which moves sideways here as well as up and down).

I will say more about the ducks when I see that the full range

of expected species has arrived.

Today's highlight was not ducks, however,

but our full family of five river otters, frolicking offshore.

They live under a huge log on our beach,

and their appearances are sporadic and unpredictable,

and they aren't always together.

I suspect they are at least partly nocturnal,

but I saw them in the late afternoon,

and I wasn't sure whether they were hunting

for dinner or just out to play.

My new superzoom Canon helped me to get a usable picture of them.

Not too long ago one of them climbed the 50 stairs

from the beach to our lawn,

but scampered down again when

the twins spotted him, squealed with delight

and could not be restrained from charging out look at him.

The second picture shows him just leaving...

November 29, 2009

We have just mailed the twins' letters to Santa Claus.
Although Canada doesn't seem to have entered the wireless age yet,
we can apparently communicate with Santa by snail mail.
You may be aware that our mail codes are a mixture of numbers and letters. Ours is V8L 1M8
Well, it is a nice coincidence that Santa's mail code at the North Pole id HOH OHO
Letters are delivered free, and we are guaranteed a reply.
I am attaching a photo of their letters. You can see that Skylar has more meticulous penmanship.
But the nice thing is that both their lists are so reasonable.
In fact Grandma has already gone out and found exactly what was requested.
(We have also bought them a Wii with 2 controllers and Nunchuks,
but that' a surprise).

December 3-5, 2009

My 76th birthday was celebrated over a three-day period,
because the grandchildren were not available on the 3rd.
So on the day I had my H1N1 shot, opened cards and E-mails from friends,
put on my new fleece from Laurie to walk Chelsea in the newly cold air,
went rowing and saw three seals playing, listened to various grandchildren choirs
sing Happy Birthday over the phone, and had a fine dinner at a new local restaurant
with Laurie and Kelly.
On the 4th we bought the Christmas tree and the kids arrived to decorate it
On the 5th, the climax of the festivities finally arrived with the ice cream cake,
which was an enormous hit with everyone, their joy heightened by
my bumbling attempts to blow out the vast number of candles,
which almost set my beard on fire.

December 2, 2009

As the sun, now skulking way south, sinks in the afternoon, it highlights the native snowberry bushes that seem to have taken over all around the edge of our seaside lawn. The clusters of creamy white berries are almost like tree ornaments as they glow in the light. This year's crop is perhaps the best we've ever seen, as the two pictures should show. Symphoricarpos albus is the scientific name of the plant, and it belongs to the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae).  As the winter progresses, somebody eats the berries - we aren't sure who, but it's almost certainly the many small birds that live here year round dark-eyed juncos, house finches, sparrows, robins... So a Christmas ornament becomes a New Year food bank. Nice thought.

Birthday blog tomorrow
Love
Bryce

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYCE!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!