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By Geoff Hoile The amazing interaction of nutrition, concentration and ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) is not something I have studied; it was something that happened quite suddenly, and certainly without any planning. Taken independently, each has understandably been the subject of intensive study for longer than I am aware. Athletes, for example, know the importance of applying the power of concentration in their everyday work to be able to hit a golf ball squarely or avoid steoping on a moving hockey puck. We are all quickly becoming aware that oranges give you vitamin C and junk food gives you gas. And the wallflowers of the 1950s are the current-day gurus who can do everything from helping you get inside somebody else's head to taking a short flight around the room on your own wings. . What happened to me wasn't particularly similar to any of these activities, but it did include the interac- tion of the three important elements of nutrition, con- centration and ESP. Let me go back to the 1960s, when I discovered I possess these amazing powers. I had just arrived in Nassau, in the Bahamas, flat broke in the off-season and without a work permit. Being the type who plans well ahead, I checked into a small hotel on a weekly basis to allow myself seven days to come up with the answer to my financial problems. By BILL SMILEY lie been helping a student. the lively and lovely Julie Noack. to prepare her speech for the Lion's Club public speaking contest. She wrote it; I just listen and make critical comments. Weie had a few laughs. Her speech is in praise of travel in Canada. instead of taking our lame dollars off and spending them on the often spurious attrac- tions of other countries, It's a sort of travelogue of Canada, and sounds pretty good But at one point she broke me up, We have just crossed the Ottawa River from Quebec and are cruising around the capital. “where dwell." ac- cording to the speech. "our Prime Minister. ambas- sadors from all over the world. and, VV She slurred the "ambassadors" a bit. and it came out. "Our Prime Minister. bastards from all over the world TV I couldn‘t agree more . By Rick Dawson A most common question this past winter (it is past, ain't it?) has been, "Why don't birds come to our feeder?" Invariably the answer " that the birds do not have enough cover for protection from enemies and the elements. Unless the bird is a horned lark, snow bunt- ing or meadowlark, they require some place close to a feeder that they may dart to or into when fright- ened, e.g. a hawk in the air, a Shrike in the top of a nearby tree or you banging a door. The follow-up ques- tion then is what to use for cover? Another one that shook me up was when she said that, -Canada IS more than ‘a few acres of snow'. as the French writer, Voltaire dismissed It _. Voltaire came out as Volare The powers of television' However. one point in her speech got me thinking along a different track She pointed out that. despite the vast variety of Vistas this country offers the tourist, It IS expensive to travel m this Canada of ours Too true Hotels and motels are ridiculously costly Many of the big new hotels m the cities want an arm and a leg Without stealing from our program at the Nature Centre on March 17-18 110230 a.m. and 1:30 pan.) the answer is plantings. Come visit the Centre on Beaver Creek Road off Hallman St. N. and find out what shrubs are suitable for what species and where they should be placed. etc. df you are a small land owner with land (2 acres) that you wish to put into trees you might be interested in the Community Services Program that the GRCA sponsors to help you attain those goals of "reforesta- tion" and trees of your own. In all our programs with- in the watershed last year we were involved in plant- ing more than 400,000 trees. It is interesting to see how establishing even a small number of shrubs can encourage wildlife to come back into a denuded subdivision. A couple of cedars or Nature notes According to Hoile Bill Smiley at the Nature At this point, nutrition came into play. I didn't eaten for two days and the heat of the midday August sun was making me hauucinatt _ - _ . I spent my days walking from hotel to hotel around the island in my drip-dry suit, looking for a job. The nights were complicated by my state of semi-ezhaus- tion and a gaping hole in the mosquito screen in my room, I didn't feel I was in a position to complain about it; the landlord was already giving me her fishy stare everytime I passed her perch in the main lobby. By the fourth night of my enforced diet, I no longer felt like dodging the sharp-tongued little devils. It takes considerable energy to thrash around and hit out at a squadron of mosquitoes who have the advantage of attack from all sides in the dark. I must concentrate. And conserve my strength for isolated counter attacks. The secret was in lying still. Which wasn't all that difficult to master in my starv- ing condition. By the fifth night lying in the dark room I could not only hear them getting closer, I could sense them. Trying to catch them was no good; flick- ing them with my fingers was less effort and more deadly. I shot down six that night. By the sixth day both my job prospects and my phy- sical strength were just about tapped out. But the exhilaration stimulated by the forthcoming air. battle kept me from throwing myself at the mercy of the spruce trees offer year-round cover to sparrows (chipping in the summer; tree sparrows in the winter) and a few Red Ozier Dogwood shrubs offer food for some birds and year-round colour (green or green and white in summer and red branches in the winter). Such a basin start may result in a chipping sparrow next in June and stopping point for many small animals that pass through. Come and explore some of the posibilities with us at the Nature Centre. Another type of passing through has started. Some birds are starting to move north again. Witness the number of Canada Geese at Laurel Creek Reservoir. As well, crows and Herring Gulls have moved in, though in some cases not from very far away the Re- gional Land fill site may have been the wintering site for some crows and starlings. Others of them and the gulls may have gone as far as Windsor. The extreme cold that froze over most of the Great Lakes in mid-February might well have forced those reluctant migrants that require water to head further south or move into Hydro's electricity generating sta- tion outflow at Nanticoke. where it doesn't freeze over. The birds particularly enjoy it: the water is a little warmer and there is more plant and fish activity there to provide food to some of them. In spite of the possibility of one more snowstorm, the noisy characters with the red and yellow shoulder patches come in on the southerly winds on Sunday. The Redwing Black Bird is puffing up and "bragging" Restaurants in this country are equally usurious. with a very few exceptions ldon"t mind going out and spending a day's pay at a good restaurant. with suave service. food carefully chosen and cooked with care. and nobody hustling you out the minute you‘ve sipped your last drop of fifty-cent coffee But it burns my butt to be served a leathery omelet with the inevitable piece of limp lettuce. the inex- orable one slice of green house tomato, and the ubiqui- tous helping of french fries. none of which you want. and charged enough to feed a fair-sized family a good meal. at home for a place to lay our head for a few hours, Motels want from $20 to $36 for a plastic room, no room ser- vice. often not even a place to get a cup of coffee. and get out by one Fm . no matter what time you checked m Then there's the mark-up on drinks, anywhere from one to two hundred per cent. Don't believe me" Check it out A bottle of beer at home, costs about 35 cents In a restaurant iCll cost you about one dollar A drink at home will cost you approximately 45 cents for an ounce and a half. with free tap water thrown in In a bar or restaurant the same drink will cost you from $1 25 to $1 60. depending on the decor. for an ounce and a quarter Arie if you prefer wine, they just triple the price . No wonder so many restaurants and bars go broke The business us so profitable that too many people landlord, whimpering and grovelling for a peanut but- ter sandwich. No. I decided I would go out fighting. By nightfall I was crashed out on the bed lying in the dark, listening. I could hear them approaching the window. Now they were inside the room. Zappp! I got one. Then another. Aaaaagghhh. One got me from an odd angle. It was a great tight. I was really into this extra sensitive vio- lence in a big way. Encouraged by the success I was having, I decided to start aiming the casualties to- ward the Washbasin in the corner.‘ That was my last squirmish in the Battle of Baha- mas. Later that day something happened to spoil it all. I got a job. Things went from bad to worse. Now that I had money, I dined in great style, stuff- ing myself with seafood, wine, Bahamian specialities - all in great excess. 7 On (lie morning of the seventh day I counted nine in the basin and 12 on the floor. _ I had hiccups for the next seven days, lost whatever powers of concentration I had developed, and during those tortuous gastric spasms ESP was the farthest thing from my mind. No doubt about it, there is an amazing interaction between concentration, nutrition and ESP. Waterioo Chmnido, Wodnudny. March 14, 1979 . Pan. , at favorite sites around the marsh at Laurel Creek. Times are a-warming, the Mourning doves are cooing and the snow is almost gone, except the drifts and hollows that don't look like hollows until one steps in them and ends up standing in slushy cold snow past the knees. When that happens we know what happens when a Finn jumps from a sauna into the snow or ice water. After one has extricated oneself, prayer is in order, hoping that the "old wives" tale that a dunking in spring does not result in a cold really does hold true. We wonder where that tale comes from. Could it be that, having survived one of these winters, it is figured that one can survive anything. This is a tough time for small animals, for many of their homes have been flooded out and they have head- ed for high ground. The mice have slowly moved under the remaining drifts to prolong their winter style of life. This a good hunting time for hawks and owls for there is not en- ough cover for safe small animals movement from place to place. This norman melt-off is usually a little later and then the good hunting coincides with the hatching of owl young when lots of food is needed, for an owl chick will be nearly adult size in six weeks. Check for the backyard planting program on the weekend. Check for the backyard planting programme on the weekend. after the rest want into it. and the law of supply and demand looks Travel in this country is equally unappealing. Inter- nal airfares are ridiculously high. It costs almost as much to fly from Toronto to Vancouver as from Toronto to London. England, a thousand miles or more. Trains are a dying species. They have lost their old grace of service, good food and excitement. cutoff all their branch lines, and become a rather wistful anachronism for people who like rough road-beds, frequent break-downs and abandoned stations. Buses are better. Some have even crept into the twentieth century. with airconditioning. heat in the winter. and fairly punctual time-tabling. But all this IS ruined by the bus depots. which are pure 1970s Sleaze. dirty, impersonal. and with the inevitable drunk sounding off Or throwing up Another aspect of travelling in Canada that puts people off is the serVIce. or lack of it There's very little service with a smile Too often it ranges from grudging to surly, from indifferent to sullen, Waitres- ses slop coffee mto your saucer or wipe off your plas- tic table with a dirty damp rag Waiters stand With their backs to you when you are in a rush to catch a plane Hotel doormen are all smiles when you are checking in and non-existent when you are struggling out with three heavy bags Hotel clerks JrVaimosii invariably insolent. exuding the atmosphere that thev are doing you a favour by (Continued on page 10)