Lovely! I understand birds' nests are considered a delicacy. I would like to say I'm not going to try the protective-spike-special, no matter how exotic it's said to be...
I have an Australian cattle Dog who sheds 24 hours a day every day for 365 days a year. I always scratch her up and fluff her up and get that loose fur off of her outside. Over the years I've collected at least a dozen all different types of nests that have fallen out of trees in my backyard. Not a one of them has dog or cat fur in it. Maybe our domestic animals just smell wrong.
While the size and weight of a baby hummingbird will vary with the species, chicks are about one inch long, and weigh about . 62 grams when born. Think of a jellybean that weighs about one-third the weight of a U.S. dime, and you'll have a pretty good idea of just how itsy-bitsy these little birds are.
If they were big they’d be dangerous. When we get the flowers blooming and they’re gathering nectar they are brutally possessive and dive bomb anyone walking thru the yard. They aren't much of a threat since they’re quite wee but if they weren’t watch out!
Watched a pair of eagles building their aerie the other day from across the lake (if I had been closer, they would have just sat there and screamed at me, they do that).
I would be very surprised to learn that Tressie McMillan Cottom has any influence over editorial policy at the New York Times. I can't blame her for publishing her insightful commentary on that platform. If the biases we see in the NYT were to appear in her columns, that would be another story.
State of California invested modestly in my education and it paid off incredibly well for them because I made a lot more money and paid a lot more taxes than I would have otherwise.
Fun neighbourhoods? MINE! Mine is fun. We got the High Park, the Roncesvalles Ave with fun shops for the kids and the grownups, good collection of restaurants, a proper ice cream shop, and when you get to the bottom, the lake is right there.
The funnest way to explore all the good neighborhoods is just hop on a streetcar. Pick a direction and go. Chinatown, Kensington Market, Little Italy, Koreatown (that’s on the subway line) the Beaches (overrated IMO but people seem to like it), West Queen West, the Danforth (also on the subway line and you get to ride over the Don Valley), Harbourfront, I could go on..
The zoo is great but it’s way the fuck out on the eastern border of the city and will take hours if you’re not driving.
I would totally meet you guys at Medieval Times, it’s not too far from where I live.
I love this quote in particular: “If people gave up playing sports because they thought they were going to lose, we wouldn’t have a sports industry,” they said. “I love playing against people that are faster and stronger because that’s how I get better.”
Another example I love to go to is the open weight class judo competition. Even among cis women, the expectation is that a skilled featherweight can still take down a heavyweight due to the rules within the sport. The movie "Yawara, a Fashionable Judo Girl" is about that exact scenario - a tiny little slip of a thing who only does judo at the Olympic level because her grandfather has trained her to do so since she was little manages to take down her friendly rival, the heavyweight class from Canada, despite the Canadian weighing three times as much.
Existing sports have weight classes for these kind of reasons. A trans woman who has been on puberty blockers since adolescence and stayed relatively petite should be able to compete in the same weight class as cis women. (I know such an Olympic style trans weight lifter. She's shorter than I am and competes in the 132 lb weight class. But because she's trans, she is cut out of half the competitions.)
Anyway, roller derby is definitely one of those "anything goes" sports where skill, teamwork, and sheer endurance are the most important qualities, not necessarily raw strength or a specific body type. (Super tall? Guess what you're easier to knock off balance then. Super heavyweight? Guess what, you're probably slower and exhaust faster - it's hard to stay bulky in that sport for long.) I'm glad the roller derby girls are taking a stand for inclusiveness.
For people with small kids going to Toronto there is actually a small island off the shore of downtown with a small amusement park, biking and a beach you can go to. We really enjoyed it.
Yes! Going to Centre Island is a rite of passage for all Toronto kids. It’s a proper old-school amusement park, not a corporate beast like Canada’s Wonderland. Though it might not be open yet in May :(
“Matt Maddock who is pretty sure the Gonzaga men’s basketball team was IMMIGRANT VADERS”
only showed Twitter responses to Matt Maddock from Michigan from Maxwell White and Mallory McMorrow. Almost all M names. And what else starts with M????
Some of those intersections in the Conde Nast Traveler article don't actually intersect. I would check out the Royal York (mainly for the history, although it is located near Union Station and the various stadia), the King Edward (near Old Toronto and the St. Lawrence Market), and the Gladstone House (in West Queen West, near the Drake).
The Broadview looks nice, but Leslieville is actually going to be somewhat isolated from the rest of the city, and there isn't much else to do in the East End. Both traffic and transit in the city are terrible right now.
The fun neighborhoods right now are going to be West Queen West, Dundas West, Ossington, and Kensington Market. They're all actually pretty close to each other.
King St. west of Spadina is going to be a nightmare of hooting yuppies and people who drove in from Markham on the weekends, and Queen & Spadina boasts the most dangerous McDonald's in Canada after about 1am.
Of course, there are fun museums (the ROM and the AGO, for example, although the AGO staff just went on strike, so who knows). And if you wanted to see an exhibition about food and social status in the 1820s, you could also visit historic Campbell House at Queen & University (blatant self-plug).
The Sheraton has (or at least had) an indoor/outdoor pool with a modest barrier you can duck under. Lots of kid fun. Particularly fun at 20 below F when you can feel your hair freeze in seconds then warm up with a quick ducking
Oh, there's also Casa Loma, which is not really an historic site, but it is one of those castles built by crazy millionaires from the turn of the century. There's an actual historic house near it, which is also worth a visit. They're about the only interesting things north of Bloor St.
Actually, I realized that was unfair of me. Some of the best food in Toronto right now is in Malvern, and Agincourt, and Islington and places like that, but its all in food courts and strip malls and things, and those areas are incredibly underserved by transit and difficult to get to if you don't know the city.
> Shy wants to go to Medieval Times for his birthday in May.
We did that with my best friend's family a few years back. It wasn't bad. The show was a short medieval drama with horses and stage-combat, and the food was decent. Maybe worth doing once for the novelty.
Nifty new nest news (birds shall have their vengeance)! At the click, chirp chirp: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/niche-nests
Lovely! I understand birds' nests are considered a delicacy. I would like to say I'm not going to try the protective-spike-special, no matter how exotic it's said to be...
In fairness, it's only the swallow's nests that the Chinese eat. It's made from bird saliva.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-Bird-Saliva-Soup-aka-Birds-Nest-Soup-made-from
I have a cat tree on my patio and hummingbirds pluck fur from it for their nests.
OMG, fairy nests! I’ve always wanted to find one. I’m not at all surprised at the crows and magpies making ‘Game of Thrones’ nests.
Ugh, I read the other day that if a person uses topical flea pesticide, that fur can be harmful to newborns.
I know, I know! Jaysus, we can't freaking get a break.
I have an Australian cattle Dog who sheds 24 hours a day every day for 365 days a year. I always scratch her up and fluff her up and get that loose fur off of her outside. Over the years I've collected at least a dozen all different types of nests that have fallen out of trees in my backyard. Not a one of them has dog or cat fur in it. Maybe our domestic animals just smell wrong.
So that's where my hair went.
I was in the SD zoo hummingbird enclosure and the birds kept trying to pull my hair out .
BIRB TABS!
Read about the spikey nests! You’ll love ‘em!
Hummingbirds hatching.
https://youtu.be/IEs3w7Jzb7c
💖
Gorgeous
Aww, precious tiny babies!
Just imagine how small those eggs and babies actually are. The camera doesn't give any idea of their size.
So smol! As per the searchy:
While the size and weight of a baby hummingbird will vary with the species, chicks are about one inch long, and weigh about . 62 grams when born. Think of a jellybean that weighs about one-third the weight of a U.S. dime, and you'll have a pretty good idea of just how itsy-bitsy these little birds are.
We get hummingbirds in the summer and their nests are so tiny they fit in the palm of your hand. They're some of my favorite birds.
If they were big they’d be dangerous. When we get the flowers blooming and they’re gathering nectar they are brutally possessive and dive bomb anyone walking thru the yard. They aren't much of a threat since they’re quite wee but if they weren’t watch out!
Milkweed down bedding! Softest of softies! 🥰
(𝒃𝒊𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆)
Alred Hitcock has entered the chat.
Check out the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCxR7dlavwg
Nature's helicopter.
The birbs will come for us all
https://substack.com/profile/155933030-justin-w-kung-fu-action-beard/note/c-52723382?r=2ku6p2
Watched a pair of eagles building their aerie the other day from across the lake (if I had been closer, they would have just sat there and screamed at me, they do that).
Pretty impressive things, those nests
Pffft. I bet they only have one bathroom.
They have infinite bathrooms
Yeah, but Christ, what a view.
I don't want to be judgemental, but if you enjoy watching eagles shitting I think that's pretty fucking weird.
Don't be silly; you never see it coming when they shit on you.
Fun neighbourhoods: the Junction, Ossington, Queen West, the Danforth, Roncasvalles. I'm sure fellow Torontonians can add to the list.
My birthday is in May too, can I come to Medieval Times
I was in a gazebo and a hummingbird got caught in a spider web and fell on the table in front of me.
I gently picked it up, zero weight, pulled the silk off it.
It sat in my hand for a moment and off it went. I felt like Cinderella
Hooray!
So much PRO GAHD CONTENT! Many people are saying!
I would be very surprised to learn that Tressie McMillan Cottom has any influence over editorial policy at the New York Times. I can't blame her for publishing her insightful commentary on that platform. If the biases we see in the NYT were to appear in her columns, that would be another story.
A house finch decided to set up a nest in (fortunately) one of my charcoal starters hanging on my porch : https://substack.com/profile/964381-bruce/note/c-52745939
Glad it's not your only chimney!
State of California invested modestly in my education and it paid off incredibly well for them because I made a lot more money and paid a lot more taxes than I would have otherwise.
There is some kind of homespun Passion of the Christ parade going up my street right now and it’s kind of adorable.
WAAAHT, you’re coming to Toronto!? *happy dance*
Fun neighbourhoods? MINE! Mine is fun. We got the High Park, the Roncesvalles Ave with fun shops for the kids and the grownups, good collection of restaurants, a proper ice cream shop, and when you get to the bottom, the lake is right there.
The funnest way to explore all the good neighborhoods is just hop on a streetcar. Pick a direction and go. Chinatown, Kensington Market, Little Italy, Koreatown (that’s on the subway line) the Beaches (overrated IMO but people seem to like it), West Queen West, the Danforth (also on the subway line and you get to ride over the Don Valley), Harbourfront, I could go on..
The zoo is great but it’s way the fuck out on the eastern border of the city and will take hours if you’re not driving.
I would totally meet you guys at Medieval Times, it’s not too far from where I live.
The Danforth is great, and yeah, the scenic view is an added bonus.
I love this quote in particular: “If people gave up playing sports because they thought they were going to lose, we wouldn’t have a sports industry,” they said. “I love playing against people that are faster and stronger because that’s how I get better.”
Another example I love to go to is the open weight class judo competition. Even among cis women, the expectation is that a skilled featherweight can still take down a heavyweight due to the rules within the sport. The movie "Yawara, a Fashionable Judo Girl" is about that exact scenario - a tiny little slip of a thing who only does judo at the Olympic level because her grandfather has trained her to do so since she was little manages to take down her friendly rival, the heavyweight class from Canada, despite the Canadian weighing three times as much.
Existing sports have weight classes for these kind of reasons. A trans woman who has been on puberty blockers since adolescence and stayed relatively petite should be able to compete in the same weight class as cis women. (I know such an Olympic style trans weight lifter. She's shorter than I am and competes in the 132 lb weight class. But because she's trans, she is cut out of half the competitions.)
Anyway, roller derby is definitely one of those "anything goes" sports where skill, teamwork, and sheer endurance are the most important qualities, not necessarily raw strength or a specific body type. (Super tall? Guess what you're easier to knock off balance then. Super heavyweight? Guess what, you're probably slower and exhaust faster - it's hard to stay bulky in that sport for long.) I'm glad the roller derby girls are taking a stand for inclusiveness.
For people with small kids going to Toronto there is actually a small island off the shore of downtown with a small amusement park, biking and a beach you can go to. We really enjoyed it.
Yes! Going to Centre Island is a rite of passage for all Toronto kids. It’s a proper old-school amusement park, not a corporate beast like Canada’s Wonderland. Though it might not be open yet in May :(
i love hummingbirds, that is all
We have them all year around.
I don’t know folks the article about,
“Matt Maddock who is pretty sure the Gonzaga men’s basketball team was IMMIGRANT VADERS”
only showed Twitter responses to Matt Maddock from Michigan from Maxwell White and Mallory McMorrow. Almost all M names. And what else starts with M????
MEXICO!!!
Wake up sheeple!!
Some of those intersections in the Conde Nast Traveler article don't actually intersect. I would check out the Royal York (mainly for the history, although it is located near Union Station and the various stadia), the King Edward (near Old Toronto and the St. Lawrence Market), and the Gladstone House (in West Queen West, near the Drake).
The Broadview looks nice, but Leslieville is actually going to be somewhat isolated from the rest of the city, and there isn't much else to do in the East End. Both traffic and transit in the city are terrible right now.
The fun neighborhoods right now are going to be West Queen West, Dundas West, Ossington, and Kensington Market. They're all actually pretty close to each other.
King St. west of Spadina is going to be a nightmare of hooting yuppies and people who drove in from Markham on the weekends, and Queen & Spadina boasts the most dangerous McDonald's in Canada after about 1am.
Of course, there are fun museums (the ROM and the AGO, for example, although the AGO staff just went on strike, so who knows). And if you wanted to see an exhibition about food and social status in the 1820s, you could also visit historic Campbell House at Queen & University (blatant self-plug).
The Sheraton has (or at least had) an indoor/outdoor pool with a modest barrier you can duck under. Lots of kid fun. Particularly fun at 20 below F when you can feel your hair freeze in seconds then warm up with a quick ducking
news I can use! Thanks Blanche :)
Oh, there's also Casa Loma, which is not really an historic site, but it is one of those castles built by crazy millionaires from the turn of the century. There's an actual historic house near it, which is also worth a visit. They're about the only interesting things north of Bloor St.
and OF COURSE I want to see an exhibit about food and social status. Will you be on premises?
It depends on which weekend you're visiting.
Actually, I realized that was unfair of me. Some of the best food in Toronto right now is in Malvern, and Agincourt, and Islington and places like that, but its all in food courts and strip malls and things, and those areas are incredibly underserved by transit and difficult to get to if you don't know the city.
It was a nail factory for a while, and then it was the offices of Hallmark's old card and telegram writing service.
that was a crazy story!!!! Man I wish I could find the link now of all those poor people and all the crooks. Toronto ... Globe and Mail, is that a thing? Edit, I think it was this, I can't read it, I'm not a subscriber. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/the-law-page/court-showdown-pits-billionaire-against-ex-partners/article10624608/
> Shy wants to go to Medieval Times for his birthday in May.
We did that with my best friend's family a few years back. It wasn't bad. The show was a short medieval drama with horses and stage-combat, and the food was decent. Maybe worth doing once for the novelty.