Well it's a sad day for South Winnipegers that love nostalgia and old gems. A few weeks ago a fence went up around the Palomino Plains Motor Inn. This hotel has been around since my parents moved to Winnipeg in the early 70's. In fact I would venture to say it was around since the 50's, though I don't know that for sure. Looks like it's going to become a piece of our distant history. I had always thought about renting a room there to get some shots of the inside, but it looks like I've missed my opportunity. Lets have a moment of silence for the Palomino Plains Motor Inn......

To prove I'm a man of my word, and that I commit to protecting the environment when at all possible, here's the carbon offsets I purchased for my flight to London from Winnipeg. I've also purchased carbon offsets for my flight from London to Amsterdam. I think it added $3.00 to that flight. Carbon offsets don't add a lot of cost to your flights. The flight to London contributed to a reforestation project in BC:

Forest Restoration Project:

Our forest restoration project in Maple Ridge, British Columbia is pioneering the development of credible and effective climate change mitigation and ecosystem restoration products. In 2006, this project developed over 200,000 tonnes of carbon credits in the District of Maple Ridge over an area of approximately 83 hectares, and involved the planting of over 25,000 indigenous Douglas Firs, Sitka Spruces, Western Red Cedars, Western Hemlocks and Cottonwoods. It is a project that aimed at accelerating the natural process that often takes hundreds of years, whereby a degraded scrub and brush land ecosystem restores itself to its natural state with indigenous species. The degraded forests in question are formerly first growth forests (full of Spruce trees and the like) now overgrown with invasive brush, bushes, and Alder trees. This project consists of planting a strategically-placed heterogeneous mixture of native species, managing them until they are firmly established and reach a certain level of maturity (about five years), and then letting the native trees outgrow the existing brush land, which eventually eliminates the invasive species that are present. Our project provides wildlife habitat and biodiversity, prevents soil erosion, helps purify water that flows into streams and lakes, provides food, shelter and recreation, and produces demonstrable carbon sequestration that would not otherwise have taken place.

Another shot from the visit to the zoo.

Went on my annual trip to the zoo today. Amanda goes quite a few times a year because of working in daycare. I still like to go every once in a while, and surprisingly today she suggested it. Always take my camera along even though it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Here's a shot of Richard Parker. Bonus points to anyone who figures out where that name comes from without looking it up on google.