Second Egg Laid

I was delighted to see that the swan couple had laid a second egg in the few days after the last visit to the wetland. Maybe there will be a third or even a fourth still to come. It was nice for the swan sitting on the eggs to stand occasionally to reveal the prize. Roberto the 'goose patrol' was also there to inspect who had come to see the nest, or was it hoping for a treat.

Swans Starting a New Family

On my last visit to the nearby wetland I was delighted to discover that the local swan couple have laid an egg. Last year they laid three eggs which all hatched. Unless there are a few more eggs on the way there will be only one cygnet (baby swan). Since the one egg has been allowed to stay 'cool' (and not start to incubate) there may still be more to come. It is nice to see the pair produce again. My wife Barb described the large egg colour 'powder blue with a touch of turquoise. It is wonderful that the swans have chosen a nest position that gives us a good view. The visually 'exposed' view is a tradeoff for the swans to have a location far more protected from the winter winds.

It's a pity that some people have no respect for the environment.

Goose patrol

Cormorant overseer

Noah's Ark

Recently at a community online gathering I was fascinated at the sheer size of the original Ark that Noah was required to make to prepare for the great flood over the land. The dimensions were given and the type of wood and number of decks. This family made a scale size model to match the plastic animals that their child played with and shared their experience with everybody else (below). The result is breathtaking reflecting a construction that seems similar in size to the Empire State Building on its side! I now fully appreciate why it took him 100 years to make it. He must have had an engineering mind or it could have developed "Titanic" cracks. I made the drawing (above) and added numerous exotic animals on the three decks. I added a totally inadequate food and water storage deck under these for the ten months they stayed cooped up. As I drew it I wondered how all these "calm" animals and humans managed to hold it together. This is a few notches above our present isolation experiences. There were only a few windows at the very top of the ark and according to the biblical story one of them was only opened at the end of ten months to let out the raven and the dove. It would have taken some time to adjust to the outside glare! There are now many more questions that arose from this pondering but that must be for another time.

Joseph Tests His Brothers

This remarkable story comes from Genesis 42 to 45 in the Bible. I have always been fascinated by it and decided to make two videos of the actual 'test'. They can be viewed HERE and HERE. Enjoy. All the actors are dressed up dolly pegs! With some of the video sections I used stop motion camera.