Love Manitoba: Narcisse Snake Dens

In the winter my brother-in-law sent me a link to a set of snake pits, called the Narcisse Snake Dens, that were not far out of Winnipeg and suggested I go.  As the spring approached, I heard many references on the radio, from friends, as well as at other events that snake were beginning to wake up early this year and try to find a mate with whom to reproduce.  Time for another Love Manitoba trip.  

Only one of my Love Manitoba friends was able to make it to the snake dens but we still had a great time.  As we approached the sight we saw small fences, and I am talking small fences, 10-12 inches high, along the highway.  They were so short but meant for the wee snakes we were about to meet, so that they did not meet their death as squashed long meat on the highway.

We parked, gathered our few belonging and noticed that the first thing we forgot was a picnic.  In the heat of a summery May and with tables available we could have brought a light snack or a lunch, which we were not aware as an option.  Shrugging our shoulders and walking on, we noticed several boards pointing out what was in store for our visit.  

There were four snake pits, all active, but with two containing the most number of snakes.  The dirt path led us through and around short trees and bushes to the first deep snake pit.  With a fence to ensure we would not jump in the pit, we saw the following wee snakes.  I was expecting larger ones to be honest having grown up with the images of Indiana Jones falling into the snake pit with huge snakes, or attempting to get out of quicksand with a snake.  Even so, there were A LOT of snakes!!!  

Many bodies and tails.
One wee head.

Snakes all piled on each other in a frenzy.

In view was a pit about 30 feet around with various levels of vegetation, rocks and small alcoves.  In the midst of this natural setting small snakes piled one on top of the other.  The movement of each pile was never-ending and a soon as a pile was created, is morphed into a smaller grouping until only 5-10 snakes were left, then another pile would build a short ways off.  Quite amazing.

We watched the first den and moved on to the second, where the viewers were higher up on a rounded precipice with a fence looking 20 feet down and out about 60 feet out at another area full of vegetation, rocks, dark dirt, and snakes.  

Snakes appeared to be dripping off the edge of the den.

They just kept on moving up, down, around, all over.

The occasional snake took a break and enjoyed some sun.

We were in luck at the second den as an interpretive guide appeared and my friend and I sequestered him for a while and rapid fired questions.  He explained that this was mating season and there were far more male snakes than females, all with the biological need to mate.  As it turns out there is one, ONE female at the bottom of each pile, and HUNDREDS of male snakes on top of her all vying for her attention as she picked a mate.  We asked if she does get to pick and he said yes, that it is in her biological make-up to pick a mate each spring.  He has seen piles as many as 150-200 snakes large.  Imagine being the small wee female snake at the bottom of that pile!?!  Wow!  Animal behaviour.  Quite amazing!

Our trusty park interpretative guide.

Where is the female?  Who knows!

In the third den there was less activity and more individual and small groups of snakes just slithering about.  The snakes had begun their mating early this year but some were sticking to their usual schedule.  

Calm snakes in the sexual storm.

At the last snake pit I took the opportunity to hold a snake that had escaped its thin, small, shallow pit.  With families about, kids holding touching and shrieking, and pets chasing snakes, this pit was active with humans and noise.  

I really liked the yellow and bright orange stripes on the snakes.
Funny enough, my nail polish that day matched.

Many years ago in the 1980's my two mature and extremely cool cousins came to visit and live with us in Belgium for one year.  They flitted about Europe on various travels (while I was stuck going to grade 7, still kinda bitter) returning with trinkets and presents they had purchased themselves.  Cousin Rebecca was obsessed with the recent trend of snake jewelry and purchased herself a snake necklace, earrings and bracelet.  I wrapped the snake around my wrist and it stayed to hang out.  I remembered the jewelry at this moment and took these few pictures for her.  I wonder what ever happened to those pieces?  

My snake skin/real bracelet

The bracelet begins to climb

If you are ever out this way in late April or early May, head to the Narcisse Snake Dens for fun with some little, wiggly creatures that will put a smile on your face.  Remember, snakes aren't slimy they are slithery.  Two very different things.

Cattle Research Leads to Food

Currently I am completing some research for a new local museum that has opened just south of Winnipeg, the Farm Food Discovery Centre.  I am completing research in an area that is new to me, cattle.  Yep, this urban woman is knee deep in world wide cattle names, histories of new breeds, the ways cattle is used...including their manure.  Quite the learning curve I have to say.

As I look at webpages, read posts, and attempt to decipher breeding charts (yes they exist and they are like a foreign language), I come across other interesting websites like this one.  A man who lives in Geneva who love gastronomy (this word has always made me cringe a bit), and has a post about Swiss cattle and the cheese he found that is made from their milk after they have feed in alpine meadows on flowers, herbs and grasses.  Now that is the life!  Walking about on Swiss mountain sides, munching on natural foliage, hanging with fellow cows and calves.

This was another website that made me want to lick the screen and wow, what a set up!

Travel.  

Find food.  

Create dishes.  

Take pictures from the photography contraption hanging from your ceiling.  

Eat.  

Motivating me to finish my thesis so I can find something this cool to do with my life.  Plus, now I want to join this man on one of his adventures of travel, gastronomy and photography.  Add to bucket list!

The post I found by typing into Google, "what do swiss cows eat in pasture", garnered me this delectable webpage:

Swiss Alpine Pasture Cheese Croute

I don't think Francios-Xavier or Google is actually saying that the cows eat this dish, but I don't really know anything about cattle remember!?!

Here is the generic page of delicious international goodies:

FXcuisine.com

Bring food to the computer with you  

Quality food  

And a napkin

...for drool...

______________________________

Later in the day......

I came across a Canadian Beef Blog, yes I did.  

Yep there is.

This is for all you meatitarians out there who are hankering for an amazing bar-b-q.

Canadian Beef Blog

(Tonia returns to being distracted now.)

Out of Oz

Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My entanglement with the Wicked series began over a decade ago, and after reading the first instalment, Wicked.  I quickly began to spread the word of an author who took fairy tales we all knew, and provided a deeper story to reveal characters who ethics and morals governed their choices to reveal inner worlds that no writer had attempted to explain.  Maguire's ability to provide fictional, historical reasoning for the characters we all think we know provides the reader with brilliant insights into good, evil, bad, nice, decent, and all the other lessons fairly tales are meant to teach us.  Liir (Son of a Witch) and Brrr (A Lion Among Men) are joined by a host of characters as the story of Oz continues.  Caught in a war between Ozians and Muchnkinlanders, two key elements become the object of desire on both sides, Liir (or Rain) and the Grimmerie.  Even when these two objects are attained, Maguire does not present one side as good and the other as evil, the reader is left simply to follow the choices of each character, wondering what will be the results in the end.  A magnificent ending to a tale that has taken over a decade of my life, and introduced me to an author whose skill I deeply admire and characters that are complex and change with every experience.


One thing I do find difficult about Maguire's writing is that he mixes the fantasy world of Oz with real life references.  At times this is confusing as the two world's are so entwined that a word, a reference, or sentence is at hard to understand as I wondered if I had missed a pop culture or historical reference, or if I was back in a space of fantasy.  This made reading this book more complicated but I learned to press onward and enjoyed these works.

The parts of the book I want to remember:

"Prophecy is dead, and conscience is dead too...If there's no good conscience to trust...no Lurline, no Ozma, no Unnamed God, no standard of goodness, then we have to manage for ourselves.  Maybe there's no central girl in some hall in the Emerald CIty, all bronzed and verdigrised, all windswept hair and upthrust naked breast, lots of bright honor carved in her blind and focused eyes.  No conscience like that, no reliable regula of goodness.  So it's up to us, each of us a part.  A patchwork conscience.  If we all make our own mistakes...we can all make amends too.  No one of us the final arbiter, but each of us capable of adding our little bit.  We're the patchwork conscience of Oz, us lot." p. 182


"The sweet accident of coincidence is the best foundation on which to build." p. 407


"She would make no plan but this: to move out into the world as a Bird might, and to perch on the edge of everything that could be known.  She would circle herself with water below and with sky above.  She would wait until there was no stink of Oz, no breath of it, no sight of it on any horizon no matter how high she climbed.  And then she would let go of the book, let it plunge into the mythical sea.


Live life without grasping for the magic of it.


Turn back, and find out what that was like; or turn forward, and learn something new." p. 563

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Recreation Connections

As part of my graduate studies I am at the network and meet new people portion in attempts to eventually be a productive member of the recreation, leisure and tourism community, as well, to obtain gainful employment.  This past week I attended the Recreations Connections conference in Winnipeg and enjoyed all the keynote speakers and the break-out sessions.  Usually there are one or two presenters that don't meet the expectations that you may have, but this conference was an exception.  We heard about the National Recreation Summit, the first of its kind held in Lake Louise in October 2011.  Professionals, students and educators met to discuss the future of recreation and leisure in Canada, in hopes of developing a vision and strategy to improve the current commitment and understanding of the field by governments, organizations and the general public.  It was an interesting review by one of the key-note presenters Brian Johnston.

At Recreation Connections I also learned the difference concerning the roles and responsibilities of volunteer boards, the High Five program, and continued to learn about nature deficit disorder.  A term coined by Richard Louv, it addresses the broadening gap between nature and humans.  We as humans are not spending enough time in nature and this is most evident in our teenagers and children.  Not only is  little commitment to including natural spaces in large urban development an issue, but children are playing on concrete courts, with plastic swing sets and slides, and metal play structures.  There are some schools who are moving to create nature gardens in order to alleviate the issues that nature deficit disorder can cause, but we need to ensure that children, teens and we are accessing nature in its most basic forms in order to continue to develop into healthy, productive, understanding individuals.

These are the two books written by Richard Louv and I would suggest you grab a copy, give it a read, then take a group of friends and family out into nature.  Then again, a solo trip is also as enjoyable as an excursion with others.   We also need to ensure that our neighbourhoods make natural spaces a priority, including natural parks, forests, rivers, streams, etc.

Below is part of a paper I wrote last year based on Parks Canada and the need to study why people visit our provincial and national parks in order to create experienced based recreation that meets visitor needs, in order to increase the number of people visiting our amazing parks system.  Have a read, then get up and go out and enjoy some nature today!

Nature Deficit Disorder

In essence, as our world becomes more urbanized with fewer natural and groomed spaces therein, and access to larger, natural spaces appear more remote, we begin to experience what has been labeled nature-deficit-disorder or biophobia (its opposite is biophilia).  This is the discomfort or aversion to nature and the natural world, which is on the rise in post-modern society, and is subtle as this disconnect is slow for many adults and children (Condon, 2008).  There are individual and social repercussions to the loss of contact with nature, particularly when studying children, which may influence children to have poorer co-ordination, loss of self-discovery, antisocial and aggressive behaviour, less unstructured play, loss of boundary formation, and less physical knowledge about the world (Condon, 2008).  These skills are important in the development of the individual and point to a new continuum identified to help researchers understand the divide between biophobia and biophilia.  This model places the individual on a continuum with people who focus on and enjoy living things and life like processes at the biophilia end; as compared to the biophobia’s end, the people who “culturally acquire…[the] urge to affiliate with technology, human artifact, and solely with human interests regarding the natural world” (Orr, 1993, p. 416; McVay, 1993).  The two most important points to grasp about this continuum is the ability to make regular, learned, culturally influenced choices about one’ degree of contact with nature, which leads to the second choice, one’s individual movement along the nature-contact axis.      

Urbanization is not the only forerunner to this social change (Condon, 2008), as researchers have pointed to the causes of the lack of contact with nature.  These include the removal of nature from community and school playgrounds; fear or injury or loss of a person; potential litigation of a person is hurt on public or private property, lack of government initiatives to preserve space; undervaluing of childhood play; commercial entities that advertise to children (Condon, 2008).  As North Americans we are also spending more time inside structures and buildings (ie. home, work, school, cafés, restaurants, movie theatres, etc), and less time in the natural world.  A large portion of recreation and leisure time for many people has become electronic-based with computers, video games (online and console), movies, Internet, which requires access to electricity, objects of play, and demarcated inside places of entertainment.  Another influence is the aestheticization of people’s lives as we begin to use objects of consumption as signs and symbols to demarcate ourselves from others, for example, the public wearing of ear-buds or large earphones, the café culture and free WiFi use therein.  These elements of life also distract a person away from the outside environment to spend more time in the inner sanctuary of the mind or gazing at small objects such as mobile devices.  These changes in our social world have widened the divide between the inner lives we lead through technology, and increasingly insular world in which we ignore or do not find significance in the natural world around us.          

Interestingly nature and parks can have positive influences on individual lives and the social world.  Research has demonstrated that visual images of nature have the power to calm the physiology of people including lowering stress; interactive zoo animals held the interest of children diagnosed with ADHD who began to associate with the animals as kin; and children asked adults to teach them respectful ways to treat animals rather than fear or revile them (Katcher & Wilkins, 1993; McVay, 1993).  It is these kinds of stories and academic research that Parks Canada can use to set the stage for healthy and enjoyable visits, which will lead to an increased sense of place in national parks.

References

Condon, M.  (2008).  Why Kids Don’t Run Free?  In Play and Folklore, 4(50).

Katcher, A. and Wilkins, G.  (1993).  Dialogue with Animals: Its nature and culture.  In S.R. Kellert & E.O. Wilson (Eds.), The Biophilia Hypothesis (pp. 173-200).  Washington, D.C: Island Press. 

McVay, S.  (1993).  Prelude: “A Siamese Connexion with a Plurality of Other Mortals”.  In S.R. Kellert & E.O. Wilson (Eds.), The Biophilia Hypothesis (pp. 3-19).  Washington, D.C: Island Press. 

Orr, D.W.  (1993).  Love It or Lose It: The coming biophilia revolution.  In S.R. Kellert & E.O. Wilson (Eds.), The Biophilia Hypothesis (pp. 415-440).  Washington, D.C: Island Press. 

Bois-des-Esprits or Spirit Trees

While I was walking last spring on the south side of Winnipeg, I came upon a beautiful neighbourhood in St. Vital with its own forest, the Seine River Greenway Forest.  It was a delightful day with leaves all over the path, children actually playing in the forest, small groups of people enjoying a walk.  I happened upon another woman walking by herself and we began a conversation.  She asked me if I had seen the spirit trees of the forest as of yet, to which I replied no.  She walk me deeper into the woods and there it was, the Bois-des-Esprits.    

Stunning multiple faces and animals.
Carved on both sides.

The same tree.
The other side.

This woman and I talked for a while as she gave me more advice of a few different places to visit in the city.  We parted ways and I continued walking out of the forest I spied several more faces that I had completely walked by, not realizing they had been staring at me and others along the path.  The faces were stunning, carved right into the trees, rough slices, with long whisky beards.      

Old tree
Old face

This was the last tree as I left the forest.  I took one picture, stared at the tree for a while, then realized that this was not simply a face.

Old tree
Old face
With a bit of extra

A view from below so I could capture the face's friend.

Sadly, someone committed an act of vandalism this past June and lit the largest of the trees on fire.  One wonders what pushes someone to light something so stunning on fire.  Sign of discontent.  This tree provided me with much content.  I hope people continue to enjoy it despite a part of it now being charred.  I shall continue to walk, talk with random strangers, and enjoy the outdoors.  I am thinking the Winnipeg Trails Association will help.  Love walking!
  

Clueless Squirrel

During one of my neighbourhood walks this fall, I happened upon this scene.

I wondered if the squirrel had any idea that a clear, thin piece of glass was the only thing separating it from a game of cat and mouse, with an actual cat.

I wondered if the cat was thinking about all the fun chase and tag games 

it could play with the squirrel.

And then the cat became distracted and it saw me.  

But the squirrel is still clueless.

Son of a Witch

Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

While I enjoyed the book as a story of a lost young man who may or may not be the son of Alphaba, it was very dark and depressing.  As the plot proceeds there is a measure of main character development, but during his wanderings through Oz, he and the readers, is not really sure of who he is or is place in the grand scheme of the book, which is perplexing.  As a reader, I wanted more of a climax to the story and it was not there.  If you are a fan of Wicked and McGuire's books, as well as a lover of darker reads, this story will fit you well, just don't expect a major resolution to a climactic story, as it is not to be found.


View all my reviews

A Long Long Long Walk

While I was in London, UK I wandered in and out of delicious antiquarian bookstores by the dozen.  The best street for old books, creepy floored bookstores, dusty shelves and true collectors and ravagers of the written word is Charing Cross Road, at least if people keep shopping at these independent stores.  As I toured the shelves and softly stepped on the floors I kept seeing books by Bill Bryson, in the travel section, and loads of them.  Well, I am now in Winnipeg and I finally picked up on of these non-antiquarian books and will be reading many, many more of them.

A Walk In The Woods

Upon moving to New Hampshire, USA after living in the UK for twenty years, Bill Bryson and his family begin to settle into their New England environment.  Bryson learns of a walking trail that traverses thirteen states from Georgia in the south to Maine in the north, the Appalachian Trail (AT).  The U.S. National Park Service believes the trail is just over 2,000 miles but is not sure, thus begins the hilarity that is Bryson's AT experience.  Intermingling an incredible ability to present a series of interesting facts, with witty quips, and laugh-out-loud stories of he and his walking partner Stephen Katz, Bryson just made me want to keep reading more.  I did.  Finished the book in three days along with 7 meetings.  Was thinking about the adventures along the AT during a good portion of these meetings, sign of a good book.  With the fear of wild animals, scrambles that cause their bodies to ache, strange meetings with backcountry people, historical lessons about small desolate towns, the destruction of the eastern forests, deaths on the trail, hypothermia, descriptions of art, geological history lessons, and water always falling at the wrong times, it is evident that Bryson is an accomplished and entertaining author.  In the process of walking AT Bryson finds himself in a liminal world, between the silent soft forest and the rushing loudness of concrete progress.  Caught, he tries to continue his quest towards the end of the book only to find what was once found and lost is best left laid down.

From Bill Bryson's website

Bill and his family have returned to living in the UK and he has begun to support the CPRE, helping to save rural England.  I shall be reading more Bill Bryson soon.         

Lobster, Grand Beach, Frozen Lake Winnipeg

The 39 New Things I am doing this year continues: 

My friend Christa's brother, Randy, came into town and the next thing I know they have planned a clambake on Grand Beach, one of the first places I was told to visit when I moved to Manitoba.  OK, maybe not a clambake, but not having every lived near an ocean since childhood, I can only make reference to the 1945 Rogers & Hammerstein musical, Carousel and the song "A Real Nice Clambake".  I sang this song on stage with the rest of the junior high and high school cast at the International School of Brussels in the mid-1980's.  Here I was years later going to my first real clam/lobster/mussel bake!

Listen to the song while you read:
This Was a Real Nice Clambake
by Rodgers and Hammerstein

Press play and keep reading!!!

The tricky part being the gag reflex that my body experiences when I try to eat seafood.  Then again, I reminded myself that I am trying new things and these two Nova Scotia native friends promised delightful lobsters, fresh from the coast, over an open fire on a beach.  Sounded like a fantabulous end to a long semester to me!  The trick was they only had three lobsters and I was an added forth.  A quick stop off at a local grocery store to pick up a fresh east-coast lobster solved that problem.  In a portable box, on the way out of the store I named him/her Blaire, after the young man questioning our lobster and 'smore-like purchases when spring had not yet arrived in the province.

Blaire in a box.

The ride out was longer than my other friend, Stephanie, and I expected but we arrived, lugged our assorted accoutrements around the 'do not cross' tape, after hitting my tall head on two 'be careful, do not enter' signs, we finally found the shore, friends and fire.  To my chagrin I shook my head and laughed at my strange country.  Is was the end of April, spring in many places in the world but Lake Winnipeg was still frozen over, with the shore only slightly showing signs of spring defrost.  Crazy cold country!

Lobsters cooking near a frozen Lake Winnipeg

I was elated when I found out not only were there lobsters a brewin', Christa and Randy had added garlic bread, corn, and mussels to the dinner menu.  With my intense knowledge of seafood and my clambake memories, I kept referring to the mussels as clams, but everyone kindly corrected me about 20 times over the course of the next 3 hours until I dropped 'clams' from my vocabulary.

The Feast!

These Nova Scotian's taught me how to cook, crack, dip, 

slurp, nibble and chew on lobster and I liked it!

The mussels (a.k.a. clams) were a little too fishy for me but I soldiered on.

Blair about the become dead and pink.

Randy stirring the mussel-clams ;)

We laughed, we cracked jokes, we stuffed our faces, 

we tried drying our synthetic wet socks on the fire....

Sock on marshmallow stick

Pinawa Dam and Cabin Photographs

For Reading Week this year (yes I have one of those again, always the last week of February) I spent a weekend at a friend's cabin.  Usually I am going to my family's cabin in British Columbia but that is now three provinces and 21 hour away, not so easy.  We were off to Lac du Bonnet only one hour away.  That is a luxury as my cabin is 5 hours away from Calgary where I used to dwell.  One hour?  That means I don't have to plan bathroom breaks.  So much less to plan for when breaks are not necessary.

Chairs photographed as found.

Her family's cabin was my style of camping.  Large queen size beds, heated home, large kitchen, everyone taking turns preparing and cooking, magnificent view of the Lac, good conversation, a glass sunroom to die for, heated water for a shower, fireplace, I could go on.  Here is the most unique feature of their cabin, the builders left large parts of the rock cliff exposed in the basement for added beauty and connection with nature.

Wonderful for climbing!

After lazying about for several days, eating, drinking and conversing we headed out to the Pinawa Dam.

We all brought our DSLR cameras and accoutrements and set off.  After brief drive we arrived in the crisp Manitoba air with the sun beating down, illuminating the dilapidated dam causing many shadows, a photographer delight.  

Used for firing practice by the local army post-dam use.

Not dead.  Just sleeping.

Fort Whyte's Quacking

After making a few friends in Winnipeg I have been able to do some traditional activities in the city.  Well, activities that tourists or short term visitors may participate it but not necessarily long term residents and lucky for me, my new friends are a mix of new and long-term Winnipegers.  One of the newbies organized a trip to a 640-acre facility that specializes in outdoor recreation, environmental education and social events.  The trifecta of a good time in my world: fun, learning and people!

From late September to mid-October Fort Whyte, a beautiful, flat, treed, natural area just south west of the city, hosts a large party each evening for several hundred guests.  Of the 960,000 geese migrating away from Hudson's Bay to warmer climates, several hundred per night descend on the Fort to rest and recuperate on the large lakes.  In the morning they are gone, on their way to their final destination in the south eastern United States; for fifty minutes or so, thirty minutes after sundown the air erupts with flapping, squawking, splashing and the general boisterous calls of 200 - 400 geese.  Before the honoured guests arrive, we humans can meet for a 40 minute presentation by a Fort interpreter during which we learn about the different kinds of geese all over Canada, their varying migration patterns, the pair bonding of geese, the types of geese landing tonight (cackling or Canadian geese I think), and the characteristics that make each type of goose unique.

Ugly Duckling or Swan

Which would you rather be?

Though one becomes the other, most would pick a swan and skip the ugly duckling part. After what I saw Tuesday night, as long as the swans move me to misty eyed awe, I don’t care which one I am.

Tchaikovsky wrote Swan Lake (1875) with a chorus of swans who all represented womanhood in its purest form (typically the ballet did not become well loved until after Tchaikovsky’s death). The swans are all disciplined, all beautiful, all desirable, all graceful but only one leader: Odette/Odile. Odette the queen swan and Odile, her evil twin (both danced by the same prima ballerina during the performances). She was the swan above all others who led the group and who won the heart of Prince Siegfried (insert heavily noted and delightful music, tragic love, and an ending of tears and sorrow here).

120 years later, Matthew Bourne demolishes the Russian ballet’s history, and changes the beautiful gaggle of tutu clad, adored, classical spinning female swans, into a swarming mass of muscular, beak pecking, modern moving, broad winged male swans. Including the lead role as the tallest of all the male swans (Bourne's lead swan role was used by the makers of the Billy Elliot movie in 2000). Bourne also modifies the plot and turns the heterosexual love story of the swan and Prince, into a two male lead with homosexual under and over tones.

I loved every movement, note, character, reference and minute of it!

The classical dance mixed with the modern movements; the hilarious potential girlfriend as they mock classical ballet; the sadness of a Prince’s desire to receive a physical manifestation of love from his frosty mother; this lack of love being transferred into a love dream for a beautiful swan; a swan who appears a second time as a seductive lady’s man, rejecting any familiarity with the Prince; the flailing wings and arms of the dancers; the moonlight beaming on the gaggle of swans; the pas de deux between two men; the reference to the 1970’s – 1980’s electric shock treatment given to men to ‘cure’ their homosexuality.  All so new, exciting and exhilarating!


Now that the swans have danced for me and I adore them, the question becomes, how many more times can I go to their performances before it all ends on January 24? 

(The pictures interspersed within the words

are pictures I have taken of swans in Europe,

July – December 2009.)