No More Days For Mothers.

I really should have posted this yesterday when my clever title would have been more topical.  Oh well.



Several weeks ago I had heard talk that the Saskatoon outlet of Mother's Music had changed hands. 



My visit last Thursday proved this was true, and the new owners were kind of a surprise to me.  It's Long and McQuade, a music chain that's the closest Canadian equivalent to the US Guitar Center chain.  They bought out all the Mother's outlets, as well as the parent Gordon Price Music of Edmonton.



L&M already have a store in Saskatoon, this large "big box" style outlet on 43rd Street.  So it will be interesting to see what happens to the new location over the next few years.  Will it be run as an ongoing proposition?  Or is the current building leased, and the 8th Street location doomed to closure when it runs out?  I doubt they'll tell me.

Mother's Music has prevviously appeared on this blog.

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.