Sightings – gorgeous fall colours

Thanks to Mother Nature, I was treated to a glorious display of colourful trees on a trip to a meeting in nearby St.Catharines this past week. Plus I got to see a ship going through the Welland Canal at the St.Catharines museum. Take a look.

Bada-boom-bada-bing photo source: Lorie Pierce

Here is the vantage point at Lock #3 to view the ships traveling between Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.

Viewing platform at St.Catharines Museum at Lock 3 on Welland Canal, Ontario photo source: Lorie Pierce

Plus the day started with a double rainbow at sunrise. Does it get any better?

Well winning the lottery might…but until then, I feel blessed.

Animal Grow Chart

Are you taller than a baboon or shorter than an ostrich?

For the upcoming Awesome Animals mini-museum, I have created a Grow Chart for the families to measure themselves against the heights of birds and mammals. I also might add a few insects in recognition of their importance regardless of their diminutive stature.

1.  Find a long table and clear it off. Start with a roll of white paper (you could use craft paper as well). Cut off a piece ten feet long.

commercial paper roll photo source: Lorie Pierce

 

2.  I purchased a package of measuring tapes from the dollar store as the chart needs to be longer than 5 feet (the usual length on each tape). Here is a 3 pack I found for a buck.

If you prefer to ‘go metric’ just reverse the tape before you adhere it to the paper.

dollar store measuring tapes photo source: Lorie Pierce

3. Staple or tape two measuring tapes up the centre of the paper. Start the second tape where the first one ends (60 inches or 5 feet). Place coloured paper markers to indicate feet and metre heights. I used construction paper and felt pen. Glue onto white paper at the correct tape levels.

4. Find photos or illustrations of animals of different heights. I concentrated on animals that we exhibit or study at our museum. Print off in colour, cut to size and paste at the appropriate height level on the chart.

chart with height markers and animals added photo source: Lorie Pierce

 

This Grow Chart will be taped to a pillar in the activity area of the event so that families can measure their own heights compared to the animal kingdom.

sightings – the new Louvre-Lens

I attended a presentation about this new Outreach museum of the Louvre (think Guggenheim Bilboa) which will open on December 4 of this year – St. Barbara’s Day, the patron saint of miners.

photo credit: Cabinet Sanaa

The city of Lens offered a site of over 20 hectares in a former mine yard, closed in 1960. The site was ideal for the construction of a contemporary museum building with no constraints on design, as the Musée du Louvre wished. Its proximity to the train station, the absence of geotechnical issues, the esthetic quality of the landscape, and its location in the heart of a dense urban agglomeration were all key qualities that meant the site received an excellent technical report.

 

The decision to build the new museum in the former mine yard for the 9 and 9 bis shafts is highly symbolic. It is a way for the French Nation to express its gratitude to this corner of France that has suffered much in the past, both from war and from intensive coal-mining, followed by the closing of the last pit in Lens in 1986. Today, economic and social conditions remain difficult in the region, with a higher-than-average unemployment rate of 15%.

A rotation of art from the Louvre collection every five years will be supplemented with temporary exhibits on themes such as Medieval Art and the Art of Rubens.

Within a short walk from the train station that is on a TGV line, the Louvre-Lens is one hour from Paris and a short trip from London or Amsterdam.

I’m mentally planning my trip there now.