Meanwhile, at the Snow Zoo...

Right off the bat let me apologize for the graininess of the photos I'm about to present. I was messing around with my point-n-click's settings (apparently it has some) yesterday and forgot to reset it. 

You may remember the snow zoo I've been crazy about lately. 

While I was off in Toronto, where there's no snow to speak of, winter marched on in Ottawa. I arrived back to find a new and improved dragon over on Roger Wilson's lawn. This one is busy fending off some kind of Holmwood-haunting-eel (probably came up out of the canal inlet). 

Once again, amazing details. The pictures really don't do it justice. I hope someone out there with a better camera and more photog skills is taking pictures of this too!

Dragon #2 has a spiky, icicle-hawk, flared "gills" (I don't really know my dragon anatomy), up-raised wings, massive talons, and is chomping down on a writhing sea-creature.   

Mmmm... Tastes cold.

Wouldn't want to meet guy this while out in my rubber dinghy on Dow's Lake!

Here's the tail section. Unfortunately it got snowed on and is somewhat obscured right now. I'll head back out for more pictures when conditions improve.

Late Edit: Here's full-frontal picture showing a bit more detail. AND, in a strange twist of fate, Roger Wilson (the creator of the snow zoo) heard about my blog via his sister in the UK and wrote a comment to me on the original post! Weird how that worked out: neighbours connected cyberly through someone across the ocean!

the daily snippet

Down the road at the snow-zoo, Mr. Wilson has been at it again. One day he had smushed all the dying/melting animal carcasses together and the day after that this dragon appeared!

On the homefront, since none the Penguins knocked on my door and asked to sign their autographs on my All Stars/Starr Skates painting, I went ahead and filled the page in with some other hockey-related stuff.

And lately I've been on a Buster Keaton kick. I'd never seen any of his "talkies" and found one at the library called "Free and Easy". I won't get into the whole MGM/Keaton tragedy here except to say MGM misused his talent for sure. Still, there were a few great Buster-moments in the film. 

Today when I went for a walk I saw this sticker right outside my building. I'm not sure if it's newly placed or  if I just noticed it now because I have a fresh association with the phrase "Free & Easy"... 

Anyway, it made me think I should share this little snippet of Buster. The song n' dance starts at about 1:30:

"Start out breezy... if you pleasy."

From there you can go on your own little busta-link-fest. Enjoy!

Snow Zoo - An Ongoing Saga

A thing I really enjoy about my street this winter is the "snow zoo" that one of my neighbours is building. I've never met the person responsible for it but I admire their snow-skills. 

It all started with just one bear - which was fantastic enough. I thought this was the best variation of a snowman I'd ever seen. My mind was already blown at this point...

And then one day, suddenly, the lonely bear had a bunch of new friends!!

I took this picture while going by in the car. You can't see all the brilliant details so I'll list some of the finer points:

• The dog in the background has a big tail, front legs, and big ears all separate from the main structure... (like, not just "packed on" to the body), 
• The kangaroo actually has a little joey in its pouch, and it isn't "stuck onto" the mama, it's a fully-fledged little sculpture, separate from her body. 
• The detail of the hair in the lion's mane, face, and paws.

More recently a gorilla and a baby elephant were added to the zoo (or is it a circus?)... however I wasn't quick enough to go by with my camera and, unfortunately, the warm weather really took a toll on the sculptures. 

So, this used to be an awesome gorilla...

And this used to be a cool, little elephant... 

(Sidenote: the elephant is on the front lawn of the neighbour's house - the zoo is expanding!)

 

At this point, due to the thaw and the traffic, the bear is starting to look pretty gnarly but you can still see the profile of the gorilla really well in this picture...

I walk or drive down my street pretty often so I'm fairly amazed that I've never caught the creator in the act... but yesterday the local newspaper featured a picture of the zoo (in better days, before the gorilla and the thaw) and I found out the name of the creator!

So...

Dear Roger Wilson, 

Well done and keep it up! Your work has warmed my heart this winter, especially on the dreary days! Thank you for being awesome and sharing your zoo with the neighbourhood!

An admirer, 

R.