Spotted this Red-tailed Hawk on my two-hour ramble around SE Burnaby, BC.
Northern Flicker Tops Mother Nature’s Christmas Tree
I took a two-hour ramble around SE Burnaby, BC, and saw several Northern Flickers.
The tree-topping Flicker was not far from Willard Park, while the rest were shot at Ron McLean Park.
Atmospheric Rivers Hammer Byrne Creek in Burnaby, BC
The ongoing waves of atmospheric rivers on the BC west coast are creating massive flows ripping through creeks.
This is what Byrne Creek looked like on our walk this morning.
There’s a lot of concern around the lower mainland that salmon redds, or nests of eggs, are being either ripped appart, or smothered in silt.
Remembering the Soviet-Inflicted Holodomor Famine in Ukraine
In 2008, the Canadian Parliament passed an act so that throughout Canada, in each and every year, the fourth Saturday in November shall be known as “Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (“Holodomor”) Memorial Day”.
In commemoration of the Soviet-inflicted Holodomor, I’m sharing part of the introduction that I wrote to Maria: A Chronicle of a LIfe, a novel of those terrible times written by Ulas Samchuk, translated by my aunt Roma Franko, and edited by me, after the passing of my Mom who edited many volumes of Language Lanterns Publications translations of Ukrainian literature into English.
“To see a world in a grain of sand…” These words by English poet William Blake are interpreted to mean that minute, apparently inconsequential events in a life can represent universal truths.
“Ulas Samchuk’s character Maria is such a grain of sand––or perhaps in the context of the novel, she is such a kernel of grain.
“The life of this uneducated peasant woman spans great upheavals in Ukrainian history from approximately the 1861 emancipation of serfs in the Russian Empire under the Tsars, to the unimaginable horror of the communist-induced mass starvation in Soviet Ukraine in the early 1930s that killed millions, and is now internationally recognized as an act of genocide.
“Samchuk dedicates his novel “to the mothers who were starved to death in Ukraine in 1932-33,” yet the story is much more than that, taking the reader through three sections: A Book about the Birth of Maria, A Book of Maria’s Days, and A Book about Grain. Each is important in its own way, as Maria grows, matures, and reacts to the changes going on around her.
“She may be just a bit of flotsam carried by a tsunami of social and political change, but her loves, her trials and her toil through her three score and ten (the author tells us that she lived for 26,258 days, or nearly 72 years) enable us to picture an often harsh existence that prompted hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian peasants to abandon their beloved villages and emigrate in search of land and freedom. . . “
Found Clapton T From Tokyo Concert
Wow, today’s find while poking around in old stuff.
I’m thinking this would have been October 1985 in Tokyo, at the old Yoyogi Stadium.
Hawk Eyes Bird-Feeding Station in Burnaby, BC
What was this Red-tailed Hawk looking at in Fraser Foreshore Park in Burnaby, BC?
A bird feeder that someone set up in the park.
Hawk says, “Thank You! Got a great target to focus on. . . ”
Folks, wildlife does not need to be fed, eh?
OK, bird feeders in your yard or on your balcony can be fun, as long as they are regularly sanitized, but why set up feeding stations in parks?
Sora the Cat Appropriates the Sun Lamp from Dori the Turtle
A bit of sibling rivalry going on this evening. I was looking for Sora the Cat and found her under Midori the Turtle’s UV/heat lamp.
Our late Choco the Cat was also known to indulge in Dori’s lamp when the days got short and cold.
Bald Eagles on Byrne Creek in Burnaby
Saw these Bald Eagles on our patrol for salmon spawning in Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby, BC, today.
I saw the one sitting in the tree, and then the other came screaming in and the two of them did a bit of aerobatics before disappearing.
Sharing My Mom’s Love of Teaching
Today would have been my late Mom’s 88th birthday.
Sharing our love for teaching in a post from my old blog, 14 years ago.
April 19, 2007
Thank You South Slope Elementary
I would like to thank South Slope Elementary students in Burnaby for the package of thank you cards that I received today. It was unexpected and greatly appreciated.
They have participated in the Salmon in the Classroom program for many years. They receive chum salmon eggs from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and care for them in their classroom until they hatch as alevins. They feed them until the tiny fish reach the fry stage, and then the kids release them into Byrne Creek.
As volunteer streamkeepers, my wife Yumi and I have had the privilege of guiding the kids to the creek for several years now.
This year’s South Slope Elementary release was particularly meaningful to me, because my Mom was dying of cancer.
It was uplifting being with the kids that morning, and seeing them so full of life and wonder.
Later that day I told Mom about the fry release, and though she was heavily medicated, she indicated that she understood, and was happy.
She loved kids, she loved teaching, and she was a teacher of teachers.
She died the evening of the fish release, surrounded by love.
Today:
I am happy that the day she died, my Mom knew that Yumi and I were teaching children.
Oddball Steller’s Jay, Pileated Woodpecker at Deer Lake in Burnaby
I spotted this oddball Steller’s Jay with a white tip on its tail at Deer Lake in Burnaby, BC, today. Some birder friends are suggesting it may have a form of leucism?
And I also chased a Pileated Woodpecker around. . .
