Canada D'eh

Officially, I suppose we're celebrating the anniversary of the confederation on the 1st of July.  When I was a kid, it was called Dominion Day.  But, since 1982, it has been deemed to be Canada Day.

Some noteworthy events have occurred on Canada Day.  For example, the first colour television transmission in Canada took place on July 1, 1966.  That was on Canada's 99th birthday.  We've certainly come a long way, technologically, since then.


But, to me, the most noteworthy event that occurred on a Canada Day happened just last year when my grand-daughter, Jillian, was born.  So, this year,Canada's 145th birthday, I'll be celebrating Jillian's first birthday with friends and family.  We may even wave some flags and shoot off some fireworks later on in the day, if I'm able to stay awake long enough.

Wonderful Weekend

The weather was sunny and warm. The location was great: a rented deluxe cottage at White Lake Resort on White Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park.

The photographic opportunities were unlimited. I spent two golden evenings at nearby Rainbow Falls with my camera gear. Arriving at the Falls, the first thing I saw was a white pelican, fishing for walleye, in the outflow.

There were other birds, insects, and aquatic plants there that also caught my attention. Although I took some great nature shots there, I felt I had barely scratched the surface of all the possibilities.

Driving around the area to other interesting spots during the day only whetted my desire to return again soon.

If you want to view some of my photos of this area, check the link to my Flickr page below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/papa-ellis/

Scriptor Senex

Scriptor senex is Latin for "the writer was an old man".  Judging by my recent history of blog posting, it would probably more accurate to refer to me as "vetus lector" which means "an old reader". It seems I always have or make time to read. Most of the books I've read recently have been mysteries and suspense novels from the local branch of the Winnipeg Library.

Occasionally, I still buy books. If I do, I usually purchase them at McNally-Robinson Booksellers. I've been buying books here since it opened in 1981.

Now, I mostly just buy magazines there. I rarely can get past the big magazine stands without buying at least one on photography, cooking, gardening, computing, or art. Tonight, we went there for supper. Prairie Ink is the name of their bistro-style restaurant. And, afterwards, I stocked up on some of the latest interesting photography magazines.

Father's Day

On Father's Day especially, I remember my Dad.

By example, he taught me to be curious about nature.

The Meaning of Life

Many people are trying to find the meaning of their life these days.  Douglas Adams, writer of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", jokingly said it was 42. In his honor, I wear a necklace with that number stamped on its pendant. It reminds me to occasionally reflect on the meaning of my life.

Joseph Campbell said "People say that we're all seeking the meaning for life ... I think what we are really seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive". Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. His philosophy is often summarized by his phrase: "Follow your bliss".

Personally, I think too many people are wasting their time and energy (and perhaps their life) searching for the meaning of life. In their quest, they lose sight of some fundamentals. Like simply loving their family and making the best of what they already have. My philosophy, if it is one, is to simply enjoy the moment and the life that I'm leading. As a calligrapher friend of mine once wrote, "enough is a feast".

Cause and Effect

Herman Melville, the American who wrote "Moby-Dick" in 1851, once said "We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects".

If you're interested, you can read more about this writer in Wikipedia.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Melville

By now, you're wondering where I'm going with all this.  Well, one thread that started many years ago --- call it a cause --- recently resurfaced in my life as an effect.  When I was a high school senior, I joined the school's Hi-Y. These clubs were organized among high-school boys and affiliated with the Young Men's Christian Association, with purpose to create, maintain, and extend throughout the school and community, high standards of Christian character.

There, I became friends with some of my HS mates. I still remember a fine Chinese food banquet that we attended at Cathay Gardens in Coquitlam.  I think that's when my life long fondness for this cuisine began, 50 years ago.

You'll note I'm not in this group picture of the Hi-Y members. As usual, I was the one taking the picture.

Well, the other day, I had lunch with one of the fellows from this Hi-Y club while he and his wife were visiting in Winnipeg. In the photo above, Dave Holte is the one seated second from the right.  He looks a little different now.  It was good to get together again with him and talk a bit about the "good old days". Thus, a thread started 5 decades ago resurfaced in my life again.

Too Many Irons in the Fire?

Sometimes I get discouraged that I never seem to catch up with all the things I either need to do or want to do. Photography. Writing. Visiting friends and relatives. Grocery shopping. Cooking. Gardening. Yard work. Cleaning the house. Setting up my new computer. The list goes on and on. Oh, well. At least I wrote this short blog post today.

I've enjoyed my photography hobby a lot over the past few weeks. I've posted many flower images to my Flickr page (please see the link to that page at the upper right). The flower beds are providing a seemingly endless variety of subjects for my macro photography. I'd like to do more wildflowers, too, but there are just too many ticks out in the fields these days. Hopefully, the situation will get better next month.

Ticked Off

As an entomologist, not many bugs really bother me.  Two exceptions are mosquitoes and ticks.  So far this summer, the mosquitoes have been few and far between but that will change soon, after all the rain we've had lately.  But, the American dog ticks this season are probably the worst I've experienced in 10+ years.

Saturday's run in the Beaudry fields ended up being a big mistake.  The dogs picked up literally hundreds of ticks as they ran through the tall grass.  We've been taking ticks off them since we got home.  The tick collars kept most of them off their heads but that was all.  I gave them a rub-down with permethrin when we got home and that helped also.  Lots of dead and dying ticks wherever the dogs laid down.  But, some escaped that treatment and attached themselves to the dogs.  So, the picking process continues even though we've pulled off at least 50 from each dog.  It's not fun for either us or the mutts.

No more dog walks at Beaudry this summer for at least another month.