Pretty Things

I'm not sure what it is about me and earrings lately, but I know what it is about these particular ones-they're unusual, not from a mall, and handmade.

If you're interested, check out whiteapple on Etsy.com. Just don't be buying any of the ones that I have my eye on!

Happy Earth Day

Appearantly the old phrase "Don't throw your junk in my backyard," doesn't apply to my neighbourhood. Please, do throw it in my backyard! In fact, I suspect some neighbours are tossing their refuse into the woods right behind their own houses. The large No Dumping sign (City of Hamilton Bylaw 77-221) that greets you as you enter little Tom Park has no effect. The biggest offenders are: water bottles, beer bottles, makeshift bongs, dog crap, chip bags, bundles of newspaper flyers and 3 Fortinos shopping carts. I know damn well who the shopping cart offenders are, as I have already returned carts that have been left in the park after said cart "borrowers" have finished with them!

The other day my good friend Jon asked me 2 questions about my previous blog entry reporting on the Cootes Paradise clean-up. He asked, "What was the funniest item you found?" and "Did you find anything you kept for reuse?" I can answer those today.

In all of the junk I collected this morning, I did find a nice rock (now in my garden) in the middle of the grass in the park. Usually, I don't scavenge rocks from "the wild" as they are a part of the natural landscape. However, as this one was obviously going to be mowed over when the grass grows, I figured I'd save the City a lawnmower blade.

I can't really laugh about this. I did have a bitter cackle of sorts when I saw the 3 Fortinos shopping carts. In the winter I had taken to returning carts that I'd found in the park. That'll show me!

What to do? Is there a Fortinos hotline for cart retrieval? What about the numerous bundles of flyers? Call the Hamilton Spectator? Their delivery job is probably outsourced. One step is cleaning all this up. Another is the maintenance of the park. I had hoped to continue working this spring and summer on the garden in the front end of Tom Park. It is so disheartening to do so when the flowers will be marched upon by drunken idiots who party in the park on the weekends. Somehow the police who regularly patrol this street, never see those cars pulling up at night, dropping off drug-users who meet down in the ravine and then leave behind their disgusting garbage.

So Busy!

Spring has sprung and I am "springing" too. Don't you just love having 13 hours of daylight? It's like a wonder-drug for me these days. So, things have been busy here. Getting back into the swing of things for the last term of school. I bought a tank and some fish this weekend for the classroom. Just goldfish but I'm sure they'll be a hit.

Going back a couple of weeks now, I had a chance to see my friend, Tania Bove perform a night of dazzling jazz vocals at the Ancaster Fire Hall. What a night!

This led me to see Darcy Hepner's Big Band at the Corktown. Wow! All I can say is that my friends and I were impressed. Nick Marchione, on trumpet that night, was a huge hit with the crowd. The 17-member band almost blew my eardrums out and I had visions of the sound waves decimating my runny nose and cold germs as they crashed into my head.

At Harbourfront I had a chance to see Kaeja d'Dance's latest work entitled, "Abattoir". I must say the show was not quite a hit with my colleagues but I can appreciate the subject matter.

On Thursday I went to a talk given by Alfie Kohn at Westmount Highschool. The ideas passed along during this evening really resonated with me. He spoke about the insanity of Standardized Testing and the cruelty and pointlessness of homework. Many ideas really clicked with me that night.

On the weekend I opted for the Free Friday at the AGH. My fav of the evening was this one by Francis Jones Bannerman. I love how the inside environment is so different from that of the outdoor one.

Saturday morning I spent a couple of hours picking up garbage with my dad in Cootes. Disgusting mess! I don't ever need to see another Tim Horton's cup again.

The strangest items we found were construction materials (obviously dumped) and the saddest item found was a garbage bag.

Oh! And last weekend I ventured back the Staircase Theatre, of all places, to celebrate Earth hour. Kate and I enjoyed a candle-lit, full house performance by Lisa Winn. Nice to be back.