A Mix from the Last While June-July 2018

At the end of the year, RJ's school had a music concert. The younger ones played recorders. We had similar things called 'tonettes' out west. Any one else familiar with those?

After the official concert, some fun in the hallway with a buddy.

I still get out in nature once in a while. This was along a creek near RJ's baseball game. It's Dame's Rocket, aka Wild Phlox by some.

Grasses catch my eye, but I get very few images of them that I like. This one isn't great but not bad.

Signs in a shop. Both are pretty good.

Trying to cash in on the 'anti-Chinese' refrain.

My surprise birthday dessert when Jane took me out for dinner. No singing...  which is fine with me.

Garden colors change as the weeks go by. This was a a couple weeks ago. Maybe more.

I've always liked this guy. Tom Sawyer to me.

You never know what will catch kids' attention. RJ was intrigued by this mini waterfall in a park downtown.

And he loved this. A 'magic' glove with 'special' bubbles that bounced off it. Jane & I were impressed too. Very cool.

Another outing with RJ... to Oshawa harbour. We watched a couple tugboats bring this freighter into the dock. There are two tugboats in the image. One is harder to see.

To end the week, Jane & I went to Darlington Provincial Park. Turned out it was a free day for day visits. Not well advertised so it wasn't busy at all. Started with a hot dog at the park store, then went down to the beach. A hottish day but a nice breeze off the lake to make things comfortable.

People were soaking up the sun or swimming. When you can't see the other side of the lake, it feels like you're at the ocean.

We just had to stick around for this to see what it was all about... a turtle race. 

Yah, right. As you'd guess, the turtles just weren't into it. They went every direction except the one the were 'supposed' to. Kids had a ball, but us adults got a real kick out of it too. Lots of comments, lots of kidding.

We went for a short walk down a trail and Jane spotted these water striders below a bridge. Hard to make out in the image... too much sun. But if you're not familiar with them, they 'walk on water'... surface tension and such. You can see their feet on the water if you look closely.

I've never seen a gathering like this. I've only seen one or two at a time before.

We ended the day back at the park store for an ice cream cone. Not much choice. They didn't have any of my favourites so I tried a rum & raisin. Not bad but not one I'll add to my favourites list.

It was good to get out in nature again. Not seeing much of it lately. I must try harder to.

Take care,
Bob & Jane
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Bit of this, bit of that... July 9th, 2018

After a short flurry of a few new pics, my cameras are gathering dust again. This is a mix from a few weeks back. 

Some of you have seen this one. It was taken on an outing I went on with a camera club a few weeks ago. Actually I'd love to drive a tractor again and take you with me in the wagon. :) 

I have more than a few hours on tractors. One summer I tilled fields in southern Saskatchewan. A huge 5am breakfast before I started, and tilling until dark. Lunch was delivered to me in the tractor. Loved it.

This was on the same outing. This is what I call a "photographer's shot". I take very few of them any more. This and the next one are two of the only ones of this type I've shot in months.

I'm much more into people, or shots that show emotion or some feeling these days.

They just don't grab me the way they used to.

As a supporter of Second Marsh in Oshawa, and a nature lover at heart, I attended an event lakeside... Lake Ontario.

The hit of the event was this display of live animals. No one asked... I think we all just assumed that the skunk was 'de-skunked'.

Kit fox. Any baby animal seems to put 'cuteness' off the scale. I think it's so important to expose young ones to young animals. 

The chance of any of us seeing them in the wild is minimal. So I hope you'd take your young ones to events such as this. I think it's important to a child's development. I'm 'soap boxing' but it's one of my passions that children should be exposed to nature as much as possible.

There was an indoor portion at the event. The kids loved it. Adults did too though.

It gave us all the chance to see a Turkey Vulture up close and personal. They're common in our area now. Referred to as TV's by birders, they catch the thermals and float effortlessly as they drift in circles above us, wings upward in a 'V' shape. 

Try to spot them in the sky and point them out to the kids... soap-boxing again, but no apologies.

I took a break from the event and wandered a bit. This is 'snake spit' on wild plants. Actually it's spittle bug bubbles. The larvae is inside the bubbles. As a kid in Saskatchewan, we always called it snake spit. 

Not everyone is into nature... sad, but true, to my way of thinking. But maybe you've noticed that the press is stressing more & more lately how important it is that we should spend time in nature. Nature truly restores the soul for me, and millions of others I hope.

Our way of life doesn't encourage it. With fears of ticks, bears, and whatever else, I do understand. But I think it goes deeper than that. I think that too many people could care less about nature. They're too rapped up in the business of life today. Too many options. Too many choices. 

We're all too busy. But keep in mind, our kids learn what they experience. I think life offers too many options now. Just look at any shelf in a grocery store.

Kids can't become interested in things that they haven't been exposed to. Expose them. Find out what 'grabs' them.

I'm a soap-boxer at times as I've said. No apologies. Think of the kids in your life.

Bob
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