It was a bit of a bleak day today. Not much going on at the river, at least where I was looking. I started to photograph a queen anne's lace plant when I saw these curly branches coming off a plant next to it. I thought it was worth a closer look.
Mathew McCarthy
I came across this large hornet's nest while walking a long a stretch of the Grand River trail that separates the river from the deer ridge golf course. I found myself thinking a lot about a program I heard on CBC radio this morning. A biologist was speaking about the recent worldwide crashes in the bee population. One of the main problems is the rampant use of pesticides on our food, lawns and yes, golf courses. I thought of this as I observed the still perfect emerald green, weed free landscape of deer ridge. Would it be so terrible to ban pesticides? I think we could adapt to the presence of plants labeled as "weeds" by turf care specialists. I am not advocating getting rid of golf or nice lawns I just don't like the trade off of keeping such unnatural spaces. Bees are much too vital in the pollination process to continue to ignore the problem.
David Bebee
Stantec engineer Heather Amirault and aquatic biologist Ryan Park release red dye in to the Grand River near the cockshutt bridge in Brantford. The rhodamine wt, or red dye will help measure how quickly a spill would reach an intake at Chiefswood, Six Nations. The test is a partnership between Six Nations and the GRCA as part of an intake protection study and will help prepare for the impact of a spill upstream in the river before it reaches a drinking water intake. The test was done at the start of the oxbow area of the Grand which as I recall seems to take forever to paddle during a canoe trip.
David Bebee
A fungus grows next to the bank of the Grand River in Cambridge.
Mathew McCarthy
Today I paid a visit to the property owned and enhanced by Lisa Willms and Bill Reitzel, who are lucky enough to live on a parcel of land that backs on to the Grand River. I took a picture of colourful bath tubs for the blog on this same spot on February 10th. I noticed Bill and Lisa had recently added a festive touch to the rainbow painted cast iron tubs. Rudolph and five other reindeer pulling santa's sleigh light up the night on the banks of the Grand in Breslau each night. Merry Christmas Lisa and Bill, thanks for the effort.
David Bebee
Sumac reaches skyward under threatening clouds near the Grand in Kitchener.
Mathew McCarthy
I had a chance to take a walk through Kolb Park in Kitchener during a misty rain. I was losing the light fast. The fog was moving in and everything looked brown. After searching the banks of the Grand for about 1km, I found this plant. I used a flash to try to bring out the tiny flowers that were still holding their faded petals. I had some trouble trying to identify this plant in its current state. I think it might be a New England Aster.
David Bebee
I stopped at an area of the Grand where the Conestogo river joins it just outside the village of Conestogo. I set my tripod near some Queen Anne's lace and waited for some traffic to go by. Using a slow shutter speed I caught this red streak of brake lights on a transport going across the bridge heading towards Conestogo.
David Bebee
While walking along the Grand on the opposite shore to the Galt Country Club, I found a cave. It's about 10 feet off the ground in the side of the cliff. The climb up took a couple attempts, not because it's particularly tough but because I'm a chicken. Once inside it gave a nice, if somewhat treed, view of the river. Scattered around were several empty drink containers and flattened cardboard boxes. Looks like I'm not the first to find it.
Mathew McCarthy
I photographed what I thought was the remains of an old bridge structure in the Grand River near Conestogo. It actually may be the remains of a mill dam and I'm trying to find out what the holes drilled into it are all about. More later.
Mathew McCarthy
It turns out that this is actually the remains of a bridge. Brian Soehner from the Region of Waterloo said it was part of the base of an iron bridge that crossed the Grand near Conestogo. The bridge was torn down years ago and replaced with the bridge that stands there today. He wasn't sure about the holes but suggested that at some point someone was probably trying to take it down.
MM
David and Mathew are photojournalists at the Waterloo Region Record.
Do you have any story or photo ideas about the Grand River? Email David at dbebee@therecord.com or Mathew at mmccarthy@therecord.com
