Parked in Parry Sound

So there I was in Parry Sound trying to pass that dreaded hour wait before a minor hockey game (you know, because your kid has to be there an hour early to get ready allowing you time to indulge your craving in crappy snack bar food). This day I was in the car in the parking lot with the girls because it wasn’t all that cold out for once. The girls were having excellent adventures with Polly and Barbie in the backseat. I found this view in my rearview mirror rather interesting.

Well, I did say I was bored.

Then I heard the whistle of a train. Parry Sound has a fabulous train bridge. It’s fabulous because it’s way up in the air. But alas I was in the wrong place and couldn’t get to the right place in time (besides which I’d lose my stellar parking space at the arena). So here’s the view of the bridge from my vantage point.

And a little to the left of that.

I can’t help but count cars when I see a train. Why is that? But then my time of leisure was up. Time to get to the serious business of cheering on my favorite hockey team.

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.

Literacy Night

I had the chance to talk reading and writing at a Literacy Night along with my good friend and fellow writer Caroline Rennie Pattison. She talked to the older kids in the crowd and I got the younger ones.

The kids were great. They chanted with me as I read some poems I’d had published in Babybug magazine and did all the actions for the different ways to travel in Let’s Go! One little girl even eyed my rubber froggie, a prop for The Nature Treasury. She looked like she wanted to pick it up and abscond with it. It was one of those moments when, as a speaker, you’re trying to keep your presentation going but you’re all the while thinking “Okay, do I ignore this or do something…and what?” Luckily her mom solved my dilemma.

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre gave every child there a free book to take home.

The local paper did a nice writeup of the entire evening (even if I do hate the picture of myself). You can read more here.

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.

Desperately Seeking Signs of Spring

This winter I’ve seen far too much of this:

So it was almost like this unknown thing had appeared in the sky yesterday, and the day before, when it was actually sunny for a change. But just to make sure I wasn’t going to get all completely happy or anything it was also cold as …well, you know.

Seems I wasn’t the only creature seeking sunshine. I noticed quite a few tracks to tell me that other animals had been about.

Here is the sign of the rabbit:

Note that it is beside the track of the automobilus domesticus of the Honda family, species “Odyssey”. And, below, the rabbit is perhaps late, late, late for a very important date.

Triple tracks below! The right hand track is the domestic feline “Marshmallow” while the left track is perhaps a fox, and the track crossing horizontally is a small rodent, I think.

And then I got all happy when I saw signs that the beavers had been out. Perhaps they’d been sunning themselves on top of their lodge whilst I was out forraging at the supermarket.


See their trails up to and on top of that bump? It’s a snow covered lodge, trust me. And then it looks like they went on some sort of frolick!?!? Check out this trail:

Wish I could’ve seen what made them do this:

Or maybe it wasn’t the beavers at all. Maybe it’s like those crop circles…we were visited by aliens and it’s, like, a message:
ZA!
(Translation: “We. Were. Here. Nah. Nyah. Nah. Nah. Nah. Nah.”)

Obviously you can see what lack of sunlight can do to a person. ZA!

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.