Community of Hearts

I had the distinct pleasure of leading a Focus on Nature workshop with the young adults at Community of Hearts. While they may live with challenges related to their mental disabilities, these folks were very enthusiastic about learning photography and showed great talent in making well-composed images.

We spent the morning walking, laughing and shooting photos of flowers, goslings, graffiti and our own shadows along the Speed River. It was a blast! They have a great sense of humour and a big capacity for compassion.

And like the students at our school workshops they were proud of their work and keen to share their slideshows with the others in their group.

Thank you Community of Hearts. I hope we'll be able to work with you again.

Happy Birthday, Gail!

We celebrated Gail's birthday yesterday, here in Barbados, where she's been staying for the past 3 months. 

I won't say which birthday (it's not polite to reveal a woman's age!) but it was a milestone. 

Gail's birthday wish was to have dinner on the beach with her good friends, Dianne and Sam Mahon.

With tiki torches and fine wine we made it a night to remember!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful woman. I love you so much!

Caribbean SOS

My idyllic day on the Tobago Cays (see previous post) ended in a near-disaster. Gail and I had hired a local water taxi, the Papa San and its driver Jerome, to take us from nearby Mayreau Island to the Cays and bring us back in the afternoon.

After a great day of snorkelling around the reefs, on the return 20 minute journey the outboard motor on the Papa San suddenly died.  The waters were quite rough on the windward side of Mayreau, rocking the boat as Jerome tried restarting the engine to no avail. We were out of gas!

The rocks and waves at Monkey Point

As the current drew us towards the rocks of Monkey Point and the ominous frothing surf of the surrounding reef, we started to get a little nervous. "Don't worry", said Jerome as he tossed the anchor overboard. Only one problem: the anchor wasn't tied to the boat and with one big wave the rope slipped through Jerome's hands and the anchor disappeared into the deep. No cell phone and no lifejackets. Now what? 




A boat came around the point heading for Union Island. Gail, getting quite panicky, took off her white shirt and started waving it as we all yelled as loud as we could. No response.

Towed home

The rocks loomed larger. The waters looked angrier. Gail was beside herself. I was thinking about our best options: stay with the boat or get our fins on and start swimming hard.

Another boat appeared and we waved and screamed even louder to no avail. Jerome put his flippers on and started beating his legs against the current. It seemed to have little effect.

Then a third boat appeared around the point. This time our waving and yelling paid off. The boat slowed and then wheeled towards us. Rescued!

Bigger boats are better!

Our rescuers were from a new resort development on Mayreau and their boat, unlike ours, was a large zodiac with a huge outboard motor. They threw us a rope and obligingly towed us slowly back to the Mayreau pier.

Lesson learned? Yup. The next day we went back to Tobago Cays but this time on a large catamaran with lunch served on board. It was twice the price but worth every penny.

Tobago Cays

This uninhabited group of tiny islands, and the protective reef around them, are a national marine park in the Grenadines. I'd heard it was popular with "yachties" sailing the Caribbean sea and a great place to snorkel in the crystal clear waters.

I decided to make this the place to spend my sixty-sixth birthday and I was not disappointed!

Green turtles, stingrays and every kind of tropical fish abound in these shallow blue waters.

Bonaparte's gulls flew overhead and iguanas chased each other around the beach as I enjoyed my rum punch! It was a day to remember.

A near-disaster awaited but I'll save that story for my next blog post.

Emerging Nature

Emerging Nature is our newest exhibition of photographs taken by students in Focus on Nature workshops and camps. It runs for the month of March at the eMERGE Centre in Old Quebec Street Mall, in downtown Guelph.

Jacob and Family at the reception.  Photo by Evan Ferrari.

The opening reception had a lot of media attention! Read the article published in GuelphToday.

If you can't make it to see these remarkable images in person, then do visit our Flickr site to enlarge them on your screen.

Green Heron

Who is that bird walking about in the bougainvillea? Why it's a green heron! In fact there is a pair of herons and they're building a nest in the tree beside our apartment in Barbados.

Green herons are a small heron that is familiar along the shorelines of lakes and marshes in Ontario but I didn't know he was a Caribbean bird as well. In Canada they are very secretive and difficult to see as they crouch perfectly still in the shadows waiting for a fish or frog to come near. But here they appear to be well-adapted to having humans around. So well that this pair will be raising a clutch of chicks right next door to us!

Akaroa

In the last hour of our visit to New Zealand, after 5 happy weeks of touring and before flying back across the dateline and the equator to North America, I thought I'd upload some images of scenic Akaroa, where we spent 3 days at the lovely Twin Gullies B&B. Definitely one of the highlights of our trip!

Birds of New Zealand

New Zealand, long separated from ancient Gondwana, has had the chance to evolve its own unique species of birds without mammal predators. It's home to the flightless kiwi - which I heard one night but did not see -  and was home to the largest bird ever known, the moa, which unfortunately was hunted to extinction by early Maori.

Being interested in birds wherever I go, I was keen to learn about the avifauna of NZ. Below are images of local birds, both native and introduced, that I was able to photograph while traveling for around the North and South Islands. Click on a photo to enlarge. Click on the name to learn more about the particular specie.

Tui

Bellbird

Eastern Rosella

Red-billed gull

Magpie

Saddleback

Kōkako

California quail

Dotterel

Pūkeko

White-fronted tern

Stitchbird

Gannets

Fernbird

Pied shag

New Zealand pigeon

Weka

Yellowhammer

Tomtit

Chaffinch

Pied oystercatcher

South Island robin

Kea

New Zealand scaup

Yellow-eyed penguin

Royal spoonbill

Royal albatross

Blue penguin

Pied stilt

Swamp harrier

White-faced heron