It's Sporadic Posts of the Week Day!

... And a Little Bit of Benny, Just for Fun

Here's the deal.

I've been moderately absent from blogging, sketchy with blog visits and incredibly far behind with my photography. Oh, I'm still taking photos every chance I get but it seems that I'm only home long enough to upload them onto my computer and weed through those I want to keep. And it ends there.

Since early in July, I've probably spent a total of three weeks at home. Why? Well, most of the time is spent at Frank's place, a little over an hour away. Much of that time, has seen us scouring the online real estate ads and trekking off to see one area or another, in hopes of finding a place that we can both love. Until we find that place, make it ours and move into it, my blogging is going to continue to suffer. So there may be long silences around here or you might see a flurry of activity if I can get to some of the images which reside on my computer at home. I'm just not sure.

I'll continue to visit when I can, and you might just see me posting more than I anticipate in the next little while, but I'm not holding my breath and I suspect you're not either. ;)

For now, and until I post again, here are a few previously aired photos of our favourite Jack Russell Terrier, Benny. He's always good for a smile.



Did you know that he has been taking doggie dirty dancing lessons?





Or that he holds the record for highest bubble-chasing freestyle jump?





They say that water rolls off of a duck's back but it pours right through Benny.






Sometimes, Benny just gets tired of my Paparazzi gig and he just refuses to look at the camera.


And now, without further delay, here are the Posts of the Week. The icon below is yours for the taking if if your blog post is named as a POTW.



 

FUNNY

Well, What?!
by Rashni
at Big A little a

Where Meds Never Expire
by Dianne
at Do You See What I See?

I Must Be Getting Old
by Joeh
at Cranky Old Man

Sex and the Senile Girl
by Stephen
at The Chubby Chatterbox

PHINE PHOTOGRAPHY

Beauty in the Sky
by Ruth
at Ruth's Photo Blog

Flowers
by Linda
at To Behold the Beauty

September Morning Walks
by Steve
at Out on the Prairie

TOUCHING 

Checking Your Metaphorical Back Seat
by Pearl
at Pearl, Why You Little...



CUTE

Born Again
by Amy
at She Writes  


A FUN POST

A Few Moments With Zim and Gem
by TexWisGirl
at The Run*A*Round Ranch Report 


JUST PLAIN GOOD

 
Memory, Movies
by Cloudia
at Comfort Spiral

The Mixtape is Dead
by Carmi
at Written Inc.

READERS' CHOICE

Recommended by: Dianne
Bridge of Gold
by Rebecca
at The Art of Capturing the Moment


Recommended by: Hilary
Still Ambulatory, Thank You
by Murr
at Murrmurrs 

Please drop by their blogs for a visit and leave a kind comment if you have the time. Also, please feel free to add your own choices (for any blog except this one) for a specific blog post in the comments section below, where others can see them.

Thank you

Faces

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.

~ Fred Rogers

There are quite a few adorable, young faces in my neighbourhood. Here are just a few of them.


Lily is challenging you to a game of tennis. Do you accept?






Game over, Lily rides off into the sunset with her Prince Charming - Lincoln.





Lincoln's big brother, Tyler, wide-eyed over the young twosome.





Lily's older brother, Winston was busy riding up and down our dead-end street on his fancy wheels.





Riley almost always has a smile on his face.





Another neighbourhood cutie, Momma Squirrel watches the action from above.





Looking for a little action of his own, Benny is all dressed up and ready to hit the town.





Not to be outdone, Zephyr sports the same stylish accessory. What a copy cat!





My son's lovely girlfriend, Veronica is quite popular at our house around meal time. Somebody needs to teach those creatures some manners.

My postings and visits have been in a bit of a lull lately - which may continue for a while. I'll post when I can and likewise for the visit. I'll get back on track eventually but in the meanwhile, I'm away from home (usually at Frank's) more often than not. Thanks for your kind understanding.

Spawn-taneous Salmon

Frank lives across the road from a swift-running creek that pours into Lake Ontario. Every year, around this time, Chinook salmon make their way from the lake, up the creek and over the dam's fish ladder to spawn. The ladder was built for trout which travel the same route each year - many of those in spring. Salmon are considerably larger than trout and these guys, some weighing close to 30 pounds, are simply becoming too big to make it up the existing ladder.

The community raised funds to build a bypass channel. and work was to get underway earlier this summer. As with many well-intentioned plans, the work was delayed for one reason or another and before they had a chance to begin, the salmon began making their way to the ladders to jump. This was in late July - much earlier than their usual run.

Since so many of the salmon are unable to make their way through the ladder, plans were made to net the larger fish, and lift them over the dam, into the channel above. The hope is to transport up to 5,000 fish in this manner over the next few weeks.

Of course, many of them are small enough to keep on trying their way through the ladder. I snapped these photos when the crew was still setting up their station, but not yet actively transporting salmon.



In the days preceding their approach at the dam, dozens of salmon were working their way upstream. Those tails can really propel them against the current.





Fins and tail are all over the creek - almost giving them the appearance of sharks.





Every now and then you can see one of them flip up in the air. Frank took a look at this photo and pointed out that there's a lamprey eel also seen in the above photo. And here, I thought it was a piece of pipe sticking out of the cement wall.



The next few photos will illustrate how difficult it is currently for these fish to find their way up to and through either of the two ladders.



This one made it up onto the concrete dam in between ladders.





Most of them will eventually right themselves and work their way back into the water. Others will perish on this platform.





This one overestimated his jump and landed above the ladder with a sickening thud. He was back in the water in just a few seconds to rest and then try again.





There are occasional mid-air collisions.





Some of the time they get it right. Here's a very short (12 seconds) video of some jumps.





This one made it.





As did this one.





And this one.


Of course not everyone is there to watch and photograph the salmon. Some are there to catch them. Many of those will also release their catch.



I watched as this young boy caught and released this Chinook.





He carefully removed the hook and lifted the salmon over deeper water.





He held onto it for a few moments to allow it to regain its strength and equilibrium, and then released it back to its freedom.


Now the downside of all of this, is that not every fisherman is as caring and conscientious as this boy. Some leave the carcass on the shore after removing her eggs (to be used for trout fishing). And many salmon simply do not make it to their desired destination. The result is a very smelly walk alongside the creek. And as much as I don't care for the scent of decomposing fish, Benny kind of feels the opposite way about it.

While I was busy photographing some of the above images, Benny was busy getting up close and personal with a dear, departed fish. And by that, I mean that he took great delight and pride in rolling in it.



It's a good thing Benny likes to be in the creek. He needed to rinse off some of the excess Eau de Poisson.





And when he got home, a much needed shower was in order.


I hope you enjoyed watching the salmon with us. Before too long, I'll have some photos of the salmon transfer for you.

Leftovers Again?

I have a few leftover images from the month of July. At the time this post was scheduled, I hadn't even uploaded photos from August. I suspect you'll be sharing summer with me for quite some time.


Praise is like sunlight to the human spirit: we cannot flower and grow without it.
~ Jess Lair





I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may - light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful
~ John Constable





Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.
~ Michael Caine





I don't even know what street Canada is on.
~ Al Capone





There stood the purple spires with no breath of air
Nor headlong bee
To disturb their perfect poise the livelong day
'Neath the alder tree.
~ Robert Frost





There is no reason to fear the wind if your stack of hay is well tied
~ Irish Saying






A green heron sits
Watching the sunfish as it gleaming flits
From sheen to shade.
~ Maurice Thompson






There was a girl knocking on my hotel room door all night! Finally, I let her out.
~ Henny Youngman






When the red bird spread his sable wing,
And showed his side of flame
When the rosebud ripened to the rose,
In both I read thy name.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson






“When the sun gets hot and the moon gets hazy
good girls go bad... and it gets crazy!”
~ Rachel Thompson

Back with more soon.

What is That and Mini Posts of the Week

I'm spending a fair bit of time away from blog visiting and photo uploading, these days. As a result, the POTW suffers some. And I fall farther and farther behind in my photo postings.

I have dozens of photos waiting to be organized into posts, dozens more that have been uploaded but have not even been looked at yet and hundreds which are still sitting in my camera.

And I'm not even at home to do anything about it.I've been at Frank's for the past week and we're heading out of town for a few days, tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm adding photos to the collection in the camera every day. I'm sure you'll see them all eventually - even if I have to show you summer photos in mid-winter.

For now, I have a few photos that were viewed on my computer a fair while after they were snapped. They were unusual perspectives and they even made me ask "what is THAT?" I eventually remembered (or the next image reminded me) and now I'd like to present them to you.


A colourful, round prism. I'm surprised that my camera picked it up as it was a minute little sparkle. Below is where I found it.




This sap droplet sparkled and glimmered and caught my eye in the late day sunlight.



Not nearly as pretty, I would see this sight in the same spot on the park pathway every morning. By afternoon, nothing remained of it but it was back the very next morning and it continued this pattern over the course of about ten days.Let's have a closer look, shall we?



Tiny ants busy doing something. The same something every morning in the same spot. I never did figure out what drew them to that small area of pavement but a couple of weeks later, there was a mysterious square patch of tar laid in that precise spot. Anyone have any idea what that might have been about?




This one is simply a pattern made from water on the wood deck after a rainfall. It formed what I thought looked like a wild animal's profile. Perhaps a weasel of some sort. The knot in the wood effectively gave it an eye.

And now, without further delay, here are the Posts of the Week. The icon below is yours for the taking if if your blog post is named as a POTW.



 

JUST PLAIN GOOD

Scintillant
by Cloudia
at Comfort Spiral

PHINE PHOTOGRAPHY

Summer Scenes, the Blue Moon and Labor Day
by King
at King of the New York Hacks

Shadows
by Daryl
at Out and About in New York City

Hover Fly
by Bob
at Birds and Nature in the Forest of Dean

A GOOD READ

 
Did You Split Your Head Open?
by Jim
at Suldog

READERS' CHOICE

Recommended by: Lady Fi
The Last Rays of Sun
by Fey Girl
at Serenity Spell

Please drop by their blogs for a visit and leave a kind comment if you have the time. Also, please feel free to add your own choices (for any blog except this one) for a specific blog post in the comments section below, where others can see them.

Thank you

Petals & Wings

It seems that I have an abundance of flower and bird images and so please bear with me for one more round of photos depicting what has caught my eye through summer.



I love the simple beauty of the wild chicory. I photograph it often.





Touch-me-nots (or Himalayan Balsam) are so named for the pods which grow and ripen late in the summer. One very gentle touch and they pop open to reveal the seeds inside. They're irresistible - kind of like nature's bubble wrap.





The pods were just beginning to grow on this plant iwhen the photo was taken. They sure do look pretty in the late-day sunlight.




As do these blushing rose hips.





I'm sure somebody, somewhere knows the name of this wildflower, but it isn't me.





Likewise for this lovely purple plant.





This one I know. It's a coneflower or echinacea.





Sometimes a blossom looks just as pretty from behind.
 

On to the birds...


Mallards are lovely creatures - even when they're moulting heavily. You can see the wee bits of green feathers just beginning to grow back on this fellow's head.





Male cardinals certainly add a splash of colour to their surroundings. This guy is eating Chez Frank.





And this sweet little sparrow became familiar to us over the course of a couple of days. Frank dubbed him Big Nose. Unfortunately, he wasn't coping as well as his mates. He'd stop by the feeding station and eat well enough, but he appeared to struggle and flutter to keep his balance. He flew just fine the first day but his wings didn't seem to be able to give him quite the lift he needed by the next day. By day three, he was clearly ailing - unable to fly at all. Frank tried to coax him into a cage where he'd be able to find food, water and safety from predators overnight but that was just not to be. I think a swift kill (if that happened) was probably the kinder end for Big Nose. We never saw him again after day three. In retrospect (and by Googling) we determined that he probably had the West Nile virus.





Rest in peace, little Big Nose.

Stay tuned for more photos in a few days.