Turtle, tortoise.

Be like a turtle; at ease in your own shell.

The thing about turtles and tortoises is, I don't know much about them. I know they are cute. I know that a few summers ago I fed a snapping turtle a hot dog. I know that out west, we don't see a lot of them. But now, I'm going to know a bit more.

Above you see a tortoise (top) and a common snapping turtle (bottom). I took these photos the other day at a Reptile Zoo presentation. The difference between the two is this: the common snapping turtle is a freshwater turtle found in Canada and the U.S. The tortoise is a desert turtle that lives on land. Turtle has webbed feet, tortoise has club feet. They both have shells (called a carapace) to hide from predators in. But a tortoise will sink and drown in the water while a turtle will swim.

The snapping turtle can live to 30 or 40 years in the wild, and eat fish, frogs, birds and mammals. They are nocturnal - meaning they hide in mud or sand during the day and wait for their prey and during the winter become dormant, again burying themselves beneath muddy pond bottoms for the duration of the winter.

The tortoise can live up to 150 years, although one has been recorded as living longer. A tortoise named Tu'i Malila, who was a present of the Tongan royal family in 1777, remained in the care of that family until 1965. That would mean that Tu;i Malila lived until it was 188 years old. Tortoises like to eat lettuce, worms and insects, among other things.

Book 7

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

This book was certainly not what I expected. I started reading it and realized that it was written as if a 15-year-old child was writing it in a journal, and I wasn't so sure I liked it. But it was interesting...

Interesting to see inside the mind of a harmless, confused, boy learning what it is to become a man. Holden isn't your typical adolescent, he has an imagination that won't quit and ideas that are far too erratic, but in his eyes are all the more tangible.

The best part is when he references to The Catcher in the Rye. He says he pictures kids playing in a field of rye, and he is the only other person there. He's standing at the edge of a cliff and he's there to catch kids if they start to fall towards it. He says, "that's the only thing I'd really like to be."

This book was a-ok, not fantastic, but a-ok, and as I usually am with books, I am glad I read it. Because now someone may ask me, "have you read this?" And I'll say, "yes!"

Bzzzz... photo of the week.

I bought a basket of flowers in the market last week and the other day, a bee buzzed and got some nectar from the flowers. I just played with this photo a bit, couldn't get the bee in focus, he was just too quick!

Cocoa crack-a-lackin'

Cocoa Crackle Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 cup butter, softened, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup light brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 cup powdered sugar.
DIRECTIONS:
Mix flours, baking soda and salt together. Beat butter, brown and white sugars together until fluffy, add eggs and vanilla and mix. Then combine the flour and sugar mixture, plus cocoa power. Roll in tablespoon full balls and roll into powdered sugar, then drop onto greased cookie sheets.
*** I double the recipe because while 15 cookies is fabulous, three dozen is even more fabulous. These are my favourite, favourite cookies. They taste like chocolate cake. Bake at 350 degrees for 9 to 11 minutes, depending on whether you are using convection or not.

I made some jam.

I made some jam yesterday. I've never done it before. It was great. It was sweet, delicious, and certainly not nutritious. So, this is how you make jam.

First, go buy about 2 litres of strawberries. They are better from a strawberry farm, because they are cheaper than buying a ton at the grocery store.

Then, you wash and mash the strawberries in a bowl, with a potato masher. You crush them until they are all juicy, red, and you do that until you get four cups of strawberries. You put the strawberries in a pot. Then you add 1/4 cup of lemon juice, and a whopping 7 cups of granulated white sugar. Not four cups... but 7. I couldn't believe it. It did, however, explain for the complete sweetness of the jam. Then, you add the Certo. And boil the strawberries.

You have to watch that they don't overflow over the pot and get onto the stove. Because if it does, that 7 cups of sugar will stick like white on rice. Or sticky, strawberry sugar mix. It happened.

You pour the jam into jars, and seal them with a kiss. Jam is delicious. I don't eat a lot of it, but now that I've made 12 jars of jam I will have to eat more.

no big deal... yah right!

July/August Issue 2010

So, I have two very small pieces on the upcoming issue of Canadian Geographic. And yes, they are small, and yes, they are not even engrossing 300 words, but.. it's a big deal! I'm super excited. And I know all I really do is talk about my internship, my job, my writing, but it is what I do and I am glad to say that it is - I hope - finally paying off, so to speak. The story is about a student who won this year's GeoChallenge. I interviewed him and sent it to one of our senior writers. My name is at the bottom and I think that's pretty cool. So if you can spare $7 next month, check it out. Page 9.

Small town what?

I never thought that living in a small town would result in all things small town. But, I've been proven wrong. Over the last several weeks I've been checking out the Elk Valley RCMP police reports as posted on The Free Press website, and they have proven to be more small town than I ever anticipated: I mean, country mud, belt-buckle wearing, beer-guzzling, dog-chasing, bizarre police reports.

Here are a few that resulted in my laughing out out loud while at the same time shaking my head.

- In Grasmere at 8:20 p.m. a vehicle hit a deer. There were no injuries but the deer was killed.

- In Fernie on 6th Ave. at 1:08 a.m. there was a report of several males out in the street yelling and screaming.

- In Fernie at 9:52 a.m. a 100 gallon fuel tank was stolen from a cabin on Morrissey Road.

- In Fernie at 3:18 a.m. police helped remove an unwanted guest from the Super 8 motel.

- In Sparwood at 1:29 p.m. a man reported having his cell phone stolen after letting a woman stay the night at his house in Pine Avenue.

- In Hosmer at 1:02 p.m. three gunshots were heard in Dicken Road. Police could find no evidence of firing but noted there were a lot of gophers in that area.

- In Fernie at 3:02 p.m. a hair salon reported a man had been calling them asking for a two-hour facial massage.

- In Elkford at 11:45 p.m. there was a domestic disturbance at Deerborne Drive. A drunk woman was screaming at her husband and the neighbours were shouting to her to be quiet.

- A driver got stuck on a sandbank when he drove into the Elk River to retrieve a pair of antlers.

Protected Parrots: photo of the week

the wrath of earth! rarrr!

I thought earlier this morning that I hadn't written an exciting post for a long time, and I was concerned because I get an itch when I don't do some personal writing. I write every day, but it's not always personal, mostly it's for work.

And then two things happened to me today that quite changed my worries. There was an earthquake! EARTHQUAKE! In Ottawa. I was driving on my way to a story meeting and I drive a big, 1998 Dodge diesel truck. I had stopped at a red light and was just listening to the radio, enjoying (not really) the hot, humid weather.

When bam! The truck started shaking, rocking back and forth, back and forth. And I looked around me, and all of the other vehicles waiting at the light were also shaking, from tire to tire. Initially I thought, "Must be a big train." But then I was tuning in to the radio and the announcer said, "I think we just had an earthquake."

The shaking lasted for maybe 15 seconds, and it was the neatest thing I've ever experienced! I study geography, so the earth shaking it's fury is quite extraordinary in my eyes.

To inform the ill-informed, the epicentre (which is the point on the earth's surface directly above the 'focus' of the earthquake) was just 56 km from Ottawa, at 45.9 degrees N and 75.5 degrees W. And immediately during and following the tremor, people in the city were evacuated from buildings. Malls closed. I wasn't at home, so I didn't experience the full effects of being in a building. But upon opening my door I discovered that the shelves in our kitchen had fallen, and with them went the slow cooker and a water jug.

It was all very neat, feeling the wrath of the earth. It's so cliche, but I think we truly underestimate just the power the earth has and it is one thing that - no matter how hard we try - we can not control.

As a side... I was biking around town to see if I could see any damage from the quake, when I saw this man with parrots on his back. He is a bird rescuer, and his four parrots sat on his shoulder. He was kind enough to let me take a photo. See picture of the week!

All in all, I didn't get my work done, but I had a great day!

it's all biz. ness.

I'm now a professional and thus need a business card. I ordered 1000. Think that's too many?