Today's Colours

Golden chain tree,

Ruby-crowned Kinglet,

Rufous Hummingbird,

Great Blue Heron.

Smugness about sludgelessness.

Bike and Giant Hogweed.

I bought my bike more than ten years ago, and in that time have ridden more than 10,000 miles. I have had a single flat (rear wheel) and today, for the second time, took it to the bike place to have the rear derailleur cable replaced. They're also going to replace the adjustable stem (the vertical part below the handlebars) and tighten up this and that. Cost: $73.40 plus tax.

Ten years ago we bought a car, a European brand known for quality. Over the past year we paid more than $5,000 to deal with what seemed an endless list of issues. The final straw was engine de-sludging. After we relieved ourselves of all that money, we relieved ourselves of that sucker.

Now we have a Japanese car, a nice one that speaks English. It says, "Pardon?" when we ask it to phone someone. It always screws up the phoning part, or perhaps it's our fault; we are the weak link in the human/droid interface. Point is, the car is very polite. And no sludge so far.

I'm happy to live in a flat place with moderate weather. Most years I can ride my bike year-round. My bike is also useful as a metre-stick for ferocious plants (above) and various trees.

Sludge is never an issue.

Pidge.

He's a round bird in a square hole.

Schloonk!

Today, a breezy, sunny day with big puffy clouds, I walked across yon bridge (picture taken on a gloomy January day). At bridge-top I glanced up, and uh-oh, an Osprey was dropping from the sky, apparently aiming at my head. I ducked, and it swooped back up, then dropped feet-first, a scant arms-length away, into the pond.

"Schloonk!"

That was the noise it made.

The bird rose from the water with a fat Brown Bullhead in its talons. It flew away, over the blocks of condominiums.

This was the first time I visited Garden City Park without my camera. Urr.

Further crumblage.

The birdbath/cake stand today.

My concrete birdbath, whose gradual disintegration led to its reassignment as a planter last September, has continued to erode. Its attached and much admired Mr. Frog is starting to crack too. I have added a second frog to keep him company.

It becomes clearer every day. Nature abhors a concrete birdbath.

Red-head?

Today I heard ornithologist Bridget Stutchbury talking on Quirks & Quarks. I think I heard her say that the white on a White-crowned Sparrow's head is seen by birds as infra-red. (Is that correct?) Even though it is impossible to imagine what an infra-red head looks like, I am now even more impressed by White-Crowned Sparrows than I already was.

My guess is that this guy looks yellow to almost everybody.

And to him, they probably both look delicious.