As we passed this sculpture today, I asked my son to guess what it was called. He said “Berlin,” which I thought was both funny and appropriate. It turns out, the sculpture is called Living In Between and it is the work of Agnieszka Koziarz. As we were looking at it, I read aloud the […]
There is a stretch of road near my home that doesn’t seem to know what to do with itself. It is near the football stadium and borders several residential neighbourhoods, so you would think this location would give it all kinds of reasons to be a real going concern. In fact, though, it doesn’t seem […]
I don’t go to the grocery store very often these days, but when I do, I like to be able to get into my car when I leave. Today, someone parked so close to my car it is a wonder they didn’t rip off the side mirror. Admittedly, my car, the green one, was parked […]
Some of my neighbours have a flair for three-dimensional imagery and whimsy. Here are some of the garden ornaments that have caught my eye in the last few months.
Here are some of the things that made me wonder this week. I could try to come up with some reasonable explanations, but sometimes it’s more fun to think of unreasonable explanations.
Alongside the North Saskatchewan River right now there are loads and loads of burdock plants. So many, in fact, that the parks people are busily cutting off their heads. They are not native to the area and have become invasive, so the workers are trying to stop them from going to seed and spreading any […]
For my birthday, on August 16th, I am going to give America a gift from Canada. I’m going make every can of beer cost a little bit more. Aren’t you grateful? You might think that a gift should be something you actually want, but that’s not how this gift works. This gift comes in the […]
I am watching creatures die, and I am actually enjoying it. Yesterday evening, I had a sudden infestation of ceratopogonidae. That is a very big name for very tiny insects also called midges or no-see-ums. They arrived in my living room through the kitchen sink drain. A quick visit to Lord Google advised me to […]
The City of Edmonton decided this week that everyone should wear masks indoors in public places as of August 1. There are some exceptions, such as when eating and drinking, and for those with medical conditions that make wearing masks impossible, but for the rest of us when going to the store, masks will be […]
One way to memorize a series of random words is to use imagery. Here are some images that might help.
This is no-see-um season in Alberta. As the popular name suggests, these bugs are invisible until they are actually flying in front of your face. I don’t even know their official or scientific name. They are simply no-see-ums. They are so small that they can get through fly screens. And, they bite. The females feed […]
At 2:30 AM last night. I was having a bad night because I had insomnia, so, when my next door neighbour’s motion-sensor light came on right outside my bedroom window, I noticed. In fact, I noticed enough to get out of bed and look out of the window. I didn’t see anything, so I went […]
For a few years I have tried growing shrubs and bulbs in our front yard, but have had very limited success. The soil quality is not good because it is mostly clay. In addition, there are bugs that are determined to kill almost anything that starts to look as if it might grow to bloom. […]
