The Wall

For many years now, probably since Mom and Dad moved into this building in 1997, there has been talk about putting up a sound barrier between our street and the expressway. Traffic noise was so loud I would have to close my windows to talk on the phone, I couldn’t stay out on my balcony very long as it was just too uncomfortable for the ears and I never left my bedroom window open all night. Once we were told the wall would happen built in 2012. Nothing. Ah, this is the magic year. We finally have a wall!

It started on May 19th:

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On the morning of May 26th I was so excited to see the sound barrier slabs going in:

IMG_0352I went up onto my balcony and recorded a few seconds of the sound. On Friday afternoon (May 29), when with just half a wall in front of our building, no further work had been done on the wall for 2 days I recorded again.

To my great surprise, yesterday (June 5) I came home from work to find much of the wall finished. Once again I recorded a few seconds of sound. You can hear for yourself what difference the wall makes.

Last night I slept with the window open about 3 inches! I expect to spend more time on my balcony this year.

Crocheted Stones

Just try a Google image search for crocheted stones — wonderful pictures.

Crocheted stones
Crocheted stones

I’ve decided to give this a try. I’ll be posting pictures here as I go along. The first two:

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A merstone in progress

 

a 3D flower
a 3D flower

Signs of Spring

Spring 2015 has been very slow in coming, but coming she is! Here are the signs I’ve seen over the last few days. (I will be adding pictures as more spring things appear.)

Update: May 10 – I’m adding the last pictures to this series. This past week we seemed to move from spring to summer, though spring is supposed to make a return appearance in a few days. Thirty degree Celsius weather has meant leaves popped out on the trees, the dandelions have taken over the fields and lawns wherever they can and many flowers have bloomed and faded in a hurry.

May 4, 2015

This year I’ve been fascinated with “tree flowers.” After the long cold winter it is so wonderful to see the trees in my neighbourhood coming back to life. And perhaps on this day of all days I need to see new life.