It was a lovely morning for a chum salmon fry release in our local creek in Burnaby, BC. Our volunteer streamkeeper group rotates the annual releases through local elementary schools.
Thanks to DFO and the good folks at Kanaka Creek who raised the wee chum!
Slow ramble at Rice Lake in North Vancouver, BC, today.
Seen in a Canadian school library. . .
I haven’t read it yet, but I’d love to!
Nice to see bees on the job in Fraser Foreshore Park in south Burnaby, BC, today!
Great to see some Bald Eagle action at one of the nests in Fraser Foreshore Park in south Burnaby, BC, today!
I was sitting in the living room reading this afternoon on my day off, and sunshine came flooding in, drawing Sora the Cat to roll in the beam.
It was glorious — but also sad, because it reminded me of losing Midori our turtle a couple of months ago. Midori would have loved a snuggle in the sunshine with her pal Sora. Sigh. . .
We cared for ‘Dori for 30 years, and she was part of the family. She loved to cuddle on a lap, and would walk up to us sometimes and strain herself upward as if to say “uppie! cuddle!”
She also liked meeting new people, approaching folks in our home and checking them out.
We had to euthanize Dori in mid-January, as she’d stopped eating and was barely moving. A vet check and X-ray showed she had crippling arthritis in all her joints, and she must have been in considerable pain.
She lived a long and good life, but we still have moments of loss.
Back in early February we went to Barcelona. Just an eight-day trip, we packed in a lot!
Here are some photos. . .
Morning coffee at a cafe near our hotel
A snack on the food floor of the El Corte Inglis department store
Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau
A breakfast picnic in our hotel room
Pre-dinner drinks on the roof of our hotel
Parc del Laberint d’Horta – Labyrinth
Montserrat – the Black Madonna
Montserrat
Montserrat
Having paella on the food floor of the El Corte Ingles department store. It was as good or even better than in restaurants we tried, and you can’t beat the view!
Paella at the food floor of the El Corte Ingles department store.
Gaudi’s masterpiece La Sagrada Familia
I just ran across an article on how camera makers are concentrating so much on mirrorless systems, yet what many users (particularly novices to intermediate shooters) want is compact models.
I agree in the sense that if Canon came out with a PowerShot SX750HS, I’d buy one in a heartbeat.
I’ve had 720HS and 730HS models for years, and love the 40X optical zoom in a small body that fits in a cargo pant or jacket pocket.
I carry the 730HS all the time. Yes, I have DSLRs and mirrorless cameras for nature, wildlife, and documentary work, but I’m not going to be always carrying them.
I’ve been looking around to see if I could snag a 740HS (the latest in the series) and they are either all gone, or if you can track down a new one, they are selling for as much as 3X – 4X their original list price. That ought to tell Canon something.
Release an SX750HS with a better sensor (particularly in low light), upgrade the software, keep the 40X optical zoom. . . and I’m sold.
Download the Ukraine Fact Sheet
Zelensky does not imminently risk losing all of Ukraine.
Russian forces currently occupy around 20 percent of Ukraine, leaving the remaining 80 percent of the country under Ukraine’s sovereign control.
At the current rate of advance, it would take Russian forces over 83 years to capture the remaining 80 percent of Ukraine, assuming that they can sustain massive personnel losses indefinitely.
Russia’s rate of advance on the frontline has slowed significantly over the past three months.[1]
Russian forces are making small territorial gains at the cost of massive personnel losses.[2]
Russian forces advanced at an average rate of 27.94 square kilometers per day in November 2024, 18.1 square kilometers per day in December 2024, and 16.1 square kilometers per day in January 2025.[3]
Most Ukrainian cities have not been destroyed.
Many of Ukraine’s largest cities, including Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, and Odesa, have avoided destruction and continue to function. Russia has leveled some Ukrainian cities as it has attacked and occupied them, such as Mariupol.[4] Cities throughout the 80 percent of Ukraine that Russian forces have not occupied have remained largely intact during Russia’s invasion, apart from deliberate Russian strikes against critical and civilian infrastructure.[5]
Ukrainian law prohibits holding elections in wartime (unlike the US Constitution, which requires it).
Ukraine’s Constitution prevents the Ukrainian government from holding elections or amending the constitution in times of martial law.[6]
Russia triggered Ukraine’s martial law provisions when it launched its illegal invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government cannot constitutionally suspend martial law while Russia continues to attack Ukraine.
Ukrainian opposition politicians, including those who have historically run against Zelensky, have stated that holding elections under martial law would be both illegal and immoral.[7]
Ukraine has not suffered millions of losses.
Ukraine has not suffered “millions” of losses by any reliable estimate, either in terms of civilian or military casualties.
Zelensky stated on February 16, 2025, that Russia has killed 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers since the start of the full-scale invasion, and that Ukraine has suffered over 390,000 soldiers wounded in action.[8]
US officials have placed the number of Ukrainian military losses between 60,000 and 70,000, but no reputable source places casualty estimates near or in the millions.[9]
The UN confirmed that Russia had killed over 12,000 Ukrainian civilians as of the end of 2024.[10]
Europe provides about as much direct aid to Ukraine as the United States.
Europe (including European Union [EU] members and EU institutions plus Norway and the UK) has overtaken the United States in terms of cumulative direct (military and non-military) aid allocations to Ukraine (not counting the costs of US forces forward-deployed in Eastern Europe).[11]
European loans to Ukraine are backed by income from frozen Russian assets, not Ukraine.
The EU is contributing $20 billion in loans to Ukraine that are backed by extraordinary revenues from immobilized Russian sovereign assets, not Ukraine.[14]
Ukraine did not misuse or lose half of the aid the United States has provided.
The majority of the funds the United States has allocated for Ukraine stays in the United States to fund domestic defense industrial base and replenish US stockpiles.[16]
US government agencies closely oversee the remaining US aid, which is directly issued to Ukraine. The US Department of Defense (DoD) Office of the Inspector General reported on January 11, 2024, that it had found no evidence of misappropriated aid.[17]
Ukraine repeatedly invited Putin to negotiate in early 2022.
Zelensky proposed to meet with Putin on February 19, 2022 — just five days before Russia launched its full-scale invasion.[18] Putin ignored this request and invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.[19]
Zelensky called for direct talks with Putin “in any format” in March 2022 and offered to compromise on Ukraine’s accession into NATO.[20] The Russians demanded the full surrender and demilitarization of Ukraine.[21]
Zelensky also expressed openness to discussing the status of occupied Ukrainian territories on the condition that the Ukrainian people would ratify any deal through a referendum.[22] Putin rejected that offer as well.