Photo of an iris

An iris from a few years ago. We are looking forward to this year's blooms.

Fred has moved

Having become much too accustomed to his perch on the book case, Fred moved over to the right hand speaker next to the TV screen. He can now watch us watching TV. He knows the TV shows pretty well, since he had a good view of them from his former vantage point. I suspect his purpose is to gather data about our reactiosn to TV, which will aid him in fathoming the mysteries of human nature. His own owly nature he will keep carefully hidden. All we know so far is that owls are curious, and patient.

A picture

This is a locomotive leased by the Huron Central Railway, which operates the CPR's Sudbury-Sault Ste Marie line. The line was built when the Liberals were in power during the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Liberals didn't want to spend the money for an all-Canadian route. The line was to go south of Lake Superior via Sault Ste Marie. When MacDonald's Conservatives came back, they scotched that idea, and the north of Superior route was built. It's still one of the most spectacular railway lines in the world, but only freight trains use it now. The line through Blind River is in very bad shape, several levels of government are supposed to spend money to fix it up so that coiled steel can be shipped by rail rather than truck. The Feds are dragging their heels, perhaps because this part of Ontario is definitely not Conservative country.

Ephemera

If you like 1920s and 30s poster and advertising art, you'll like this site of travel posters. I especially liked the Austrian ones, nostalgia is a weakness of mine. Poster and advertising art of the 1950s recalled that earlier period, so much of it will look familar to anyone growing up some 50 years ago.

I collect ephemera myself, mostly railway related. I resize the posters and print them out for gluing to my model (HO and O) buildings.