Ponds

The pond in the neighbourhood park does not usually teem with life. Why would it with a river just on the other side?

But the heron was there for our first sighting of the year. It was at a distance, but I zoomed the phone and managed to capture something.

I swear that we were being polite and considerate, but it flew off anyway.

A little later we saw a pair of mallards swimming by the reeds. Cute, eh?

Speaking of ponds, we came across another one near the lilacs last week, with a cute, little cottage on the edge. It's a very marshy area, so it would be mosquito and blackfly heaven hell in there. In fact, the blackflies just came out to harass us on the weekend. We live in town, so they are not too bad here, but they will be brutal in the countryside right about now.

Just to see what would happen, I asked Gemini to render it as an impressionistic painting.

Gemini gave me a small, low res image. I expect that the paid version would be of higher res. I think it is more interesting than the actual photo in this instance, but neither version is zackly a stunnah. The light was a little too stark on that bright day, but it will have to do because I don't plan on returning for a good light picture.

Portrait Mode at D&D

On a chilly and rainy Sunday, we drove the very short distance to Dark & Deadly where Sue used her gift card for free drinks. Grampa thanks Danica for Sue's Mother's Day gift. :)

For the first time, on this particular day, the coffee was poured for us and served in real mugs. I think they were poured because our order required an infusion of chocolate. 

Speaking of mugs, I couldn't help but play with the iPhone. Even though the shots were of mugs and not a person, I nevertheless, decided to use portrait mode to see how they would turn out. We can access interesting special light modes that way.

There was a new greeter whom I could see perfectly from my seat next to the door. I took three different photos using different light modes and combined them later.

While I wanted to show the three versions next to one another for comparison purposes, the one on white just didn't fit. So . . . 

Finally, I thought the colour version needed to be featured.

We can do interesting lighting with the iPhone that we cannot do with a camera, or not without a  lot of time and equipment.

Blossom Time

Not only is it lilac time, but trees and bushes are also in flower. I showed you Nick's flowering tree a few days ago but have managed to press the shutter for a few others since then. We found this ↓ one in the country very near the lilac acreage that I posted about two days ago.

There is a row of trees that bloom briefly by St James Park. I photographed them well with my Canon a number of years ago, but their duration is brief, so I have missed them ever since then. This is my first attempt of this row with just the phone.

Another shot from right under the row.

Sue away from the tree row but in the same park and under the blossoms of another tree and beside the tulips. 

A very colourful tree beyond a fence, near the OVR Trail.

The best photo of the bunch, in my most humble opinion, is this ↓ one, taken next day in our neighbourhood park.

The First Coffee Walk

Readers probably don't recall the coffee walk that we might take every week or so last summer and fall. We would park near the Wool Growers Coop, amble from there over to Tims, order a coffee, and then take it around to the Junction where we would sit to drink our coffee.

Yesterday was the day do make that walk for the first time since probably around mid October. We started farther back today, near the market, which is approximately located near that low-rise apartment building in the background near the path, below.

We stopped to take a picture by the sign, something that had always intended to do last year but in the evening once the lights came on. Unfortunately, with autumn gaining ground, they took the display down before we got around to it.

We tottered toward and then past the Wool Growers ↓ where we used to begin our stroll.  Tims is past the Coop around to the left.

We made it and went in to order our coffees to go: 2 large, double cream. Thank you, Mam, here is $4.83.

We approached the Junction . . .

. . . and landed by the kids play structure. Unfortunately, there were no kids yesterday, but there was a selfie to be had, so all was not lost.

It was good to walk that walk again.

🎵 And the seasons, they go round and round. 🎶

Lilacs

Our backyard lilac bush exploded this week ↑ so we thought that we should drive down to Franktown to explore their acres of wild lilacs. This weekend will be their Lilac Festival, but unfortunately, the lilacs are lagging a bit down there and will probably require another few days before they bloom in profusion.

There were some wonderful patches, which Sue enjoyed.

I played with a Live Photo of the above snap and turned it into a gif.

I took far photos, and Sue took close ones, and hers worked a lot better.

Not Anymore

It is dandelion season, and this is our neighbour's half of our little shared lawn. We don't have much lawn on our side.

Sue and I are both beginning our 80th orbit this year to become true octogenarians next year, or so we trust. We've taken care of both lawns for almost 20 years, but Not Anymore: it's time to let those dandelions run riot unless neighbour wants to deal with her own weeds. I will still mow, as I did yesterday, but after many years, we have given up on the dandelions. Fortunately, they make a nice showing, even though they are not exactly beneficial for the grass.

Suddenly, Eastern Ontario is blossoming in a short but wonderful season. Flowering tress are decorating the town in many places, and while I might look for better photos, this is the tree in front of my friend's house. I happened to be there so I took a shot and processed it with a very soft look.

As I sit in my chair this morning, the sun is reflecting almost too strongly off my monitor. It promises to be a nice day, a little on the cool side, but that’s alright. 

Before the Mill

I took you to our viewing of the new Tri Century Mill complex yesterday —  new in its present form — but it wasn't our first stop on Monday. I wrote about the mill first, before this post, because in my tiny mind, it seemed to be very connected to our anniversary weekend, but I think this first photo op was also pretty darn good.

Before we got to yesterday's mill, we had to pass the old garden and the river. We had gone to the river to satisfy Sue's need for her photo of the day. Her theme was swell, and she thought that she might be able to use the swelling waves in that section of the river. I am not sure if she did or not.

First things first, however: we stopped to examine the remnants of the garden by the abandoned shop, the shop that I think had been an antique store. Whoever ran that shop had, apparently loved spring flowers. That is where I find crocuses and scillia every spring. Indeed I posted of them several times in April.

We wondered if anything else had come up and were delighted to find both tulips and grape hyacinths. Isn't that wonderful for the bulbs to come up year after year, long after after the humans have moved on?

Anyway, I have a few photos in passing, first, the whole patch and then a couple of closer shots.

The river lies on just the other side of the building, so we moved down the slope, and Sue did her thing.

I composited two other Sue photos into one. It's fun to play.

We continued our stroll around by the mill. We went in, and you know that story already, but both the mill and the flowers on the so-far warmest day of the year completed our anniversary weekend very well indeed.