- The kids and I just started reading Outdoors with Gregory Clark for school and I’m excited about what we’ll learn. I already learned how ice on a lake breaks up in the spring when the water on the surface gets too heavy to support; this cold water than sinks below the lake water, carrying with it sediment, vegetation, and oxygen. For whatever reason, I enjoyed learning about the way lake water is stirred up!
2. We are also reading a biography of Joseph Brant and I’ve learned about the Mohawks’ role in the Revolutionary War and the implications for Native Americans when the British lost.
3. Surprisingly enough, I don’t think I ever realized that Lent is 40 days long (minus Sundays) to commemorate the 40 days Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. Also, the ashes placed on foreheads on Ash Wednesday are made by burning the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday.
4. Konudagur (the first day of the Norse month of Góa) is Women’s Day in Iceland, when women are celebrated and pampered. (This year it fell on Feburary 18th.)
5. Ponzi schemes are described in two Dickens’ novels, both written decades before Charles Ponzi was arrested for running his Securities Exchange Company.
6. This fall Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) is publishing his first work in 28 years.
7. Turns out I still know how to skate after not doing it for many years. Hooray!
8. Speaking of skating, this winter the Rideau Canal did not open for skating for the first time in 52 years. I knew the weather has been capricious… but that’s too bad.
Uncle David was looking forward to his 50th consecutive year of skating on the Canal, but it was not to be…