Brickworks Pond, Sunday, June 29th

Last year's teasel , I'll have to try to find one of this year's crop in bloom a little later in the season.
Chicory, on the cusp of blooming.
Common Milkweed

The peace of a Sunday morning

Occasionally I get an idea that involves heading out to take photos early in the morning. This morning I was at the Springbank Brickworks Pond here in Woodstock by 7:15am hoping to get a photo or two of a Great Blue Heron. Springbank is normally a very busy street but wildlife seems to flourish at the pond/marsh area inspite of noisy humans - I've often seen herons while driving by. I suspect the fact that there's no public parking located at the site probably helps the critters relax a bit - most of us are usually just passing through. In the spring multiple families of ducks and Canada Geese raise their babies there. It's also home to the odd tortoise and otter I believe. I was successful in my search this morning. Just after spotting a family of ducks in the distance, I spied a heron wading along even closer to me than the ducks were.
I watched it for about 2-3 minutes before it took flight.
And winged it's way across the pond.
Shortly after, I headed home for breakfast but not before getting this shot of "Eggs and Butter" flowers.

for Ron and Norm

Some of my earliest childhood memories go back to my Uncle Ron, my mother's youngest brother. Like me, Uncle Ron was a teenager when his mother (my grandmother, Effie Sturge) died. When my parents married he moved to Corner Brook to live with them and by the early sixties had married Norma Penney and started his own family. This photo of baby Janice, their first born, Norm, my Mom and Ron appears to have been taken during a birthday party at our house on Premier Drive.

Ron and Norm would come to our house on Saturday nights to watch hockey on tv. They were big fans of the Leafs and the Corner Brook Royals. Many an night I dozed off to sleep to the sound of Norm whooping it up when the Leafs had scored.

It was the summer of '65

I know that's a song title but, honestly, this was taken the summer of '65 in Shediac, New Brunswick. I'm guessing Dad took the photo, as he's not in it.

back row l-r: my cousin Sonia (Howe) Bradshaw, moi, my darling Aunt Daisy
middle: cousin Deborah, my Mom and Uncle Cec
and the wee darling in the front is my brother Rob, age 7 at the time

My Dad was a summer student at the Institute of Technology in Moncton and we stayed at this cottage in Shediac. At the time Dad taught welding at the then Vocational School in Corner Brook and summer school was an opportunity to fine tune his teaching skills. Two summers later he taught at the same Institute and we spent the summer at a cottage in Caissie Cape.

Long ago and far away.........

.......December 1975 in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, to be exact and Northcliffe Youththeatre was staging "The Wizard of Oz". Shirley Hollett (now Morrow) at the ripe old age of 17 was the Director and I was listed on the program as "Properties". I was ancient in comparison to Curl, as she was affectionately known then, I'd just turned 20. Shirley was as at home on the stage (as this photo will hint) as she was directing and since those early days she has also become a playwright. Her play Yesterday's Men is part of the line-up at the Queen Street Dinner Theatre this summer.

The lead roles were performed by l-r: Megan Skinner as the Cowardly Lion, Chris Martin as Scarecrow, Pete Quigley as the Tin Man, Lynn Ann Pye as Dorothy and Margot Pitcher as Toto.

The set was designed by the late, great Albert Hillier. Shirley and Pauline Au took a bow for the costumes, Jeff Pitcher (yes, that Jeff Pitcher of Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador) and Bob Banfield did the lighting. Cathy Scott on make-up and Mike Thompson and Warren Down were the stage crew. I also remember that we probably couldn't have gotten it to the stage if not for Reg Pye, Lynn Ann's Dad and the Manager of the Arts and Culture Centre.

I was probably still using a Kodak Pocket Camera at this point but was taking shots of everything that moved anyway. Shirley managed to take this one of me when I wasn't paying attention. A year or so later I moved up to my Minolta SLR camera.

Bob Banfield, or a rather twisted Mickey Mouse, doing some serious technical work....
It was a huge amount of hard work but a huge amount of fun. Almost 33 years ago, naw, it was only yesterday.

Bride, Groom and baby sister

This photo of my parents, Pearl (Sturge) & Charlie Osmond and my Dad's younger sister, Sophie must have been taken around the time of my parent's wedding, July 1954 - based on the cast on Dad's arm. His arm was in cast for the wedding as the result of an accident at work in the welding shop at Bowater's paper mill in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. My grandparent's (Wilfred and Flora Osmond) house is on the left and the new construction next to it was to become our house.

Family resemblance

This photo of myself, cousin Deb , and Judy Philpott was taken at Square Pond Park in the early sixties. Even though Deb had her bathing cap jammed on pretty tight, the resemblance between her and my niece Sarah, when she was little, is astonishing. Of course I don't have an old photo of Sarah at the ready, but Deb and some other family members will be able to see it.

When we were kids, Square Pond Park was part of the network of Provincial Parks in Newfoundland. I believe it's privately owned now. I have fond memories of our family camping there with Deb's, my grandparents, the Philpotts and Ralph and Dot Wight.

Chicks Aid Society??

Sad to report that our Mourning Dove Nest appears to have been abandoned today. One parent was there briefly this morning but the nest has been bare ever since. I'll know by mid-week whether the eggs are viable, they're due to hatch around Wednesday.

Maybe they heard about me rustling a bat out of the house first thing this morning and were concerned they'd be evicted as well. I wouldn't recommend bat catching as a way to start a morning. TGIF.

Weathering a storm

We were more than a little concerned on Sunday afternoon when we discovered that the eggs were alone in the nest - no June or Ward keeping them warm. Fortunately, it was an extremely muggy afternoon so they may have stayed warm enough in the absence of a parent. Shortly after I climbed a ladder and took this photo through the rather smudged transom window, June showed up and settled down for the night. Each of the eggs is roughly an inch long. She settled down just in time as this is a shot Geoff took of the sky a few minutes later. It looks as though one pair of birds decided to wait for the storm on the wires....didn't seem too wise at the time. We ended up with rain, hail, flying branches and lots of thunder and lightening. Fortunately the Cleaver's nest is tucked well away from the weather. We're anticipating that this brood may hatch around June 16th or 17th.

The view from my office window

Back in January I was surpised to see a Red-Tailed Hawk perching on a hydro pole across the street from my office (see January 17,2008 entry).

This morning I was working away quietly when I sensed something large moving across the sky out of the corner of my eye. By the time I turned around properly to look, a heron had landed on the roof of a garage across the street. Unfortunately both shots were from about 150' and through rather dusty windows so I'm not sure whether it's a Great Blue or a Great Grey. In the first photo it had just landed, in the second it was just about to take flight again. It wasn't perched on the roof more than 20 seconds - long enough for me to retrieve my camera and take two shots.

Oreo cows!?

About this time last year my friend and co-worker, Marilyn, asked if I'd seen the "tuxedo cows" on the Harmony Road route to Stratford. Huh?! Well, no I hadn't and a few weeks later she and her daughter Jenny-Lynn were calling them the Oreo cows. And I still hadn't caught a glimpse. Being spring, Geoff and I were back and forth to Stratford quite a bit with Opening Week for the Festival but no sightings of tuxedo or Oreo cows.

Finally the first night of Opening Week this year we saw the famous cows (bulls, actually) and Marilyn wasn't exaggerating, they bear a startling resemblance to Oreo cookies. They also look like black bulls wearing tube tops..... They are either Dutch Belted Cows or Galloway Belted Cows. Both breeds have a black front end and black back end and then a wide white band around their middles. They look like an Oreo cookie from the side. The Galloway Belted cattle are from Ireland; they have long hair and are prized for lean beef. The Dutch Belted cows produce a great quantity of milk. Rather than “Oreo,” this species is more commonly referred to as “Belties”. The colours vary from black to red to dun with white.

Stratford Shakespeare Festival - Opening Week 2008

Monday, May 27th was Opening Night for the 2008 season of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Opening Night includes the parade of the Perth Police Pipe Band (above, approaching the theatre grounds), a red carpet, and some celebrity guests. I didn't take any show photos (a BIG no no) or celebrity photos, with the exception of this one of one of the Watson's Bazaar house cats - they're known far and wide.
The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Shop has this delightful resident bear and each year he's dressed to reflect one of the Festival productions. This year he's paying homage to The Music Man.
When we came out of the Avon from seeing Cabaret on Thursday night (fabulous show) we were greeted by this stilt walker - she was twirling flaming batons! The Stratford City Hall clock tower is lit up in the background.
Last but not least, there were two Belly Dancers (left)performing by the War Memorial Thursday evening. They were probably late teens or early twenties and had attracted a group of early teen boys on their bicycles (right).

It was a great week and Geoff is hard at work finishing his reviews and catching up on work that was put on the back burner for the week.

Flown the coop

Well, brood #1 has fledged! When I got up Saturday morning the window ledge above the front door was empty and I guessed correctly that the Mourning Dove chicks had flown the coop. At that point one was still on the veranda railing with one of the parents (Mom, I think) trying to get up the nerve to fly to the tree on the front lawn (baby on the left, Mom on the right) .
This "but Mom, I'm scared!" pose lasted at least an hour after I started watching before Mom flew to the tree and left baby alone.
About 20 minutes later baby (above) followed to the same tree.
Dad on the left, baby slightly higher and on the right.

Today Dad has started adding new twigs in anticipation of the next brood......