Photo Album

2008

Click on "thumbnail" images to enlarge

	The lunar eclipse on Feb 20. It's a bit blurry, but it was a cold night and I had trouble getting a really good focus. Besides, it's hard to take decent pictures at night, and I didn't have my 300mm lens on me at the time.
	The backyard, with freshly fallen snow! This was the big snowfall at the beginning of March. This was a record year for snow in Toronto.
	Matthew relaxing in the lawn chair. It really wasn't that cold, although it might look like it. Well, it wasn't cold by Canadian standards, anyway.
	David breaking off icicles from the back window.
	And David has created a makeshift toy gun out of the icicle he broke off from the window. I think there's an important lesson here for those parents who refuse to buy toy guns in the hope that their boys won't play with them.
	The playset and slide, all covered with snow.
	The boys getting ready to slide. The icicle gun actually looks surprisingly good, doesn't it?
	David trying to force his way down the slide despite the snow obstruction. Just look at that crazed smile; David always wears his emotions on his sleeve.
	Matthew's turn!
	David taking a rest.
	Still resting ...
	David trying to make his way around the side of the house.
	Oh yeah ... now we have to shovel this mess.
	At least the fire department can still reach the hydrant.
	David playing at a piano recital thrown by his "Music for Young Children" group.
	And here's David with the rest of his class.
	Our new niece, Mia!
	My father, my brother, and Mia.
	Sleepy sleepy ...
	That's my sister-in-law, Grace.
	Again, with more light.
	Mia in the light from the hospital window.
	Family photo. You get to see everyone trying to look natural!
	Our new puppy, Razor! We also call him Ray-Ray. He was born October 30 2007, so he was about 9 months old when we got him. That's much older than the normal adoption age for a puppy, but it didn't take him long to get used to our family.
	Razor again, on the couch with Rebecca in the background.
	Razor with David. David begged and begged us to get another dog, and it had been about 8 months since Fuzzy died, so it was time. Once a dog person, always a dog person.
	Razor in profile. His snout is flatter than Fuzzy's snout was, and he's a little scrawny but he'll fill out soon.
	Ray-Ray again!
	Soccer playing in the soccer semi-finals. They got through the final round this year but came up short in the finals. At least he still has his trophy from last year.
	Matthew, Razor, and David taking a walk. It's been a remarkably warm autumn season this year.
	As you can see, as we approach Razor's first birthday, he's clearly filled out. He's almost as big as Fuzzy was.
	Here he is again!
	Who wouldn't love that little face?
	Looks like Ray-Ray felt like sitting down for a while.
	Aaaaand ... we've made our way to the park.
	Time to check his Pee-Mail!
	This is later in the same day, at the Humber Arboretum: a little piece of nature preserved in the north end of Etobicoke. I actually saw a deer there once.
	There's a series of walking trails there, and this time we decided to stick to them (last time we came here, we wandered off in some random direction and ended up in a meadow).
	The boardwalk doesn't serve much purpose except to keep your shoes clean for one part of the trail.
	That's Toronto for you. Big parks, but it's hard to get a picture without a condominium in the background.
	The demon squirrel. No one knows where he came from. No one knows what terror he brings. All we know is that we should be afraid. We should be very afraid.
	This is the strangest shelter I ever saw: the roof is just cross-beams with no covering, so it doesn't block the rain at all. Still, it's as good a place as any to rest after walking the trails.
	A snake! A snake!
	Obviously not that scary.
	The palisade around the recreated Native village at Crawford Lake, west of Toronto. It is built on the exact location of a former Native village, and the longhouse posts are buried in the ground exactly where the original posts were buried.
	And here's a closer shot of the boys at the guarded entrance to the village.
	Somebody was giving a guided tour to some schoolchildren when we got there, so we decided to walk some of the trails and then come back later when the village was empty. The boys are picking out walking sticks.
	No David, that is far too large to be a walking stick. I think he's looking for a sarissa instead.
	David, hamming it up as he's always done.
	It's quite a beautiful little lake. One can see why the Natives built a village there.
	2008-10-30/DSC_0337
	Here's another view of the lake.
	And another, as we walk around the perimeter.
	And this is David gawking at an unusual tree, which was named "Mr Twisted".
	2008-10-30/DSC_0358
	The Niagara Escarpment: the valley cuts through this area (actually through a large portion of Ontario).
	My princess.
	Everybody at the lookout point.
	The "Forrest Gump" leaf. I didn't get it in focus, but it kept floating around up there and wouldn't stay still. Each time it seemed to be falling down, another updraft would catch it and throw it up again. Something about the way the wind whips down that valley seems to generate those strong updrafts.
	Rebecca was fascinated with the mossy rocks for some reason.
	And David found himself a really big mossy rock.
	And now we're back at the village! The people who once lived here were known as the Iroquois.
	You can see the longhouse in the centre background, and the skeleton of a second longhouse to the left of it. The Iroquois did not live in the teepees depicted by Hollywood: they built long houses which were shaped like an oval race track. The walls were built of logs buried into the ground and then strapped together up top, with bark used to fill in the walls between the log studs. I'd imagine they needed more substantial buildings than teepees in order to survive Canadian winters.
	Rebecca. Something about this picture reminds me of those paparazzi photos that they keep taking of celebrities.
	There she goes! Quick! Follow her!
	And now we're inside the longhouse, looking at a reconstructed interior. Obviously they didn't think of privacy the same way we do today: there was no segregation of sleeping quarters at all. In the larger longhouses, dozens of people would live inside.
	More interior stuff.
	More interior stuff.
	More interior stuff.
	More interior stuff.
	It must have been quite a pain in the ass to grind flour that way.
	Apparently, the ring and stick was the Nintendo DS of its day.
	I can't help but wonder how exactly they hung the corn to dry and smoke it (you can see the holes in the ceiling where the smoke from their indoor campfires would escape). Did they have ladders? Or were they just agile and able to clamber along those roof beams?
	David went for a Darth Vader costume for Halloween this year.
	And Rebecca got out her Santa's Helper costume from Christmas. I guess it works for Halloween too.
	Razor had a ghost costume. Of course, he kept trying to shake it off.
	Still not looking quite comfortable in that costume ...
	Sleepy time.

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Michael and Rebecca Wong

Photo Album

2008