Ignoring Seagulls

Yeah, right, I've been at the Maritime Museum's Festival all day. It was predicted to be blisteringly hot, but fortunately, there was a breeze coming off the sea. Only - it's not really the sea, it's just the Fraser River again. Somewhere nearby there was a heronery, the herons kept flying over and landing on either side of us. I have been bitten by many mozzies.

We took the travelling pond. The last time we trotted this one out for an event was the day after it snowed in April. At least there were some water bugs today. And children came and happily poked around in the pond gunk. Tomorrow I get to do it all over again, but without the lad poking at me in French.

On the Business News this morning, it seems that we have been kidding ourselves up here in Canuckland. In spite of the huge increase in petrol prices, and our own self-perception of being green, our petrol consumption has actually risen slightly over the past year.
In the US on the other hand, consumption flatlined at first and then went down dramatically around November. Huh.

We have been watching the HBO series 'In Treatment'. It's pretty interesting. The Psychiatrist, played by Gabriel Byrne, has a number of patients and we follow their progress every week. But they treat him like shit. One of them throws the money in cash at him as though he were a prostitute. They all speak to him, not as though he were a highly skilled and trained professional, but as though he is in someway responsible for their problems. Reminded me of being a teacher really.

I felt like the mother of the prodigal son this morning. Youngest son has scraped through two of his A-levels in spite of very pro-actively putting no effort into the whole thing. Had he put a fraction of the effort into doing the work as he put into avoiding it, he would have excelled.
The one he didn't get, he refused to do the coursework for.
And yet I feel pleased, relieved that he got any grades at all. I was also pleased for my daughter, who worked hard for her A-levels, and got good grades, but really, doesn't she deserve more? And then the son here who hasn't ever had that option. Not even a shot at the glittering prize.
Wow it's tough.

The line-up in the photo amused me, like the heron was directing the gulls. The truth is, I think she was ignoring them. Those herons can certainly concentrate, it's not easy to ignore gulls.