Monday 31 August 2020

Zebra-leafed Bay Tree


    Just kidding.  This exotic looking Bay Tree is normally not as exotic looking as it is in this photo, but this is the way it looked when I noticed it.  The stripes on the leaves were caused by the sunlight filtering through the Venetian blinds that we have on our bay window.

You can take a look at my photo-realistic paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Sunday 30 August 2020

Tomatoes


    While we grow all sorts of vegetables, the veggie I most look forward to harvesting are the tomatoes that I grow in the greenhouse.  Nothing tastes as good at home grown tomatoes.  As you can see from the photo, I grow a lot of different varieties; cherries, paste, and beef.  We eat them on our salads, in fresh salsa, but we can only eat so many fresh, so a lot of them are canned for use over the winter.
    My grandparents were farmers, who owned a large commercial greenhouse, where they grew both “hothouse” tomatoes, and field tomatoes.  As a youngster, I had a summer job working on the farm.  I would have to get up early to pick tomatoes before the greenhouse got too hot and uncomfortable to work in as the summer days heated up. 
    Along with Sylvester, an old wiry, story-telling, farmhand, I would work my way down the long rows in the field, sweating under the stifling summer sun, picking tomatoes and putting them in the half bushel baskets we held by the leather straps that hooked on the wire basket handles.  I often had to hide behind tomato plants so Syl wouldn’t see my laughing at his outrageous stories.  (He would tell me things like how he lifted a barrel, full of water, onto the back of a truck all by himself.)  
    Once we had the field or greenhouse picked, some of tomatoes went into the cool underground cellar for storage, while others were taken to the workshed, where we would wipe them with a cloth, and pack them face down in boxes ready for the grocery stores.
    Those tomato days of my youth set me up for growing tomatoes throughout my life, and I still enjoy growing them all these many decades later.   

Check out my realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Saturday 29 August 2020

Let's Get Out of Here


    As we were doing our afternoon walk down the country road, a tractor followed by a big truck pulled from the road into the adjacent field to pick up bales of hay.  The machinery spooked this young family of deer, and they all took off running and bounding across the field to escape.

You can view my realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Friday 28 August 2020

Many Hands...



    It used to drive us kids crazy when we wanted to go out and play, but my Grandmother wanted us to do some job and tried to convince us the job wouldn’t take long by saying, “Many hands make work light.”   The phrase never made us want to do the work, but as I got older it became obvious that working together with others to do a job, did make the work go faster and was a lot more enjoyable.
    During our rainy Spring and Summer, the walkways between the planting beds in McBride’s Community Garden were often soggy with puddles and mud.  Yesterday the group had ordered a load of cedar mulch from a local mill and we all met for a “work bee” to spread it into the pathways to solve the mud problem.  The Community Garden members gathered with rakes and shovels in hand, saw what had to be done, then got to work blanketing the walkways with the cedar mulch.
    After an hour and a half of pulling mulch-filled tarps to needed locations in the garden, spreading it between the garden boxes, and joking around, the job was done and the Open Gate Community Garden looked renewed--no more muddy shoes.


You can view my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Thursday 27 August 2020

Morning Fog


    Autumn is beginning to push the envelope.  The days are beginning to shorten, some of the trees are throwing off unwanted leaves, flocks of geese can now be heard, and this morning we awoke to a blanket of fog.  Full frontal Fall has not yet arrived, but you can begin to sense its presence on the horizon.

You an view my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Wednesday 26 August 2020

Old Cartoon Map of McBride


    The other day while cleaning out a nest of rolled papers we had been saving, I came across this old cartoon map I had drawn of McBride, probably in the 1980’s.  While it seems that McBride has always been the same, the map shows that there have been quite a few changes to our little village over the years.
    It will probably be difficult to see much detail in the map on your computer, but you might be able to make out some of the numbered locations.
    Number 1 is the train station, which has stayed pretty much the same on the outside.  Inside has changed though with the addition of The Beanery (restaurant, coffee shop) and the Whistle Stop Gallery which sells locally produced arts and crafts.  
    Number 7 shows the old high school buildings.  A new high school was built across the road in the blank area where the map show a clump of 6 trees.
    Number 8 was the location of our old library, which now sits on Main Street, near #17.  I put the logger there because that was where the logging sports used to take place during Pioneer Days.
    Number 13 shows the location of the old elementary school, now replaced by a new school building in the same location.
    Number 19 shows an “A”-shaped building that was the ice skating arena.  It too was torn down and replaced by our present arena.
    Not numbered, but in the blank area between number 15 (the hospital) and number 20 (Koeneman Park) you might be able to make out two cows.  I drew them there with big bells hanging from their necks, because the owner of the pasture at the time was from Switzerland, and had bells on some of his cows.  It was always a delight to hear the tinkling of the bells in the pasture when we bicycled into town.
    In those intervening decades since I drew the map, there have been a lot of other changes to McBride; across the highway from #18 there was a big complex that was built for the Ministry of Forests.  It is now owned by the Village for its maintenance equipment.  Beside the ice arena there is a Community Hall.
    Things do change even in a sleepy village, but one forgets about those changes until they see something that shows how things used to be. 

You can view my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca


Tuesday 25 August 2020

Engulfing Clouds


    Along with all of the showery weather, we are getting a lot of interesting skies.  I enjoy watching the billowing and dramatic clouds that build over the mountains then spread across the Valley.  Here is the sky I saw the other day.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Monday 24 August 2020

Damn Bear


    After our disaster of a winter that destroyed our cherry and plum trees, we tried to look on the bright side and told ourselves that at least our apple trees made it through.  Our main producing apple tree was thriving during our very wet spring and summer and was producing nice sized apples.  Yesterday while we were perusing the garden we discovered that half of the apple tree was laying on the ground.  Evidently a bear had been able to climb over the fence (I don’t know if you can see it, but there is a wire fence that adds 3 feet above the picket fence) and thrashed the apple tree.
    We had had so much trouble with bears destroying our apple trees that when we bought this apple tree we planted it inside our fenced garden, erroneously thinking that it would be protected from hungry bears.  Obviously it wasn’t.
      Salt is rubbed in our wounds in seeing that the bear didn’t even bother eating most of the apples.  I  guess after tearing off half of the tree, he took a few bites then realized the apples weren’t yet ripe.
    Gardening is sure becoming a frustrating pastime for us.

You can view my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Sunday 23 August 2020

Sasquatch Sighted



    What a coup for my blog; a friend sent me photos of a Sasquatch that he saw yesterday.  For years people have questioned the existence of such a creature and sought photographic proof, and here it is.  Normally one would expect to find such proof in supermarket tabloids like:  Enquirer, Globe, or Weekly World News, or find it online at such evidence-based sites as Alex Jones, Sputnik, or Qanon, but fortunately my friend sent these remarkable Sasquatch photos to me.
    In the past, the Sasquatch or “Bigfoot” has often mistaken for black bears, but black bears have thick, black fur, unlike the Sasquatch you see in the photos, and black bears only stand upright when they are gathering berries off of tall bushes, not when they are walking around.
    My friend asked that I not give the location of this Sasquatch sighting, because he doesn’t want to be overwhelmed by an influx of scientists doing studies, or sightseers wishing to take selfies with the Sasquatch.   In June of 1976, twelve people saw another “Bigfoot” near McBride.  I am sure that UFO and Elvis sightings have also occurred in the Robson Valley.

    I can’t believe it, what scoop for my blog.


Check out my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Saturday 22 August 2020

My 1967 Scout


    On August 8th I blogged about my first car:  a new 1969 MG Midget, that was great fun to drive.  A few years after getting it, I was working as a Conscientious Objector in a Goodwill Store being paid minimum wage which was $1.65/hr (and only worked 35 hours a week).  The MG was continually breaking down and costing me more than I could afford to spend constantly getting it repaired.  It got to be such a bad situation that I decided to sell it and get something that was reliable to drive.
    My aunt’s parents, a retired couple who lived up the road, drove an International Scout that seemed very rugged and reliable, and when I happened upon a Scout, Model 800 at a used car dealer, I bought it.  While it was a couple of years older than my MG had been, it was a whole lot more dependable.
    Scouts were a pre-curser to what decades later became known at SUV’s.  It had 4-wheel drive and was suited for both rough terrain and regular everyday driving.  The one I had was pretty unique, having what I think was a fiberglass top, which could be easily removed.  The back seat was also easy to take out if you needed more space for hauling things.  It did not have seatbelts, but I installed some for the two bucket front seats, because I was concerned about safety.
    It was a great vehicle.  I discovered that while at a Drive In movie theater with my girlfriend, with the back seat removed, you could lay down in the back, on your back, with your head by the rear of the vehicle, looking straight up you could watch the movie reflected in the slanted rear window above you.
    My wife and I hauled all of our possessions in the Scout pulling a utility trailer, when we immigrated to Canada.  Of course, the Scout was a wonderful vehicle to have in Canada; driving through the snow or up a mountain. 
     During the three years when I was teaching in a one-room school in an isolated fly-in lumber camp, the Scout had to remain unused during the winter months, parked in the continuing snow  (photo below), but after all of those months of being parked and unused in the cold, it usually didn’t take much to start it up again.
    We drove that Scout until 1976, when it too was beginning to have a lot of mechanical problems and  we began looking for a newer vehicle.   That next car was also a Scout, a sporty looking 1974 Scout II.


You can see my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Friday 21 August 2020

Is Lucifer Remembering Lexi?


    I remember two sleeping habits of our dog Lexi from that whirlwind time when we had her.  First; Lexi seemed to take over all of Lucifer’s napping places.  Second; Lexi discovered some new sleeping places for herself; she seemed to like to be up on top of upright cushions.  Those were places where Lucifer had never slept.
    Now that Lexi is gone, Lucifer has all of her old sleeping places back, but she has also starting to nap in those places that were uniquely Lexi’s.  Now, one of Lucifer’s favorite places is on top of the back rest cushions of the upstairs couch.
    This is probably just a case of “Monkey see, Monkey do,” but I would like to think that, like us, she is missing our “wild” dog and maybe is comforted with a bit of Lexi’s scent that has lingered on the blankets and couch cushions.

You can view my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Thursday 20 August 2020

Straight-Up Colt


    Whenever we do our walks at Horseshoe Lake Road, we always enjoy seeing the herd of horses that pasture there.  Presently there are some colts among the herd.  While the other colts are milling around, we are always a bit surprised at this colt, who likes to stand very still facing us.  It is such a long narrow thing and its image is so vertical, topped off with its distinct white blaze on the forehead.  

You can see my photos-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Wednesday 19 August 2020

Evening Cloud Bank


    Last night after playing music and feeding mosquitoes at our jam on the porch of the train station, I was driving home when I noticed this beautiful bank of clouds to the east.  I pulled over and parked on the edge of the highway to snap a photo.  Dorothy, who had also been at the jam, saw my car sitting at the edge of the highway slowed down to see if I was having trouble.  No trouble Dorothy, just enjoying the colorful clouds.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Tuesday 18 August 2020

Nature's Bounty, Finally



    This has been a pretty horrible summer for our garden, with all of the rain, standing water, and cool temperatures, but fortunately some veggies liked those conditions and now we are starting to get some benefits from our gardening.  We have already eaten several green cabbages, and yesterday we ate our first red cabbage.  
    Although it is a month later than usual, the peas are really coming in, and we have frozen several bags of peas for the winter.  The zucchini is already starting to get away from us.  I have dug a few potatoes, but most of them will stay in the ground to get bigger.
    The thing we look forward to the most are the tomatoes from the greenhouse.  Nothing tastes as good as home-grown tomatoes.  Already our pantry is being filled with canned tomatoes from the greenhouse, and we ate our first salsa of the year, a couple of days ago.
    As I stated in an earlier blog, I was embarrassed at how poorly the garden looked for months, every time I walked past it, and it is now gratifying to finally see some positive results from our labors.


You can check out my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Monday 17 August 2020

Lucifer: Peek-A-Boo


    It was hot and sunny yesterday, a nice change for our cat Lucifer, who has been holding up inside the house during all our cool showery weather.  Lucy was happy to spend most of the day outside.  We spotted her half in the sun and half in the shade, under some daylily leaves beside the sidewalk.

You can view my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Sunday 16 August 2020

River of Grass


    It is not unusual to hear the prairies referred to as an “Ocean of Grass” so I guess the light colored grasses in the photo above can be called a “River of Grass”.  A different species of grass that matures early seems to prefer the wetter environment of the zig-zaggy drainage area of the pasture and has taken up residence there.  

You can view my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Saturday 15 August 2020

Hay Cemetery


    It seems that this year the fashion of choice for hay bales is white plastic.  These plastic-clad bales now litter the countryside.  The other day when I noticed this field, it struck me how much the distant white bales looked like tombstones in a manicured cemetery.  
    While I realize this new method of baling hay probably protects the hay better through rain and winter, I find it sad and defeating.   What will happen to all these thousands and thousands of miles of white sheets of plastic, when the hay bales are unwrapped in six months?   The earth really doesn’t need more plastic to clog up dumpsites and poison animals as it breaks down.
    While a lot of little people do try to do what they can to not damage the earth further, it seems that industry goes out of its way to create new things to destroy it.  

You can view my photo-realistic paintings at;  davidmarchant2.ca

Friday 14 August 2020

Mudcrutch: Hearing Tom Petty Again


    I was a huge Tom Petty fan and was devastated that afternoon in October of 2017 when I heard on the radio that Tom Petty was brain-dead and was taken to the hospital where he later died.  I don’t remember any other singer’s death hitting me as hard as his.  I always felt a kinship of sorts with Tom Petty because I could tell from his songs, that growing up he had listened to, and loved the same music that I had.  When he died I hated the fact that I would no longer be hearing new music from him.
    When he was alive I bought most of his albums as they came out.  Because I liked him, I knew basic things about his life, one of which was the fact that he had a band called “Mudcrutch” when he was first in LA trying to get a record deal.  
    I was completely unaware that in 2008 Petty re-assembled the musicians in Mudcrutch and made an album under that name.  Included in the band was his amazing Heartbreaker’s guitarist Mike Campbell, along with Tom Leadon (guitar, vocals) and Heartbreaker Benmont Tench (keyboard, vocals).  Tom Petty played the bass on the album.  
    I first became aware of the album about a month ago when I saw it on Apple Music.  I eagerly clicked on it to hear what Mudcrutch sounded like.   Wow !!!  Love at first listen.   What a wonderful treat to hear Petty along with those beautiful crisp driving backups.   I have been listening to the album ever since.
    Obviously, I am not the most diligent of musical followers, because I had been totally unaware of the 2008 Mudcrutch album (it was just today I discovered there is a Mudcrutch 2 album recorded in 2016).          
    While I may be late in my discovery of Mudcrutch, it has been a really wonderful belated surprise for me.

Here is a link to a video of “Scare Easy” one of the songs on Mudcrutch:
    

You can view my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Wednesday 12 August 2020

No Stoping


    The mudslide up the road has now settled down, but there still remains some potential danger for people driving past the area.  To warn of the danger the Ministry of Highways has located this sign on Mountain View Road near Koeneman Park.  It gave me a laugh when I first read the flashing warnings:  
            “LOOSE GRAVEL.........SLIDE AREA.........NO STOPING”
     No Stoping?????
    As someone who has made his share of public spelling mistakes over the years, I had to stop (or is that stope?) and take a photo of someone else’s spelling blunder.   As I was taking the shot, a knowledgeable neighbor pulled up behind me and jokingly said something like, “I guess they are restricting mining up the road.”  
    Of course, I didn’t know what he was talking about, until he explained.  Unbeknownst to me, it seems like there is such a thing as “stoping”.  It’s the type of mining where they extract the minerals in steps or layers.  Who knew.
    I doubt that whoever programmed this sign knew anything about mining techniques, but just to play it safe I will not do any stopping or stoping up the road.

Check out my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Tuesday 11 August 2020

Whose Been Sleeping in My Raspberries?


    Our raspberries grow in a circular shaped patch in what used to be my Angora goat paddock.  The other day I went out to check if any raspberries were ripening and noticed that there seemed to have been some animal that had made a path into the interior of the raspberry patch.  When I walked closer to have a better look, I noticed that the canes in the center of the patch had been all smashed down, like something had slept there.
    At first I thought it might have been a deer, but then it seemed more reasonable that it was a bear that had snuggled down, surrounded by tasty berries, an arm’s reach in any direction.
    I walk past the patch every day to get a sprig of spearmint for our iced tea.   I am now a bit more observant and careful when I get close to the raspberries.  I don’t want any surprises.

View my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Monday 10 August 2020

Hay, They Got It Off


    Through all that rain and showers during July, the watched as all that hay growing in the fields matured, then over matured, and the rain kept falling.  
    “The hay crop this year is really going to be a bust,” we told ourselves, “It’s going to be as bad as last year; they’ll never have a chance to cut and bale it.”
    Fortunately we were wrong.  There was an unexpected break in the weather that provided some hot sunny days, and suddenly bales of hay can be seen everywhere, and there are a lot of them.  All that rain really made the hay grow.


You can take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Sunday 9 August 2020

Fresh Snow on the Mountains


    What a year, we really haven’t had a proper summer yet and when the clouds began to open up in the evening yesterday, we saw fresh snow on the mountains.  Such an event could happen in any month of the year, but after being beaten about by all of the crappy weather we have experienced this year, the snow seemed like a harbinger of an early fall.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Saturday 8 August 2020

My MG Midget


    When I graduated from university, for a graduation present my parents told me they would buy me a car.   My cousin had a red Triumph sports car that she allowed me to drive once, and that was great fun, so I decided I would really like a sports car too.  After looking at what was available I decided on a British Racing Green, MG Midget.
    After being behind the wheel of the family’s old Ford pickup, a 1954 Chevy, a 1961 Chevy station wagon, and an old used VW Beetle, driving my own new MG sports car was quite an exciting treat.
    I quickly learned that all of the other local sports car  owners (there weren’t that many) would always give a friendly wave when they saw you.  It was gratifying to be in such a elite group.
    I will always remember driving home one summer’s night (morning) with the top down.  I was on an empty rural road,  the stars were sparkling in the night sky, my hair blowing in the warm breeze, and Joni Mitchell was singing “Chelsea Morning” on the late night radio program.  It all seemed perfect.
    After graduation, I went off to Hawaii for Peace Corp training.  I dropped out after the training, wanting to get back and do what I could, to fight for an end of the Vietnam War.  I returned to my MG and soon found myself living in Indianapolis, working in a Goodwill Store as a Conscientious Objector.
    One memorable MG event happened when I was driving back to Indianapolis after a weekend away.  I was on an Interstate Highway, I had the top down and the wind was in my face.  The cap I had on one of my front teeth was loose, but I didn’t recognize that as a problem.  Then suddenly I had to sneeze, it was a hard sneeze.  The loose cap shot out of my mouth, then was picked up by the wind from the moving car and blew past my ear and was gone, bouncing somewhere down the highway.    
    My life had changed, and the MG was also going through some changes; it’s glory days had past.
    The MG began to constantly break down.  It seemed like every month something when wrong with it.  I was just making a starvation minimum wage at the Goodwill, and I began pondering the fact that the name “MG” stood for “Morris Garages”  I didn’t know anything about Morris Garages, but I was beginning to become all too familiar with MG Service Centers. 
    My MG’s engine caught fire once as I was driving to work.  I sat at a traffic light waiting for it too turn, when I noticed smoke coming up from the side of the car, then I watched stunned, as a big green blister started growing on the “bonnet” (hood) of the MG.  Mechanical problems increased with the MG and it became so unreliable and expensive, I eventually started looking around for a more reliable vehicle.
    I loved that MG for the first few years, but that feeling slowly began to dissipate and I was very happy when someone saw it sitting on my parent’s front lawn with a “For Sale” sign on the windshield and stopped.  The sport car dream had gone from my eyes and I was happy that the guy that came to look still had it in his.  He bought it and drove it out of my life.


You can see my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Friday 7 August 2020

Mosquito Repellant: The New Toilet Paper


    Remember back in March when there was a run on toilet paper and the store shelves became empty?  Well a similar thing is presently happening with Mosquito repellant products in the Robson Valley.  For the last few weeks the mosquito population has exploded and the store shelves have been emptied of anything that will keep the pests away.
    A few of weeks ago, when we stopped in at the hardware store to replenish our diminishing stocks of repellent there was nothing left to buy.  We were told that the truck was coming in on Friday, so we returned to the hardware store on Saturday, but we were already too late, again, the shelves had already been emptied.  We tried again Wednesday with similar results.  
    Yesterday we had an appointment in Valemount, a village an hour away.  Since Valemount has a  drier climate, I thought we should check out their hardware store, thinking that their mosquito problem was not as bad as ours, and maybe we could pick up some repellant there.  When I got into the store and asked where the mosquito products were, the clerk just laughed at me and pointed to the empty shelf.  The Valemount drug store didn’t have anything available either.
    We are planning a trip up to “Big City” Prince George next week and I guess we can try there, but it might be that we will just have to suffer until the mosquitoes finally disappear on their own.

View my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Thursday 6 August 2020

Just Clouds


    The idea behind this blog is to take a photo of something I found interesting or beautiful, then write about it.  As readers know sometimes the subject is pretty mundane.  Yesterday the most beautiful thing I noticed were these billowy clouds, shaded with blue-gray, accented with a soft pure white, against the iridescent blue sky.
    One of the things I like about our valley is that we often get beautiful clouds like this.           


You can view my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Wednesday 5 August 2020

Waxwings



    Yesterday on our walk there was a group of waxwings flying around.  Whenever I see a waxwing I think of something that happened to me long ago when I was herding goats.  Here is the story:

    In 1996, I had a herd of angora goats, and a lot of very poor fences, so I couldn’t really let the goats roam freely around in the pasture.  What I ended up doing was to play shepherd and herd my goats every day after I got home from work.  It was something I kind of enjoyed, because it gave me time to unwind after a day at the office.
    I would walk the goats down to the pasture behind my pond and let them stuff themselves with whatever vegetation they desired.  I would just stand around with my whip, which I would snap if some goat was acting up.     
    One afternoon as I was standing beside a grove of alder trees, I happened to glance over and spotted a nest of young cedar waxwings.  They were getting so big, they were taking up all the space in the nest, so I realized that they would probably be leaving the nest very soon.  Always eager to take a good photo I filed the idea of returning with my camera into the back of my mind to later retrieve.
    Unfortunately, I failed to remember the nest until a few days later.  When I did finally remember, I immediately grabbed my camera and headed down to the alder trees.  When I got close to where I had seen the nest, I quietly, took off my regular lens, and attached the telephoto lens so I wouldn’t have to get really close to the young birds in the nest.
    The camera being ready, I crouched low and slowly and quietly began to tiptoe up to where the nest was.  When I got to where I figured I was close enough for the shot, I swung my camera into place in front of my eye, ready to snap the picture.  What I saw in my viewfinder was an empty nest.  The waxwings had already left.  Damn, I had left the shot too long, and now I had missed it.
    In frustration and disappointment, I stepped back from the tree.  At that point my eyes happened to raise up from the nest and there the young waxwings stood on a branch, straight and still as statues, all in a line, trying to blend in to the scenery.  I aimed my camera and got, not the shot I had originally came for, but one that was more interesting.


Take a look at my photo-realistic paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Tuesday 4 August 2020

Community Garden


    McBride’s Open Gate Community Garden looks to be exploding in growth this season, despite all of the wonky weather, excessive rain and cool, followed by very hot temperatures.  Gardeners in the group are keeping their beds looking good and maintaining the grounds.   It looks like a lot of the growers took advantage of the garlic that  had sprouted in the property they used near the garden, that is no longer available for use, and transplanted the garlic in their boxes.
    I am always happy to see these kind of beneficial community organizations continue.

You can view my photo-realistic paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca

Monday 3 August 2020

Driving With Mosquitoes


    When we get a mosquito infestation one seeks escape, but when the bugs are bad, escaping becomes a difficult thing to do.  You might think you could just jump in the car and drive off to one of the few local spots where there aren’t mosquitoes, (windy places or some open place surrounded by fields), but if you try to drive off somewhere, the moment that you open the car door, the mosquitoes swarm in, eager to go with you.
    As you are driving, concentrating on the road, the mozzies take advantage of your limited ability to swat them away, and attack.  If you have a passenger, they can try to kill some of the mosquitoes, but that ends up leaving blood-smears all over the inside of the car.  You can try to open the windows in hopes some will get sucked out of the moving vehicle, but most go hide when they feel the wind from the open window.
    When you get where you are going and open the door to get out, there is always the hope that the mosquitoes will also leave the car, but they don’t.  Instead, mosquitoes from this new location fly into the car to join and visit with the mosquitoes you have brought with you from home.
    I often hear people talk about “Win-Win” situations, but when it comes to a mosquito infestation, all I can see is “Lose-Lose.”

You can view my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca