Common Experience 2020 A couple of days ago, a friend in England posted this short piece on her Facebook page. She got it from a friend who had it from a friend and we have no idea who composed it. But it is so clever, and so apposite, I felt it was [...]
So that's where it came from! J brought to my attention the following short poem by Longfellow. It is quite striking just how many clichés and common sayings we all know he managed to pack into these few lines. I have highlighted a few examples in bold. Actually, it's good stuff. read on. [...]
Today we had a pair of electricians working in the house installing a new bit of wiring. Making a hole in the wall of the downstairs hall they found, and removed, "insulation" from between the joists. Insulation from the original date of the house building in fact that was comprised of old newspapers. Yes, [...]
Post-Election Pondering Now the dust has settled for almost a week ... This is a rare deviation from the usual gardens and wildlife topics, but I hope I can interest you during this post-election period in a couple of non-partisan observations on how the process of electing governments might be improved next time around. [...]
Busy week ... This has been an exceptionally busy week for an unemployed chap (doing the tax returns for example) and so I have little on the gardening or wildlife front with which to regale you this Sunday noontime. That is not to say there have not been achievements, for example the annual [...]
Sparroworks Publications Click images for information Birding the Morgan Arboretum Birding on the West Island of Montreal FREE Green Birding Coming in March ... A Self Guided Walk in the Arboretum - fully illustrated with optional smartphone guidance. Learn about the forest, its plants and creatures [...]
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year 2019 The new year arrives in a couple of days - thank you everyone for following, faithfully or occasionally, our journal and photography albums. We look forward to interesting and entertaining you again in the year ahead. Rather than giving you something to read in the journal, we [...]
It's been a quiet week ... ... but we have the Wrens and they are always popular. You will be thankful that we have resisted the temptation to go off-topic and have a genteel rant about Brexit - a hard decision, but we will save that for 2019. Carolina Wrens The pair of Carolina [...]
“December, in my memory, is white as Lapland, though there were no reindeers. But there were cats.” – Dylan Thomas, A Child’s Christmas in Wales That sounds all very nice, were DT not to have spoiled the image by then going on to write “Patient, cold and callous, our hands wrapped in socks, we [...]
It's early July and during this week of unbearably hot weather (many days of >35C with humidex in the low to mid forties) there are some magnificent flowers are blooming at the moment - native and horticultural varieties. The first of this year's lilies are showing well. Pictures further down. As you can see [...]