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The Squamidian Report – Feb. 4 / 17
Issue #767 Including: The Ontarion Hi All, I don't get it. This is February. This is the west coast. And its still winter! How can that be? There should be early buds and flowers by now. Not deep snow all over the place. During a 'normal' winter we would average about 2 Arctic Outbreaks that would bring bone chilling temperatures and blasting north winds along with incredibly bright clear skis. This winter we have now had 6 episodes so far. It continues to be a cold one. And, the gondola had to shut down, again, due to the winds this past Wednesday. By Thursday morning the winds has dropped enough for the lift to operate but it was a slow and rocking ride up and back down. Luckily for me I tend to like that kind of ride. Makes it fun. Getting back to those clear skis, the Moon, Mars, and Venus sure have been putting on a nice late evening show. Early in the week they formed a triangle. Wednesday evening they were lined up in almost a straight line (visually of course). As I watched them that evening the ISS went over, just to make it even better. One evening earlier in the week while we were on FaceTime with Kyra, she pointed the iPad camera out her window at the display to show me and even told me what they were. Thats cool. Now this weekend we are forecast to get and are getting dumped on with snow again. This current storm is expected to last until about next Tuesday with varying amounts of snow each day. If you go by Environment Canada we should get about a foot or so. If you go by The Weather Network's interpretation we would get a 3 times that. Of course we all know how far off they are with their forecasts so we won't worry too much about that. However, by mid morning on Friday the highway was pretty well shut down and transit in the city had ground to a stop, or slid to a stop. That would be more accurate. The snow has been coming in waves and each wave last about 4 hours and dumps about 4 inches of snow. Funny thing, the snowfall started all across the Lower Mainland and up this way at about the same time, perhaps about 6am or so. However, it didn't make all the way down to the ground here until about 8. You know how in the summer you often see rain falling from clouds but because the air is dry that rain often evaporates before making it all the way down? Well, same thing can happen with snow. Because we were in one of those Arctic Outflows, the air here was very dry, so dry that we have been running humidifiers in the house non-stop. The snow had to fall through that dry air and until the air moistened up enough, the snow simply evaporated. Sublimation, I think, or some such term. Driving in the morning snowfall was like driving in a snowstorm back home. Visibility was poor, roads slipper, the whole thing. Only reason I'd even venture out into the traffic under those conditions was that I wanted to do my usual morning walk up at the gondola. Which I did. It was wonderful. The trail has been so icy of late that wearing crampons is the only safe way to walk on it. I mentioned that last week. Well, with several inches of fresh, very dry powdery snow on top of glare ice even crampons barely sufficed. The snow would slip on the ice. Then you'd feel the steel teeth of the crampons bite in. Two guys that were headed for a climbing area had beat me to the trail but I caught up with them. They has both slipped and landed on the backsides and so were sitting at the side of the trail putting on their climbing crampons. Those things have 2-in spikes sticking out so once on they were good to go. This weekend storm system might effect visitor attendance at the gondola. It will probably keep the city people and tourists away leaving the place to us locals. Thats ok but not good for their business. As well, I'm playing up there again this Sunday afternoon and it might be a fairly quiet affair. On one level its easier when the place has lots of people in it but on another level playing to a quiet room has its benefits as well. So, if you'r not doing anything, are willing to chance the weather, and need an excuse to come up the gondola, that would be a good time to do it. doug
**** **** THE ONTARION REPORT Hello everyone! Hope you’re all enjoying the mild winter that was supposed to be a throwback to the wild one’s we used to have 20 and more years ago. It started off looking like things were going to be covered in heavy snow and very low temps but it hasn’t turned out that way. Oh well, I guess Mother Nature has decided to go a tad easy on Waterloo Region at least. Many places in the USA and Canada have really been hit hard so I guess she just didn’t have enough bad weather left to hit us with this year. I’m sure she’ll give us at least a few last minute blasts before this winter is over! I never could understand the logic in people riding their bicycles through the winter months. Today there was an incident in which a 64-year-old gentleman was killed while riding his bicycle on King St N in Waterloo. A car coming off the expressway ramp onto King St hit him from behind and even though he was wearing winter clothing and a helmet for safe riding, he was still hit hard enough to end his life. The driver of the vehicle has not been charged with anything yet but the police say they are still investigating and don’t think speed was a factor! I don’t want to sound like I’m blaming the victim here but is it really sensible to be riding a bicycle in the wintertime on a very busy roadway? If you don’t own a motor vehicle wouldn’t you think it more sensible to use public transit in the winter weather? It just isn’t safe to ride a bike in snowy conditions! I feel bad for the bike rider and his family for the loss of life but find it hard not to place some of the responsibility on the bike rider. I know, it sounds like I’m blaming the rider but I guess we’ll have to wait and see the outcome of the investigation to know exactly how the collision happened. At any rate, a loss of life no matter how it happens and whose to blame is always tragic and the lesson to all is, “Be Careful Out There” at all times and leave the bicycle in the shed or garage for the winter time! Speaking of winter activities, we usually have a bird feeder hanging on one of the small trees out back in the garden. Over the past couple of years the squirrels have been raiding the “store bought” version hanging in the tree because it’s so easy for them to access. After getting tired of feeding the squirrels bag after bag of birdseed we decided to do something a little different. Carole suggested building a freestanding feeder that the squirrels couldn’t get at as easily. So, I screwed a simple foot square ¾ inch thick board to the top of a short piece of 2x4 with a pointed end. I hammered it into the ground about a yard out from the tree branches and to my surprise the squirrels have only been seen on it a couple of times all winter. We’ve been stocking it with sunflower seeds and all sorts of birds have been visiting it all winter. We get everything from sparrows to nuthatches and cardinals on the feeder every day. I fastened a plastic bowl to the middle of it and Carole made a ball of suet covered in seeds to start things off. Now I just go out every day or so and dump a cup of sunflower seeds on the bowl and surrounding platform. The birds love it and the squirrels don’t seem to be interested. It’s about 8 feet out from our kitchen window and we have a great view of the birds that us it daily. In fact, the other day I put a second feeder at the side of the house where our other kitchen window faces and it’s starting to attract the cardinals as well. They certainly are a beautiful bird. We have as many as 5 males and a couple of female cardinals out back quite often at the same time. Of course we get dozens of sparrows around it during any time of the daylight hours. The other afternoon, Carole was standing at the kitchen window watching the birds feed and all of a sudden a hawk flew into the yard and fluttered right at the kitchen window she was at and scared all the sparrows from the feeder. He fluttered around for a minute or so and then landed on top of one of the 8-foot high decorative trees I have at the entrance to the patio. These trees are on either side of the flagstone walkway that is directly below the kitchen window. They have a dense growth of small branches that make up the ball of the body of the tree. It’s of course bare in the wintertime but it’s still thick enough that the small birds were able to hide inside the ball and the large hawk could only sit on top of the tree beside them and watch for one of them to fly out. Of course they were smart enough to stay put while the hawk was still around. He sat there for about 5 minutes or so while Carole took pictures of him and then he flew off into the hydro right of way out back. I’m sure he’ll be around again now that he knows the feeder attracts the little birds! It was quite a surprise for Carole to see such a big bird of prey right in our back yard. Of course the hawks have to eat too but we don’t want our feeder to be the reason he fills his stomach with the little guys! If only he’d develop a taste for sunflower seeds! LOL! *
If any of you are interested
in adopting a 1-½ year old beautiful golden lab dog, please let me
know! A friend of mine has been looking after this dog for a mutual
friend while he was in hospital and sadly the dog’s owner passed away
while in Grand River Hospital last week. The dog is a well-trained pet
but my friend unfortunately can’t keep him due to his own health
reasons. The lab is free to a good home and if anyone is interested,
I’ll gladly facilitate a meeting with my dog-sitting friend. I don’t
even know the dog’s name but he’s a very well mannered Lab and will
make a good pet for someone that has room for that type of dog. I guess that’s about all for this week folks! Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report! Bye for now … Greg.
PS: Something To Think About> Ever stop to think and forget to start again? PPS: I’ve attached a picture of one of our Cardinal friends on the feeder! ****
Have a good one.. the doug The Fine Print! The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.  |