great blue heron among reeds
I saw this fellow tramping among the reeds along the side of Grenadier Pond in High Park. Got a few shots, but I think these are my favourites.
I’ve been trying to take more photos of birds. Not that I want to become a full-fledged bird photographer, but it’s been fun trying to get some good shots.
This kind of started when I went to the Long Branch Tree Festival at Marie Curtis Park. While I was checking out the various booths there with my family, I found one booth was representing the City of Toronto, and they had a pamplet available called “Birding in Toronto”.
The pamphlet referred to a book put out by the city called “Birds of Toronto”, which it said was available for free in any Toronto Public Library branch. Well, I guess it’s out of print now and you can’t get them anymore, but I was able to borrow one there. It’s also available online as part of the City’s Biodiversity Series:
It’s a good book, and lists (p. 58) a lot of areas in the city that are great for viewing birds. I’m definitely planning to visit these!
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plant growing out of a post
Took this shot while on a walk in High Park yesterday.
(Click for high-resolution version.)
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tiny coincidences
I go on long walks (almost) everyday because of a heart condition I found out about last year. On my walks, I generally listen to podcasts. These can be about technology, or comedy, or about a tv show I’ve watched, or politics, or social issues. But, there are days where my mind is racing too much to pay attention to podcasts.
On days like this, I usually walk to music. On a day like this where I can’t even decide what kind of music I feel like listening to, I’ll set my iPod* to shuffle all 12000 songs on there, and just fast-forward any song where I’m not feeling it. That’s what I did yesterday. About the third song it played was a Billy Joel track, “I Go To Extremes.”
I’ve gathered from several years of reading about pop culture on the Internet that Billy Joel is no longer good. So it seems my iPod* didn’t get the memo. Anyway, this isn’t a critique to say whether I agree with this assessment or not, just that my iPod* goes way back to a time when Billy Joel was good. Or at least, you wouldn’t be piled on for saying so.
In any case, I’m not interested in defending Billy Joel’s music, and I haven’t had time to give it a good listen to see if it holds up. The point is simply that sometimes life hands you weird, tiny coincidences and you just kind of have to go with it.
Case in point: just as I’m hearing the line
No, I don’t know why I go to extremes
Too high or too low, there aint no in betweens
I’m walking up a hill with this pub at the top on the other side of a cross-street.
It just seemed like synchronicity and I ought to go have a pint in that pub. Except I’m out on my walk, trying to get healthier. So I didn’t. (Not that can’t have a pint every once in awhile.).
*Actually just the music app on my phone.
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Lucifer steps among the ashes
Lucifer steps among the ashes. Black smoke rising from the ground as far as he can see. After that, more smoke.
“Rebels.” he shouts. Voice cracks.
“Compatriots.” Silence. The hot winds blowing ash and soot in his eyes and mouth. The burnt taste of failure. He spits it out.
“All is not lost,” he calls, lifting his eyes to the starless sky. Dark grey and foreboding. “Paradise maybe, but not all.” The stones underfoot are hard and sharp. The pull of this world is stronger, clenching. Holding them here. Prisoners.
No sooner than he has wondered if he can even fly here, and he has spread his great spiny, metallic appendages to their fullest. Sending the smoke away in sudden recoils. The next instant, he’s soaring. Laughing to know that he’s still himself.
“Rebels! Friends!” Beelzebub is starting to move on the ground below. Mulciber is standing already, brushing soot from his arms and wings. The smoke is dissipating. He can even make out a range of tall dark mountains ahead. His greatsword is warm and humming against his back, a gift from the Lord Himself, from His wild days, carved from the tooth of one of the colossal roaming beasts God felled back before He built Heaven or the universe.
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first post at sparksphere
This is my first post here. Please see the About page for a bit about who I am.
Still working out what this place will be about. Apologies for the ideas all over the floor. Whoa, please don’t step on that mis-syllabled haiku. I haven’t decided if I’m fixing and posting that yet! Thanks.
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