wordsfromanneli

Thoughts, ideas, photos, and stories.


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A Stupid-People Fire

Looking out from my house a couple of days ago, I saw what turned out to be a 4.5 hectare wildfire near Comox Lake, which is up in that forested area (the water in the lower part of the photo is salt water).

Luckily, the firefighters who respond to wildfires were quick to get up there, and after a while they got the fire at least to stop spreading. If not for them, it could have been very bad.

Man made, they think. These fires so often are. If it isn’t arson, then it’s carelessness and stupidity.

Campfires made where they should not be made at this time of year, and not put out properly.

A carelessly tossed cigarette.

Broken glass left lying around where the sun (scorching hot these days) can magnify and start a grass fire.

I don’t know what the cause was this time, but there’s a 99% chance it was preventable.

 

I worry about the poor little birds and animals who have to flee for their lives, if they can. So many of the tinier ones have no hope of going far enough away to escape the flames.

 


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Crossbill

The red crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) is one of six species of crossbill, three of which are found in North America. I was surprised to find out they belong to the finch family. Their crossed bills are especially helpful in picking out the seeds in the cones of spruce, pine, and Douglas fir trees. A few summers ago I had a pair of them come down from the firs to visit my birdfeeder and I was able to get some photos.

Their feet are also rather unique. It’s almost as if they are what we would call “pigeon toed,” turning inward slightly so they have a parrot-like walk.

The photo below reminds me of those hidden pictures they have in children’s puzzle books. Find the female crossbill hiding in the rhodo.

*Hint: It’s near the middle.

 

They didn’t stay long. Maybe they were on their way to somewhere on a holiday and just stopped here for a few days. I wish they would come back. I loved having them here.

Come out of hiding, Lady Love,

Enjoy this feast with me,

I’ll watch for danger from above,

So we can quickly flee.

 


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Tough Little Tony at the Beach

“What the heck is that I see,

Over near the shore?

Looks like twice the size of me,

Should I check some more?”

 

 

“Found some courage after all,

Show I’m not afraid,

If in trouble, I will call,

For my family’s aid.”

 

Tony lived across the street from us. He had a good long life there. For a while now, he has been reminiscing about his happy life and looking down on us all from doggie heaven. He is missed a lot.


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Hungry Heron

It seems that herons spend a lot of time standing on one leg with their neck pulled in. This guy looks like a grandpa with his hunched over posture and his beard.

Most likely, though, while he soaks up some rays of sunshine, he is thinking about where his next meal will come from. He is quite capable of standing perfectly still, conserving his energy.  He will step off his rock patio when he gets hungry and stalk that frog he’s been watching. The frog will most likely think the heron is just another rock or a shrub of some sort because it hasn’t moved in so long.

 

“No, please don’t spear me,” Froggie cries,

“My life has been so short.”

“But, Fred, you’re lunch,” the heron sighs,

“I don’t do this for sport!”

 

“Whatever shall I tell my wife,

When I’m not home on time?

It seems so cruel to take a life,

In fact, it is a crime.”

 

 

“I’ll tell you what,” the heron said,

“You need to eat as well.

Don’t worry. Eat some flies instead,

And I’ll just wait a spell.”

 

 

As Freddie Frog lapped up the flies,

The heron quick and able,

Got ready to ignore his cries,

And speared him for his table.

 

**Photo by Sonia from her visit to the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Delta, B.C.


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Three-wheelers in Greece

Once again, old, old photos taken with a cheap camera, but I find the content a treasure so I put up with the poor quality.

I don’t know what brand of vehicle this is, but I wonder if it’s something that was built in a backyard workshop.  You can see that the vehicle up ahead is also a three-wheeler, but the blue one in the foreground looks like it has had some modifications.

One thing I wonder about is the stability of the vehicle. I can imagine that it isn’t particularly safe to go too fast around a corner or it could roll over.

Check out the license plate.

Several modes of transportation were popular.

 

Even the bus can have a mishap. The tools lying beside the flat tire tell the story. The driver has gone for help. Either that or he has left town. Perhaps in a three-wheeler. One less tire to go flat.

These photos were taken in Kalamata (known for its olives, although it should be known for its dogs that bark all night).

During both nights we spent in a campground in Kalamata in our VW van, once heading south and then, weeks later, heading north again, dogs in the neighbourhood barked for much of the night.

When I checked my journal that I kept in those days, I noticed that after I mentioned the dogs barking, I also made a comment about people walking around late at night. This seemed to be a common thing; women pushing their babies in strollers at 11 p.m., because it was at last cool enough to be outside. So maybe that’s what the dogs were barking at – all the people going for walks at night.

 

 


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Trafalgar Square

There’s Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson on his horse presiding over the square named in honour of the Battle of Trafalgar, which the British won in 1805.

Four lions guard the nearby 145 ft. 3 in.-tall Corinthian-style column (not pictured here) that supports a statue of Nelson at the top.

According to Wikipedia, Edwin Landseer, the sculptor of the bronze lions, is said to have used as a model, a lion that had died at the zoo, but it took him so long to get the pre-sculpting sketches done, that the model lion was beginning to decompose. It is said that the paws of the lions look more like cats’ feet than lions’ paws. I guess he should have worked faster.


The square is a popular tourist attraction, just a short walk from Charing Cross Station in Central London. At the time of this photo, cameras (real ones) were popular among tourists. I didn’t see a single person with a cell phone. At the time, they had only been invented four years earlier.

And the pigeons! I think there’s a good chance that the woman in the checkered skirt, on the left of the photo, had to wash her red top after having pigeons roosting on her shoulders and arms. I suppose the birds were fun to feed, but nowadays when we hear so much about bird flu, I wonder how wise it is to spend time so close to so many birds.  Those poor birds! – Walking around in each other’s droppings as they eat the questionable food the tourists throw their way.

The birds were discouraged from coming there sometime after 2000.  Whether we approve of the methods or not, anti-pigeon wires and regular visits by Harris hawks were used. It is now illegal to feed the pigeons at Trafalgar Square.

What do you think? Is it a good idea to let pigeons congregate in such numbers? People are obviously enjoying them, but….

 


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Hurry up and Hide

On this rural road, I came upon a doe and two fawns. Yes, there is a second fawn in front of the one that is obvious. I had to count legs. Either there were two fawns, or one fawn had more than four legs.

Over her shoulder, the doe lowed to the fawns, “Hurry! This way!”

“Get into the thicket here while I distract them.”

And as I drove past very slowly I saw that there was already a well-worn deer crossing and path down into a property  thick with shrubs and trees.

Not much concerned when cars come by,

Their courage doesn’t fail,

The fawns melt through the thicket high,

And fade into the trail.


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Insects Side by Side

The closest I.D. I can come up with is the western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus).

He was snacking on the leaves of a very large Mexican orange bush (Choisya ternata).  I wonder if he was aware of the danger that lurked less than a foot away.

Can you spot the gray paperish wasp nest in the bottom right quadrant of the photo below?

I think this (below) is the kind of wasp that was working on the nest. It looks like a sand wasp but Wikipedia says they live in burrows in the soil (sand). Would they live in a paper nest like this? Probably not, but I don’t know…. I haven’t been able to identify this insect, but it seemed to belong to this gray paper nest. Any ideas? Not a yellow jacket.

 


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Double Trouble

If you’ve never left North America, you may never have experienced a ride on a double decker bus like this one in London.

There is a mystery about them that no one has ever solved.

This bobby at the Charing Cross station is still trying to figure it out. He scratches his head and says, “I just can’t figure out who’s driving the top bus.”

By the way, did you know that the term “bobby” for a policeman originated from Sir Robert (Bobby) Peel,  the man who founded the British Metropolitan Police (also known as Scotland Yard) in 1829? Sometimes the bobbies were also called peelers (for his last name), but that can’t be a good thing, as some may associate that term with strippers.