Pieless and Almost Sleepless Too

We returned to the putative crocuses patch; alas, there was no change with just two slender shoots once again striving to live. We both tried a shot, but we weren’t successful with our results being on the blurry side. It’s a tough task for seniors to get down and get the shot. 

I realized that my sleep was over at 5:30 yesterday morning after only 4:40 of sleep, so I rose up. It was better than the 4:10 of the previous night and also better because I went to sleep earlier and got up earlier, which is preferrable to late and late. On the previous night, it had taken me hours to fall asleep, and that grinds my gears. (Last night, I got a whopping 3:40. This is unusual, even for me.)

Shortly after 9, I found myself at the grocery store. A little later I was off to Ashton Church to pick up apple pies for Easter only to find the door shuttered. Apparently pickup will be next Saturday. It's okay; it is only a 10-minute drive.

Closed or not, I am posting a photo of the church. You’ve seen it before if you’ve been visiting me for a few years, but I don’t think I posted anything last year. Maybe I'll take ann inside photo next week.

It was brightening up by the time that I got to Ashton, but on the way there, it had been snowy and blowy, so I stopped for this ↓ shot. I didn't even notice the geese when I took the photo. I was hurrying to get back to the car in the awful March 28th weather.

Here's another photo of the shed on the same farm. I brightened the photo a little in this case to try to make the scene a little more appealing.

 

Slovenly AC

I didn't know that I looked quite this ragged in the morning, specifically that my shirt hung down at the back like this. It's one of the shirts that I use for sleeping.

Until I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I had no idea. Sue notices such things but hardly ever mentions them, for she is never one to nag at me about how I look, whether it is my beard being unkempt or my hair being too long. On rare occasions, she might opine that garment x doesn't go with garment y when we go out but not very often.

You may also wonder about my socks with my pants tucked in. It's an accommodation for sleeping in the chair. With blankets not properly under me, cold air can seep up from the bottom, so I tuck my pants in. Sorry to the Brits who employ the word 'pants' differently. 

BTW, as seen above, the sweater is my constant companion during winter because we keep the house on the cool side in deference to my very hot wife.

As you are about to see, I do look a tad more put together once I dress for the day. 

It's the angle. I am definitely not taller than the door. Not even close.

The Actual Birthday Day

As planned, we walked to the cafe at 11 o'clock for coffee and breakfast sandwiches. We enjoyed the S'Mores coffee blend as we waited for our breakfast to appear. Meanwhile, I did my standard thing and took a quick portrait of my lady friend.

Time elapsed with no breakfast appearing, so after just about draining our coffees, I sauntered over to the counter to ask the young lady if she might possibly have forgotten the breakfast sandwiches. Yes indeedy, she had forgotten our order in the busyness, especially having been left on her own for a spell. About 10 minutes later, she delivered them — to the wrong table! Said table was within my view, so I was able to call out as the server began to walk away as the temporary recipients sat in bewilderment before also beginning to call out.

Once again, there were apologies. Once again, it was okay. 

After a lazy afternoon, we made our way over to the kids' for the usual family get-together for gifts, pizza and cake.

Slender Shoots

The birthday is done, and while there may soon be pictures appearing on this old guy's blog site, for now I just want to take you back to Tuesday's photo excursion. Sue decided that we should look for crocuses for her photo prompt. The last time we drove by the wild crocus patch, it was covered with snow, so I wasn't hopeful but was game to try.

But the first stop was the neighbourhood park where a few crocuses will eventually appear by the big boulder. But as I expected, they were still hiding underground. Who can blame them?

The pond is still frozen, but there was birdsong. I thought the juxtaposition or spring song and pond-ice interesting, so I took a short clip. I think they now call such video clips, reels. It is cheering to hear the avian calls, but it can't be easy for them to find sufficient provender in this weather, speaking of which, it snowed last night.

We drove to the other possible location for croci. The main patch hadn't bloomed yet, but we found a couple of very slender, tightly furled, shoots off in the far corner. The macro photo makes them look quite a bit bigger than they really were.

Very sadly, there were a couple of crocuses that had opened or tried to open, but they had succumbed to the brutal weather and were lying forlornly and withering on the ground. Such a pity. Nevertheless, finding these few shoots was encouraging. Now, we must hope for slightly better weather and many more croci.

This was another photo from that day in yet another garden that we checked out, but nothing was stirring there. I thought it worthy of a quick snap.

79

As of today, I am married to a 79-year-old woman. I don't know how that can be since I am only a kid — or at least occasionally feel like one . . . until I look in the mirror.

I take a photo of Sue when she is across the table from me when we go out to eat. They have accumulated over time even though we are not exactly frequent diner-outers. I took this ↓ photo last September on our autumn trip to see the changing colours of the sugar bush.

I used to create standard folding greeting cards, but after about three decades of that, I now just make a one-sided, postcard type of greeting.

It has been birthweek, but we haven't been overdoing the celebrations. On Monday, we took a coffee to the water after the wall photo excursion that I posted about yesterday. On that day we also indulged in a pretty yummy maple butter donut, but we resisted after Tuesday's photo excursion (to be posted about on another day) and settled for just coffee.

On both days as we sat near the water, the geese were foraging on the bits of grass that were sticking out of the snow. I took this on Monday.

Standing protective guard while his missus foraged.

On Tuesday, we did succumb to the lure of a car-coffee selfie. It is birthweek after all.

But, today, is the actual, genuine, honest-to-goodness birthday, so we plan to visit the nearby Dark & Deadly cafe for coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Much later, we'll head to the kids' for a birthday supper.

Wall-Eyed

Sue's photo prompt for yesterday involved walls, so we went downtown where there is known to be a wall or two. I thought that I would do something similar to Sue and look for walls with doorways or windows that might emphasize simple shapes and textures. I envisaged converting them to contrasty b&w and really enhancing the gritty texture of walls in edit. I thought that I would render all of the photos in similar fashion. However, when it came down to it, I didn't do anything like that once I had the photos in front of me on the computer  

This wall is a soft, muted green. I made the wall longer that it really was on the right to place the door off-centre in a pano-style photo. I rather like the simplicity, but I do realize that many viewers would see nothing in this or the other photos.

I photographed the door in the wall of a craft brewery in town, keeping it soft and actually de-emphasizing texture, and I deliberately employed some extra warping in post enhancing the fact that it was somewhat warped already, or it looked a bit that way in the original photo.

This is an almost unused door in townhall. This photo is, in fact, b&w but with some tonality as well.

An old wall with windows that I processed with a very soft look despite it being b&w, which I originally intended to make gritty. It looks a bit like a drawing. I liked that at first but not so much now although it looks still looks pretty good when it fills my big computer screen.

I might as well add a few others from the day. They are a little different than the ones above. The first has wide-angle distortion, which I don't mind every now and then.

Lots of everything in this next shot. Something about it appeals to me. Once again, it is not for everyone.

Fresh paint needed on this add-on behind a house.

My Silly Little Life

Just now, in the early morning, I asked Sue if she were cooking something, knowing that, of course, she were not. It was my way of telling her that I was experiencing an episode of phantosmia.

For those who don’t know: “Phantosmia is an olfactory hallucination—the perception of a smell that is not present, often described as foul, burned, or chemical. It is often temporary, lasting a few weeks or months…”

That’s what Google AI says, but I can report that I was hallucinating a pleasant odour in this case: like something pleasant cooking on the stove although I cannot say what. Sue asked if it were like bread baking, but it wasn’t quite that.

My first experience with phnatosmia that I can recall was of gasoline due to the medication that I was taking: medication that I stopped taking promptly, I hasten to add. But occasionally, I sometimes seem to smell other odours. They are not always necessarily pleasant, but it is nice when they are.

These episodes of phantosmia are not frequent, and I do not know what causes them. It’s odd that I would experience something in the early morning, which, of course, has dissipated in the time that is has taken me to type this silly report of something that occurs in my silly little life.