Each Night A Luster

Kindle the taper like the steadfast star ablaze on evening's forehead o'er the earth, and add each night a luster till afar an eightfold splendor shine above thy hearth. ~ Emma Lazarus

So we're a little past the holiday season and as usual, I'm behind in posting my photos. I hope you'll bear with me as I share images from the the eight nights of Hanukkah. A few photos from a recent day trip to Mississauga will be sprinkled in with them.

On Hanukkah, the first dark night, light yourself a candle bright. I'll you, if you will me invite, to dance within that gentle light.

~ Nicholas Gordon

First Night: The menorah is all set to share the scene with a small Christmas tree in the background and a bottle of wine closer at hand.

Bare branches of each tree

on this chilly January morn

look so cold so forlorn.

Gray skies dip ever so low

left from yesterday's dusting of snow.

Yet in the heart of each tree

waiting for each who wait to see

new life as warm sun and breeze will blow,

like magic, unlock springs sap to flow,

buds, new leaves, then blooms will grow.

~ Nelda Hartmann

Beautiful Lake Wabukayne. My son, Alex and I took a tour around my old neighbourhood. This was the small lake in Mississauga where I spent countless hours photographing creatures of all kinds - just steps from my old door. We were in town for a family Hanukkah party and had a bit of time to kill. What better way than to take a walk around the paths of our past?

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. ~Chinese Proverb

Second Night: Night number two landed on Christmas. Alex was with me and you can see that plates were piled high with turkey, potatoes and other goodies. Wine and gravy each wait their turn to be poured, and a wine goblet makes a nice home for my spiced orange flavoured cranberry sauce.

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show. ~ Andrew Wyeth

Here's a new addition to my old surroundings. Many of the trees around the lake have acquired bird houses. That should help encourage nesting for the winged lovelies.

Put on your yarmulke, Here comes Hanukkah! So much funukah, To celebrate Hanukkah! ~ Adam Sandler

Third Night: Hanukkah humour to tickle the funny bone. Both cards came from neighbours.

The trees down the boulevard stand naked in thought,

Their abundant summery wordage silenced, caught

In the grim undertow; naked the trees confront

Implacable winter's long, cross-questioning brunt.

~ D. H. Lawrence

My beautiful trees, still standing sentry for those who walk the paths of Wabukayne. I have photographed this spot so many times - in every season.

The darkness of the whole world cannot swallow the glowing of a candle. ~ Robert Altinger

Fourth Night: Reminders of dragonflies in summer - and an owl that doesn't give a hoot which season we're in.

The Winter frowned

Its icy eyebrows

~ Florentin Smarandache

There are far better seasons to stop and sit.

A candle is a small thing. But one candle can light another. And see how its own light increases, as a candle gives its flame to the other.

You are such a light. ~ Moshe Davis

Fifth Night: This fan belonged to my maternal Grandmother. It adorns a window ledge along with other keepsakes - a tiny set of brass goblets and decanter from my mother, tea candle holders and an old oil can from yard sales.

In the bleak midwinter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter,

Long ago.

~ Christina Rossetti

I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to revisit my beautiful oasis, from time to time.

Now, near the Winter Solstice, it is good to light candles. All the nice meanings of bringing light to the world can be beautiful. But perhaps we are concentrating on lighting the world because we don't know how to light up our own lives. ~ Ralph Levy

Sixth Night: A different window ledge and a small collection of turquoise and blue.

I please myself with the graces of the winter scenery, and believe that we are as much touched by it as by the genial influences of summer.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Spindle berries were only beginning to fade around the edges. They keep their colour so beautifully through the earlier part of winter.

Most Texans think Hanukkah is some sort of duck call. ~ Richard Lewis

Seventh Night: Once again the tree makes its appearance in the background and a couple of birds enjoy the glow of the almost-full menorah.

It is deep January. The sky is hard.

The stalks are firmly rooted in ice.

It is in this solitude, a syllable,

Out of these gawky flitterings,

Intones its single emptiness,

The savagest hollow of winter-sound.

~ Wallace Stevens

A solitary milkweed pod soaking up some of the winter afternoon sunlight.

Colourful candles burning bright, each lit on eight very special nights. ~ Unknown

Eighth Night: This is the first year that I can remember being home for all eight nights of Hanukkah. On this final evening, I am glad to be able to share the kindling of the candles with all of you. Thank you for joining me for this season of light - here on the blog and in Facebook.

More winter photos coming up before you can say "Jack Frost."

Changes in the Park

The park in my community has undergone a few changes over the past couple of years. Most are for the better and some have had a positive affect on this natural habitat for so many creatures, which either reside here or visit along their migration route. Most notable is a small butterfly garden which contains numerous flowering plants that attract the lovely winged creatures.

These photos were taken in November - long after the blooming season.


Ornamental cabbage is really quite a deep purple colour but the sunlight was so brilliant on this particular day, its leaves appear to be bright pink.





Coneflowers typically show off their own beautiful pink petals through the summer but this one had long passed its prime. Still, I thought it looked beautiful just as it is.





The broad leafed plant part of the ornamental cabbage displaying its pretty purple-pink vein.

The park surrounding our pond, has indeed been enhanced by the placement of many new benches, information boards about the local plant and wildlife, murals along the walls of tunnels which pass under busy streets, and beautiful animal designs carved into the trunk of a dead tree near the park entrance.





One of the new benches overlooking the pond on a foggy morning.





What used to be a graffiti-filled underpass is now a canvas for some colourful artwork painted by various volunteers, depicting our local birdlife. On this morning when I snapped these photos, I had just seen a lovely red-shoulded hawk perched on a tree in the park. I didn't have the right lens for its distance so you'll just have to imagine that it looked a little bit like this one.





More regulars at our pond - among them the great blue heron, the kingfisher and the night heron.





Cardinals, jays and gulls - we see or hear them at least daily.





Along with the Canada goose there's a colourful wood duck. He used to visit our pond toward the end of each autumn but I've not seen him for a couple of years now. I still remember Woodrow fondly.

The wood carving artist is Jim Menken. He was commissioned by the city of Mississauga to create his beautiful art in several of our parks. Here are a few photos depicting his fine work on what was once a tree in our local park.


The great blue heron stands out at the base of the tree.





Much like the real thing, he keeps a close, watchful eye on those who pass by.





Just above him, a young raccoon playfully peeks out from a cubby hole in the tree. I was glad to see that the artist included my favourite wild creature.





Around the other side of the tree, a black crowned night heron stands guard, and you can just make out the back of a downy woodpecker on the left.





This guy always give me pause when he makes an appearance at the dam. It's usually with duckling dumplings or gosling goulash in mind. But the mink is very much part of the animal kingdom in our little piece of wilderness in the city and I'm glad that the artist (whose name is carved into this one) included him.

Now you know what's been happening at our park recently. More photos coming up soon.

It's Complicated

After a visit to a relative's home a couple of weeks back, one of my cousins asked if we minded dropping her off in the downtown area of my city so that she could more easily access transportation to her own home in Toronto. The drive along the highway was pleasant as we caught up on chitchat about ourselves and our kids.

The sun was just beginning to set and gave us the most lovely golden view through the car window to the north...

A hazy, smokey, peachy mauve dusted the sky to the south of the city.

Straight ahead, we could see the dazzling, gilded buildings of the downtown core. Keep an eye on that incomplete tower in the middle - the one with the taller of two cranes on top of it. We're going to take a closer look.

The two upcoming photos were taken when it was mostly dark and from a moving car so please excuse the quality.

This curvy condominium-to-be is one of two Absolute Towers in the making, which for obvious reasons have been dubbed the "Marilyn Monroe Towers." Evidently, the construction is taking much longer than expected. Much like its namesake, they find her to be complicated.

Mississauga has always had a rather boring skyline but it appears that the blonde bombshell might just add a bit of glitz and glamour to our city. What do you think?

When You Defile

"When you defile the pleasant streams
And the wild bird's abiding place,
You massacre a million dreams
And cast your spittle in God's face."
~John Drinkwater

On Tuesday morning, while sipping tea, my phone rang. The voice which greeted me upon answering belonged to Nicky, one of my neighbours who so kindly helped me out when the orphaned raccoon kits, Sugar and Spike needed rescuing almost a year ago.

Nicky is an ardent animal lover. She's a volunteer with the Toronto Wildlife Centre for our area, which means that when there's an animal in trouble in our locality, Nicky will get the call to see if she can locate, capture and transport an injured, sick or otherwise threatened creature to the wildlife centre. Just before she phoned me, Nicky got the call that there were a pair of Canada Geese in distress at our local pond.

This small lake collects runoff from drains in the neighbourhood, and a few times in the past, we have had serious problems with cooking oil spills.


Presumably, a restaurant owner in a nearby strip mall has not taken the care to properly dispose of used oil, and has instead poured it into the drainage system, and ultimately into our beautiful pond. It has happened several times over the last few years.

In the past, Nicky has helped to capture ducks and geese whose feathers became coated with oil, so that they could be cleaned and released. One time, this process took over one week to get to all of the affected birds. A few died but most were treated and set free. This week was quite different.

Nicky's call on this day was to request my help to corral an ailing Canada Goose. More oil had been poured into our storm drains and was now oozing into the lake, causing problems with our waterfowl. I arrived to find the water eerily devoid of its usual dozens of ducks.


I met Nicky who was already scooping up a dead goose with her net. Someone from the parks department was there helping her.


All was done before I even reached the shoreline. They had one already-deceased bird in the net


and one ailing goose in a small carrier.


I accompanied Nicky and another neighbour, Lynne who drove us to the Wildlife Centre in Toronto, about a half hour away.

Nicky kept the goose in a large carrier beside her in the back seat of the car. She needed to keep its head lifted so that it could breathe easier. We were encouraged at times as this lovely beast began flapping its wings with great strength. Lynne and I also had visions of the bird getting out of Nicky's control to fly around her small vehicle while we sailed along Toronto's busy 401 highway.

Our fears were unfounded. Shortly before we arrived at the wildlife center, this poor goose gave it her last fight and expired. We brought both dead birds into the center where they would be tested to determine what might have killed them so rapidly.


Home again, I headed back into the park to watch the cleanup crews collect water samples,


vacuum the oil from the lake


and replace the booms which had been in place since previous spills to filter and absorb the oil.

I unexpectedly met up with Nicky on yet another walk around the pond shortly before dusk. She informed me that there was a third dead goose on the other side of the pond and asked if I minded taking a photo of it. I obliged,


and was about to email it to her shortly afterward when she phoned me again. By this time, it turned out that the Toronto Wildlife Centre decided that it was necessary to involve Environment Canada on this issue. They had requested that Nicky now collect this third bird, so she was calling to ask for my assistance. I of course agreed and met Nicky in the park with my camera.

My help consisted of standing on shore while Nicky stepped on what appeared to me was a precarious low-growing bramble branch.


I did my part by saying encouraging words like "Are you sure you're not going to fall in?" "You're a braver woman than I am" and "Geesh, you're incredibly agile." Nicky netted this poor creature and we were able to take another, better photograph to send to our local newspaper which was now also involved in the process.


Within hours, a story appeared on the online pages of The Mississauga News, which included a couple of my photos. Today's hard copy contains a different photo of mine. It will probably take some time until we hear just what caused these geese to die so rapidly, and longer still until they conclusively determine the source of this pollutant.

In the meantime, our usual duck and geese residents are mostly avoiding our beautiful pond. We're worried about the ducks that had been swimming there earlier that morning and hope that they left before the polluted water could affect them. We're concerned about a small group of Kingfishers which appeared before dusk, and were seen fishing from the lake. We're troubled by what effect this might have on the fish population.

We'd like to know what can be done to help educate the community about how serious this problem is. We'd like to know that our wildlife can safely share this space with us. We want THIS...


to stop NOW.

Reminder: This year, Saturday, March 27th, Earth Hour begins at 8:30 pm in Canada. You can find your country's local time and more information about this annual event by clicking here.