I am enjoying my second week of staycation. The rest of my staff are heading inland to Freddy Beach for a workshop today. Supposed to reach temperatures with the humidex in the high 30s.
Yes, we are expecting a high humidex today too. I'm awfully glad to have a heat pump providing lovely cool temperatures inside the house. "Hot day" measures are in place. I ran the dishwasher at 8 a.m., closed the door while taking my shower lest the hot steam get out into the whole house, and have covered the large south-facing windows with dark sheets. Thankfully, it is a quick version of a heatwave so the laundry will be done tomorrow. Having experienced several hot summers in Ontario, I am even more convinced of the wisdom of choosing to live on an island.
Woken up by the sound of heavy machinery this morning. Torrential rain in the night had washed the neighbour's gravel driveway across the road and into ours. We barely escaped getting the house flooded. It's a mess!
Wow! That's a rude awakening. Sorry, I am sympathetic but I couldn't resist. I've spent the day at our air show listening to loud jets and such. It was supposed to be cloudy and rainy but it was fair. A little windy but not too bad. Tomorrow, I doubt we can avoid the rain. Not sure how that will affect my volunteering there but not going to worry yet.
Sorry to hear that. I have to admit that I never thought I would hear of deer on the 401...
Not uncommon at all, sad to say. A member of our church died in a collision with a deer on the 401 some years ago. I'm relieved to hear that Sharkshooter was unscathed. Deer on other roads are common around here - the rule is that if you see one, look out for the other two.
Just saw Canada Day greetings from the New York Transit Museum on Facebook. Cool in a geeky kind of way.
Went out briefly to buy some asparagus at the local fruit and vegetable stand... cloudy today but punishing humidity. Having second thoughts about the longer walk I was thinking of...
In other news, the serviceberry in our back yard is full of tasty serviceberries, and for some reason (I suspect because they can't easily get to some of them) the birds haven't eaten all of them yet. Leaving some for us. Though I came face to face with a cardinal on my way into the back yard so I don't mind if they want to help themselves to the berries they can reach...
I watched some Wimbledon, watched the Blue Jays hammer the Yankees ( a bit symbolic), treated myself to a half hour forced march and read. A good "rest" after returning to work on the 30th from a two week staycation. ;^))
Hit a deer on Highway 401 last week just west of London. Car is drivable, and we are ok, but the damage is expensive to repair - might be a write-off.
I just saw this and offer my delayed moral support. I am a former deerkiller (Pennsylvania, driving my late mother to her golf-ball winter grounds in Florida). Proceeding a legal speed (wise in the US if you have foreign plates) on the 81 when a deer leaped right into my mother's Jaguar, sending him into the ditch and myself on to an access road as soon as I could manage. My mother's shock easily dispelled with a tumbler of single malt. When we checked into a hotel to await our replacement rental car, the clerk quietly asked us what the mile marker was. I had it in my notes and he then excused himself to call his brother-in-law who had a spare deer tag, and could convert Bambi into freezer meat for his family. The clerk apologized, noting that the brother-in-law's family were on food stamps, and deer was good meat.
I am pleased to hear that none of you were hurt as the impact of the animal on a vehicle is astonishing. At the repair yard the next day, the boss cheerfully showed us a car where the driver had been impaled by antlers. Along that stretch they often had deer fatalities-- he noted that in season the bucks had as little sense as a community college student on a Saturday night.
I will raise a glass of decent firewater to acknowledge your good fortune.
This is Wab Kinew, premier of Manitoba talking about welcome to children from Gaza to Manitoba from January. It came up again in news. He's my guy. Better than many. If is from Instagram. If you click off of the popup it plays good without that app. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DE56KGpAgvc/
New comers are welcome and it is First Nations that got the best authority to welcome people.
I just had a most strange experience. There was a Branch all-staff meeting yesterday in a neighbouring building. When returning to my office I noticed a piece of folded paper lying on the curb of the street. It looked fancier than normal so I picked it up. It was a recently-issued birth certificate which had been dropped.
I took it to Service Ontario this morning so they can trace or destroy it. To lose such a thing is so unbelievably dangerous for identity theft.
Those of us who couldn't be bothered to take the 3 bus journey to the local roller derby match ended up at S Barnabas where the Pembroke College (Cambridge) choir gave us a programme of William Byrd etc, finishing off with Leonard Cohen, who really adapts well to polyphony.
They're hitting Toronto for 1-3 August. Apologies if this reads too much like an advert.
Happy Emancipation Day, to all who mark the end of slavery in the British Empire.
While it had effectively expired in most of what is now Canada by the early 1820s, commemorating the hammering of nails into its coffin is to be commended. Jerk chicken tonight (even if those held in slavery here were not Jamaican). There are still parades and community events in Windsor, Niagara, and Collingwood, and the national historic site in Drayton (Uncle Tom's Cabin) but private events are not forbidden.
I should look into Jamaican cuisine, which is not hard to find in Toronto. There was actually wine-matching dinner at a Jamaican restaurant a while back organized by a sommelier of Afro-Carribean ancestry.
Went to see Pembroke College last night. A great choir in a great acoustic.
Warm today but much more suitable for being outside than last weekend. Got out on my bike and ventured out into the old West End - once industrial and working class, now condos, lofts, and coffee shops. (Roughly the part of Toronto between Ossington and Roncevalles/Dundas West, north and south of Bloor.)
Happy Emancipation Day, to all who mark the end of slavery in the British Empire.
While it had effectively expired in most of what is now Canada by the early 1820s, commemorating the hammering of nails into its coffin is to be commended. Jerk chicken tonight (even if those held in slavery here were not Jamaican). There are still parades and community events in Windsor, Niagara, and Collingwood, and the national historic site in Drayton (Uncle Tom's Cabin) but private events are not forbidden.
Don't forget Owen Sound. Their Emancipation Festival is on its 163rd year and I believe it's the longest running. It started as a celebration of the anniversary in 1862.
There are still a few British Methodist Episcopal churches up that way which I have driven past; it was a surprisingly popular area for escaped slaves as it was effectively the front of settlement at the time.
I had quite forgotten Owen Sound and stand corrected. OS and Collingwood, Kingston, and Brockville were all centres for self-emancipated immigrants. The stevedoring and teamstering and hotel business sectors were areas where they had skillsets from their former employment (do we call it employment when there was no pay?) and many prospered. A few prominent families in these areas got some surprises when they were working on their genealogy-- there was some fuss in Mormon convert circles in the 1970s and 1960s (before the Lord's will on descent for the priesthood became clear in a further revelation in 1978).
In other news, we’ve finally had some rain in Toronto overnight and then just now over the dinner hour. It would be nice if it meant a break in our heat wave but that may be too much to ask…
No break in the heat wave here except for a few hours this morning, but it was real rain that soaked in and did some good. No more rain today here, though. The river is very low - not many canoes going by.
I was speaking to a friend in Newfoundland yesterday, and they've really had it bad; in some places people have had to abandon their homes because of wildfires.
Newfoundland was in the headlines in the Globe this morning, which is not a place you want to be this summer. Hope things turn out OK for your friends @Piglet (and likewise in NB @Caissa ).
Cooler and wet here today, but with masses of mosquitoes. We haven't seen the flocks of swallows around here this year that we usually rely on to reduce the mosquito population - always lovely to watch in action The giant hogweed had a good summer, necessitating a visit by the Conservation Authority's hogweed assassination squad.
Wet and humid here. Hopefully other places that also need some wet are getting it. I wonder what 007 qualifications one needs for the Hogweed Assassination Squad…
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Not uncommon at all, sad to say. A member of our church died in a collision with a deer on the 401 some years ago. I'm relieved to hear that Sharkshooter was unscathed. Deer on other roads are common around here - the rule is that if you see one, look out for the other two.
Happy Canada Day!
Went out briefly to buy some asparagus at the local fruit and vegetable stand... cloudy today but punishing humidity. Having second thoughts about the longer walk I was thinking of...
In other news, the serviceberry in our back yard is full of tasty serviceberries, and for some reason (I suspect because they can't easily get to some of them) the birds haven't eaten all of them yet. Leaving some for us. Though I came face to face with a cardinal on my way into the back yard so I don't mind if they want to help themselves to the berries they can reach...
* "happy" doesn't seem quite the right epithet for the remembrance of a battle where the regiment was literally decimated.
I just saw this and offer my delayed moral support. I am a former deerkiller (Pennsylvania, driving my late mother to her golf-ball winter grounds in Florida). Proceeding a legal speed (wise in the US if you have foreign plates) on the 81 when a deer leaped right into my mother's Jaguar, sending him into the ditch and myself on to an access road as soon as I could manage. My mother's shock easily dispelled with a tumbler of single malt. When we checked into a hotel to await our replacement rental car, the clerk quietly asked us what the mile marker was. I had it in my notes and he then excused himself to call his brother-in-law who had a spare deer tag, and could convert Bambi into freezer meat for his family. The clerk apologized, noting that the brother-in-law's family were on food stamps, and deer was good meat.
I am pleased to hear that none of you were hurt as the impact of the animal on a vehicle is astonishing. At the repair yard the next day, the boss cheerfully showed us a car where the driver had been impaled by antlers. Along that stretch they often had deer fatalities-- he noted that in season the bucks had as little sense as a community college student on a Saturday night.
I will raise a glass of decent firewater to acknowledge your good fortune.
Thank you! Cheers! having a taste of a good single malt right now myself.
Still waiting for insurance to decide on the repair/write-off question.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DE56KGpAgvc/
New comers are welcome and it is First Nations that got the best authority to welcome people.
I took it to Service Ontario this morning so they can trace or destroy it. To lose such a thing is so unbelievably dangerous for identity theft.
They're hitting Toronto for 1-3 August. Apologies if this reads too much like an advert.
While it had effectively expired in most of what is now Canada by the early 1820s, commemorating the hammering of nails into its coffin is to be commended. Jerk chicken tonight (even if those held in slavery here were not Jamaican). There are still parades and community events in Windsor, Niagara, and Collingwood, and the national historic site in Drayton (Uncle Tom's Cabin) but private events are not forbidden.
Went to see Pembroke College last night. A great choir in a great acoustic.
Warm today but much more suitable for being outside than last weekend. Got out on my bike and ventured out into the old West End - once industrial and working class, now condos, lofts, and coffee shops. (Roughly the part of Toronto between Ossington and Roncevalles/Dundas West, north and south of Bloor.)
Don't forget Owen Sound. Their Emancipation Festival is on its 163rd year and I believe it's the longest running. It started as a celebration of the anniversary in 1862.
There are still a few British Methodist Episcopal churches up that way which I have driven past; it was a surprisingly popular area for escaped slaves as it was effectively the front of settlement at the time.
Hope you all get some relief from your heat soon.
Yesterday went from warm and about a million percent humidity to a preview of our cooler weather today.
I was speaking to a friend in Newfoundland yesterday, and they've really had it bad; in some places people have had to abandon their homes because of wildfires.