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

 

 

 

Primula

If it wasn’t for me no one would be writing this.  If it’s demonstrably true it must be true.  So glad “Poetry Week” is over.  It’s always a trial, but it’s always good.DSCN0807It’s hardly justice to these beauties, but at least we’re giving them their day.  They were born of the finest flowering of Primulaceae.

It’s just that I didn’t know primulas originated in the Himalayas and environs.  The unimpeachable source is, once again, the “Sunset Western Garden Book” 7th ed.  We’re throwing a lot of books out in this teardown.  And then what do you do with all the National Geographics?

“From Katmandu, at 4,200 feet, the expedition’s route cut across the Himalayan watershed, surmounting passes higher than the Pyrenees and threading forests bright with 40-foot rhododendrons, pastel-tinted primulas, magnolia flowers of snowy white.”

It’s 1953 and the writer is “Brigadier Sir John Hunt, C.B.E., D.S.O”.  The source?  National Geographic.  The president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, is shaking the hand of Edmund Hillary in the picture at the end of the piece.  John is to the side.  Ed along with “Tenzing Norgay” were the first two human beings to top out on “the massive eminence called Chomolungma, ‘Goddess Mother of the world'”.  Tenzing, my guess is, was back in old Nepal that day.  He’s not in the picture.

Later it was Sir Edmund Hillary.  I had a girlfriend once whose mother I thought looked like Sir Edmund Hillary.  It was sort of my own little private joke.  I definitely would never have told “Hillary” that.  She lived with her mother on Pender Island.  It was a fun few months but it ended.

And the point is?  It’s primulas.  In all their permutations.  If anybody in range of our transmitter has an idea for all these old “Geographics” please let me know.  There’s only about 800 of them.  They’re free along with the piano.

Primula NHWs

 

 

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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