Orphan Photos 7

The first two orphan photos go back to June. On two nights, we walked to the park when the sun was beginning to set in the west. The elevated trees to the east caught golden light from the lowering sun from the opposite direction. There was a lot of reflection in the pond, but it was messy and even distracted from the lit tree, so I cropped most of the pond out.

When I returned two nights later, I just focused on the reflection, and I like the photo more. We often want to include everything in a photo, but the better photos tend to leave a lot of things out.

Early in July, we sighted the heron from the trail bridge. This was my third heron photo of the year, all of the same heron, I presume.

The next photo is from mid July: a coneflower in the park. As much as I like all coneflowers, the two-toned ones really appeal to me.

Finally, when we walk the bridge trail, we sometimes pass this house at a point where the trail crosses a street. It's not spectacular but I do see it as a pleasant house.

Oh, I do have one more. It's a photo of dandelions from five years past. I think that five years makes it an special orphan.

Tennis X 2

This week, for our second tennis watch of the summer, I am back to watching the game via my tablet on my lap while Sue watches it on the far television (photo below). Sue is more far-sighted and also sees brighter than I, so she can track the ball on our less than wonderful tv, but I tend to lose track of the ball after the serve. Meanwhile, my tablet has a great screen, and I can easily follow the play. (BTW, I did try to brighten the tv display last year, but the results weren't great, so I just returned it back to normal.)

For some reason, I am able to follow the ball fairly well on the old tv during Wimbledon but lose track of it at other events. Having written all of that, I can sometimes follow it in this tournament as well; it seems to depend on the brightness of the day.

This way we can still watch together. There is sometimes a little difficulty getting the two streams to jive, but I can usually finagle around the problem with a little judicious pausing on whichever stream happens to be ahead of the other.

Currently, we are watching the Canadian Open, properly called the National Bank Open. It is one of the nine Masters 1000 events that rank below the four grand slams but above the other tour events for tour points and prize money. 

My computer monitor is also up to snuff, so when Sue trundles off to bed, I watch it in my den.

One odd thing is that even though two devices, tablet and tv, are synced, I often get different commercials, or at least the commercials are played in a different order. I find that very weird. At first, I feared that the streams were out of sync again, but when play resumed, all was fine. This is not a one-off; the commercials play differently on the two devices each and every time. As I already said, weird!

Coffee Walk 6

Yes, it is Coffee Walk 6, but I did spare you walk 5 after posting #4 on July 06. You're welcome.

Do you ever have days when your underwear doesn't sit right? When we stopped to order our coffees, I nipped into the washroom to try to adjust. It helped, but it didn't fix the problem entirely.

It was a cloudless and very sunny day, but we did find a bench with partial shade, farther from the playground equipment than where we usually consume our coffees.

A selfie. You knew that I would have to do it.

On the table right in front of me was an interesting squiggle around a knot. It looked like someone had been sketching, but it was all natural.

We had passed a new, blank sign at the beginning of our walk, but on our return, there was a fellow applying masking tape. It turns out that he is an artist who showed us a sketch of town things what he will paint in due course. I put his card in the corner of the photo,

I thought that it would take him a long time to complete the project, but he had it all mapped out, and he was taking a picture with the mayor for fb later that afternoon.

I will have to have a closer look on Coffee Walk 7, whenever that might occur. Speaking of coffee, I'll soon be off to meet with the photo boys at Tims. I didn't drink coffee until I was in my very early 50s. This is why I started — to be sociable. Now, as you well know, I have my generous share of the brew.

I crossed out soon, above, because it's only gone 4, and I won't see them until 9. I had a great sleep for almost 4 hours, but then it was clear that I was done, so I got up, had some cereal, and sat down here. I am not enthralled about the short night, but here we are. Maybe, I will get back to sleep for while.

Keeping it Real

We weren't more then 10 minutes into a new-for-us tv series — one of the somewhat older US police shows that we had missed when it was current. I pressed pause, looked at Sue, and said, "You know what is wrong with this?"

Of course she knew. The young female cop in charge was about 30 and gorgeous. While it is pretty problematic that any cop would rise to the top at that age, it is even more unlikely that she would also be a knockout.

According to this article, Why Americans Love British TV, one thing that Americans love about British tv is that the characters looks like real people.

Vera is a senior police detective who looks like she has paid her dues. Her character is believable. 

And doesn't Inspector Ellis also look like she could actually be an experienced detective?

It's true about the men too. Neither Lewis nor Hathaway were exactly heartthrobs, and they probably look better in the poster than they did in the show.

The actors mostly look like us, like real people playing pretty realistic roles. I am not even going to talk about plots and scripts except to say that the Brits don't usually treat the viewers like children but like adults with brains.

British seasons are short, much too short. We are left wanting more. American seasons are long. I often find myself thinking enough is enough.

Of course I am painting with too broad a broad brush, and there is decent American programming, but I think you know what I mean and likely concur to at least some degree.

Weekend in the Park

When we walk the park on the weekend, we witness more activity than on weekdays. For one thing, there are always a number of people fishing. I take pictures of them, but I never like them, so I discard them in the bin of my forgetfulness.

On a nice day, there are water activities, often including dogs. While I binned one of a man walking his dog, both of them right in the river, I do have this ↓ one of a dog on a SUP, and this wasn't the only pooch getting such a ride on a warm, sunny day.

The lady stood up a moment later, and off they paddled.

Can you tell that the dog ↑ is wearing a lifejacket? When they embarked close to us just near the foreground, I saw that the dog's lifejacket had a handle on top, just like a suitcase. If the mutt were to fall overboard, it could fairly easily be hauled back on board by gripping the handle.

Many people consume, um, comestibles in the park, but a couple just off to the right of the above photo really had it figured out. And here they are.

They took their chairs, devices, dog and even wine right down the embankment and passed the time almost obscured from view. They were really living their best lives on that day.

The Frisbee Event

Yesterday, we came across a border collie chasing and catching a frisbee in the park. Using a phone in telephoto mode is definitely not the best instrument to catch a dog jumping and catching a frisbee, but I got one okay-ish result after many ill-timed efforts.

When I got home, I cropped and eliminated distractions. While the action and distance renders the subject is a  little bit fuzzy, I am happy enough with the outcome.

I did take a couple more photos, and I decided to incorporate two others with the catch, above, into one composite.

Both the event and the edit were fun.

A MIssed Selfie

It happens once or twice a week from both kids, but it is coming to an end for one grandkid.

Danica is booking the month off before heading back to uni in September, but she will be living there this year and not commuting. In the interim, there is a vacation to take with mom and JJ, and her apartment/room to get ready for the fall semester at Carlton U in Ottawa, so she won’t be working this month. 

The baby is leaving home and us.

sniff

I did get her to work, but she wasn't a happy camper because she had forgotten several things, including her lunch for a long shift.

I said that I would came back and take her to Tims for lunch. We used to take the kids there every now and then when they were little and we were the daycarers. So, it has been awhile, but it was nice to reprise one more time.

Sue and I picked her up at 3 and just drove the very short distance to Tims.

That evening Danica posted this.

Yes, a homeless (I don't think that is right word anymore) man asked us if we had money for a sandwich. I don’t carry much cash, but I was willing to buy him a sandwich. I said so and headed to the cashier with app in hand. He was specific and requested beef and cheese. I asked if he would also like a coffee.

"Yes please: large 2 creams and 2 sugars."

I placed the order and paid with my app. It came to $10 something. I went back to the table while he waited for the order to be processed.  

With the interruption, we didn't think to get around to the selfie.

Darn.