University of Guelph - Dairy Bush - 30 - March 17 2010 by Alex Smith

University of Guelph - Dairy Bush - 30 - March 17 2010

More warm days(small snow flurry on the weekend) and the snow is now completely gone! IT was 15C while taking this GigaPan -spring appears to have sprung! The 8.5 week old puppy that was on a walk down the path today was certainly enjoying the weather!

The ground is cold, but warming. There were butterflies, flies and spiders active today.

The forecast for the rest of the week here is for even more sun

St. Patrick's Day GigaPan. Like many places in Ontario, Guelph had a large influx of Irish immigrants due to the famine of 1847 (38,000 Irish arrived in Toronto (a city of 20,000 at the time) in that single year). Many of these settlers moved into the townships north of Guelph, some stayed - Guelph was 20% Irish in a 1852 census. "The Ward" a popular neighbourhood in town known for it's Italian population - was originally an Irish settlement, "St. Patrick's Ward" is it's full name. Here, lived both Irish Catholics and Protestants - a situation that produced much early Guelph history regarding courts and the law. There was much near institutionalized bias against the Catholic minority - and a local powerful politician (Dr. William Clarke - an Irish protestant) appears to have frequently fanned these flames. Read about the trial of Charles Coghlin for the murder of Richard Oliver in the "History of Guelph - 1827 - 1947" by Leo A. Johnston, (fantastic, but out of print book) digitally at: www.ourroots.ca/page.aspx?id=949966&qryID=cb805b86-b5f2-4719-9483-b4744d6919ca 
Last week's GigaPan at: www.gigapan.org/gigapans/44482/
Next week's GigaPan at: www.gigapan.org/gigapans/45820/