My personal interests and hobbies.
Interests, projects and hobbies.
Contents.
At the present time. this site documents five of my projects, hobbies or interests:- Research about the vintage canoe Dora.
- Gardening.
- Photo gallery.
- Index of Ottawa, Ontario citizens organizations.
- Articles I have written for magazines and community newspapers.
Vintage canoe research.
My wife and I possess a vintage canoe which was owned by her father. In 2005, I began in earnest to trace the history of this beautiful canoe. Over the next five years, the initial story behind the canoe was revealed. But the story continues to unfold as visitors to this site contribute background materials or personal projects touching the canoe Dora. The links below document what is known about the canoe, its builder at this point.
- History of the canoe.
- Physical description of the canoe.
- Photos and other documents.
- Dialogue with others about this project.
- A "sister" for Dora.
- History and background of the builder, Octavius L. Hicks.
- Toronto Humber Yacht Club connection.
Gardening.
I wanted to provide an easy way for people to obtain information about the plants in my garden. Why? For over 30 years I have made available to other gardeners my surplus plants. When I prepare the plants for transfer, I usually include a tag with the name and growing information about the plant. As some of the descriptions are fairly long, the tags can become a bit unwieldy. It is much easier to refer the receivers of the plants to this section of the website where they can get a description and see a picture of the plant.
One of the spin-offs of this practice of giving away my excess plants is that I meet some wonderful people and often receive new plants in return. While I am not usually looking to add more specimens to my property (as I am trying to keep plants restricted to existing garden space), I have come to appreciate the beauty and value of diversity. So I am working on my wish list for plants I would like to have incorporated in the garden.
Finally, through the natural process of gardening over the years, there are some plants which used to be in the garden and are no longer included. As a result, I have included a description for them and the rationale for their removal or exclusion.
Like my garden itself, this section of the website is constantly under development. Information and photos of the plants in our garden are currently being added to the site as time allows. I am indebted to various garden sites and resource books which have provided some of the descriptive material included. However, I have also added my own observations particular to growing conditions in the Ottawa, Ontario area where I reside. I have also combined my love of photography with gardening by providing photos of the plants along with the descriptions. Thus, all the photographs of the plants are my own.
- Overview of the gardens.
- Plants currently in my gardens.
- Annuals used in our gardens.
- Plants I would like to try.
- House plants.
- Plants that were once in the gardens.
Photo gallery.
Index of Ottawa, Ontario citizens organizations.
Through my involvement (commencing in 1996) in an experimental Virtual Community Association, I have been maintaining a couple of lists which are proving popular. I am finding this is a service that is needed due to the size of the city and the huge number of community organizations which exist. The lists are:
Articles written for magazines and community newspapers.
I have been writing for publication since my high school days when I was editor of the school paper and submitting articles to the local (city) paper. This activity continued throughout my involvment in Scouts Canada, Ottawa Block Parents, the education system and my community. I have also written for purely personal interest from time to time as I have been moved by specific events.
So, here are some articles, categorized by the topic or the publication for which I was writing.
- Carlington Summit.
- Scouts Canada and Scouting in general.
- Personal interest:
Date of last revision:
2024-11-05.
Material Copyright © 2024 David Darwin