I took a slip of Granny’s Roses from her garden, before her house was sold. They are thriving in our back yard, and are just starting to bloom. Attila brought these in for me yesterday.
I love the scent of these roses, it takes me back to a place and time that I thought was, at the time, and still do, heaven.
Granny and Grandpa are my Mom’s parents, the nut does not fall far from the tree.
This morning I have been thinking about one of the mentors in my academic career, an individual who was a pivotal force in my life. I was extremely lucky to have several outstanding human beings that took an interest in my studies. One of them was Dr. Bernard V. Gutsell, one of the very few men on planet earth who I hold in high regard.
I was an older student when I returned to university to study for another degree, so all of my time at the university was spent on intellectual pursuits. I was a mother of a young child, and lived far from the university, a two hour drive one way. I attended classes two days a week.
One of those first classes was taught by Dr. Gutsell. It was my favourite class, and I excelled. After completing the class, Dr. Gutsell hired me as an assistant for the next session. Eventually I was in charge of the laboratory classes for his undergraduate courses. The subject matter delighted me. But more than that, Dr. Gutsell, as a human being, was inspirational. He treated me as an equal, even though academically speaking we were not equals. I was fortunate to begin my journey to graduate school with the expectation of being treated respectfully, I had learned that those who guided knowledge were capable of respecting other people regardless of status, race, gender, or age. Dr. Gutsell gave that to me freely, it was just who he was.
I was fortunate in meeting many mentors who met with my expectations.
I am sad to recall that there were some in the academy who failed to meet with my expectations. I am pretty sure they don’t know who they are, those hapless souls. They helped me appreciate all the more those who rose above and well beyond the petty squabbles and territorialism that haunt the academic world.
Back to the present, where I am writing, sitting in my old easy chair, communing with the universe and Ginger, who is enjoying a zen-like afternoon stretched out on the couch. The newly armless chair, the one that Attila sawed the arms off, was so uncomfortable that I found myself avoiding sitting down, which got rather tiring. That won’t do, so I am back to the two-armed back-comforting chair, and keeping an eye out for a suitable armless chair. I will have to sit in any new-to-me chair, to know if it will be suitable This slows down the search, but is necessary.
Yesterday, Attila proposed we take a trip out to the Camp, the second of 2026. So we packed a picnic lunch, some gear, and headed out. It was a perfect day. Warm but not hot, sunny with a few clouds, breezy but not windy, shared in good company, who could ask for better.
This year there are lots of birds. Neither Attila nor I can identify them by bird call, and they are completely hidden from sight in the forest canopy. There were years when there were no birds around us at the Camp. I believe that was due to Rat Snakes, who will ascend trees to hunt birds. The snakes were sighted at that time, but we didn’t see them last summer, or this summer, so I think they have moved on to happier hunting grounds. The birds are back.
Attila whipper snipped the weeds, which is a huge job. I gathered fallen branches to burn in the campfire, which I tended the whole time we were there. I am skilled at starting a fire with two pieces of newsprint and a match/lighter. The fire is started upon arrival, so that hot coals will be ready for cooking our grilled cheese sandwiches at lunch time. When it is time to leave for the day, the campfire is extinguished using water collected in a large garbage can, runoff from Winnie’s small roof.
Our Camp is in a municipality that requires a burn permit for campfires, and requires daily registration of intent to burn. They have made this very easy to accomplish, I merely have to obtain a permit online, then call and press the correct button on the phone to register for the day that we want to burn.
Mice are still running amuck in the trailer, still ending up in the mouse trap. The project to secure the undercarriage of the trailer against them is not on this year’s list of projects, as we are focusing on the ERV installation, and the installation of skirting around the foundation of Mist Cottage. It is true in our case, that the more you own, the more it owns you.
Worldly
Weather
23°C
Date: 12:00 PM EDT Wednesday 24 June 2026
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.7 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 23.3°C
Dew point: 11.7°C
Humidity: 48%
Wind: NW 14 km/h
Humidex: 25
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“He was a prince among men.”
In Memoriam, Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization, Volume 45, Number 3
Roger Wheate
UNBC
Well said!
Hi Maggie. Have you heard of the Merlin app? You download it to your phone. When you run it, it records the different bird calls outside and tells you which birds are singing. It’s totally free. Here’s a link: https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/ The birds can be hidden in the trees and the app will still identify the bird(s). You can save the information about each bird you i.d.
Thanks Sandy, I hadn’t heard of that app! We don’t use a cell phone, but we do have an old iPad, so I will see if there is a version that will run on it. It would be so nice to know what birds are flying around us when we are sitting under the trees!
I forgot to say that your Granny’s roses are beautiful! Merlin has this on their website: “Merlin runs on iPhones and iPads with iOS 18 or newer” Do you have a desk top? I wonder if you could use that? You can also record the birdsong.
Thanks about the roses Sandy, I find them delightful.
Unfortunately, I just checked, the old iPad will not run iOS 18, so I will look into possibilities for the desktop. Eventually we will purchase a cell phone, it is getting harder and harder to do things without one, so many businesses and the government assume everyone has one. They are very expensive to buy and to get service for, such a shame that technology has overtaken almost every aspect of life. For now, we remain relative luddites.
Sandy beat me to it, with the Merlin recommendation. There is a free app, when you get a phone that will run it.
There are mobile companies (maybe all of them?) that will let you pay off a phone over time, and when we got our carrier (Koodo) they included some older, inexpensive models in their online stores.
I just upgraded my and DH’s plans at Koodo. We’ve been with them for maybe 5 years and I was shocked to find the prices had dropped significantly. For the same data plan, DH now pays $18 less. And I upgraded from a talk-only plan to the lowest data plan (which I’ll barely use) and am only paying $2 more.
Teri, at some point we will have a device that will run recent software on iOS. I admit to not liking iOS very much, or Android, I find them both clunky, with lots of junk-to-me features I don’t use, and security issues that I haven’t bothered to read up on.
I will have to bite the bullet at some point though, that is certain. We only use the phone for medical and government stuff, and the occasional conversation with family members, so it seems undesirable to spend money on something that is, for our lifestyle, relatively unused.The old cell phone we have is over 10 years old, and doesn’t do a whole lot other than voice and text, good for emergencies and not much else. We will limp along and resist cell phones as long as is possible, but I get the feeling it soon will not be possible to survive in Canada without access to a cell phone.
We sometimes use the cell phone to find places when we’re in unfamiliar territory. And we also use it to contact Hydro when our electricity has gone out, so we do find it necessary. We also use it to contact each other when we’re separated, such as when DH is having the car serviced or we’re separated while shopping.
Before this month, I almost never even turned on my cell. Thus the talk only plan. But when DH was shopping without me and wanted to send me pics of some item he was choosing, he couldn’t as I didn’t have data. With a cell plan “jumping” from $33/mo to data at $35, the convenience we were missing seemed worth it.
Teri, I can see how handy the cell phone can be!
We did have two flip phones at one point, when Attila was still working.
We are both retired now, and at home together. If one of us is away they take the cell phone, the other is at home beside the land line, So far it works OK for us.
We grew up without cell phones, if I wanted to call home I used a pay phone, there aren’t pay phones anymore. Before telephones ordinary people just waited until they were together talk to one another or sent notes or letters with somebody, before my time, but it must have worked, everybody was doing it that way.
It was the same for me, at 69 years old as of yesterday.
For better or worse, we got rid of our landline when we moved here. Just as well, as carriers are now doing away with landlines. (Heads up to keep an eye open for that happening to you.)
Teri, thanks for the heads up!
A belated Happy Birthday to you!
Hey, Maggie. Gander is officially launching publicly on Canada Day.
Thanks Teri! They changed some things so that I could get through some of the registration on the computer, but then I hit a process that asked me to give them access to my computer to take a picture of me. I never grant access to my computer to anyone other than myself. So, I am not sure I will ever be able to register with Gander.
I reached out to some folks at Gander to see if there’s a work-around…
Thanks Teri!
They suggest you get in touch with support through the Gander app, I guess when you first get in to try to join.
Thanks Teri! I will give that a go.