Fiona Charles
@fionaccharles.bsky.social
Workshop designer/facilitator, keynote speaker, gardener, dog lover, choral singer, and (recovering) software test/quality consultant
I recently learned that it’s larvae of this beautiful moth, Cydalima perspectalis, doing in my box hedges. It’s another invasive pest, this one from east Asia. I’m not resorting to poison, so I need another shade-loving evergreen shrub for low hedges. Ideas? (Not yew or euonymus, toxic to dogs)
October 25, 2025 at 1:45 PM
I recently learned that it’s larvae of this beautiful moth, Cydalima perspectalis, doing in my box hedges. It’s another invasive pest, this one from east Asia. I’m not resorting to poison, so I need another shade-loving evergreen shrub for low hedges. Ideas? (Not yew or euonymus, toxic to dogs)
At peak, my small front yard veg garden was humming with pollinators, but now there’s not much left for the bees except nasturtiums. (Intended as a few colourful accent plants, these beautiful thugs are apparently going for world domination.)
October 21, 2025 at 5:19 PM
At peak, my small front yard veg garden was humming with pollinators, but now there’s not much left for the bees except nasturtiums. (Intended as a few colourful accent plants, these beautiful thugs are apparently going for world domination.)
Good to see there are still some bees finding food, even if the only blooms are exotics.
October 21, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Good to see there are still some bees finding food, even if the only blooms are exotics.
Glorious Fall mornings when Amka & I go out to the garden before breakfast to play ball
October 16, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Glorious Fall mornings when Amka & I go out to the garden before breakfast to play ball
“Our Thanksgiving is timed with the harvest”. So it is. Here’s a jar of newly dried sweet Blush tomatoes from my own little harvest, which continues in spite of a couple of frost warnings last week.
October 12, 2025 at 5:23 PM
“Our Thanksgiving is timed with the harvest”. So it is. Here’s a jar of newly dried sweet Blush tomatoes from my own little harvest, which continues in spite of a couple of frost warnings last week.
Tis the season for orb weaver spiders to appear in the garden. This lovely spun her web under an outdoor light, making a night pic possible.
October 7, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Tis the season for orb weaver spiders to appear in the garden. This lovely spun her web under an outdoor light, making a night pic possible.
In a booth at the Kingston Fall Ag Fair: who knew heathenism is an organized religion? & “rune readings”? The only runestone found in these parts is a 19th c rendition of the Lord’s Prayer in Swedish, presumed carved by a Swede working for the Hudson’s Bay Company. archaeology.org/news/2025/06...
September 14, 2025 at 5:37 PM
In a booth at the Kingston Fall Ag Fair: who knew heathenism is an organized religion? & “rune readings”? The only runestone found in these parts is a 19th c rendition of the Lord’s Prayer in Swedish, presumed carved by a Swede working for the Hudson’s Bay Company. archaeology.org/news/2025/06...
More depressing Tech in Society news today: people falling in love with their chatbots & similar travesties. I can’t help feeling that we in tech need to own this. A couple of slides from my keynote at HUSTEF 2022.
September 11, 2025 at 7:07 PM
More depressing Tech in Society news today: people falling in love with their chatbots & similar travesties. I can’t help feeling that we in tech need to own this. A couple of slides from my keynote at HUSTEF 2022.
In Kingston Ontario where I live, we have this gem: the only deep water downtown swimming pier in Canada. We are lucky to live on a Great Lake, and the city is gradually separating the storm & sanitary sewers to reduce pollution flowing into it.
September 10, 2025 at 2:35 PM
In Kingston Ontario where I live, we have this gem: the only deep water downtown swimming pier in Canada. We are lucky to live on a Great Lake, and the city is gradually separating the storm & sanitary sewers to reduce pollution flowing into it.
I’m gearing up to conduct a workshop Nov 26 on Surviving Ethical Challenges in Tech at the Agile Testing Days conference in Potsdam, so now seems like a good time to re-air this little guide.
September 8, 2025 at 7:11 PM
I’m gearing up to conduct a workshop Nov 26 on Surviving Ethical Challenges in Tech at the Agile Testing Days conference in Potsdam, so now seems like a good time to re-air this little guide.
Gorgeous Northern Map Turtle from this morning’s walk along the river.
September 3, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Gorgeous Northern Map Turtle from this morning’s walk along the river.
When you’re so fixated on taking a turtle pic you don’t notice you’ve walked your poor trusting poodle into a viperous nest of burdocks. This just shows one side; the other was equally awful, as was her belly.
September 3, 2025 at 8:01 PM
When you’re so fixated on taking a turtle pic you don’t notice you’ve walked your poor trusting poodle into a viperous nest of burdocks. This just shows one side; the other was equally awful, as was her belly.
City workers displaced the osprey nest from one of these playing field light standards last winter, building them a higher nesting platform, which they’ve duly used to raise 1 chick this year. They still perch on the lights. Perhaps(?) this is a parent exhorting the offspring on the pole to fly.
August 28, 2025 at 11:45 AM
City workers displaced the osprey nest from one of these playing field light standards last winter, building them a higher nesting platform, which they’ve duly used to raise 1 chick this year. They still perch on the lights. Perhaps(?) this is a parent exhorting the offspring on the pole to fly.
A handsome new-to-me bug in the veg garden: Red Milkweed Beetle. It seems not to fancy any other leaves, only milkweed.
August 28, 2025 at 11:29 AM
A handsome new-to-me bug in the veg garden: Red Milkweed Beetle. It seems not to fancy any other leaves, only milkweed.
Farm Boy not displacing labour to their customers. Carrying on with capable, personable humans.
August 28, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Farm Boy not displacing labour to their customers. Carrying on with capable, personable humans.
This is Amka. She loves to snuggle with people and make them happy—when she’s not being a rambunctious goof and making them laugh. She sends you poodle hugs.
June 18, 2025 at 9:18 PM
This is Amka. She loves to snuggle with people and make them happy—when she’s not being a rambunctious goof and making them laugh. She sends you poodle hugs.
Views from my office windows in the middle of a late-season ice storm. We’re currently experiencing a truce, but Environment Canada says hostilities from the sky will resume tonight.
March 29, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Views from my office windows in the middle of a late-season ice storm. We’re currently experiencing a truce, but Environment Canada says hostilities from the sky will resume tonight.
From this morning’s walk along Lake Ontario. Last week I was in Rotterdam, enjoying hellebores, fritillaria, crocuses, daffodils, and a few shrubs, flowering in the sunshine. Ahh spring! Ahh Europe!
March 12, 2025 at 4:49 PM
From this morning’s walk along Lake Ontario. Last week I was in Rotterdam, enjoying hellebores, fritillaria, crocuses, daffodils, and a few shrubs, flowering in the sunshine. Ahh spring! Ahh Europe!
I could interpret this in more than one way… From a loo in the V&A.
December 10, 2024 at 11:07 PM
I could interpret this in more than one way… From a loo in the V&A.
Road sign in Lille. We could do with these in Canadian cities.
December 7, 2024 at 2:16 PM
Road sign in Lille. We could do with these in Canadian cities.
Is this what’s called a mixed metaphor?
December 6, 2024 at 3:08 PM
Is this what’s called a mixed metaphor?
Spotted at the Gare Lille-Europe:
December 6, 2024 at 2:11 PM
Spotted at the Gare Lille-Europe:
Umm..no.
Happy New Year everyone!
May we all flourish in 2024: happy, healthy, and free from mis/disinformation.
Happy New Year everyone!
May we all flourish in 2024: happy, healthy, and free from mis/disinformation.
December 31, 2023 at 7:37 PM
Umm..no.
Happy New Year everyone!
May we all flourish in 2024: happy, healthy, and free from mis/disinformation.
Happy New Year everyone!
May we all flourish in 2024: happy, healthy, and free from mis/disinformation.
Wonderful downtown shop window by local artist (and friend) Clelia Scala!
December 24, 2023 at 10:09 PM
Wonderful downtown shop window by local artist (and friend) Clelia Scala!
Haven’t seen many Monarchs this year again, but here’s one that spent quite a long time enjoying the hyssop.
August 25, 2023 at 6:11 PM
Haven’t seen many Monarchs this year again, but here’s one that spent quite a long time enjoying the hyssop.