Millie

 She's so darn cute!

Pop My Top

I never make any political statements, but sometimes the time seems right......

Seen for sale in gift shop in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Nipper

On the way to Cape Cod, we spent a night in Albany. Albany is the capital and oldest city in the State of New York. It was claimed by Henry Hudson for the Dutch in 1609, and has been a chartered city since 1686.

Lots to see in an old city like that, and a local guide came on the Big Red Bus to take us on a tour of the sights. We travelled the old streets through the city centre, passing the Dutch Reformed Church,  the Dutch Church, the Van Rensselaer Manor House, and the large homes of many of Albany's business leaders.  And there's a crazy theatre shaped like an egg!

But the sight I really wanted to see wasn't on the tour. I wanted to see Nipper!

Photo borrowed from internet.

Nipper stands (or sits) 28 feet (8.54m) tall on the roof of a warehouse in an industrial part of Albany. He weighs in at 4 tons and he's made of steel and fibreglass.  He's the last remaining Nipper of four brothers who were built in Chicago to advertise the RCA phonograph company, and he's been sitting on the roof since 1958.

Nipper's brothers in Chicago and Los Angeles don't exist any more, but he has a little brother in Baltimore who sits with a phonograph so he can listen to "His Master's Voice".

Apparently Nipper can appear with pink bunny ears at Easter, or a Santa hat at Christmas. Our only view of Nipper was from the highway as we left town. A big cheer went up from the riders of the Big Red Bus.

Sugar High?

I filled the hummingbird feeder with sugar water and hung it up a couple of days ago, probably a bit early, but I see there are already some Ontario sightings of Ruby Throated hummers according to the Hummingbird Migration Map (which suddenly isn't working properly, I don't know why). EDIT UPDATE: now it's working!

But guess who decided to take advantage of a free treat, yes, Billy the tree rat er.... cute fluffy squirrel. I think he's addicted to sugar, I'll have to send him to Sugarholics Anonymous. He deserves a bad tummy ache after draining the feeder dry.  I hope he doesn't tell all his friends. So far he's the only one showing up.

Did you know..... the term to describe the fear of squirrels is Sciurophobia.

Star Wars and Sign Wars

 Do you know what day it is today? It's Star Wars Day...... May the 4th be with you!

I'll let you to celebrate this special Star Wars Day with whichever of the Star Wars films is your favourite.  Meanwhile.... in my small town just north of the big city, a bitter war of words is breaking out. A word of warning..... this could be rather punny.

And it's not over yet! We won't see the white flag waving for quite a while.

Note: Photos have been "borrowed" from the local facebook page. Not my camera work.

Day Two Ninety Nine

It's Day 299 today, I've been keeping track of the days on my calendar since Covid took over our lives. Positive test numbers are going up here, another 14 positive tests registered in our small town yesterday, making 74 reported in the last 7 days. That might seem a small number, but high when I consider that the majority of people seem to be following the rules, wearing masks, sanitising hands, keeping the correct distances. But there are sure to be more infections after careless holiday gatherings, and the hospitals are filling up.

One bright light in all this is the arrival of various vaccines. At risk seniors in care homes and their carers and hospital staff are being vaccinated first. I have no idea when my turn will come, but as I was watching the National News yesterday, I counted 31 images of arms receiving a needle... and I only watched the 1 hour broadcast for 30 minutes. Too many needle images! I am hoping the next arm I see with a needle sticking into it is mine!

Abject apologies to any blogger who has left a comment on this blog and wondered why it never appeared. I recently found over 300 comments that somehow got missed, no idea how, blogger seems to have hidden them, anyway, I reinstated them, well, the ones that weren't spam. Some were from a couple of years ago. They used to show up in my email but now they don't. Weird.

And on a lighter note, I saw Mickey out on the street yesterday. He was feeling chilly but enjoying the sun.

Where's Waldo?

Where's Waldo? He's playing hockey, that's where.

Grandie Emma is in her first year of ice hockey. It's hard going for her, learning to skate forwards, backwards, stopping, starting, getting up after falling in the ice, and handling a hockey stick and a slippery rubber puck at the same time.
But the coaches make it fun, especially so at Hallowe'en.
There was a special Hallowe'en hockey practice at the weekend. The players on Emma's team all turned into mini "Where's Waldo" characters thanks to the inventive coaches.
Watch out for that scaaaaary bat above your head, Emma.

Of course there had to be a team photo. An opportunity not to be missed. Can you guess which one is Emma er... I mean Waldo?

 And the opposition became "The Pirates" with lots of cries of "YoHoHo" and "Arrrrr me Hearties".

Then they were out on the ice for their regular practice. It was more lighthearted and fun than their usual hard workout practice. Games of tag using (plastic) bloodied body parts. And instead of skating figures around orange pylon markers, they were using severed arms and legs... really scary stuff.

When Waldos and Pirates meet on the ice.... it's Hallowe'en Hockey Night in Canada!

More Pride of Canada

A few more of the fantastic creations on the Pride of Canada Carousel in Markham. (Scroll down to previous post for more pics.) You can ride on a total of 44 sculptured characters, all created by Canadian artist Patrick Amiot from recycled and repurposed junk objects. I bet you are breathing a huge sigh of relief that I didn't take pictures of all 44!

The lobster represents Canada's east coast, and the fisheries. Lobster, crab, lots of delicious seafood there.

Wouldn't you like to ride the carousel on a huge ice skate?  No need for any real ice. Just hold onto the laces and zoom away.

This is a VW Bus... I think! I had a red and white VW Bus many years ago.... great little vehicle, her name was Polly. Do you name your vehicles?

The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 in Nova Scotia. Although I don't think he envisioned one as big as this.  

And here's mallard duck... lots of them in Canadian Parks. Quack quack.
And here's the carousel in motion:

Pride of Canada

It's colourful, it's noisy and musical, it goes round in circles and it's distinctly Canadian..... it's the Pride of Canada Carousel. 
The Carousel is an environmentally friendly solar-powered fine art merry-go-round enclosed in an open glass pavilion on the newly built "Downtown Markham" area. The urban folk artist who created the magical carousel creatures, Canadian artist Patrick Amiot, has used all kinds of junk, oops, I mean found objects including hub caps, car headlights and old oil tanks.

This particular Remington Group doesn't manufacture guns.... they are a property developer company.

You won't see any standard carousel horses here, apart from this one being ridden by a goofy Mountie. Love his moustache, it's a broom, and the horse's hooves are irons.

You can go sailing on the Bluenose... famous Nova Scotia racing schooner,  with a giant moose next to you.

 How about joining this dog sailing along in the bathtub?

 Or take a ride on a seaplane, to deliver the mail to the Manitoba north country.

 This delectable mermaid just swam in from Prince Edward Island, according to her licence plate. I like the strategically placed maple leaves!

 Back to school next week, don't miss the yellow school bus.

Here's the man in the moon, closely followed by a couple of chickens.

A view looking up at the reflection of the carousel in the roof. Rides are $2.00 for only about 2 minutes.... rather expensive I think, could cost a lot to take all the grandies there because I'm certain they'd want to ride on all the different creatures. One ride just would not be enough. More pics to come....

Ghost Owl

The sap squeezing out of a wooden support on my deck is creating a perfect Ghost Owl. Pareidolia..... seeing faces in everyday objects. I don't usually see them, but I think I haven't been looking hard enough.

Scary? You Bet!

Hallowe'en Night doesn't get any scarier than this!

My eyes still hurt from looking at all those glowing pumpkins.

Diving Giraffes

High Diving Giraffes.... who knew giraffes were so athletically talented?
I'm not usually keen on sharing YouTube videos but this one caused me to have a huge smile on my face! Enjoy it.
(Remember to watch right to the end after the titles go by.)

Wolfgang, Call Home

"Hello? Constanze? Your hunnybunny Wolfie here. What's for dinner tonight?"

"oh no, not Wiener Schnitzel again......"

Wild Kratts Live!

If there are no children between 4 and 8 in your family circle, you probably have never heard of Wild Kratts, but let me tell you, Wild Kratts is Isaac's absolutely definitely most very favourite TV show.

So when I saw that the Wild Kratts Live! show was coming to the nearby theatre, I knew we had to go. I bought the tickets last May and kept them in a safe place till last weekend.

Conservationist brothers Martin and Chris Kratt created their TV show to educate children about the world's creatures and the dangers they face, using elements of zoology, biology and ecology, and combining science education with fun and adventure. The show is introduced by the Kratts themselves, and features a specific animal and it's habitat, and then, with a mighty "What if?" they are transformed into their cartoon alter egos, and the adventure begins.

Callum (6) and Isaac (5) knew they were going to see Wild Kratts, but had no idea that Martin and Chris were actually real people and were going to appear on the stage. Callum, being a cool six-and-three-quarters year old man-about-town, took it all in his stride, but I'll never forget the look of wonder on Isaac's face when his heroes appeared. "I love these guys!" he shouted.

Martin Kratt always wears blue, and Chris wears green. "My favourite colour is blue!" shouted Isaac.

The Kratt brothers can summon up magical properties when they are wearing their special creature power vests, especially when it means saving a wild creature from hunters with evil intentions.

Some refreshment at half-time. A lot of shouting and jumping up and down can build up a thirst.

Lots of audience participation, lots of excitement. I thought they were both going to leap over the balcony railing at one point in the show.

Thanks for a good show, Martin and Chris, you made their day!

Python Returns

And now for something completely different........

My whole family have been fans of Monty Python since the beginning. Monty Python's Flying Circus started it's TV life in Britain in 1969, and was exported to Canadian TV screens in September 1970. The show immediately gained a huge fan base, although many people remained completely bamboozled as what it was all about.



The Python crew.... Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.... are credited with changing the direction of British comedy.
This month Monty Python is being revived on stage in London by the original cast, minus Graham Chapman who died in 1989. Press reviews are mixed. Some say the show is brilliant. Some say it's a bunch of 70+ has-beens in search of extra cash. Perhaps a bit of both?



I saw a travel presentation by Michael Palin at U of T a few years ago, and he took questions at the end. Of course, after all the serious questions, someone asked him for the Lumberjack Song.... which he happily provided, to a huge ovation!
About 5 years ago I went to see "Spamalot" live performance in Toronto. Brilliant, lots of laughs, lots of classic Pythonesque comedy sketches which never lose their charm, no matter how many times you hear them.



So if you are ever searching for the Meaning of Life, my advice is to Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. And laugh!

Jeepers Creepers.....

.... where'd you get those peepers....

What a cute girl car!

Cupcakes

OlderSon had a significant birthday recently, so we had a party to mark the occasion. And what's a birthday party without cupcakes?

Callum: I want a lellow one, please.
Daddy: Say YES.
Callum: Yes
Daddy: Say Yellow.
Callum: Lellow.
Daddy: Say YES.
Callum: Yes.
Daddy: Say YELLOW.
Callum: LELLOW.
Daddy: say Y.... oh well... Have a cupcake.
 

 Meanwhile Isaac made short work of his multicoloured choice.

Oh, Those Teachers....

Callum will be going to nursery school in September and I was reading through the many pages of rules and regulations....

.... and I found this statement a bit surprising.
You'll probably have to click on the pic to read it. And then smile.

Surprise, surprise.... Hilary has awarded me a POTW Award.... thanks so much, Hilary! And many thanks to the staff at the Tottenham Community Nursery School for giving us all a good giggle, even though it was unintentional.

Tiger, Tiger, burning bright.....

A couple of young men broke into the Calgary Zoo yesterday. One of the men got badly mauled by the zoo's Siberian tiger.

Hospital officials said the man's wounds are "significant", but gave no further details.

The tiger said he tasted "G-R-R-R-R-EAT!"

Thankyou, CBC Radio, for that little joke.

Brother, Can You Spare a .... Quarter?

A very long time ago, my sons nailed a quarter to the sidewalk outside the house, then peeped out of the window to see if anyone tried to pick it up.

Obviously nobody did. It's still there, twenty odd years later.