Tag Archives: nature

Strip: This is Summer Plotting (Part 2)

weekday strips (black & white), ,

This is Pi Day #013.b

What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter?
Pumpkin pi, of course.

Here on the great Canadian prairies, our berries grow high up in the trees. If you’ve never tried a saskatoon berry, come to my house — I’ve got about three liters of the little buggers in the fridge even as I write this. They are tart and sweet and juicy and delicious and they turn your fingers a deep purple when you pluck them from the trees.

We planted a saskatoon tree five years ago and each year our harvest gets a little bigger — even though not all of them make it into the house. Does it bother me? No… if the kid wants to stuff herself purple with backyard fruit all I can say is that it sure beats whatever else she might decide to eat the rest of the year.

Well… so long as I get enough to make a pie or two…

Short: Muted (Panorama Comic)

single panel (random bonus comics), , , ,

This is Pi Day : Panorama Bonus #009.1

… because mountains aren’t just funny. They’re hill areas!

I took this picture on a recent (child-free) weekend trip to the rocky mountains. No, not the one of my two main characters standing atop a mountain climb overlooking a scenic landscape… just the scenic landscape.

I stood there admiring the view, enjoying the serene moment alone and gazing upon the beauty of nature and the magnificence of the mountains. I could have stood there for hours. I could have sat down on a bench (or even just a rock) and stared out into the distance for the rest of the afternoon.

And then a few minutes later a dad and his two kids walked up and the eldest of his boys did exactly what I would have expected from my Girl. He looked at it appreciatively for about three-eighths of a second before returning his attention to the gadget in his hands.

I don’t think kids are wired to think bigger than a sphere with a radius of about a meter around outside of their skulls. For that matter, I don’t think all adults are either… but with them I can’t blame their parents quite as much.

Comic: Nothing Can Compete

saturday comics (full colour), ,

This is Pi Day #008

I probably give the impression that The Girl is something of a couch potato. On the contrary. She bikes. She runs. She plays games and invents adventures with her friends.

But she HAS made it abundantly apparent that she doesn’t consider these things “entertainment.” Were planning this three-hour-long hike through the local river valley, a natural preserve of sorts with snaking asphalt trails crowded with bustling flora and fauna. Yet when I explained where we were going, her biggest concern was that she’d “be bored” because I wouldn’t let her bring her iPod for music.

“But what am I SUPPOSED TO DO!?!?”

And then she didn’t mention the iPod again until we were in sight of the truck… at which point nature, which had held her attention with the rapt enthusiasm of a proper ten-year-old for almost three hours, lost it’s appeal almost instantly.