my mosaic of the year

I stole this from another blog. And they stole it from someone else, and so on, and so on.

The concept:
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Labs Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

The questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food? right now?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. What is one word that describes you?
12. What is your flickr name?

My results are above. What's yours?

christmas cookie baking

this year mike hosted the christmas cookie baking at his house and we actually managed to get a lot of people in the same house! with kids! wow! the actual baking didn't go over well since mike and caroline's oven was broken. i made a non-bake white chocolate peppermint bark, which was surprisingly easy to do. i also decorated my first gingerbread house. it was harder than i thought it would be!



in conclusion, it was a good time and i hope we can do it again next year.

The best books I’ve read this year

i tried to come up with 10 but i couldn't. i have read a lot of books that i DIDN'T like this year....but here are the ones i enjoyed and would recommend. if you have any suggestions for good books you have read this year please send them along, i would be interested.

The Book of Negroes – Lawrence Hill
The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan
The Road – Cormac McCarthy
The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett (re-read)
The Mists of Avalon – Marion Zimmer Bradley
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling

schneider's bush

last weekend we did our first ski of the year at schneider's bush. as usual, we got lost somewhere along the tangle of trails and had to retrace our steps in order to find old baldy! this prompted me to finish something that i started last winter, a map of the ski trails in schneider's bush! in order to create the map i used a map that i found on the internet circa 1995, and tried to superimpose the trails onto an air photo, which makes it easier to determine where you actually are. i also edited some of the trails based on memory and my knowledge of the site. if you think this map needs tweaking, let me know. i will probably upload a revised version later in the season once i have a chance to check out if these trails still exist or if new trails need to be added!

species still at risk despite my efforts :(

i found out today that all 3 of the baby peregrine falcons that i helped to band this summer have been killed. these three birds were born on the side of a residential building in toronto and were the pride and joy of the members of the building on which they decided to make their home.

the first year of life is usually the most difficult for young falcons. first year mortality for peregrine falcons has been estimated to be as high as 75%. many peregrine falcons die while learning to fly as they can fall off the buildings before they are ready for flight. one of these birds died as a result of a collision with a building (they often fly into windows when attacking prey), and the other two were involved in air collisions with planes at the Toronto Airport. below is a picture of the 3 birds the day they were banded. those are my gloves in the picture.

it saddens me that these brave young birds are gone. i hope that the parents are able to breed successfully again next year and that i will be able to assist in the banding of their new offspring.


Picture by Mathew Rossi, you can read more about it here