Laurel

Grackles! #SpringMigration

😳 🤯 🚨 “From 2020, Ontario began generating a summary of all children who died under the care of a CAS, with an open child welfare file or whose file had been closed in the past year.
The data showed, on average, a child who had interacted with welfare within the past year died every three days.”

The biggest moth I’ve ever seen was a Luna moth which landed on my folks’ living room window one night… it was the most astonishing creature. Utterly gorgeous.
This moth is even bigger?! Whoa!

Ooh, that’s exciting! Looks good for that to me… amazing!

I’m so sorry. I honestly hadn’t realized the depth of what you were enduring.
If my (American) dad were still alive, he’d be apoplectic.

You had to WHAT?! 🤬😤

Good idea, I forgot! I usually use it for unknown new plants I meet.

A fuzzy beige shape, possibly egg case, on a red twig in a leafless tree. Background is blue sky and bokeh branches.

Same egg case, hand for scale. It’s the size of two fingers together.

Entomology friends and fellow nature nerds, a little help?
This is my teaching partner’s hand, and tree. What on earth made such a big cocoon/ootheca/egg sack?

I had to read this three times for it to sink in.
I got stuck on both parts of the conundrum…
“Since… teaching climatology puts me in danger of violating the ban on political speech” 😳🤯🤬
and:
“… I try to avoid student conversations about campus politics” 😖😮‍💨
I’m so angry for you. Furious.

Sunrise, traffic sounds and birdsong on this oddly warm day.

Brilliant sunrise sky over a schoolyard with melting patches of snow. The sky is vibrant with gold at the horizon and orangy-pink moving up to speckled pink and blue overhead.

The same sunrise moments later, zoomed in to capture the vibrant pink-orange light in the clouds.

One thing about the time change… I got to work early today so I saw the sunrise from my classroom windows. It blazed a hot pinkish-orange for a few minutes, up into candy floss clouds high above.

Gen X, also wondering if this was knowledge I was supposed to have.

That’s a win. I hope it was a good day.

I don’t care about the price of oil, I care that Iranians are being poisoned with toxic fumes. What the fuck is wrong with us?

I will not be running for mayor of Toronto I even asked my editor at the Star for a two-page spread to help readers understand the extent to which I am not running for mayor of Toronto.

Breaking news! I have my first opinion piece in the Toronto Star today! I got to make fun of John Tory AND make a joke about me playing for the Blue Jays, so it's safe to say that this was the most fun I've had writing something in a while. 💙 www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Have I got the perfect place for you to shop for your accompaniment… 🧵
bsky.app/profile/phil...

I saw Revenge of the Nerds (shudder) as a double-feature at the drive in. The other film was Rhinestone. I barely remember that one except that Dolly was charming.

Oooof.
At least I hated it then, too.
But my friends who wanted me to see it, invited me to the party to watch it with them (for their 20th time, or so) and got more and more angry and I pointed out how messed up it was?!
Yeah. I was not popular that night.
A killjoy since my teens 😁

Ugh… I felt like I was outside the glass looking in, as a teen in the 80s. I remember being horrified by that movie, but none of my friends were which meant I was made out to be a snob and a prude. Same with Grease.
But then again, my first movie crush was Christopher Walken (Deadzone) so I WAS odd.

Pssst @daanis.ca, did you feel that ripple in the force? See above…

Aww! Ours usually arrive on shore on the same day or the day after the red-winged blackbirds. This year, I saw blackbirds days ago in nearby lakeside parks, and finally on my local stretch of shore today. Here’s hoping the grackles are back tomorrow! I love those glossy goofballs.

OMG I’ve never been so excited about a book that doesn’t exist… yet.

Oh wow! Like mourning cloak butterflies, flittering around in the woods around snow piles and leaf litter on the first sunny days of spring. In fact, today would’ve been perfect for them.

😖💔
“While I was leaving I noticed there wasn’t a single bird in the sky and you know what they say? When the birds abandon you, you are truly on your own.”

I mean, we are in for more snow, but since when do wooly bears show up in spring?! Maybe I’ve just missed them before… I’m used to seeing them in September, October.

23 people rescued from ice by helicopter north of Owen Sound 23 people were rescued after being stranded on ice north of Owen Sound in Georgian Bay.

Yiiikes… I’m glad everyone was rescued. You know how I go on about staying off the ice shelf that formed in the deep freeze this winter?
Not for nothing. I grew up near Cook’s Bay where ice fishing was huge. Every year, someone would lose a shack, a sled or a truck… 🫣
www.ctvnews.ca/london/artic...

Good thing about them, those red-winged blackbirds do make it easy to know when they’re back.

They certainly don’t sneak back, do they? 🥰

I propose that in october we permanently shift all clocks back by only 30 minutes & then fucking leave them there forever after. And if you think that's somehow more absurd than the DST/SDT dance, please take a deep breath and remember that clock time is fake & was invented for trains. It'll be fine

🎶 The boys are back in town, the boys are back in town… 🎵