Into the Sugar Bush and Back

It drizzled when we began our trip to the sugarbush. It drizzled when we got home. It drizzled at all times between. But it was our day to go, and so we went. On the one hand, the colours can look quite saturated in the rain, so the familiar trip was very pleasant. On the other hand, the lack of light tends not to highlight the autumn colour in photos. However, I will show you what I took, so you can know, as best you can, what it is looking like in these environs.

There was not much reason to stop in the drizzle along the way, but I forget from year to year that there is also not much place to pull over on our rural roads anyway. Once we were almost there, I was able to pull off to capture this little scene with the big ladder and the one colourful tree. It's a little puzzling, eh?

Right next to it, along the road, I liked the fence and the colourful row of trees. I do like this photo, but it is really the only one from the day that I feel that way about.

We ate our pancakes, French toast and maple sausages, but we didn't bother walking around the compound in the drizzle and were soon on our way home. We did stop along the sugar camp driveway on our way out of the property to capture this bend in the road.

I also captured an image ↓ of the glacial erratics off the side of the driveway. If you have been here for any length of time, you have seen them before. If you're new, I can tell you that they are boulders that were dumped by the glacier, probably 10 to 20 thousand years ago. (I will let FG confirm or correct my guesstimate.)

On the return trip, I did find enough room to pull off the main road at Playfair where OUR Mississippi and not The Mighty Mississippi River crossed. It's the same river that much later flows through town.

I walked back toward Sue and the car, which you can see on the right. We drove straight home from there.

It was a pleasant outing which has become part of our autumn ritual. As we had left the premises, I told the cashier that I would see them in spring, and she wished me a good winter. 

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Oh! Ed left instructions to make an emoji, but it posts like a big photo here. It also takes its own line in FB Messenger, but it shows as a regular inline icon in text (Messages in Apple).

If you have an Apple phone go back to his comment on yesterday‘s phone. In fact, I will repost below to save you the trouble. All questions should be directed to Ed, who is smarter than I, which is not necessarily saying a lot, so don't get too puffed up, Ed. 😇

"Do you have an iPhone? If so, the message app has a menu where you can create custom emojis. Hit the plus button to the left of where you type your text, scroll down to "Genmoji" and have fun."

Orange

Yesterday, think.stew posted of the lack of orange emojis for our Truth and Reconciliation Day.  I asked AI to create, an emoji of a bald man with a dark beard wearing an orange short, and this is what it gave me. But it is just an image that I don't know how to make into an emoji.

This would be my icon, not Stew's.

I did wear an orange shirt yesterday, and in the evening, we went to the bridge to photograph the orange lights, but the first thing we noticed was the Every Child Matters flag flying over the Roy Brown memorial at half-mast.

The Every Child Matters flag is a symbol of remembrance and awareness for Indigenous children affected by Canada’s residential school system.

The Every Child Matters flag features a bright orange background, symbolizing the impact of the residential school system on Indigenous communities, and often includes an eagle feather, which honors and recognizes all children who were forced into these schools and those who lost their lives as a result of abuse and neglect. The phrase “Every Child Matters” serves as a tribute to the innocent lives lost and acknowledges the ongoing healing of survivors. (Copilot)

There is no way that I can photograph the bridge lights differently than I have many times previously, but I don't think that I have ever photographed the orange display for Truth and Reconciliation Day, so here we are.

Today, we shall be off to the hinterland on our annual autumn excursion to the sugar bush. It may be rainy and not the best day possible for the outing, but it is otherwise the best day for us. Whatever the conditions, hopefully, I will have a few autumn photos for you tomorrow. Maybe Sue can do some shooting on the route while I do the driving. It might be quite pretty in spots as the car zooms by the countryside.

Misi Zibi Mamidosewin

In Riverside Park, there is a new installation consisting of 4 pillars. We first saw it last week when designs were being etched via air blasting into the 7' tall pillars.

Blasting through an overlay to etch the design into the stone.

Earlier this week, we passed by again when the etchings were complete.

Composite by Sue

We haven't yet seen the final addition (the plaque below), but it will be posted on the outside of the pillars, when the dedication takes place today, which is appropriately the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.

I know that the resolution is too low to read in this downloaded image.
I wanted to get my own photo yesterday, but the plaque was not up yet.

The spot in a corner of the park is to be known as Misi Zibi Mamidosewin in the tongue of the indigenous Anishinaabe people, and as The Gathering Place in our language.

The best description that I have found is from an earlier an earlier publication before the project came to fruition.

The Misi Zibi Mamidosewin planning committee is working on developing an installation at Riverside Park that will acknowledge both the past and presence of the Anishinaabe peoples and the unceded land on which we live, play and work.

The project is in development with local Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, the Town of Carleton Place and the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum.

The Town of Carleton Place and the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum are working in collaboration with local Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons to develop an impressive stone installation at Riverside Park.

The park is nestled on the shores of the Mississippi River and is on the unceded land of the Anishinaabe people who lived here before all others. 

The Mississippi River has long been a travel and trade route for the Anishinaabe people and this installation will demonstrate their history in Carleton Place along with a sharing of cultural teachings.

The Four Directions Stone Pillars: In the park by the walking path four vertically arranged natural stone pillars will stand approximately 6-7 feet tall each facing a cardinal direction. An engraved image of the bird or animal representing that direction will appear at the top of each pillar. Engraved beneath the images will be the Anishinaabe name and the English translation.

The height of the pillars invites a sense of reverence in having to look up to the animals relevant to the direction they are facing. Through Indigenous ways of knowing we recognize that the animals are closer to the Creator of our understanding than human beings are, because they are still connected to the harmony required to live naturally in the world without causing harm. So we look up to them.

In the proposed design 2 paddles will be on each pillar. One paddle will be standing up and the other facing downwards. The significance of the paddles indicates that when raised, we are all resting and gathering strength. The downward paddle symbolizes that we are all paddling and moving forward together in unison. The paddles are also a historic nod to the trade and travel route that is the Mississippi River.

Along the walking path and beside the river a large plaque will be installed to further explain the history of the first peoples of Carleton Place, and their life along the Misi Zibi River.

Walking Together, Then and Now

Yesterday, I posted this photo of Danica and me  holding hands while walking through her campus.

I love it as is but wondered if I could successfully put us in a different and less cluttered background, and so I did by compositing it with a photo from the park that I posted recently. You may not know this about me, but I like to experiment with my photos to see what will happen if I do this or that.

Those are both my photos that I composited together manually, sans AI. However, I do confess to invoking a modicum of AI to help blend the two images together in their lighting and colour.

When I showed it to Sue, she opined that I should also find a photo of us walking hand-in-hand from her younger years. I soon found one from August 2009. If I were to have kept searching, perhaps I might have found an even better photo, but this one suits the goal.

Then, I did a similar thing, as above, by compositing us into a current image, one that you haven't seen posted although you still might.

It was a fun process with fairly good results, in my opinion.

Danica at University

It was recently Jonathan's turn to be featured, but today is about Danica  

She wished to come home for the weekend, so we snagged a ride with Shauna to see her university and residence.

As we approached the campus in the car, the Rideau Canal was on our right with the lowering sun lighting up the bordering trees. It was lovely, and I couldn’t resist shooting from the car.   

We found parking, and Danica met us (below) to escort us to her workplace and to lead us on a little tour around campus.

She works part-time in the campus store. I stood back for a moment and got a big picture with our crew in the middle, although they don't exactly stand out.

We walked around a bit of the campus: not the full tour late on a Friday afternoon.

The bag: both Sue and I purchased university apparel.

She held my hand for a bit or I hers. It was my favourite moment. We haven’t done that for a long time: haven’t had a chance to. 

As we walked around the campus, I whispered to Sue and Shauna that she is all grown up now, and she is such a sweet and wonderful person. My heart bursts.

She shares a townie with three girls, one being her friend from high school.

Opening a gift bag, thoughtfully provided by Sue.

Grandmother and Granddaughter

We went to dinner at East Side Marios, but by then both Sue and I were too dazed to snap any more photos. However, Sue and I took a terrible selfie when we got home and tried on our university duds. Mine is actually a birthday present from Dani. I am pleased that is says, Grandpa, although it is missing the adjective, proud. I also bought a t-shirt, but that is already in the drawer awaiting summer.

It Begins

Thursday was one of those perfect September days. Despite beginning with a low temperature of 4C/39F, the day became bright with a very tolerable temperature of 20C/68F — perfect for a light jacket. Simply wonderful.

Amongst a couple of shopping errands, we grabbed coffees and proceeded to promenade through the park.

The park is mostly green, but there were those early autumn tinges to appeal to the senses. Two were across the river.

We walked to the eastern end of the park toward the high school, which I carefully avoided getting in the frame. I let photoshop do its thing and remove other distractions such as cars (my! the students have a lot of cars), wires and trash bins.

Those trees are the start of a wonderful row of orange in front of the school.

Walking back toward our car on the western edge of the park, I decided that this tree was worthy despite it not being flaming red. I liked the path forming a leading line before curving away.

Colours should continue to creep and maybe even begin to gallop, and I will likely drive you crazier than usual with my annual fall foliage feast.

Jonathan Plants Spring Bulbs

At the beginning of the month, Jonathan gave me crocus and hyacinth spring bulbs for my birthday along with the promise to do the planting. It is now time for the planting, so on Wednesday afternoon he came over after school to complete the gift.

The first order of business was to plant the crocuses along the south-facing edge of the garden because that is where the snow cover first disappears. It wasn't easy to plant 30 bulbs in the narrow space amidst rocks, especially because it also involved ripping up some weed-barrier cloth.

A hard-working boy requires his sustenance, and a Monster energy was presented and accepted.

After the crocuses came the hyacinths. There are tulips strewn around the actual garden, so we decided to plant the hyacinths in the lawn around the front edge of the garden where passersby would see them. We figured that the foliage will be gone before or shortly after first mowing. We shall see. Digging 10 bigger holes in a more open space was easier for JJ than 30 small ones in the confined space.

He arranged the bulbs and began to dig the holes, one at a time.

A plug of earth has been removed. He rests the bulbs on top for the photo.

He planted tulips for us last year. Let's hope that this planting is also successful.