Leftovers and See You Later

Since we are off to the cottage, I thought I would post some pics of our last, brief stay there. You might recall the Dragon Ball weekend. Well, here are a few more shots from back then.

Everybody loves Mary: my niece in law. She's a gem.

This old trailer has been parked out back for ever so long, and I finally got a decent but well cropped picture.

Lumber in the barn ... waiting .... waiting ...

I'm not sure what JJ thought when his cousin climbed up beside him to watch a movie, but he adapted.

I took a picture of some faint and distant lightning.

My very tall nephew found a unique way to wash the dishes in a slightly low sink.

My BIL takes an indoor shot.

The Dragon Ball venue was nicely decorated.

I am going into radio silence. See you in a few weeks.

Some Around and About Pics

We will soon be taking off on our annual fall getaway to the cottage. Although I am sure to post once more before then, I thought that I would post a few recent pics before then.

JJ kindly made arrangements with some bus friends to meet them at the park after school. Although I didn't expect the friends to show up, I didn't mind walking him to the park, and one (and his sister) did show up. Danica had dance lessons, so it was just a JJ afternoon.

JJ thought that I should take a picture of him in the baby swings.

Although the others aren't in the frame, they were quite excited to find a little copse hideaway.

The next morning there was music and dancing while waiting for the school bus. See the radio on the ground.

After the bus left, I went for a walk as I often do in decent weather. This was one of the pics that I snapped.

That afternoon found us back at the park for another playdate. Both kids this time.

Danica and friend playing ball on the equipment, but the ball kept on sailing past to the other side.

Jj really gets around -- so to speak.

Tidbits from Bridge Street

It was a hot afternoon in downtown Carleton Place, so I opted to sit in the outside shade while Sue second-handed it across the street. Being both hot and a tad lazy, I snapped several shots while sitting on the benches outside the post office.

I'm not sure that I knew we had a Masonic Temple in CP, but sure enough ...

Apparently, the structure is 104 years old, but the masons have been active here since 1843. I had assumed that the temple was a former use only, but it seems that it is still the temple for the St John's Lodge No 63, and there are approximately 100 members.

Beside the temple is Leslie (not LFSLIE, I'm sure) built in 1895.

From the walking tour pamphlet: "It has been home to cabinetmakers, furniture and undertaking businesses throughout its history. The eight-column colonnade supports an intricate entablature and remains a showpiece of Ontario architecture."

As I continued to point my camera upward at odd angles, I next snapped the clock tower of the old post office, which was build ~1891. From the pamphlet "The Building was designed by famed Ottawa Parliament Peace Tower architect, Thomas Fuller (1823- 1898), who designed 78 Post Offices for the Dominion of Canada from 1881-1896." The clock tower was added two years later in 1893.

Then there is St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, apparently built in 1887, just a few years prior to the other buildings.

"Fanciful towers and turrets add interest to the imposing St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, built in the Scottish Baronial style in 1887. Contrasting decorative courses, and window and door details are constructed of dark Beckwith limestone."

I have tried to attend a concert or two in this church, but the pews are not at all comfortable to a modern larger man with a bad back.

The best sighting of the day was to see this lovely lady lady walking toward me. But I won't say how old she is. :)

Morning Strolls

I find myself getting back into more of a routine now that it's September and the kids are back at school. I have been strolling to the nearby park and sometimes along the adjacent wooded path after the kids have embarked on the bus. My problem will be in keeping to some sort of routine on Thursdays and Fridays when we don't have them and also on the weekends, of course.

These photos are all from these walks, except the Rudbeckia from my own garden and the one of JJ, but that was also taken in the park, and we did walk there. I take my camera with me and click any number of shots, and I delete most of them when I see them on my computer.

What the camera does enable me to do, even though most shots are worthless, is to be present. I am a daydreamer by nature and could easily walk for an hour in the woods but be mostly wrapped up in my own head and notice very little. When I have my camera, I find that I am always looking around and seeing things that I would likely otherwise miss.

Magic Lantern, hanging at the edge of the path at the back of a garden

Autumn is in the air, or at least beginning on the ground

JJ found a little hideaway in a small copse

Rudbeckia are still flowering in the garden

A changing bush off the boardwalk

Life is da berries

The Tatlock Quarry

At the last minute, we learned that OMYA was conducting tours at their Tatlock Quarry on Saturday.

This is a fascinating calcium carbonate (ie marble) mine that used to be visible from the Tatlock Road. At some point, OMYA needed to have the road moved so that they could expand their operations. Although there is still a publicly accessible view, it is often blocked from visitors due to road conditions.

Anyway, the short story is that we had been thwarted from seeing the quarry a number of times since the move, so we latched onto this opportunity eagerly, despite the dreary and rainy weather.

OMYA had rented several buses to take us down into the pit, each with a guide armed with good information.

This is our guide as well as the bus driver. You can see some of our view through the window.

It looked very deep and like a dangerous ride down from up top. In fact, it is 120 metres deep, 1 kilometre long, and .5 kilometer wide (all round and approximate figures).

For a sense of scale, you can see another tour bus on the other side.

It is the white marble or calcium carbonate that OMYA wants from the quarry, and you can see some of the good stuff in the next photo.

Actually, the ride down wasn't scary on the wide benches that seemed like normal roads. The incline wasn't all that steep. Once at the bottom, it sure didn't feel as deep as it looked from up above. Here's our bus on the mine floor after we disembarked. Notice the whiteness of the floor.

Following are two panos that I took. The first consists of 4 horizontal shots and the second 7 vertical shots. The second, in particular, was a huge file.

I took the next photo because it clearly shows a vein of black rock running through the whiter marble. It came from subsequent volcanic intrusions. I believe the guide called it diabase.

Back up top, we saw the crushing operation from a distance and some of the results in this next photo, which also shows some of the equipment. The calcium carbonate is used in all sorts of products as a thickener and/or whitener: such as paints, plastics, crayons, carpet backing, floor tiles, and paper and packaging.

Up top, we were provided with drinks and snacks, but I didn't take pictures until I came across this cute thing in the parking lot.

Thanks for doing this OMYA. It was a real treat.

Sunrise at Blakeney

I arose early yesterday morning and decided to drive up to Blakeney to see if I could get some sunrise photos. Truth be told, I almost always arise stupidly early these day, but I am usually too lazy to bother going out. Yesterday, I forced myself.

I found a spot where I could approach the river to the right of the bridge and navigated my gimpy way down the slope. This was the first photo that I took. It is an HDR (amalgam of 4 exposures). I didn't need to process this as an HDR, but I just do it sometimes because ...

You can see from the foreground that I was on a slight rocky incline, and I decided to go right down to the water's edge for the next photo. I processed this one a little more darkly and vividly. I think I like it better, but perhaps not as my opinion changes from one viewing to the next.

Somewhere between that photo and the next, I had a little mishap; the remote trigger that I was using took a tumble into the water. Right now, it is sitting in a bowl of rice to dry out; my fingers are crossed, but I really don't expect it to work again.

Anyway, I turned around a little to take a shot back toward the bridge. It doesn't have the same light as the other two photos, but I kind of like the composition, and the reflections are good as is the lead-in from the rocks to the left.

I was prepared to stay and take photos of the actual reserve area on the other side of the bridge, but the sun was too low to give me much interesting light over there, so I headed home.

First Day of School

Because we babysit fro three days a week and the other babysitter is across the street, the kids board the school bus from our place.

I took some photos from the front of the house and garden.

Then we moved to a spot between our row houses. I will have to contemplate the composition and background better next year, but this is why we took some back to school portraits earlier in the park, so it's all good.

A silly photo but kind of cute.

Mom took the first day off for the event.

All aboard.

The adults treated themselves to a back to school breakfast afterward.

Day is done. Time to disembark. Only about 199 days left to go.

JJ on the Up and Up

That grandboy is becoming a grand climber. Maybe Everest in his his future (perish the thought). He's certainly done some unique climbs lately.

Now, this one ↓ isn't too unique, but he was just getting warmed up.

However, I certainly didn't expect to find him on top the shaft of this old mill wheel. ↓

Yes, JJ: you can just about fly.

But really: I said you could get a drink, not get in the drink. ↓

Since we are on a JJ theme, here are two more pics taken that day: our last summer babysitting day with the kids. They played in the Indian River at the Mill of Kintail for quite a long time.