Hera curled up with Geoffrey, May 26, 2013.
Photographed and posted by Mika
Monthly Archives: May 2013
Keep passing the open windows. — John Irving, The Hotel New Hampshire
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“Keep passing the open windows” is the phrase that comes from the John Irving novel The Hotel New Hampshire, published in 1981. It is a catchphrase among the Berry family, the characters whose story is told in the book. It is drawn from a story that the Berry parents tell their children about a street performer called “The King of Mice.” He committed suicide in jumping from a window. “Keep passing the open windows” is the family’s way of saying to each other to carry on when the going gets tough. I read the novel in 1983 and saw the feature film version released in 1984. This catchphrase and the sentiment behind it has remained with me over the years, and I have applied it in my own life in “passing the open windows.” However, I understand that while it is easy to tell someone troubled, having a hard time coping with life, joys, and sorrows, to “keep passing the open windows”, promising them things will get better, sadly, not all stories have a happy ending. Continue reading
Toad hatched this spring. Found in the grass next to the Rideau River, May 25, 2013.
Photographed and posted by Geoffrey
Geoffrey’s hunting diary: Trumpeter swan
Video of a trumpeter swan seen on a marsh pond near Spencerville, Ontario, May 20, 2013.
Video shot by Jason Quinn
Yellow warbler viewed in a mixed habitat of shrubs and meadow next to the Rideau River, May 20, 2013.
Photographed and posted by Geoffrey
If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise. — Johann von Goethe (1749-1832)
Recruitment is defined among other things as “the action of finding new people to join an organization or support a cause.” (Oxford Dictionaries) It is so common to come across the claim that gays recruit others into being gay, that you choose to be gay, that someone lured your into this “lifestyle.” Speaking on behalf of myself, I can say that no one recruited me into being gay. Same-sex attraction manifests itself naturally in me. It is who I am. During my formative years in the latter half of the 1970s, the only impression I had of homosexuality was not good. Aside from a steady stream of disparaging, anti-gay jokes, remarks and slurs commonly in use at the time), there were a series of news reports about police raids on bathhouses in Toronto, culminating in Operation Soap in 1981. The impression of the “gay lifestyle” presented to me came up short if it was intended to win me as a recruit. I have written about my experience in how I came to accept that I am gay in previous posts, see Tap, Tap, Tap…, for example. It was a long and challenging process that dragged on over several years. I tried desperately to ignore, suppress, will even pray away the feelings of same-sex attraction. For a long time, I really wanted the gayness to go away. Continue reading
Female red-winged blackbird on her nest in the reeds at the edge of a pond next to the Rideau River, May 18, 2013.
Photographed and posted by Geoffrey.
Bachelor drakes hanging out together on a pond next to the Rideau River May 16, 2013. Their work is done, the hens they bred are incubating clutches of eggs and will be raising the broods of ducklings on their own.
Photographed and posted by Geoffrey.
There were several, as many as 18, painted turtles hanging out on this log on May 13, 2013. It was an unusually cool day. I am guessing the turtles huddle together on colder days in an effort to conserve their body heat.
Photographed and posted by Geoffrey
Young painted turtle sunning himself and who was gracious enough to let me photograph him up close in a pond next to the Rideau River, May 8, 2013.
Photographed and posted by Geoffrey.
Geoffrey & Mika 