A lioness pauses for a refreshing drinkAn unusually placid hippo on Lake Naivasha in Kenya
I’m not sure what my hubby and I expected when we first went on safari in Africa; usually we try to arrive with a clean mental slate. But I can tell you that we didn’t expect Africa to get so deeply under our skin.
I was a biology major in university, and always wanted to go and see all the animals in their natural element some day. When we were finally able to swing the journey, it didn’t take us long to become overwhelmed by the amount of sightings we had – my hubby even cracked a joke about most of them being animatronic versions that got rolled out just ahead of our approach.
But even more than that, we made many friends among the safari guides and other people who lived there – all incredibly warm, welcoming and proud to show off their countries. I wish people in North America could all visit there to see what true community is like.
Locals transporting goods between Zambia and ZimbabweGetting stuck is a common occurrence in the African bush
I’ve never given much thought to why Africa is called ‘Africa’. No one really knows. There are various theories, but at one time the continent was called Alkebulan, a word of possibly Arabic origin that means either ‘the garden of Eden’ or ‘the mother of mankind’.
I like both of those. Africa is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen, and I’m not generalizing – we’ve been to six of its countries. And it is the ‘mother’ of mankind indeed: paleoanthropology (the study of human evolution) has produced evidence that our species, humans, first evolved in Africa as far back in time as 6 million years ago.
When we were on safari in Kenya a number of years ago, we spent several days in Samburu National Reserve, and there was a moment when, standing on the reddish sands surrounded by purplish mountains and a vast blue sky, I felt in touch with the beginning of the world. It’s such a difficult moment to describe, and without waxing too religious, it was as if I’d stepped back in time millions of years to when God walked the Earth. It was remarkably powerful and spiritual, and I wasn’t the only person in our group to experience it.
Make of that what you will, but Africa is in our DNA, literally, and it touches visitors profoundly. It is the mother to all of us, and a wonderful gift. I’m glad there’s a day to honour it. We need to do our best to cherish and preserve as much of it as we can. Find out more on the Global Citizen website.
Doum palms edge the banks of the Ewaso Nyiro river in KenyaAn elephant takes a mud bath in Botswana
All photos are by me and all rights are reserved. E. Jurus
Sorry for missing my regular post, but it was for a great reason — the approx. 2-week countdown to the publication of my novel is on! At the moment I’m busily creating two maps for the book (as requested by my beta readers); then it’s a matter of putting the whole thing together and formatting it for upload to Amazon. In the meantime, you can find lots of additional info on my new Facebook page, including advance peeks at the cover art, a bookmark series I’ve created, a section of one of the maps, photos of a real-life location I used as the basis for an important component of the novel, and more! If you live in southern Ontario or western New York State, I’d love for you to join me for the live Book Launch Party — free tickets (and details; limited seating) on Eventbrite!
Got a little ahead of myself last week, but still on hiatus this week, with a pic of a Virginia Bluebell flower for those who like their spring florals with a blue tinge 🙂 See you in two weeks. Photo by me and all rights reserved.
Hi folks – I’m taking a break this week, but have posted a photo that captures spring: a swathe of golden forsythia glowing in the afternoon sun, taken at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton last weekend. All rights reserved.
Pretty little ‘Glory of the Snow’, a sure sign of spring in Ontario
Every time I walk through a garden or a forest, I’m so grateful for everything that Nature gives us. Spring in Ontario has been a long time coming this year, and bits of flowers bursting out from the soil here and there are a very welcome sight! Next week marks Earth Week 2023, running from April 16 to 22, and it’s a great time to both appreciate the planet we live on, with all its natural wonders, as well as learn how we can best protect what we haven’t already destroyed.
This year’s theme is “Invest in Our Planet”. April 22 is designated as Earth Day, but as the official website states, “It’s not a Day, it’s a Movement”. The site contains a lot of great information for learning more about preserving our truly beautiful planet, as well as things each of us can do to help everyone working very hard on the front lines — becoming a member, signing a petition, taking a pledge, using their toolkits and fact sheets to spread information.
But I think one critical thing is paying attention to all of the little things that make the Earth so wonderful, from the tiniest little flowers and mosses to the trees and plants that clean our air and transmit chemicals that are beneficial to our well-being. A walk through a garden or a forest is a study in peacefulness, enjoying the fresh air, the soft sounds and the detachment from the daily grind.
A carpet of spring crocus makes a burst of colour under a still winter-bare tree
When we realize just how great a gift Nature gives us, we want more of it. We want to protect it. It’s important to begin our environmental journey by recognizing how precious all the tiny things we may not have been paying attention to actually are.
Multi-coloured hellebores in a rock garden in Niagara Falls
A Canadian initiative called For the Love of Creation, created in 2020 to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, brings together over 30 faith-based organizations “under a unified banner to mobilize education, reflection, action and advocacy for climate justice”. If you’re interested in this particular approach, you may want to sign up for their webinar, Addressing Environmental Racism in Canada, on April 25th from 7-8:30pm. The organization also has other activities you might want to check out.
These weird-looking woody protrusions are called Cypress Knees! Scientists haven’t figured out what they do, but they form above the roots of cypress trees growing in swampy areas.
The Canadian-specific site for Earth Day has more interesting things, including a beautiful t-shirt specially designed for this year. Buying it will help plant a tree, but before you do, they also ask you to consider putting an item of clothing that you don’t use back into circulation, perhaps as a donation or as part of a clothing exchange — unless you really could use a new t-shirt, in which case I think you can feel free to enjoy wearing this very cool design 🙂
If you do nothing else next week, at least go for a walk in the woods, or a botanical garden near you, and notice everything around you. The diversity and richness will surprise you.
A pair of mallard ducks out foraging for food on a flooded section of Heartland Forest in Niagara Falls
All photos were taken by me and all rights are reserved. E. Jurus
Looking northward on the Welland Canal towards the Homer lift bridge and the Garden City Skyway beyond it
There are certain unmistakable signs of spring in the Niagara Region, and one of them is the annual reopening of the Welland Canal. Anyone who’s driven through the area over the years can spot when the Canal, which become completely dry over the winter when the ships are put into dry-dock for repairs and any repairs to the Canal itself are made, begins to fill up again. It only takes a few days, which is amazing considering the volume of water — I haven’t been able to find a figure for the total volume of the Canal, but each of the 8 locks holds about 20 million gallons of water, and there are long stretches of water between each lock (bearing in mind that not every lock is full at the same time, but it still gives you an idea of the amount of water being let back in.
Below, you’ll see a photo of the Canal from Bridge 1 at Lakeshore Road in St. Catharines when it was partially filled, on March 4th.
On the other side of the bridge, you’re looking at the empty lock itself. The southward gate is in the forefront, and the 766-ft long Lock 1 beyond it.
Less than three weeks later, on March 21, the first southbound ship of the season, moving from Lake Ontario down to Lake Erie, left the Port Weller dry-dock
With the aid of two tugboats and moored along the Canal bank. It was the CSL (Canada Steamship Lines) ship St. Laurent.
In this view from the stern, you can see the tugboats that guided it out of the dock, their job finished.
Tied off with sturdy lines, the ship was resting in place, waiting for its move to Lock 3, where it was the star attraction of the Top Hat ceremony that kicks off each shipping season.
Not having any cargo loaded at this stage, we had a good view of the massive propeller as it sat partially out of the water.
Each year there are two Top Hat ceremonies, one in St. Catharines, the northern terminus of the Welland Canal on Lake Ontario, and the other in Port Colborne, the southern terminus on Lake Erie. March 22 dawned fairly overcast and chilly when we got up to attend the St. Catharines ceremony at the Lock 3 museum. The St. Laurent was waiting there, all flags flying in.
Numerous ceremonial flags along the lock also fluttered in the cold wind. Below you can also see the viewing platform overlooking the lock, where quite a few people were waiting for the official launch.
The weather in this region, a peninsula sandwiched between two massive lakes and bordered on the east by the Niagara Strait, which most people call the Niagara River, is highly variable — boaters always have to keep a vigilante eye on the weather reports any time they’re out on the water. From past experience with the vagaries of the local weather, this year the Top Hat ceremony was held indoors, inside the museum (which meant that we’d overdressed and were very warm).
A number of dignitaries were on hand, including the Mayor of St. Catharines, the Chair of the Niagara Region and the captain of the ship, who was given the ceremonial beaver-skin top hat in closing.
Some of the interesting facts we learned at the ceremony:
the average ship that traverses the St. Lawrence Seaway water transportation system carries the equivalent of 363 truckloads, making the water system much more environmentally friendly
the Seaway system produces its own power, so it doesn’t draw from the Ontario grid
since the opening of this, the 4th iteration of the Welland Canal, more than 3 billion tons of cargo have been transported
the St. Laurent is part of the World Biofuel Program
After the top hat was presented, with three long and two short blasts of the ship’s horn, the season was underway.
The clouds began to part as hubby and I moved to the viewing platform to get a birds-eye view of the ship.
If you’re curious as to what the deck of such a massive cargo ship looks like…
In short order, the yellow armature, called a “ship arrestor”, began to lower behind the boat (it serves as a barrier between the ship and the lock gate for extra accident prevention) and the water in the lock began to churn as the ship began to move forward…
This photo below gives you some idea of how very snugly the ships fit inside the lock. The laker pilot navigates the boat from the bridge at the rear, which is quite something to watch when you’re standing on the bridge over 700 feet away from the prow. There’s very little margin for error, which is why any ocean-going ships that use the Seaway system have to take on laker pilots to go through the locks.
Ahead of the ship, Bridge 5 at Glendale, a vertical lift bridge, was already going up.
At the same time, Lock 3 was emptying in preparation for another ship to enter it and be lifted to the next stage of the canal. The yellow apparatus you can see below is part of the Hands-Free Mooring system. On each side of the lock, the pairs hold the ship firmly in place with a vacuum seal.
You can find out much more information about the Seaway System and the Welland Canal when you visit the St. Catharines Museum at Lock 3. The museum is small, but holds some fascinating pieces of area history, such as this vintage REO motor car.
The REO Motor Car Company was based in Lansing, Michigan. Ransom E. Olds, who founded the Oldsmobile Car Company, left that to start REO, using his own initials as the name. One of the company’s plants was in St. Catharines.
Built in 1843 in downtown St. Catharines, the Russell Hotel was a popular rest spot and watering hole.
A vintage fire truck from the Victorian era displays some complicated mechanics.
There are quite a few more items to see inside, including information about the Freedom Trail that ran through the area as part of the Underground Railroad.
A nice gift shop holds a good variety of items, including copies of Ship to Shore Chef, by Catherine Schmuck, a chef on the Seaway for many years. I couldn’t resist buying a copy. In my early days working at Niagara College, I had the opportunity to go through the Canal on a big Laker ship. The voyage was fascinating, with tours from the bridge (which was where I got the eye-popping view of the front of the ship being steered from the rear almost 800 feet away) all the way down to the engine room. Our small visiting group also had a wonderful meal on board, so I can tell you from experience that the crew eat very well — thanks to chefs like Catherine. I haven’t had a chance to try out any of her recipes yet but am looking forward to it.
Outside there are an interesting assortment of artifacts to get a close-up look at.
If you can catch good weather, there’s a lot to see along the Canal in the Niagara Region.
All photos are by me, and may not be used without my express permission. E. Jurus
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