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musings of mark since 2001

   Got an email from someone named Linda S. asking about what the proper mixture for hummingbird feeders is. I’ve been told to use about third of the mix as sugar and have heard of others that use ½ and ½ water. Linda’s concern was that her friends get more birds than she does but was worried that too much sugar for them may be detrimental. Google to the rescue as I did a search on ‘hummingbird feeder ratio’ and came up with this page from the Bird Watchers Digest: http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/faq/hummingbird_answers.html
   Myself, I’m in the middle of both camps and use a little more than a third (less than half) and get lots of ‘em around here. According to BWD, there really isn’t any scientific evidence as to how much sugar becomes detrimental to the little guys but the 4:1 ratio is real close to the actual sugar content of flower nectar.

   Everyone’s fears of chaos from the new ferry marshalling seems to have been groundless as things seemed to work out smoothly for the most part. Today is following yesterday so far, in that the ferries in the morning are on time(!) again according to the BC Ferries web site.

   I almost fell out of my chair when I read this line from Paul Wolfowitz speaking from his tour of Iraq: “I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq,” he said. “Those who want to come and help are welcome. Those who come to interfere and destroy are not.” Unless of course it’s the US destroying your electrical, water, cultural and economic systems but hey, not one oil well was damaged in the process!

   Not quite the dog days of summer yet, but it was plenty warm today! Warm enough to throw a couple wobbly pops in the freezer for an hour and then head down to September Morn beach to cool off in high tide. The water was clear and nicely warmed up from the rocks, great for a dip to cool off after every chapter of a beach book. As usual it was a mixed crowd of families, dogs swimming for sticks and the locals aunaturel getting a tan.
   Hummingbirds aren’t around as much, have headed off up Mt. Gardner or the coast for cooler climes and the feeder has made it almost a week now without being refilled. The eagles were flying around a lot earlier this morning, and two tiny little fawns were stumbling around at 6:00am before the heat of the day as well. There’s lots of water in the rain cistern, no chance of it drying up for a while around here for a while. I pulled a few new potatoes out the other day, they are small from being planted too close but I’m not digging up the whole plant, just feeling around for nuggets so the others have a bit of room to get bigger.
   Speaking of nuggets, Chris Corrigan has one with his July 1st weblog entry where he speaks of the transformation to being an islander again, a good read

   Still getting reports from the ground in Baghdad via British reporters, and from all accounts things are not going well at all. The Red Cross is the latest to raise a stink, because they still haven’t had access to the 30 or so people in Iraq that were swept up in Rummy’s “deck of cards”. Jonathan Steele’s’ latest interview with the wife of an Iraqi scientist who willingly surrendered and talked further highlights the extreme measures the US has used to keep it’s citizens under the spell of the spin they provide on Fox and CNN.
   And in the UK, the spin on the most dangerous person to the govt. of the day and his apparent suicide has worked, although they are still being blamed for his demise indirectly much to their demise. An article from Andrew Veitch in C4News -UK makes me think that Kelly was not suicidal, but was murdered. It’s a bit too convenient that he took the same walk every day after lunch, and happened to have some pain killers and a blade that day. Although being exposed by the BBC and then being grilled by his own govt. was put to blame for his death due to the stress of the situation, this was a tough guy that could handle that stress. “He was a seeker of truth, a determined investigator and a very tough personality”, according to Garth Whitty who worked with him in Iraq. Such a person if he actually did commit suicide, surely would have left a note about his demise and not leave this world without blowing some whistles.
   Meanwhile on Bowen Island, our biggest controversy of the week is the new ferry line-up marshalling/parking. We are going to see two lanes of traffic coming on and off the ferry ramp starting Thursday morning, with the attendant confusion and sore feelings from losing the parking lane close to the ferry. There’s more than a couple of expensive cars on the island that need to approach the transition from the ramp to the ship at an angle due to the ramp being warped, should be an interesting morning watching how this experiment works out as the captain of the ship that is being loaded only found out the plan was being implemented this week as well. At least no one is getting killed in the process, except maybe the originator of the plan explaining to everyone how it will work out. The Bowen Island forum has a long thread on the issue for further enlightenment, at the pharmacy yesterday it was running about 50-50 on whether or not this was a good idea.