House Sparrow

Good bones and powerful flyers.  Passer domesticus.  The stalwart little feather-bearing flying creature, the sparrow.  That’ll be House Sparrow to you, buster.  Let’s wise up.  This is National Geographic.  If I don’t get home tonight it’s not because I haven’t tried.  I’m a baby.

DSCN2894 (1)If help can be given it should be given.  That’s what the old man always said.  When it’s over it’s over, he also used to say.  Not until the fat lady sings was another one.  Lord, how I despised my father.

But we’re not getting into that here.  We’re studying the sparrow.  The issue every spring is how many young sparrows are going to make it?  And I mean make it generally.  I’m sorry. I’m mimicing my father again.  I take back all I said about him.  Moving on.  He used to say that too.

IMG_0379The House Sparrow.  A bright chirp!  and onto the little cage holding the brick of suet, which is attached to the budding wisteria on the upper deck.  Ringside seat.  It’s a chirp-fest and a lot of horsing around on the cage.  Can a bird horse around?  Of course it can.

These birds are aerial artists.  Now there’s four of them out there.  Then Flibb! and they’re gone.  Super quick.  Powerful wings powering up instantly.  They’re back.  Flibb!  They’re gone.  They’re back.

The House Sparrow is one of the harbingers of spring.  Sure it is.  And if somebody, like a child, should ever ask you what kind of bird that is, don’t ever say, “It’s just a sparrow.”  I made that mistake once.  Sparrows will get in your face.  “Whadya mean ‘just’ a sparrow? I’m a sparrow, fool!  House Sparrow!  Don’t forget it!”  Flibb flibb!

IMG_0476That fine piece of art work is gone.  Urban art work?  Is that what it’s called?  It went down with the building.  The piece was at the rear of the building that used to be on the southwest corner of 7th Avenue and Cambie Street, Vcr.  Just another teardown.

I don’t know that much about Ken Foster, only what I’ve seen on the interwebs, but this work reminds me of Rod Filbrandt, the justly celebrated creator of “Wombat”.  You’re not gonna make me explain “Wombat” are ya?

Budding wisteria and suet cage courtesy CS Nicol

 

 

 

iPoem 6s

There’s some real comedians down at apple.com.  They’re better than they know.

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iPoem 6s

Or immediately get directions home
Drop a pin on your current location and send it to a friend
Natural and intuitive
Or the wag of a tail

Capacitative sensors instantly measure microscopic changes
Could only happen with deep integration
Deepen the experience
Used in the aerospace industry

Stronger at a molecular level
Capacitative sensors measure the pressure
In one natural motion
In stores or in apps

In one natural motion
Near the contactless reader with your finger
The safer way to pay with your fingerprint
Since you don’t show your credit card you never reveal your name

It’s easy to reap the rewards
Contactless payments
Deeply powerful
To provide the nuanced effect

They let you know what actions you’re performing
Third-generation local tone mapping
Perfectly lit selfies
As crisp and clear as if you were face to face

It’s not an accident that it already feels familiar
This code is automatically displayed
After you enter a security code it will begin
You can choose not to honour the request

Get a new unlocked iPhone every year
Open on other devices
Boarding passes and loyalty cards
Explore tips and tricks

Etc….

Hope your Good Friday is good.  Oh yeah.  They painted the bravest sign I know.  Looks better too.  Compare to image at “Star Weekly”.  Go ahead.

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Japonica

Remember the character “Japonica” on “That’ll Be The Day” which ran I think on ABC?  Sitcom.  It was back in, what was it, 2006?  2007?  Tuesday nights 7:30.  Then it moved to Monday nights eight o’clock.  Then it got cancelled.  I think so.  I don’t have the exact details, but you can look it up.  I guess  half a season is better than no season at all.

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This is Camellia japonica.  Around here we just call it “Japonica”.  Other than that there is no connection whatever to that TV show character.  I know where this is going.  Japonica was the one who looked a little funny, never got enough teddy bears, and kept complaining that he just wasn’t ready for spring.  “Japonica, why’s you always sittin there on that sofa?”

Then he’d hang up.  “This is the plant most gardeners have in mind when they speak of camellias,” somebody in the Sunset Western Garden Book, Seventh Edition, says.  I would say that is wrong.  This is the flower that lasts but a moment then is gone for another year.  The shrub sticks around, but not the flowers.  More than 3000 varieties of Camellia.  This has been one of them.

DSCN0773Japonica flowers and buds.  Perhaps they are in the crucible of time.  It’s the colour.  Depending on the strain the flowers can be pink, red, white or orange.  Some strains, like this one, bloom early.  Others not so early.  Now we know.

 

Japonica flowers courtesy M M H Nicol and C S Nicol.

Have yourself a happy St. Patrick’s Day too.