Houseplant give-away at the Stick Library

Apparently these things cannot be predicted and they're over so fast it's not worth advertising them, but a free plant give-away has just started here at the Stick Library.

Not only has the Stick Librarian potted a variety of plants that she gives to anyone she believes will treat the plant well, she gives them a flyer with a hand-drawn and hand-coloured picture of the plant and care instructions along with warnings if there are any concerns about pets or small overly-curious children.

And... to my personal chagrin, she has added either a coloured marble or polished stone to each pot! When I said "what if I need those marbles?" she just scoffed.

I can't say for certain what is being given away or is still out there, but she asked me to print papers for:

• 5 Peace lilies
• 2 Rosemary
• 2 Pathos
• 2 Tradescantia
• 2 Kalanchoe
• 3 Burros tail
• 4 Thanksgiving cacti

 

We saw a great blue heron!

I am reliably informed by the lovely Manon that the bird we saw on the bank of Dow's Lake this morning was a great blue heron. That seems to be confirmed by checking page 4 of the Bird Identification Guide from Forests Canada.

Manon has kindly been accompanying me to Dow's Lake once or twice a week all summer so that I can have a swim. I'm used to having ducks and geese nearby, even the occasional loon, but seeing the heron was extra special.

If you're interested in going for a swim, I can tell you that I have not come down with any itchy conditions or other problems. Mind you, I only go when there has been no rain for 24 hours before. (Which has been a challenge this summer.) On the other hand, I am heavily immuno-suppressed these days, and you probably have a well functioning immune system. So even though at least one wildlife expert I know is reluctant to swim in Dow's Lake, I think it's fine.

Here's another photo that gives a better idea of how close the heron was. There's a Canada goose at the left of the photo. After I took this photo it started staring at me. Manon believes it was thinking "What's the matter? Do you not want pictures of me and my family?" 

Dave and Manon join Painted Perches

Our Centretown home has joined Painted Perches, which is "a community art project to turn LeBreton St into an open-air walking gallery of hand-painted birdhouses."

The organizer, Jesse Burcsik, delivered flyers describing the project to houses on the street and when I said we were intererested, he gave us two bird houses to paint. 

I painted one yellow and green (I actually blended the green all by myself using yellow and blue paint) and the lovely Manon painted the other house to imitate the colours of our house using colours that she found in our collection and also blended herself.

I mounted the houses this morning and I must say we are very happy with them.

We hope that two avian families will move in and they will get along peacefully with the canine patrons of the Stick Library. 

Jesse has created an excellent page describing the project that includes a map for all the bird houses with links to descriptions of each house. 

• Manon's bird house: The Mini Manonsion
• Dave's bird house: The Yellow Leaf House 

More about Painted Perches

The core Painted Perches trail is along LeBreton St N, but neighbours from all over Ottawa are invited to take part — put up a birdhouse and add it to the map.

The project was started by Ottawa resident Jesse Burcsik, and made possible by neighbours and local artists of all ages.

Painted perches has an excellent web page at paintedperches.ca and is on Instagram @paintedperches

There is an upcoming painting event at the Cambridge Street Seats on July 25 from 1pm to 4pm: all materials provided! 

 

The Stick Library is now on Google Maps

Did you know that it is really easy to put your organization on Google Maps?

I am eager to see any feedback the library patrons or their companions have for us.

Feel free to follow this Google Maps Link if you need directions to the library. (I really enjoy choosing "avoid highways" on road trips). 

The link also lets you check the opening hours or ask a question and confirms that the Stick Library is a safe space. 

Dealing with the snow on Christmas Eve

Here's a time lapse of me clearing the driveway today.

While you can watch the embedded version here, I recommend clicking through to YouTube and watching it full-screen for the full cinematic effect.

Time lapse snow

We had our first snowfall of the season yesterday.

I was almost all set. The snow tires are on the car and the shovels, brushes and scrapers are all where they should be, but I did not have the time lapse set up. 

So there was a bit of accumulation before I started.

The Stick Library goes Bilingual - la brancheothèque devient bilingue

In the better-late-than-never news category, I am happy to report that the Stick Library now has signage in French. [Dans la catégorie des nouvelles, il vaut mieux tard que jamais, je suis heureux d'annoncer que la brancheothèque a désormais une signalétique en français.]

The Stick Librarian wishes to thank our friend Aline for the French name and she apologizes to her translator friend Patricia-Anne for taking so long. But the Librarian's assistant bears some of the responsibility for it taking so long. [La branchothécaire souhaite remercier notre amie Aline pour le nom français et elle s'excuse auprès de son amie traductrice Patricia-Anne d'avoir mis autant de temps. Mais l'assistant du brancheothécaire porte une part de responsabilité dans cette lenteur.]

 Previously in Stick Library news:

• Manon's Stick Library
• Preparing for Stick Library season
• The Stick Library Reopens
  

The Stick Library Reopens

 I am happy to announce that yesterday, the Stick Librarian reopened the Stick Library here at the corner of Lebreton and Louisa.

The library assistant has been instructed to not add any sticks from the inactive stacks to the lending portion of the library without informing the librarian because she will be carefully tracking the annual statistics this year.

Previously in Stick Library news:

• Manon's Stick Library
• Preparing for Stick Library season
  

Preparing for Stick Library season

With the upcoming reopening of the Lebreton-Louisa Stick Library, the Stick Librarian was concerned that the branch's stacks were getting low.

Unfortunately for some neighbours, but fortunately for the library patrons, a recent windstorm brought down an old tree and the librarian was able to source replacements that just needed a little work this morning with a pair of loppers and an electric saw.

The library assistant/retired urban lumberjack lopping a branch

Sawing a branch

The Stick Librarian is happy the stacks are ready for a new borrowing season

  

Our Hallowe'en

We have no jack-o-lantern this year, but the sea monsters are back on the window, so we may get a few trick-or-treaters tonight. If there are any leftover mini-chocolate bars, I will just have to buckle down and deal with them.

Manon's Stick Library

Manon had a brain wave this spring to further redirect the many dogs that come by from messing with her garden. [You might recall a previous effort from 2021] In addition to having a water bowl, she decided to add a stick library.

I was very happy to help her with a sign.

The first version was done with felt tip pens on yellow paper with a plastic cover. It did the job, but within a few weeks, the sunlight had faded it.

Manon decided she needed a better sign. She found a blank wooden oval at Dollarama and asked me to do the lettering with acrylic paint.

The Stick Librarian chalking directions featuring Stick Library Sign Mark I

How we made Stick Library Sign Mark II

Although I have a steady hand with felt tips and pencil crayons, I'm pretty useless with a paint brush. So I made stencils. 

Here's what I did:

1. Scanned the oval and uploaded the image so I could have the exact shape and size in GIMP (free image manipulation software)
2. Gave the wooden oval three coats of bright yellow acrylic paint - letting it dry between each coat
3. Used GIMP to mark out the text with a nice sans-serif font, including the curved bits (had to Google to find out how to curve a line of text with GIMP, but it wasn't too hard).
4. Printed it on a sheet of paper 
5. Taped a clear plastic sheet over the paper. 
6. Making sure to do it in stencil fashion, used an exacto knife to carve out the letters in the plastic.
7. Taped the plastic stencil sheet over the sign
8. Painted the letters with black and purple acrylic paint. 
9. Removed the stencil
10. Filled in the empty bits of the letters and covered over where the paint spilled outside the stencil lines (mostly)
11. Glued on the butterfly, flower and heart pieces that Manon had painted
12. Graciously invited Manon to paint the rim with the colour of her choice, which happened to be silver
13. Sprayed it with three coatings of a UV-protective coating
14. Attached the wooden oval to a piece of wood I spray painted yellow a long time ago and attached a rare earth magnet from a discarded hard drive to the wood so the sign would stay attached to the metal bucket (I've had both the wood and the magnet at least 15 years - illustrating why one should never throw anything away that might be useful some day)

A month later, the new sign is still looking very bright.

Impact of the No-Late-Fee Policy?

Keep those old computer parts!

While I'm a big fan of libraries encouraging access by not having late fees, I'm afraid that Manon's adoption of the no-late-fee policy means that sticks are seldom returned and the collection is getting depleted. If you have extra sticks hanging around, you'd be welcome to drop them here.

Or we'll just wait until the next derecho

Another impact

It might be my imagination, but I've noticed that when we're out on the patio in the evening, people walking by with their dogs seem to be smiling at us more than they used to.

Terrible news: Huy Fong's Sambal Oelek

On Saturday morning, I made the trek up to Somerset Street to shop at the Lim Bangkok. I wanted some of their excellent bok choy and gai lan, but I needed a bottle of hoisin sauce and I thought it would be a good idea to get a new 3.5 litre jug of sambal oelek because I am getting low - only  a couple of weeks left.

And I need my sambal oelek. It is a straight-forward and simple blend of ground cayenne peppers, salt and vinegar. I eat it with every meal. Particularly breakfast. 

At the Lim Bangkok, I started in the sauce and oil aisle. Found a bottle of hoisin sauce no problem. But where were the jugs of sambal oelek? Not in the regular place. No 3.5 litre jugs, with or without garlic and not even the little 8 or 18 ounce jars. I feverishly checked the other aisles in case the jugs were moved. But I was not hopeful. The Superstore moves things on a regular basis. I assume to make us walk back and forth in the store more and interact with the staff, but I haven't seen products shift spots at the Lim Bangkok in ten years.

So, I picked out healthy bags of bok choy and gai lan and a bundle of green onions and went to the cash. The cashier whom I suspect is the owner is always friendly, so I asked about the sambal oelek.

"The factory is closed," he told me.

"Forever?" I asked.

"Don't know if they will come back."

After a sad trudge home, I did some internet sleuthing. News reports indicated that Huy Fong Foods who makes sambal oelek (and the very popular Sriracha sauce) had suspended operations in 2022 because of the world wide cayenne pepper shortage, but there was no news about a current suspension.

The Huy Fong Foods website actually has an easy-to-find email address for their customer service office! So I sent an email:

Subject: Is your factory closed? 

I am in Ottawa, Canada and I went to the nearby market called Lim Bangkok to buy a new jug of Sambal Oelek. I was surprised to find none at all. Not even in small jars.

The store owner told me that your factory is closed and he didn't know what would happen.

I read that you had to suspend production last year. Has the same thing happened again?

Will I one day be able to obtain your sauce that adds such pleasure to my life?

I understand that this is harder for you and all the people at Huy Fong. I wish you all the best.

Thank you,

This morning I received this reply:

Hello,

Unfortunately, we are still experiencing a shortage of raw material. Although some production did resume this past Fall season, we continue to have a limited supply that continues to affect our production. At this time, we have no estimations of when supply will increase.

Because we do not sell directly to retail/market levels, we cannot determine when product will hit shelves again and/or who currently has product in stock. We are grateful for your continued patience and understanding during this unprecedented inventory shortage.  We are currently working on trying to avoid future shortages.

Thank you,
Customer Service
HUY FONG FOODS, INC.

There you have it. In a very short time, it seems that I will have no sambal oelek. It's going to be harder to motivate myself to get out of bed in the morning.

If a tree falls in the city...

In our loft last night, we were startled by some loud rumblings. "Nothing to worry about, it's just ice sliding off the roof."

But this morning, I looked out the window to see that a substantial limb had fallen off our big elm.

So I went out this morning with an electric saw to trim the fallen pieces and bundle them. I had just finished a bundle of smaller branches and determined the bundle was too big and would have to be split when the recycling truck arrived.

The really good-natured worker told me he'd take care of it. He picked up the bundle that was too heavy for me to lift (and I'm sure weighed more than the 15 kg the City allows), threw it in the truck, then took the big limb, and all the other branches. 

All we have left are some twigs we'll sweep up when things dry out.

 

My new collaboration - Garden Sign

I am very happy with my latest artistic collaboration. It is with my next door neighbour, five-year-old Elly.

Elly and Manon have a joint garden. It is really nice. But it suffers from the many dogs who relieve themselves on it. Elly and Manon decided to put in a sign asking the dogs to behave differently and use the water bowl they installed.

They decided what words they wanted on two signs. I cut two pieces of pressed board and inked on the words with a Sharpie. Then Elly applied her design skills to colour the letters and add attractive images. I sprayed on polyurethane to add water protection and affixed the signs to an old broom handle.

This morning we planted the sign. Manon put out the water bowl and a refill can and Manon and Elly did a formal ribbon cutting to launch the sign.

The ribbon cutting ceremony

[By the way, if you have any comments for Elly, I will pass them on.]

Hydrants with sunglasses

Two nights ago, over on the other side of Bronson, we saw a hydrant wearing sunglasses. So last night on our walk, we paid attention to the hydrants and almost every hydrant we saw is also sporting shades.

By an odd coincidence, I used to have a bag full of old sunglasses that were no good to me (because I wear regular glasses), but now I don't seem to have any sunglasses. So I won't be making a sunglass mobile.

The hydrants in our neighbourhood are all yellow with blue caps, although there are at least two different cap designs. Apparently if a hydrant has a blue cap it means it will deliver at least 15 hundred gallons or more a minute. This seems like a lot of water to me. The yellow body means that it is a public rather than a private hydrant. [source]

Rose Roberts the Piper visits Lebreton Street

The residents of our block of Lebreton Street had a bagpipe concert last night from the talented Rose Roberts (contactable through Facebook). The concert was terrific and it was great to see all the neighbours outside smiling. The toddlers seemed to be especially delighted.

Neighbourhood Window Walk - Rainbows

Next: Thursday, April 23 - Lollipops

Neighbourhood Window Walk - Fish

I feel that my contribution to Neighbourhood Window Walk today is on topic and has a question with relevance for the young folk staying at home.


Next theme:
Saturday, April 18 - Rainbows

Neighbourhood Window Walk - Easter Eggs

Perhaps you are wondering, Dave, where do you come up with wonderful appropriate jokes?

The answer is Google.

But here's the expert advice: For something like this, don't just search for joke easter egg. Search for "dad joke" easter egg.

I don't know what is next for Neighbourhood Window Walk.

The Hillhurst / Sunnyside Community Association in Calgary is promoting some themes and dates for April on Facebook, but I haven't found any Ottawa-based themes.

Here is their list, which I will follow unless an Ottawa group proposes differently:

April 13 - Fish/Dolphins Sharks
April 18 - Rainbows
April 23 - Lollipops
April 28 - Encouraging Words

Neighbourhood Window Walk - Jokes

Today is "Jokes" for Neighbourhood Window Walk.

Saturday is "Easter Eggs". I suppose I should go with fairly literal decorated eggs, rather than obscure references to elements from Star Trek or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

After that, please let me know if you can.