Battlesigns.

A line of political campaign signs in Sidney L. Buckwold Park on McKercher Drive, representing Brad Trost of the Conservative Party and Darren Hill of the Liberal Party.  Interestingly I haven't run across signs from Denise Kouri of the NDP on public property like these.

The late Sid Buckwold was twice Mayor of Saskatoon(1958-1963, 1967-1971) and served as Liberal Senator for Saskatchewan between 1971 and 1991.

Lonely.

As is always the case in a federal election lawn signs soon become a regular sight.  But some parties have more signs than others.  This Green Party sign is the only one I've run across so far in my riding, Saskatoon-Humboldt.  NDP candidate Denise Kouri seems to have the most signs so far.

Sunbathing.

A cat soaks up the early April sun while resting on a fence on Balfour Court.

Disobeying.

Various city run facilities are zoned as no smoking, including Saskatoon Transit bus shelters.



However it's probably not a surprise that such prohibitions are often ignored.

Strike A Pose.

Yesterday morning I got off the bus in front of the Sturdy Stone Centre on 3rd Avenue.  I spotted a magpie on one of the nearby trees, so out came the camera in the hope of catching a shot.



Imagine my surprise when instead of flying away before I could take a photo, as birds often do, he actually flew closer to me, landing in one of the planters.  He started to root around for tidbits.



My close presence seemed to make no difference to him.  In fact it was almost as if he decided to let me have a good look.





Even the flash on my camera going off a couple of times didn't bother him in the least.





Soon it was time for both of us to move on.

The breed found in Saskatchewan is the Black-billed Magpie.  They're quite common in many areas of Saskatoon.  As often seems to be the case with birds the ones downtown, like this one, are quite tame.  The ones I see in more suburban areas of Saskatoon seem to be less so. 

Small Guardian?

A small dog tied up in front of Always Towing on 43rd Street.  Although he barked at me I doubt he's supposed to be a guard dog.



This was the second time I've seen him tied up there and I'm by there regularly when I visit the Long and McQuade across the street., so I assume he's a pet of one of the tow truck drivers.

Clink.

Walking down 2nd Avenue on Wednesday I noticed this glass sitting on top of the parking ticket dispenser at the corner of 2nd and 25th Street.  Given that the Patricia Hotel and its bar are just across the street I assumed a patron walked out of the bar holding this and put it there when he was finished.  Frankly I find that a bit disturbing, because he might have then gotten into his vehicle and drove off, drunk.



However a quick check indicates that Albino Rhino is a brand of pale ale served at Earl's Restaurants, and there's an Earl's a couple of blocks away on 2nd Avenue.  Doesn't change my worry about drunk driving of course.

I left the glass where it was, but it didn't remain there long.  Literally a couple of minutes after I took these shots a truck pulled up to the dispenser.  I think it might have been someone from the company who runs the parking lot.  In any case when the truck pulled away the glass was gone.  Somehow I doubt the driver was going to take the glass back where it belongs, but who knows?