At Lambton Woods in the early spring, you can be sure to come across quite a bit of skunk cabbage. What a fascinating plant.
The Latin name for this plant is Symplocarpus foetidus.
It grows in wetlands and blooms in the very early spring. In fact it is a thermogenic plant, which can generate temperatures around it many degrees above air temperature. It does this through cellular respiration. It can actually melt ice and snow around it and poke its nose up even in late winter. I saw this for myself this past winter.
It’s also a colourful, beautiful plant, a real treat this early in spring.
I enjoyed a solo walk this morning at Lambton Woods. This is a set of trails along the Humber River, accessed from the James Gardens parking lot. I was surprised to see some snow persisting in a few spots, and the trail was a bit wet and muddy in others.
As lovely as this spot is, I found some Tim Hortons cups discarded in the woods. This is a sore point with me. People go walking here because it’s such a beautiful place, bring a drive-through coffee along with them, then carelessly litter their cup for somebody else to pick up.
There were loads of birds around this morning. I was greeted by robins as soon as I got out of the car. I’ve never seen such a concentration of woodpeckers as I saw this morning – mostly downeys but I saw a couple hairy woodpeckers as well.
There is a railing along the path near the river where people put out food for the birds. Dark-eyed juncos were really enjoying this treat today.
I saw one blue jay. It was difficult for me to get a good photo of him sillhouetted against the grey sky.
There were the usual house sparrows around but I also saw this lovely sparrow with the yellow bits on his head. I believe it is a white-throated sparrow.
The other day I received an invitation from an old friend from the days when it seems a lot more people were working personal blogs, to a social media platform called MeWe. Interestingly enough, it was the same old friend who first introduced me to Twitter back when it was just a curiosity. I had never heard of MeWe before so I thought I’d better check it out. Here’s what it offers:
I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. On the plus side, it allows me to easily keep in touch with people I don’t see all the time. Lots of my friends are on it. As well, many of my longtime blogging friends who have decided along the way that they don’t have the time, interest (or whatever) to keep blogging do post on Facebook. I like to keep in touch with those folks too. I also cross-post my blog posts to Facebook and I know that many of my friends only ever see my blog posts if they stumble upon them on Facebook and would never otherwise visit. I also enjoy some of the specialty groups for people who enjoy (and make) the old time music I love so much.
On the other hand, Facebook is a data gathering machine. As well, more and more, I’m seeing intolerant and garbage Facebook memes on my news feed. In part that means I need to cull my so-called “friend” list. The other day I “unfriended” somebody who posted and defended a meme which seemed to me to be a racist meme. At this point, when I see that crap, I’m just hitting the “unfriend” button.
There have been other platforms which have tried to gather up people disenchanted by Facebook. Ello was one of them. I liked Ello in some ways. For instance, it looked terrific. Still hardly anyone I know joined me there or if they did, they didn’t stick around. I too abandoned ship. Then there was Google+. I still don’t even understand that one. There are so many platforms. I got rid of Pinterest some time ago, for instance. Do I need another social media platform?
The short answer is that I don’t know. I signed up for MeWe. I know at least one person who has done the same. There are groups there, but at first look they don’t seem to be up to much. That doesn’t mean I can’t create new ones. One day I’ll have had enough of Facebook and I’ll pack it in. I don’t know when that day will be. Maybe my MeWe account will come in handy when that happens. Maybe not. Maybe some friends will join me over there. I suspect very few will, but you can always surprise me.
I read online somewhere that Wanda Jackson, now in her early 80s, has decided to retire from performing. Wow, she’s had quite a run. I’d say after 60 years of performing she deserves a break!
Here she is performing Hard-headed Woman…
That’s some fine rock ‘n’ roll, isn’t it? You don’t hear much rock ‘n’ roll anymore.
Here’s Sparklin’ Brown Eyes.
And here she is, many years later, still rockin’. This video features Jack White and a terrific song by Bob Dylan.
Here’s one more, again featuring Jack White – Shakin’ All Over!
I have big feet – 14s, DD width. They work well and most of the time they keep me upright. I’ve always had trouble buying shoes in retail stores though. There seems to be a consensus among shoe retailers that folks with big pods are really better off barefoot – like Sasquatch, Yeti, Bigfoot and so on.
As a result, I do most of my shoe shopping online. Usually somebody posts a review as to how well a particular pair of shoes fits – do they fit as expected or half size bigger or half size smaller or whatever. I’ve yet to receive a pair that doesn’t fit me well.
I wanted to buy a new pair of hiking shoes in time for the beginning of my spring nature walks. Silly me, I decided to give a retail store one more chance. I looked online and found a pair that looked perfect – a brand I like, and the website suggested my local outlet had my size in stock. This was at an outfit called Sportchek. The nearest one is in a nearby mall. I don’t much like malls and in general I try to avoid them, but I figured I could go into the store, try on a pair of the hiking shoes I was after, and leave the store happy as a clam with my shoes in a bag.
It turned out that this Sportchek not only did not have the shoes I was looking at in size 14, they didn’t have any hiking shoes in size 14. In fact they also did not have even a single pair of sneakers in my size either. I asked the question, “so what do you folks at Sportchek think us big-footed souls should do for shoes?”. “Um, well, we could order a pair for you.” Hmmm. I could have ordered a pair from home and saved the trip. “Please tell your manager,” I said, as politely as I could muster, “had been able to buy my shoes here, I likely would keep coming back. I might even buy some other stuff here while I was in the store. Instead, the chances of me ever coming back here and buying anything are less than zero”. This was met with a blank stare. Well, what did I expect.
I went home and ordered the shoes online. It took two days for them to be delivered to my door. They fit fine. I understand how retail is struggling in the face of growing e-commerce, and I’d like to support my local retail outlets. I like dealing with humans, browsing actual items, not just pictures, and I like being able to try on my shoes in the store. Unfortunately though, I’ve given up. I continue to have poor in-store experiences and good online shopping experiences. I may never buy shoes or boots in a store again.
27th Street 