My daughter, who doesn't have social media, is writing an article on the expansion of Neotropic Cormorants in Ontario, Canada & hybrids between Double-crested & Neotropic Cormorants. She's struggling w/ resources on the distribution of pure birds or hybrids. Can anyone help? #Ornithology #Seabirds

Leni holds a tiny toad.

Lemon poppyseed muffins on 4 May to celebrate the 554th anniversary of the Battle of Tewkesbury, Ares' favourite battle. For this, he made a banner and muffin toppers of knights in his favourite 15th century armour, his favourite helmet (the sallet), and a sword (all historically accurate)

A person cries during a speech about the horror and helplessness of watching children being burnt in their tents, during a demonstration in Toronto on 19 April 2025. It's unfathomable and unconscionable that it keeps happening and no one with any power is doing anything about it.

Portraits of protest, Toronto, 2025.

Leni works out numbers on a Japanese Soroban abacus, which we inherited from a friend, her oatmeal breakfast temporarily abandoned in favour of abacusing. The first day she got it, we didn't know how it worked so she spent a long time fingering the plastic beads... www.instagram.com/p/DJB_byaOixA/

Raspberry holds an indigo bunting that had hit a window. She'll prepare it to be a study skin for FLAP (Fatal Light Awareness Program).

I'm so grateful for the adults in my kids' lives who love them, care for them, and hang out with them playing board games, giving them unorthodox fist bumps, or plying them with Asian snacks. They're the proverbial village everyone talks about, and I'm grateful... www.instagram.com/p/DIv46hMO267/

Detail from a camera photo, taken at this weekend's protest during a speech about the horror and helplessness of watching children being burnt in their tents.

The horror, and the silence, and it keeps going.

Portraits of protest.

7-year-old Leni, August 2023. It's incredible how quickly the kids' faces change. Even in profile, I can tell Leni doesn't look like this anymore — her face seems older, and doesn't have the same baby-like quality that it had here. It makes me grieve the... www.instagram.com/p/DH-9LsBOlGJ/

My 17-year-old was just accepted to an ornithology workshop at Cornell University in New York state this summer. It's such an incredible opportunity and well-deserved, but we've been struggling with whether she ought to and can go. Any other year, it'd have been easy, but alas.

On laundry day, Leni hangs the underwear in the bathroom to dry. She and Ares often bicker about who gets to hang them. The other person has to hang the socks, which is, for some reason, the more dreaded task. At one point, Leni made a sheet about whose turn it... www.instagram.com/p/DHTOs_ru2zq/

A few weeks ago, I felt broken, and I was terrified and confused as to why I felt that way. After a bitter winter, the weather was finally starting to warm up and as a person who dislikes the cold, it'd ordinarily be a point of elation for me. However, I found... www.instagram.com/p/DHLizXBOPFO/

A knackered teen, after a day of birding and hiking in the snow (and also, the emotional and mental load that comes with slipping on ice and breaking your phone).

Temporarily abandoned toast, two days before Christmas.

'Tis a sparrow.

I'm a little belated with this, but I'm very honoured to have two of my photographs are currently on display at Pamenar Cafe in Kensington Market, as part of an exhibition featuring the work of photographers documenting the resistance. Check it out if you're in Toronto, as it closes soon.

Leni peers at postcards and drawings on the wall through the red lens of 3D glasses. I don't think she's encountered 3D glasses before, so she had a grand time looking at all kinds of pictures and objects through the tinted plastic and urging all of us to do the... www.instagram.com/p/DF7vi2MOY3c/

Two summers ago, we took a little wander over to a neighbouring neighbourhood to gawk and gape at this house, famed for its front yard which had been lovingly (and at some parts, creepily) adorned with all manner of dolls. Many of the dolls are from bygone eras... www.instagram.com/p/DFIW3DpORVf

Throwback to early December, when we walked along an abandoned railway track on a warmish day. Ares found a long branch that he thought would make a good sword. He'd broken it to reduce its length, but needed to shorten it further. Leni had found a loose rail... www.instagram.com/p/DFDSzzCOYCQ/

Just a pile of bird skulls on the kitchen island, waiting to be cleaned.

A little bit stuck.

This was how the last day of the year started, when Teen Kid accidentally broke one of her favourite bowls while washing it for breakfast. She was in tears; I would probably have been in tears too, if I wasn't preoccupied trying to console her (I say "would have"... www.instagram.com/p/DESZUVsuZCh/

Io Saturnalia! Here's a throwback to Ares almost a year ago. I'm certain his face isn't as babylike as it was here now, and I long for his tiny squishiness [*cries*]. On this shortest and coldest day, I've been up with Raspberry since 6am, as she's leading a... www.instagram.com/p/DD114T6uc5H/

Earlier this week, whilst Leni was spending her BFF's birthday with her, Ares and I had the afternoon to ourselves. It's not often that it's just Ares and I; usually it's Ares and Leni with me, or Ares going off with Lucas for hockey, or Leni and I because she... www.instagram.com/p/DDj6bLLOSMK/

Yesterday was our 12th UKversary (I just made that up) — ie. we moved to the UK on 10 December 2012. It was our biggest adventure to date, when we were disenfranchised with life in Canada, longed for something different, and decided to shake things up. I still... www.instagram.com/p/DDcQT7tunsO/

Throwback to June 7, 2023 — Ares reads in the glow of the morning sun, turned further red by smoke from wildfires. Toronto was being enveloped in the smoke from wildfires further north. We'd seen and heard about the wildfire smoke at other places in the news but... www.instagram.com/p/DDZkwxXucvm/