Memorial celebration

A memorial celebration of Wendy's life will be held at the Pinecrest Visitation Centre, 2500 Baseline Road in Ottawa, Canada on Wednesday, June 30th, 2010. Visitation will be held from 12 noon until Words of Remembrance at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations to the United Way, Good Companions, The Heart and Stroke Foundation, or a charity of donor's choice would be appreciated.

TIP: Still More Fishes!

Here's the peacock flounder featured in the final photo yesterday while it was swimming. It's amazing to watch one settle and quickly take on a new pattern!



And a nice bluehead wrasse (with grunt). The wrasse is about 4 inches tip to stern.



Finally, a fabulous smooth trunkfish (that wholly redeemed the swim marred by leaky goggles).



This, I think, will be the best photo of the trip! Go ahead and click — it's worth it!



Up today, the Flowers Sea Swim and a trip to Cathy Church's!

TIP: Fish Identification!

A curious and wondrous thing about many tropicals is the rather dramatic colour shifts they can undergo. At the bottom of this photo (taken in "Brent's lagoon") is a beautiful black and yellow striped juvenile French Angelfish. At it's intermediate stage it will look more like this, and then as an adult will look like this. If, however, its tail had a square cut margin and ever so slightly different striping, it would mature into this. And in fact, they can appear almost dusky rose, too ...



The sergeant majors in this snapshot are not in blue phase, as their bright yellow is still quite evident — males become dark blue to purple except for their black bands when courting or defending their nests.



Here's a nice blue tang that is shifting from its juvenile bright yellow coloration to blue. Tangs also adjust the vividness of their blues from powder blue to purple.



If you look up bar jacks in keys you will find them listed under silvery fishes. But apparently when they are an attendant fish with a Southern Stingray they are most often in black phase. I thoroughly enjoyed spending some time with this pair yesterday morning! The Southern Stingrays vary in colour from brown to gray and black.





And then there are those who depend on subterfuge instead of just floundering about!



All images should be clickable for closer looks!

TIP: Squirrelfish!

Early morning swims are definitely the time to see these guys! Clicking is probably worth your while.





Another exciting find for me was this needlefish! It really is quite a small fish.



I liked the way you see the early morning sun break through the water in this shot.



Also, last evening we had time for a trip to Books & Books!

P.S. Yesterday Danielle in Iowa in Seattle asked how squirrelfish got their common name. There are some odd suggestions on teh interwebs (big eyes like squirrels, red colour like red squirrels) but the answer that seems most likely is that in fact they "bark" rather like squirrels. If you go here and scroll down you can hear what one sounds like.

TIP: Stalking The Squirrel Fish!

The fishes are getting used to me stopping to drift with them — particularly the group over by Treasure Island Resort. Now when I stop by they come and hang with me. Except for the squirrel fish — he dashes right into his hole in the coral. Nothin' but tail!



But the way the light hit this sargeant major fish was nothing short of amazing! No photoshopping here, folks, that's how it came off Brent's camera.



This one looks almost happy to see me, don't you think?



And lest you think that yellow fishes don't blend in ...



I hope you'll be pleased to hear that early morning swims are more successful when stalking the squirrel fish!

As usual, you should be able to click these images for more detail.

TIP: The Adventure Continues

Yesterday Brent, Jenny and I rose before oh dark thirty (as did many others) to be volunteers at Try-This-Tri. It was a well-run and successful event but for those not yet acclimated to heat and humidity, it was a bit on the hot and sweaty side. Jenny and I were wishing we'd brought our swim suits! But really there wasn't time for that. Congratulations to all the participants, and thanks to the sponsors & other volunteers for making it happen.

So then it was time to cool off at the condo. In the afternoon I had a longer sea swim than Sunday, and took Brent's camera out to see if I could capture some of the sea life. As usual, a click should get you closer!



Tangy!



I love how this fellow poked his head into my snapshot!



Chubby?

Brief Sea Swim on Arrival ...

In Transit ...

By the time you read this all the things I did yesterday will have paid off. At least that's my firm belief. Vacuuming, laundering the sheets, cleaning the bathroom, packing, charging the netbook, printing the boarding passes — you know, that kind of stuff. My Mom wanted me to cut this out of the newspaper to take to my brother, but I figured I had an easier way!

Tomorrow morning at the Crack of Doom Brent, Jenny and I will be out in our volunteering hats so folks can Try-This-Tri. Well, actually I'll be out in one of Brent's hats. On account of I'm going carry-on.

Bittersweet ...

One of the great things about being part of a team is the people you have the opportunity to meet that in your day to day life you likely would not. Last night teammates Afsaneh, Reihane and I got together to wish Walla every success in her Fellowship at Sick Kids. We all agreed we can feel a shopping trip coming on!



Reihane, myself, Walla, Afsaneh. Too bad you can't see the shoes!

The Exception ...

So, it's true. Although luckily only a few people actually saw it. I wore a wetsuit in the pond last night. And I have the hickie to prove it. Fiona very thoughtfully suggested I consider wearing her sleeveless, as the 6-8°C evenings have cooled the pond considerably. In fact, it's kind of, well, cold. So I think we can consider this the exception that proves the rule: I am not a wetsuit swimmer. But most people without them only managed one loop, those in seal suits got two or three in ...

Anyone?

On my way out to teach Monday afternoon, I took a brief moment to inspect the Lilium regale for Evil Lily Leaf Beetles. I didn't find any (hurrah!), but I did see this lovely crane fly — so dashed into the house, took some snapshots, then dashed back in and put the camera away, toddled down the street to just in time catch my bus!





My best guess is male Tipula sp. — either T. furca or T. (Yamatotipula) caloptera. Anyone? Bueller?

As usual, clicking will get you even closer!

Sting!

When the green bins for organic recycling arrived, I wondered how long this would take. And to think people scoffed at me! This link may or may not get you to video of the sting operation. Should it fail, you could look for Raccoon vs. Green Bin.

In an unusual move I'm off to swim long course at Nepean today. It has to be a better swim than the exercise in frustration that was lane swim last night. In fact, it was so busy the staff had to cap the swim!

Monday Miscellany ...

♦ The Boarder enjoyed real meat first thing this morning. In addition to chicken dinner for cats. The fact that I was browning meat for spaghetti sauce motivated him to leave my nice comfy bed (he had returned to it after appropriate fueling and wind sprints) to remind me that he is, after all, an obligate carnivore. It is nice and cool in the house yet, with a forecast high of 19°C so there may also be baking later — this will only be of interest if the recipe includes butter.

♦ In the Spot the Family Resemblance category, there's this! Nicely done!

♦ I am considering swimming twice on Thursday. For the first time since ... well ... last summer. We have a pond swim (weather permitting) in the evening — and I could swim long course at Nepean in the morning.

♦ It has cooled down. I might be able to wear that motorcycle jacket today!

♦ There is a nosegay of perennial sweet peas by my computer, and I can see the potted mandevilla blooming outside. Cool or not, it is a nice time of year!

♦ I think I want to try a Cornus alternifolia out back ...

Surprise!

Well, on the unintentional shopping front, I found a great Teenflo jacket this week marked down from $425 to $169. In fact, I tried it on at $425, but passed, and did not see it at any of the earlier markdowns. Here is is — what do you think? Do click on the thumbnail for a better view. For me one of the bonuses of buying Teenflo products is that they are manufactured here in Canada. But can you believe fall 2010 merchandise is already available online?

In other news, when I was speaking with one of my favourite people (and Technosport record keeper) Pat N yesterday she mentioned that the womens 200-239 relays I was a part of at Nationals broke the existing Ontario records! So I looked them up, and found that we broke two of them in pretty impressive fashion.

♦ 200 free relay record — 2:19.50 (our time 2:18.01)
♦ 400 free relay record — 5:55.88 (our time 5:07.14)
♦ 200 medley relay record — 2:36.04 (2:30.95)

Oh, and my 200 IM was a club record, so I've got that going for me ...

Catching Up ...

Via a circuitous route that involved MSC Canada, I bring you some tips on open water training. I love that it brings one back to SCAQ!

The three movieteers + one saw Shrek on Wednesday night — we enjoyed the lighthearted entertainment, although the first in the franchise still rates best in my book!

Today after practice I had a garden-centric interlude. A high school chum (and plantsperson) and a friend of hers (gardener and masters swimmer) and I looked at each other's plantings and had tea, scones and good conversation on a back deck while keeping an eye on bird and insect life!

Tomorrow it's off to the pond!

Testing, testing ...

Check. Check.

I'm giving multi-focal contacts a whirl this week. Now, usually I take off my glasses to work on the laptop, so there certainly will be a period of adjustment at the very least. On the up side so far no problems with stairs and I seem to be able to read food labels. In a short while, I'm going to give escalators a whirl!

Last night we had an unusual swim practice too. Anyone looking at my workout blog will know why! We swam in an outdoor yard pool with one lane rope down the middle (so effectively four lanes) but three lines on the bottom of the pool. So it was bouncy and a little discombobulating. But fun. However, on account of the mile sea swim I plan to do in two and a half weeks, I think I'll forgo the bounce tomorrow night and swim long course tomorrow morning!

Cathedral Grove

Our big field trip out west was to Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park on Vancouver Island. I hope you enjoy this virtual visit — feel free to click on the photos for a better look.