Archive for September, 2009

Today’s Flowers – Marigolds

Last Wednesday had been very windy and hot, a summer sizzler. By mid-afternoon the temperature had climbed to 29C (84.2F)!! The warm sunshine also brought the bees back to the garden for a short time in the morning.

P.S. The next day we were back to our usual fall weather – still comfortable, but without the heat.

Today’s Flowers

Margaret Atwood has fun with Nature Canada bookmarks

I’m back from Toronto, where I attended Margaret Atwood’s Year of the Flood performance Thursday night — another packed house, this time in the beautiful St. James Anglican church, where 1,100 people enjoyed Atwood’s innovative “hybrid” book reading: part theatre, part musical, part narration.

The Year of the Flood performances have been a terrific opportunity to raise awareness about Nature Canada and our bird conservation work. Margaret has been eager to encourage others to learn more about us — singling us out from the stage at the beginning of each performance, and even personally inserting a brochure and bookmark into every copy of her book during the book-signing.

Here are a few (fuzzy) pictures of Margaret and I holding the Nature Canada bookmarks — they were a big hit among her fans!

Here’s Margaret Atwood having fun with one of our bookmarks… And here’s the packed house inside St. James, waiting for the show to start.

We also had a chance to pass out fact sheets about our Important Bird Area Program, and some of the local projects we support. Margaret, who has been maintaining a blog and a twitter account during her tour, was kind enough to post them online here.

The tour arrives in Calgary on Tuesday, and continues on to Vancouver October 1. Both stops are fundraisers for Nature Canada. Her tour wraps up in Sudbury November 19.

Visiting Women Organic Farmers in Paraguay

In March 2009, Nature Canada began implementing a 2-year project to support women in 4 rural communities in Paraguay to produce organic vegetables, improve their health and strengthen their awareness of their democratic rights. Last week my colleague Mohamed Niang from our project partner Place aux agricultrices : nourricieres du monde and I were in Paraguay to visit the project. Our local partners in this project are Fortaleser and our BirdLife Partner Guyra Paraguay. The project is funded mainly by the Government of Canada, through the Canadian International Development Agency.

On Tuesday, we visited Isla Pucu and Caaguazu which lie approximately 2 and half hours west of Asuncion. We were greeted by a large group of women who are participating in the project.
We were amazed at the progress they have achieved in their vegetable gardens. One woman is so excited that she expanded her garden by about twenty-fold! It was also a great opportunity for them to see each other’s work, as many had never visited their neighbors’ gardens.
On Wednesday we traveled over 6 hours southwest of Asunción to the Department of Itapua wherein lies the San Rafael Biosphere Reserve. We met with the head of the municipal government of Alto Vera, who confirmed that the municipality will soon install a water provision system for the community of Santa Ana, one of our project sites. This will enable the women farmers in the community to grow a wider range of vegetables in their gardens.
We stayed that night at Guyra Paraguay’s monitoring station in Kanguery, the reserve Guyra owns within the park. We marvelled at the beauty of San Rafael and were reminded of the many threats this remaining area of Atlantic Forest faces and of the urgent need to ensure its conservation.

The following morning, we met with women farmers from Santa Ana and from Libertad del Sur in the latter community. As in Isla Pucu, for many of the women it was an opportunity to visit a new place, and share experiences. The women from Santa Ana remarked on the differences in the soil: Libertad del Sur enjoying a much more fertile land than rockier Santa Ana.

Mohamed and I witnessed the commitment and enthusiasm of the project staff in Fortaleser (Aurora, Gladys, Liz and Perla) and in Guyra (Eli, Marcelo, Gabriel and Pepe). They are doing great work and have established trust and a good working relationship with the women in the communities. They shared with us their experience and knowledge and it was a real joy to spend the week with them.
With this project we aim to improve the nutrition, health, equality and income of the women farmers in these four rural communities, while also raising their awareness of the importance of conserving biodiversity for their benefit and that of their children and grandchildren. These are no doubt ambitious goals, but we are making modest visible progress!

Monday Odds & Ends

I walked down to Gooseneck Cove today to put some fresh air in me and blow the cobwebs out of my head. The first thing I saw was this immature Snowy Egret fishing in the shallows. Most of the Egrets have left for the season, but there are still a few immatures around, and as a friend of mine commented: “You know kids, they do what they want!” But what I thought was at least one good sign was the fact that this guy seems to be eating his vegetables along with his fish.

And more Fall flowers. These Swamp Aster were growing next to Hazard Rd.


© 2009 by A. Roy Hilbinger

X Factor Says Bye Bye To Tru Colourz

Tru Colourz
Tru Colourz have been kicked out of X Factor’s final 24 for fibbing about their ages. It seems that one of the group is under 16, which is the minimum age requirement to enter the show. Harmony Hood will be their replacement.

The X Factor Finalists are:

Groups (Louis Walsh): Kandy Rain, John and Edward Grimes, Harmony Hood, Project A, Miss Frank and De-Tour

Boys Under 25 (Cheryl Cole): Rikki Loney, Daniel Fox, Duane Lamonte, Joseph McElderry, Ethan Boroian and Lloyd Daniels.

Girls Under 25 (Dannii Minogue): Stacey Solomon, Stacey McClean, Rachel Adedeji, Nicole Jackson, Despina Pilavakis and Lucie Jones.

Over-25s (Simon Cowell): Jamie Archer, Nicole Lawrence, Oliver Murs, Treyc Cohen, Daniel Pearce and Danyl Johnson

Robbie Williams And Take That Not Back Together

Robbie WilliamsRumours that Robbie Williams and Take That are to be re-united are in doubt.

Though all five (Take That + Robbie) were in New York it appears that they were there only for Mark Owen’s Stag Night – and not to record music together.

Their spokesperson said, “They (Take That)were there approving mixes for a live album that’s due out at the end of November. Williams probably popped in to have a listen.”

No studio time was booked for recording.

Rumours, no doubt, will continue.

myLot. Make money joining in and starting discussions about celebs or anything else.

Amazing Hanging Trains in Germany

Amazing Hanging Trains in Germany


Flood Photos in SE USA

Flood Photos in SE USA


Salt Lake City Engagement Photographer {Alexia & Britton}

As promised… more of Alexia and Britton. I love engagement photos…so much! Especially this woodsy location. Yum. Salt Lake is seriously chalk full of awesome spots for engagement pictures! These 2 just need 25 comments to earn them a free print, on me!





Utah Engagement Photographer {Sneak Peak}

Because Alexia today pretty much told me she’s been a blog stalker, I had to give her a quick sneak peak. She told me all kinds of poses she loved and knew exactly who my sister was when she saw her with me from my photog. blog. It was hilarious. :) Alexia and Britton are engaged. Alexia and Britton are getting married in December here in Salt Lake. Alexia and Britton Looooooove each other. We had way too much fun! You guys are awesome! I will post more very soooon!


Page 1 of 2012345»5101520...Last »