where I impart some history

My photo for SkyWatchFriday includes a light standard. An historic reproduction light standard. One that anyone who travelled the QEW regularly would recognize. They used to be much more numerous, but most had disappeared over the last 40 years in favour of bland truss style lamp posts. That one isn't taken from the QEW, as that would have been unsafe, but I found it at a seniors community centre in Oakville and I took advantage of the parking lot to capture the image. There was some thought that maybe the last of these artistic light standards would disappear, but instead, more of them are appearing on the new bridges as a nod to the historical significance of the Queen Elizabeth Way. Two such examples are at the new Bronte Creek Bridge and Sixteen Mile Creek Bridge.

photo: pquan flikr

I came across a letter in a local paper from an idiot someone who is "saddened and disappointed" that we are using such "outdated symbols from a different time" and suggests that we should stop "perpetuating historical symbols". In his letter he says that he is "not particularly “anti” the Queen or the colonial era, but I am an immigrant and, while I accept these things as part of Canada's past, suggest that we should move on."

Huh?

He is very much misinformed, and misguided, if he thinks that a) "those who identify with [the ER symbol] will be few in number", b) this ER is about the Queen, and c) the highway is of a colonial era.

A flurry of letters responded to this anarchist. Well, as much a flurry as any wrong-headed letter-writer in a small local paper might receive. Some of them were almost as misinformed, but every one disagreed with him about erasing our past. And many felt a small wave of nostalgia when the lamp posts were erected.

Such displays of symbols are a good way to learn a bit of the history of where you live (or are visiting).

So, very briefly (I don't want to bore you, dear readers!) neither the highway, nor the Queen, is of a colonial era. That ended in 1867 with Confederation. And, the Queen Elizabeth in the ER, is not Queen Elizabeth II, but the wife and consort of King George, Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, affectionately called [the] Queen Mum. It was on their visit to Canada in 1939 to commemorate the coronation of King George that the highway was officially named. Eventually linking the western edge of Toronto with Hamilton, Niagara Falls and Fort Erie, and to the USA, The Queen Elizabeth Way is the only highway without any numbered designation. A lot of the vintage architecture is slowly being dismantled as the highway (note not freeway, that's American usage), is being upgraded and widened, but those iconic ER light standards are slowly being reintroduced as a nod to the historical significance of this major travel route.

Oh, and the ER stands for Elizabeth Regina. That's latin for Queen Elizabeth, the one who was neither the I or the II.

where I disappear into a book

Our high school librarian was a charm. We were in admiration of her skills. Not only was she young and very personable, she knew everybody by name. She also somehow knew which class you were skipping if you turned up at an 'odd' hour, or lingered too long. This was not a small school, we were over 2,000 students. But if you asked her about a book for a class, she could probably remember who had it and when it was due back. She was our Katharine Hepburn of Desk Set.

I am reminded of her, and many independent booksellers, when I ask for a book in Chapters or Indigo. Where the staff will immediately walk to a computer terminal to look up the title/author and if you don't remember it, well, it could be a fruitless search with you being ultimately led in the general direction of where you might find your request. My favourite booksellers are the ones who can decipher a "I read a review in the Globe about something about (insert semi-remembered description)" or "I heard a book review on CBC on Sunday..." and they know what you are talking about. These people love books. They breathe books.

I used to buy a lot of books. The cost has made buying sprees a bit more prohibitive than in the past. And I've never bought anything from Amazon. I'm more of a browser. Put me in a room with shelves of books, and I can't help myself. I twist my head to read the spines, I pull interesting book titles down, I fondle covers, I flip pages. I sniff books. There is something about the musty smell of old books that is comforting. And also the still strong ink and paper smells of newly printed pages. To be the first to open a book and begin reading... and to open an old book, especially one of prose or poetry, and have it fall open at a favourite passage of the previous owner, is a silent thrill of discovery. I have discovered great new reads that would never have occurred to me just by being attracted to a title, the first paragraph, a description on the cover flap. And I've even judged a book by its cover. I have not bought books that didn't feel right. I used to have small collections of books that had different covers, because the idea intrigued me of other artists renderings of the tale. If I start a series, I have to buy the rest in the series until it is complete, or it will irritate me, even if I didn't particularly like the third book, or whatever. A teeny, tiny bit of OCD.
A friend and I share books regularly, she more than me, because, I couldn't tell you the last time I read a book in its entirety. I have piles of them gathering dust by my bed. The cat uses them as a stepping stool to get herself up on the mattress (she's a bit lazy, why jump when you can risk falling by climbing). Still, I went to the library last week and came home with several books to rekindle my reading habits.
Which is why I haven't been around as much, or posting as much.
And from the book store, a new release, Sandra Gulland and her tale of 'Louise de la Valliere, the young equestrienne who won the heart of France's charismatic Sun King'.

I have coffee waiting at my favourite coffee house and my book to read so, later......

in honour of National Library Week.

Monday AMuse

last week we had album covers

this week we have cassette innards

from iri5 flikr

SundayStills - red

Our story today is about RED.
Above, we have my planter. I was hoping the tulips would be red, but apart from not being ready for this week's challenge, they will be yellow. There were yellow and purple crocuses on the other side, yellow daffodils and purple muscari on this side. After the yellow tulips will be the iris - any guesses on their colour?

The silly grinning gnome with the red cap is Jimmy. He's so named because I just can't seem to take anyone seriously who is named Jimmy (no offense to any Jimmy's out there, but really, James is a great sounding name. how did it ever become Jimmy out of James, anyway?).

While admiring my wee garden I had breakfast

the last hot cross bun with a cherry on top.

then off for a walk

red fire hydrants on lawns

red Muskoka chairs on porches

and even red balloons on trees

until I reach my destination

which even has a triangle I could have used yesterday!

For more RED things in the yard and beyond, see SundayStills.

PhotoHunt - triangle

This weeks theme for PhotoHunt is triangles.

Here I present the penultimate Canadian triangle.

The Centennial symbol.
Who else remembers getting the rulers out and the protractor and trying to make the perfect triangle? Then colouring in each one? Eleven times. One for each province and one for the territories. Or so the story goes - but, since there were, at the time, 2 territories, this theory is debatable.

This was designed as a stylized maple leaf (after the Maple Leaf became our official flag in 1965), and was reproduced everywhere during that heady, exciting year, 1967, celebrating 100 years of Confederation.

Even on the sidewalks.

click on PhotoHunt for more interesting triangles

Monday AMuse

Record covers come to life via

Sleeveface.com

Sunday Stills - animal husbandry

I was feeling a little doubtful about finding any farm animals to photograph for this week's challenge.

However, on a venture to some greenhouses and vineyards last week, we had to stop suddenly.

Then, a little further down caught sight of a horse standing in a shelter. Not a great photo (rather upset at chopping his ears off), but he came out to pose for me.
Not very inspiring pictures, but I was truly excited that I could participate this week without travelling too far into unknown territory.

for more photos of farm animals, from real farms and elsewhere, see SundayStills

Photo Hunt - stripes

More flowers - and look: they're pink! (not my favourite colour, remember?), but they are stripey, in a broken stripe sort of way.

Or, have a gander at this wall mural I found in a part of Toronto called The Beaches.
I'd like to say, any day now we can get out our striped t-shirts and head out to the water...

but at the moment it is cold and rainy and very, very windy.
We had a dry March - not a flake of snow during the whole month (for the first time in 50 years since records have been kept), but the rain is making up for it this weekend.


to see what other stripes were found from around the world, check out PhotoHunt

a blooming fine day

If you are not interested in flowers, then you may want to just scroll down to the end.
But you'll be sorry for what you missed.

click on any picture to embiggen

This Garden Centre grows all their own plants and flowers

and for a view into where your flowershop or grocery or corner store gets their flowering plants,

a view into a wholesale greenhouse

as we were leaving the Garden Centre we spotted a Red Tail Hawk.

all in all a lovely day.

Oh, yeah - and this is my 1st blogiversary!

television is on hold for the season

WELCOME BACK

It's that time of year again. The nesting season.

The Peregrine Falcons are back. The have settled into 'their' ledge in the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Hamilton. A new and improved webcam has been set up (see link in sidebar) and as usual, I have it on most of the day watching and waiting...
Madame X is back for her ninth year and has just laid her first egg (as of 29 March)!

(Update: 2 eggs as of 31March)

Peregrine Falcons are known for site fidelity. This will be Madame X's ninth year in Hamilton and Surge's fourth, and the 15th year the same nest site on the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel has been used.
Madame X was hatched on a bridge on Pennsylvania Route 309, the Cross-Valley Expressway in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Banded as a hatchling on 7 June 1999 she was known to the falcon watchers in Northeast PA as 'Runaround Sue', a name suggested after she was found running along the expressway guide wall one morning. We are keeping the folks in Pennsylvania posted on Madame X's progress.
Hatched and banded in Etobicoke in 2002, Surge spent at least part of the 2004-2005 seasons trying to establish a nest at the Burlington Lift Bridge. In 2006 he replaced the male at the Sheraton nest and has been in Hamilton since.
- from HCPP website

I also found a webcam (from I know not where or I'd be able to credit and thank them) of a Bald Eagle's nest somewhere in Oklahoma. A great closeup of the eagle sitting there, looking around at the world, waiting... That link is also in my sidebar. If anyone else knows of any other birdcams, you know I'm addicted to them and will add them to my favourites (and my sidebar). Because I have nothing better to do with my time. Really, I don't. The housework can wait.