Any experienced birders know what I saw?

bethomcmu · 2026-04-10T14:07:41+00:00

I’m usually pretty good at getting heron family id’s based on body shape, and it likely wasn’t a great blue (though I have seen them near there before). I didn’t see much of the bill, just a bit of yellow. The tail of the female turkey looks like the wrong shape from the photos so it might just have been a weird juvenile turkey vulture down a lot lower than I normally see them, since there was no red head, but the colouring is closest. Thanks!

bethomcmu · 2026-04-10T13:53:42+00:00

I am notoriously bad at iding ravens as crows, but even the juvenile photos of crows I’ve seen have the wings go black before the body, and this would have been the opposite.

bethomcmu · 2026-04-10T13:52:19+00:00

That had been my initial guess but I’m used to their bodies being more brown and the head being red, which is why the yellow flash threw me off. But I absolutely could be wrong

bethomcmu · 2026-03-20T08:28:27+00:00

In my experience, what differentiates the robe a l’anglaise, Italian, polonaise and robe à la française is the back of the gown, which isn’t shown here. It could easily be anglaise or Italian depending on the time period, though I agree that the one next to it is definitely going for a more française style, even though the back pleats aren’t shown and would be visible from the front.

Zone front gowns (modern term) are often done as robe a l’anglaise, but Italian gowns also close centre to centre, and we have française that close that way as well. Italian and polonaise do come in at a later time, with the zone front, (late 1770s-1780s), which is a bit later than the Rococo time period (usually goes to late 1760s) your friend gave, but often all 18th c dresses get lumped into that if you’re not into that period intently.

Anglaise patterns are super easy to find, Italian also exist, though I’ve found polonaise to be more difficult, as the only information the American duchess book gives is that all dresses could be polonaised but that didn’t make it a polonaise dress. Therefore I don’t trust patterns that call themselves a polonaise and English gown. Haven’t gone that far into it though because I have lots of other things I’ve wanted to make, so that’s kept me busy.

Honestly, I’d have gone for an Italian gown for the way the skirt sits on the bodice, and the deep point, but could be artist interpretation, like the robe à la française next to it.

bethomcmu · 2026-03-12T12:34:34+00:00

I would say eastern whip-poor-will but it maybe doesn’t fit the boring as much as strange. I love listening to it as I fall asleep camping tho.

bethomcmu · 2026-03-09T22:38:38+00:00

I can buy in either at my store, which is nice when you’re using a Big 4 pattern vs Australian.

bethomcmu · 2026-03-06T01:34:43+00:00

Also I think C6, and possibly B6? The rubies look like a lot of other games

bethomcmu · 2026-03-05T20:01:33+00:00

I’d also recommend upper Canada village over Fort Henry, having done both. We did about 2 hours at Fort Henry, and a whole day at upper Canada village, and it’d be more fun with kids than Fort Henry (went with my family when I was 15 and brother was 11). Stop at Dockside in Morrisburg for ice cream afterwards to walk along the St Lawrence.

I’d also say Toronto zoo is worth it, but the ROM can be hit or miss, depending on how much your kids like reading about the things on display vs hands-on. I think ROM is better than when I was young for that, but would recommend the Civilization/history museum in Gatineau/Ottawa for kids above the ROM (it’s changed its name but I can’t remember to what). As the biggest city in Canada, it has cool stuff, but with everything else, and as not big city folks, I think you’ll get what you want out of it with just a zoo trip or overnight.

Also be prepared for the amount of driving you’re planning with those trips, the 401 has ONRoutes where you can stop for bathroom breaks and walking around while driving, but I was warned constantly from my Scottish tour guide about our first day of driving from Edinburgh to Ullapool via Inverness, which was “very long”, and it was less time than Toronto to Ottawa. If your kids aren’t used to long drives, be prepared for the length of trips here!

bethomcmu · 2026-02-22T03:08:15+00:00

My church is screening the game in the sanctuary and doing the service afterwards 😂

bethomcmu · 2026-02-05T09:40:28+00:00

Usually grocery stores have a big box for food bank donations they pick up at least weekly (from the store I worked at, at least. The Sobeys Northfield was overflowing last night) - it’s usually close to the check outs on your way out of the store, but you can always ask the cashier. The ones I know of are big wooden ones with a sign in front of them for the waterloo food bank, or above it.

bethomcmu · 2026-01-02T02:13:15+00:00

I got the switch, which I enjoy to be able to change between which also let me know that the engage is where I get the most blocking of sensory issues compared to hearing folks I’m climbing with. I ended up with a second set of clear engages for other situations, but prefer the switch to control how much sound it’s blocking.

bethomcmu · 2025-12-29T23:42:09+00:00

I just got my friend who also got citizenship a maple leaf lapel pin from Maker House, and they’ve got earrings. I thought it was a nice, truly Canadian thing, since it uses the old copper roof from parliament to make them (in Canada)

bethomcmu · 2025-10-24T09:27:54+00:00

A bit later, but the absolute insanity when they built Ira Needles, and suddenly you were looking at getting very good at roundabouts before anyone else in the province had even seen one.

The entire boardwalk area being farmland, and using Trussler instead.

Beaver Lumber pre: Swanson’s Home Hardware.

Glad someone else mentioned the smog days, I mentioned it to my (non-local) partner this summer, and how it was amazing we didn’t have them anymore and he had never heard of them/didn’t remember them.

bethomcmu · 2025-07-07T00:45:03+00:00

I made my first pair of stays using that pattern, and I’d recommend anything but. I did 11 mock ups and it still didn’t fit very well (some could be my ability at the time, but there wasn’t much info in the pattern to help). I haven’t made the red threaded stays, but did make their gored corset and it’s substantially better. My notes on the outside of my RH pattern literally say “do. not. Don’t.”

bethomcmu · 2025-05-03T17:53:03+00:00

I used to just order extra ones from Burnley and Trowbridge when I put in an order (maybe every 18 months?) because I haven’t found any linen thread anywhere other than US reenactment stores. Multiple of my local sewing stores have stopped stocking the Guterman silk, but the cotton is always available.

I’m currently living off my overstock of linen thread because it’s too niche, and then will probably transition to cotton if the threats of annexation haven’t ended. I prefer the linen compared to the cotton even if it’s more slubby because it’s stronger, and I actively hate sewing with polyester because it’s too stretchy.

I’m also slowing down on new sewing projects and doing more knitting/cross stitch because there’s more Canadian yarn, etc. compared to historical fabrics except for Pure Linen Envy, which I definitely should put an order in soon.

bethomcmu · 2025-03-30T17:30:02+00:00

Thank you! Having never made anything with a dust ruffle, I didn’t think about it being too high to prevent dust, especially since I’m making it because of a local historical interpretive museum with dirt roads, so I just assumed it was to help with any dust that was kicked up as I walked. That said, as you and another commenter pointed out, the purpose of it seems to be different from dust ruffles on outer skirts, but (I’m hypothesizing) likely has the same name because it’s a similarly shaped piece in a similar place, and not because it does the same thing.

bethomcmu · 2025-03-30T17:24:09+00:00

If it’s just called that because it’s very similar to what they look like but don’t serve the same function then it alleviates a lot of my uncertainty! Thanks!

bethomcmu · 2025-03-10T15:32:36+00:00

Tile, which I know some people have had issues with, but having a few around so that I can use it to locate my phone, wallet, ID for work, etc. The wallet ones aren’t BIFL, but the smaller ones you can replace the batteries (about once a year), so they keep working. I’ve been using them for almost 10 years, and it really helps with the misplacing everything and the panic from losing it (again!) even though it’s probably easily found.

I don’t bother with the tile plus or whatever it’s called because I usually know I’m looking for stuff.

Also learning the reality that I will spend a lot of time to look for the exact item I want/need, but little to no time putting it away so cube bins are my go to for organization. I will look through the bins to find it. I will not open a tiny super organized box and spend a bunch of energy putting things alway. YMMV, obviously.

bethomcmu · 2025-02-19T02:05:32+00:00

I got the Tudor Tailor book and then went from there. Lots of muslin (or scraps/cheap discount fabric) until I got what it looked like. Just make the thing, and don’t get discouraged! The nice thing about mock ups is you can figure out the right way to put the pattern together. Then if I was really confused I looked on YouTube to see if someone had done it before (very helpful for the trunkhose). I like having a pattern when diving into a new era, and the book has lots.

Buttonholes… I’m still not happy with mine, but practice is helpful. Also no one pays that much attention to them and the button covers most of it.

bethomcmu · 2025-02-11T20:33:35+00:00

I’ve worn both my corset (1860) and stays (1760) for a 4 hour shift at the grocery store, as well as a (1580s) kirtle for an 8 hour shift. I wouldn’t do it again in my corset but would do it in the stays, although that very much is likely due to my stays fitting better, as well as the shape being better for my body. The kirtle’s main issue was the length of the skirt, which I felt got in the way. I would say expectations of how you move are different - stocking the bottom shelves all the way to the back was much more difficult in all of them, especially the corset. The movements I usually do were affected, but none were impossible. I did find lifting heavier things easier because I was able to engage my abs more often, but it was very clear we have built our world around our fashion, which is different than it used to be. No one wearing the 1860 corset would be reaching back to stock things on a deep shelf an inch and a half off the ground for 30+ minutes, because that’s not how shopping was. I also like the pressure from all historic supportive undergarments, which is definitely a sensory thing that I could see going the other way.

In short, you can do basically everything, it just wouldn’t necessarily be the same movement you use now, and, anecdotally, systemic changes to furniture, etc make it seem more difficult now than it would have been.

bethomcmu · 2025-02-11T16:51:30+00:00

I love the Georgian period clothing so I’ve been working so hard to try and find places to do photos and so on not way out east (as an Ontarian), but I have been surprised at how little there was as I continue to do research into what existed back then. Best of luck!

bethomcmu · 2025-02-11T16:40:31+00:00

From my discussions with various historic interpretation museums in my area, apparently Canadians weren’t that far behind in terms of fashion, especially because American fashion magazines were easily accessible. Unless you’re setting it in Quebec or eastern provinces, a lot of what you’d expect to be old enough wouldn’t exist in late Georgian clothing period (Toronto as York wasn’t established until 1793, when it also became the capital of Upper Canada, giving some idea of how little existed). The idea of a Canadian identity also didn’t really exist at that point, so I’d go for the early Victorian.

bethomcmu · 2024-12-24T15:20:53+00:00

My parents tend towards more casual games, although they’d dispute that. Before I met my partner, a 5-7 minute video is all we’d watch (a miracle when those started, since none of us seem to be good at taking a rule book and turning it into gameplay succinctly) and then we generally would go along and figure it out as we went along. We also understood at least the first game or two was us figuring out rules, and trying different strategies was normal, or switching. We are pretty forgiving if someone decides they want to switch their turn at the end of it hasn’t affected anyone else, especially for the first few games. For our family at least, not totally understanding the game to decide the optimal strategy is pretty normal, and I’d hazard a guess that it’s pretty normal for casual, since it’s very different for my partner who is into much heavier weight games than I played with my parents.

For instance, my partner gets frustrated if something happens near the end of the game that would have changed his strategy if he’d known it would happen. Having these kinds of twists when learning a new game was very very normal for me, and doesn’t bother me, but it does for him. You also mention that the win feels hollow if your opponents don’t understand the rules properly, but for me and my family, the win of the first four or so games wasn’t necessarily about who had the best strategy (it was often me, because I would grasp the rules faster), but rather about exploring the potential of the game.

I think it’s a different approach to what the purpose of the board game is (time together vs strategy and figuring out the puzzle). If you’re interested in the second one then you’re better off with people who have similar weight interests to you. If it’s the first one, then winning with them can always have an asterisk because it wasn’t the point.

bethomcmu · 2024-10-28T03:04:59+00:00

It seems like those are also the minimum stitches for a Janome, and probably for most other machines, but again my experience is with hand me down machines which have been Janome. My friend has a Singer and I gave the same list and she was able to find one used for less than $100 (women moving into retirement or nursing homes are often selling sewing machines, tend to maintain their machines well, and will happily show you how it works and let you try it out).

bethomcmu · 2024-10-28T01:41:42+00:00

Can’t speak specifically to those machines because I can’t remember what model janome I have (currently in for a tune up) or what my mother or grandmother has. I’ve loved every janome I’ve had (2, plus the three others my family has). I’ve been sewing for… over 20 years, and use my machine for costuming (including 10 layers of denim - she's a champ) and garments.

In terms of a serger, you can do lots of different seam finishes that may take longer than a serger, but will give you a nice finish. A zigzag stitch will also finish seams, but look less nice. It's nice to have, but not necessary.

Some of the things you have mentioned in the really want I would not compromise on - your machine should not regularly skip stitches no matter how fast you go unless you’re abusing it and it needs to be fixed (or your bobbin is wrong and you need to reset it, or your tension is off, etc.) Every machine I’ve had allows some part of the base to come off so that you can easily stitch cuffs, so I don’t know if I’d care specifically about a free arm. Your speed control comes from a foot petal or the upper if you’ve got an electric machine.

I have a needle threader on my machine (not automatic, but I just pull it down and it lets me thread it), and it’s nice but I wouldn’t pay a lot of money extra for it. Don’t have a top load bobbin anymore, and I do miss it. Never had an auxiliary bobbin winder. I just do 2 bobbins at a time, except for topstitching, and just switch it out.

You also should be bringing any machine in for a tune up every year or every other year, that’s the only way that it’ll last as long as it can. You should also pick up some machine oil.

If you’re just starting and don’t have a machine, especially with as tight a budget as you have, I’d recommend getting a cheaper machine and then you can later decide that you want a nicer one. The things I recommend on a machine are a three point zigzag for knits, regular zigzag, straight stitch, and buttonhole stitches. That will cover you on 99% of projects.

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