The rule in our area is that we just might get a killing frost up until the May 24 weekend. Still, I wasn’t prepared to see snow on the ground just north of the city this morning.
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Viras and Corridinhos
I’m sending this post out to Bayou Child.
These guys are playing a vira. This is typical of the way this dance is played. Portuguese players typically use triple-row boxes with three voices tuned to a wide-open musette for that carnival tremelo effect you hear over and over in Portugese folk music. They refer to their instruments as concertinas as opposed to accordions.
Here is a corridinho. These tunes are in 4/4 and they are usually played fast. I’ve posted this one before – in fact I’ve posted both of these before – back on my old blog I think. This one is short but I really like this guy’s playing.
Here’s one more for good measure. Hold onto your hat.
These guys are cookin. The single drum is often used to great effect. I’ve also heard spoons and once, at a bar on College St. in Toronto, I heard an older woman accompany a squeezebox player on triangle.
The Happy Wanderer
The Happy Wanderer is an original composition, written after the second world war by Friedrich-Wilhelm Möller. It has an infectious melody that lends itself to interpretation. Here are some different versions of the tune, starting with the version that made it famous.
Here’s a stylish version by Fred WAring and his Pennsylvanians
This one is a very strange – a Louis Prima version
I guess we’d better have a Dixieland version…
Light Show, etc.
We enjoyed quite a light show last night. We were up in what we call the tree house room, watching an episode of that very creepy HBO show from a few years back, Carnivale. The storm seemed appropriate to the story, as lightning lit up the night sky again and again and again.
Between yesterday afternoon and evening, a lot of rain fell around these parts too. We needed it. The back garden has started to really come to life and this is going to give it a boost. It’s going to help all those new plants in the front garden too.
I took this photo of the back garden a couple days ago. The latest addition to this garden is several catnip plants courtesy of my brother Salvelinas Fontinalis. Those border bricks were lying about the property when we bought the place so I put them to work. Replacing them with some rocks is on the list for this year…but fairly low down on that list.
That carpet must go…
I mean the one going upstairs to our bedroom and the music room and the bathroom. I started removing it today, revealing old hardwood floor underneath. We’ve decided to exchange carpet for painted floor in this area of the house.
Today I took off the section of rug at the top of the stairs. That was easy enough. Then I removed those strips of wood with all the little nails that hold the rug in place. The underpad was stapled to the floor with many more staples than one might imagine. I removed them with pliers.
Tomorrow I’ll take off the rug going down the stairs as well as on the two landings, and then I’ll remove all the staples and nails. The next step will be to give the floor a light sanding, fill in the big cracks and holes, clean that up and then prime the whole business. If the universe unfolds as it should and I avoid temptation to take the dogs to the woods, work on a painting, practice accordion and what-have-you, it’s possible we’ll paint the stairs on Sunday.
I’ve always liked painted wood floors. There’s something that just feels right about them. When I tell people I like painted wood floors, they often look at me funny, as if I have some responsibility to refinish the hardwood instead. We’re negotiating the colour choice, and I’ll pick up the paint sometime tomorrow.
Life in the Finnish Woods
It’s a good thing…
…that I wasn’t dependent on finding morels and ramps for dinner because I failed to find the goodies I was looking for. Rats!
I had a good visit with Tuffy Sr. in the morning and then more or less headed north and west, in search of morels. For all the other morel hunters out there, rejoice, I didn’t stumble upon your secret spots.
However, I did stumble upon the lovely forest pictured here. I was driving around, looking for a particular type of tree (which those pesky morels are often associated), when I saw a little parking spot at the side of the road, with a garbage can and a no motorized vehicles sign. By this point I was discombobulated. I wasn’t even sure which direction I was going. I skidded to a stop. This might be a good spot for mushrooms later in the season. There is plenty of mixed hardwood and a pine stand. As it turns out, I won’t have any problems finding this forest next time.
Foraging
I’ll be up in a community just north of the City this morning, visiting with Tuffy’s dad, who is recovering from some surgery. I think I’m going to spend much of the rest of the day north of there, looking for morels and ramps. Some people have been finding morels, but so far they have eluded me. I’ll report back later on. I would love to have a wild leeks and morels for dinner tonight.
Bark and Park
Tuffy P discovered the Bark and Park…that’s really an excellent dog groomer named Lorraine who has a self-contained mobile dog grooming van. It has a bathtub, tanks of water and a grooming table. All it needs is a place to plug into, using an extension cord.
The plan was to have Ellie Mae bathed and groomed because she has really dry skin we’re working on improving. We decided to have Memphis groomed at the same time.
The picture above is Ellie Mae all soaped up. I think she really enjoyed the process, and with her beautiful thick fur, she emerged looking like a show-dog. Lorraine clipped her nails and trimmed around her paws and brushed her out beautifully.
Memphis didn’t mind the bath but she was not impressed with the blow-drier. In fact at one point she decided the bathtub was the safest place to be and hurled herself from the table back into the tub.
The last shot, below, shows Memphis and Ellie Mae relaxing among the pretty yellow lawn-flowers after the job was done. Lorraine is very good with dogs. She grooms all kinds of dogs and I recommend her work…and best of all, she shows up at your place and does the work right in her van.
The Gate
The Mysterious Gate
A gate has appeared at the off leash area at the R.L. Clark filtration plant. This is at one of the holes in the fence that runs along the east side of the area. A number of dog owners have wanted to see gates put in because there is traffic, including buses on the road out there. You might say, well, you’re dog should be under voice control, and that’s true enough, but sometimes when you get three or four dogs chasing another in play, they simply shut off their brains. I’ve seen it happen countless times.
No gate here
I was at the park at about 11:30 yesterday morning and there was no gate, but when I took the dogs out at 7:00, there it was. I’m pretty sure the City had nothing to do with this. If the City had done it, a crew would have been out there in early morning. There would have been a truck and maybe a scissor lift. Two people would have been out there holding signs to slow traffic. There might be a visit from the health and safety committee. I can see it being a photo opportunity for local politicians. Moreover, it would have been a better gate. The new gate is clearly a clever home-made effort. It does the trick though.
At the public meeting prior to the opening of the dog park, I spoke and suggested the leash free area be fenced. Quite a number of others spoke too, asking for the same thing. However, the City waffled on this. There are some people who don’t want a fence, and given the tiny portion of the huge available field designated for dogs, I can see why. Without the fence in place, the whole huge field has become the dog park with the signed area as its crux. Dogs gather in the leash-free area, but I suppose the good thing for dog owners is that nobody bothers much about the actual boundaries. I would like to see a bigger area for dogs and one that is safely fenced. More garbage cans, some benches, lighting and water would be bonuses. There currently exists a fence along the east boundary of the leash-free zone. It just has openings instead of gates. There are areas along the fence where even a lab-sized dog can get under the fence with ease.
South Boundary - why here?
The leash-free area is poorly placed. In the winter the wind howls through there, and in the spring it becomes a soaking barren and uninviting bog. To the south of the leash-free area is a huge area that forms a lake after every rain. It has dried up for the first time since I moved to the area, this being the driest spring we’ve had in years. At the public meeting, the planners said that the area we have is the area the filtration plant people were willing to give up. A much better spot for the leash free area would be to the west of the property, on top of the hill. Alternatively, the area between the building and along the bottom of the hill and the line of trees at least doesn’t become as boggy. Another issue with the current placement is that commuters cut across the park from the bus stop and some of them don’t much like dogs. The leash-free zone falls squarely on the two commuter paths.
I think the City is right to approve more leash-free areas. They (at least the fenced ones) provide safe
North Boundary - why here?
areas for dog owners to take their dogs to play together. People who don’t like dogs or who are scared of dogs are protected from them. There are a number of parks where this works very well. We particularly like the leash free areas at Jack Darling and at Etobicoke Creek valley. Both these are in Mississauga.
There is a strong spirit of volunteerism at the Mississauga parks. We helped spread some wood-chips one day at Jack Darling and we’ll volunteer our time again when we can. I heard after the fact there was a big volunteer clean-up at Etobicoke Creek. There is a huge pile of junk that is piled up, ready to be hauled off to the dump. I think this is great, and I’m up for helping to make our local leash-free area better. However, this kind of volunteerism
lighting outside the area
shouldn’t have to include putting in a gate. The City really should invest in the basics and let local volunteers take it from there. The City’s investment in this park to date has been two garbage cans and 4 signs. That’s it. I agree that times are tough, but consider that our City government in the last term has had enough money to narrow Lansdowne Ave and is gearing up to put bike lanes on University.
I suppose in the scheme of things, the state of the dog-park is not a huge issue. It’s a park I use every day though and I want it to be as good as it can be. And, it is an election year, and I vote. When candidates for Council come knocking on 27th Street, we’ll be
this area would work better too
having this discussion. Perhaps our local Councillor, Mr. Grimes, will influence new properly made gates at the two openings on the Sam Smith Park side of the leash-free area.
27th Street 