Thursday 26 February 2015

A Bit of Fun Saying Goodbye to February 2015


Like many - probably most - people in the Ottawa area, I will be so, so, so happy to see an end to the month of February. It was one of the coldest, most awful Februaries I remember, and it has made life miserable for a lot of people. To celebrate the fact that this horrible month is ending in 2 days, I got together with some colleagues of mine at work today and we made a poster to allow everyone to say goodbye to February.


My co-worker Heather and I drew nasty old man February on a couple of big pieces of paper and hung it on a wall in the hallway where lots of people could see it. Then other people wrote their comments to say goodbye. This is my colleague Aakelah giving her thoughts on what a yucky month it was.


Heather drew a really ugly face and I coloured his eyes and we had a lot of fun. Heather wrote down that the average daily temperature in February was -16.3 degrees C in Ottawa.


It was a hit with people in our office. They all felt better after venting their feelings about how awful the month had been. I drew the word February with icicles hanging off the letters. Somebody wrote "Die, February, Die!" underneath.
So - Goodbye February 2015, and good riddance. Hope we never see such a horrible month like this, ever again!

Friday 6 February 2015

Very Unusual Sighting in the City


It was startling to see this magnificent creature outside the window of my apartment in the city. My apartment is right downtown - I mean, you can't get more downtown than it is, a few steps away from the Byward Market and the National Art Gallery and the Houses of Parliament. It is very common to see hawks at my place in the country, but not here in the city. Definitely a first - and very exciting! So I took a picture and then looked up hawks to see what kind it is. I think it might be a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, or maybe a Broad-shouldered Hawk, or maybe...I am really not sure. Any ideas?