Election Victory

The election is over, and Canada won by casting their ballots for the Liberals with Mark Carney as prime minister. 

Sadly, they are 4 seats short of a majority, so they will need to use diplomacy to ensure enough support from other parties to govern effectively. I can't see a problem in the foreseeable. 

Unfortunately, the Cons also increased their vote share, which is difficult to fathom. I saw the choice as being between and strong, independent nation under Carney against how a Trump-subservient leader like Poilievre would likely kiss the ring. The majority of Canadians seemed to agree. I think that people who voted Blue (Conservative) in these circumstances, would likely vote Con, no matter what. In my opinion, it is blind loyalty like that that leads to a political disaster of Trumpian proportions. Regardless, whatever the future holds, we can now look forward to four years of good, independent, pro-Canadian governance.

In his victory speech, Mr Carney talked about humility, which I think is a almost a national attribute. The whole speech is here in text form. If you want to watch the full 20 minute speech (I don't), here it is.

Following is an small excerpt in which he speaks of the present reality of Canada's relationship, or lack of same, with Trump's America. It makes me sad and also determined.

Our old relationship with the United States, a relationship based on steadily increasing integration, is over. The system of open global trade anchored by the United States, a system that Canada has relied on since the Second World War, a system that well not perfect has helped deliver prosperity for a country for decades, is over.

But it’s also our new reality.

We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons. We have to look out for ourselves and above all we have to take care of each other.

When I sit down with President Trump, it will be to discuss the future economic and security relationship between two sovereign nations. And it will be with our full knowledge that we have many, many other options than the United States to build prosperity for all Canadians.

Turtles in the Swamp

It may be an exaggeration to call it a swamp, but two sections of the trail near us are um swampy, especially in spring. Footbridges are the only way to pass over these parts of the trail. 

There goes the old man with the cane in his lumberjacket.
You can see why the footbridges are necessary.
What a bleak, April landscape!

I remembered seeing a turtle here last year and thought we should check it out for possible shots for one of Sue's photo prompts. While it didn't work for her needs on that day, I can always use blog material. I wasn't expecting much, so I only took my phone. Besides, we didn't necessarily start out with the intention of walking in that area.

We found a turtle, a snapper I suppose it was, that was almost hidden under the water, but then we found another that was somewhat more visible.

Both of us snapped a few pics.

The snapper is just little lower and left of centre.

Bottom left

Swimming off,  toward the right, around mid frame

Maybe I'll return with my camera on another day. If I were to use a polarizer filter, I might get a clearer result shooting through the murky water. Of course, turtles do not hold a high place on my Most Wanted Photos list, so who knows if I will bother.

Down Memory Lane with Old Slide Scans

There remain many slides to scan because the project got away from me for a few months. Now that I've gotten back to it, I thought that I would share a few very old photos. They are all of interest to me, but not chosen for photographic excellence for darn sure. The first is baby Allyson (D2, now named PJ) with Sue's mom in 1978.

The is Shauna. 1973.

Young moi, enjoying sitting in the waterfall at the cottage.

So amusing: Sue squatted down to Shauna's level in 1974, so Sha squatted down too.

Late 70s. Shauna and I have a little cuddle in my den.

The girls embrace, probably around 1980 before we moved away from that house.

We visited my best friend at his parents' cottage on Pigeon Lake. One afternoon, Allyson and Ron's son would dip their fishing lines into the lake and pull out little fish. They did this time and again. We also went for a ride in the boat in the photo, that Allyson recalls more than I do. She told me that we stopped at an island where we found an old campfire site. She recalls me making up a story about it being left by Captain Hook. I would think that this would have to be one of her earliest clear memories. I was surprised that she remembered any of this, given her age at the time.

There was a kids animal farm in our little city. We would visit on occasion for a little weekend or summer outing. I am pretty sure that  this picture of Sue and Sha is from 1974.

Sue purchased a sewing machine in 1973 and took an evening sewing class. Making this dress was her first project, and she hammed it up for the camera.

Thank you for walking down memory lane with me.

Blue Spoon and Wanderin Wayne

We checked out what we thought was a new cafe downtown, but it wasn't exactly that. Although you could get a coffee, you would have to take it with you because the main purpose of El Postino was to sell pre-prepared (or just  prepared, is pre redundant?) meals that had been made in the kitchen of their restaurant in the nearby town of of Almonte.

We next checked out another cafe, Foundry Coffee Bar, but it is small and always full whenever we pass by. We turned back to the parking lot, and there was the Blue Spoon Atelier advertising sourdough bread. We had visited that location once or twice under previous management and hadn't been impressed, but we were curious and entered.

It was semi busy but there was seating aplenty as other customers seemed to be taking out. We enjoyed good coffee and scones inside and took a loaf of sourdough home with us.

As I sat drinking and munching, I decided that when I left I would take  photo of the mural that I could see across the way. The man in the mural was familiar to me. For many years in the past twenty, we would just about always see him walking around downtown whenever we were strolling along main street. He was an ever-present fixture; some people referred to him as Wanderin Wayne.

There is a big pole and various wires in front of the mural, so I resorted to taking multiple phone photos, and Sue took one of me that shows the difficulty of photographing this mural.

I had to take three separate photos. Some work had been done to the wall after the initial painting of the mural —  the part over his face. They tried to restore it, but up close you can still see the spot where repair work had been done to the wall.

This was a good project to send on to Sue to make one of her composites.

Caturday 82: Gaming is Tiring for a Pussycat

When we visited the kids for Danica's 18th, I took my old iPad, the one that I don't mind Sabine scratching although the screen does seem pretty resistant.

If you have been here for any length of time, you have seen Sabby gaming on my tablet, perhaps more than once, but these pics are more like afterplay, after she she was tuckered right out  

Gaming is tiring for a little kitty, doncha know.

About a Man and His Dog

I pulled into the handicap parking space beside the bank in the little downtown mall that we call The Mews. I have a handicap permit; sometimes I use it, and sometimes I don't. This stop would be very quick, so I invoked my privilege.

There was a man standing opposite with a couple of bags at his feet, one a duffle bag. He was clean but dressed in an old, green coat that suggested that to me that his life was probably not an easy one. He was not a young man, and when he talked, later, I could see that he was missing teeth.

Lying just in front of him was one of the most beautiful big dogs imaginable. As is the way with most dogs, he was friendly and accepted my petting. I praised him to the man who smiled a happy, toothless smile and acknowledged that his dog was very friendly and beautiful indeed.

The dog was very well groomed and cared for. One of the bags that the man had at his feet was from the nearby pet store, so I was sure that doggy would receive his rations for the day. I wasn't so sure about the almost toothless man in the green coat.

I went into the bank to use the cash machine to withdraw a small sum to add to the little birthday present that had already purchased for my granddaughter's eighteenth birthday.

When I came back out, I was touched to see the man still lingering there in the cold wind and huddling in his green coat with his meagre possessions ant his feet and his beautiful fur-friend at his side. Here was a fellow human who surely must endure a difficult life. 

I, unobtrusively, made my way to the back of our CRV, reached under my coat toward my back pocket, pulled out my wallet, and extricated a twenty dollar bill. I thought that I might offer it to the man, but I sure didn't want to make a grand show of pulling out my wallet in front of him.

Being socially awkward at times, all I could think of saying as I came back around to the front of the car was to ask him: "Are you alright, sir?"

I am not sure what he said, so I had him repeat it, and I was still not sure, but it seemed to be something about waiting for a “grant” to come in. He mentioned the letters of an organization, probably governmental, that didn't make any sense to me, but I did catch that he was expecting some funds to be deposited shortly. I guessed that it was a disability allowance that he was awaiting, but that is just a guess.

I don't know what I said next exactly, but it would have been something banal like, "I  think I want you to have this," as I pressed the bill into his hand.

He blessed me, but again, I can't tell you the exact words.

He began to fumble with his belongings as I began to pull out of the parking space. As I drove away, I confess that my old eyes were leaking a little bit. I opined to Sue how lucky we are. We sure don't have riches, but we have always had our needs met. We've had food aplenty and shelter and raiment. 

I hope the man has his material needs met too, and also his dog's, of course, but I bet that dog is his pride and joy and his needs will be put first. It did seem highly likely, however, that both man and beast must live on the edge. 

The next day on our walk through the park on quite a nice day for a change, Sue and I took a moment to sit on the new bench by the pond and watch several pairs of geese paddling about, some lowering their necks threateningly and muttering imprecations at the others.

It was then, or maybe shortly afterward as our walk resumed, that I said to Sue that perhaps I should have emptied my wallet, for I had a couple more twenties in there. I had been carrying them around for a long time because I hardly ever pay cash, so I wouldn't have missed them a whole lot.

I am not sure why I was so touched by this man and his dog. Maybe it's because we don't have many needy people in this town and that he and his dog really stuck out in the midst of our plenty. Let me be clear; he wasn't begging, but the pair sure seemed to me that they could use a helping hand. I think all of us deserve a decent life with a modicum of comfort, and I worried that this seemed not to be his lot.

In my very small way, I helped, or tried to, but maybe I didn't do enough. I could have done more, not a ton more but more never the less.

Musings from Yesterday

I like two things about commenting with my tablet. One: I can be pretty comfortable in my Lazy Boy. Two: spellcheck can be convenient and usually works better than on the computer. But there are two things that I wish it did better. One: for me, it doesn’t insert apostrophes when I would just like to go on typing the letters. Two: it will not change an i to a capital I in the middle of a sentence when I would prefer to just keep typing letters rather than taking the time to find the shift key.

When it comes to composing a post rather than just commenting, I would rather use the computer, which is an odd thing to write because here I am composing this on my iPad since I am just sitting here letting my mind wander. I will likely finish the post on the computer later.

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Along with other games, I play two sudokus on my tablet almost every morning. One is the daily challenge and, for the other round, I ask the app to generate a random Extreme difficulty puzzle. Today (Monday), I set a new personal record on the  Extreme puzzle. I beat my previous high score from March 10 by 300 points. I may never top that because the stars have to align. It needs to be a very difficult puzzle that I, somehow, do well and manage to complete in a good time with no mistakes. 

Will I ever top this score from April 21st?
(trying to remember the date)

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This week begins the town’s two-week spring window for leaf and yard waste curbside pickup. I wish that they would wait for at least another week because outdoors is still barely workable, and we are not even close to planting season. It's only 5C/41F outside as I write this. Nevertheless, we will make an effort to do a little cleanup this morning, If we do, I will add a pic later. 

When we got out there, I decided to try a phone timelapse as an experiment. I actually did three and then spliced together a few bits into one short clip. I can do more directed timelapses with my Canon, but the phone is easy to use. I could probably do a soundtrack if I uploaded to YT first, but I'll just do it the easy way.

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After that bit of work, Sue thought we should get a coffee at Tims and follow our usual routine of taking it to the park. We weakened in the drivethru and also ordered breakfast sandwiches and hashbrowns. We've shown many coffee-in-the-car photos, so we didn't take another. We were also too far away to capture the male mallard duck in what remains of the diminishing flooded pond, the one you saw in the sunset photo the other day. At even a greater distance, we could see a redwing blackbird flitting busily about in the bushes right by the river.

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The federal election is just a week away, but the advance pools opened for 4 days on Good Friday. We went by in late morning, but they were lined up around the corner. There was less of a line outside when we returned that afternoon, but the inside line still took a half hour.

They were around the corner just a little earlier,
And there were more lines inside. 

I have never seen an advance poll so busy. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any regular poll as busy as this. We owe it all to Trump for getting out the vote. The thinking is that Mr Carney and the Liberals will stand up for Canada against Trump, but that the Cons with Poilievre are really Trumpers at heart and might sell us out. Still, the Cons had a big lead at one time, so we are worried and quite determined to fight for our country.

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I was  worried about our tulips. Nothing emerged for a long time, but suddenly on Sunday, they were several inches high. Something has dug up part of the garden, so I think we have lost some bulbs, but it is good to see some old friends making their return. The emergence of the spring bulbs is a wondrous thing to see.

18 on the 19th

Seven of us crammed into Shauna's little home for Danica's birthday on Saturday: eight if you count the cat, and the cat should be counted because she was constantly present. We had offered use of our place, but it isn't very much bigger than theirs, and so we convened at Sha's as usual.

We were seven humans because Dani's boyfriend and best female friend were present. 

All are phone photos

Sha brought in takeout Chinese food, and Dani opened gifts.

After letting dinner settle, we had cookies and ice cream because neither of our grandkids love cake. Come to think of it, neither does their mother, although she is more tolerant with it than the kids are.

Of course, Sue did a composite or two.

On the way home when we got to the park, we turned left toward the boat launch instead of turning right toward home. I think you can see why we chose to detour, for it was one of those special sunsets with the remaining puddles also catching reflections. It seemed like a fitting way to end Danica's Coming of Age day. She can now legally drink and vote, and she will do the latter soon in the impending federal election. As for the drinking . . . I don't keep up, and nor do I want to.

The phone didn't get the colour perfect, but it was pretty close.

Doffing

An election is impending, and so we attended a Liberal event at the arena. The candidate gave a little talk and then fielded some questions. When I say "little talk" and "some questions," the session lasted for more than 1.5 hours. I got achy from sitting, but I was interested in what was said and was glad that I went.

I had worn my red cap that day because the Liberal colour is red. Up here the left is red and the right is blue — confusing, I know.

When I entered, I didn't quite know what to do about my cap. I took it off but noticed that others were wearing theirs.

I put it on.

I took it off.

I left it off.

I'm old, and it doesn't feel right to wear a cap in that sort of setting. There was no question that gentlemen's hats and caps were doffed at doorways back in the day. Now, there is a question, but I found that my brain decided that my chapeau had to be doffed, even though I was in a minority of one.

I was a bit surprised that I was the only one to be at ill-ease, and I still am surprised, because this wasn't a youthful meeting. The other cap guys were also of an age, and I would have thought would have been raised with social norms similar to mine. However, they were fine with keeping their caps on, and I don’t pass judgment.

It's a tricky thing. I would be comfortable wearing my cap in a pub or fast food joint but not in a proper restaurant or a in meeting like this. 

That's regarding caps. I would be even more reluctant to wear my actual hat indoors under any circumstance or at least the winter one that looks properly dressy like an old-fashioned fedora. While my summer hats are of a similar style, they are khaki and do not seem so dressy, so I suppose that I might wear them inside in certain, informal venues. Really  though, I seldom wear an actual hat, so I shouldn't muse about it too much.,

I cannot imagine wearing either a cap or hat in church in any circumstance, but I don't go to church any more, and now I wonder if some guys do wear them there.

Surely not‽

That Was Quick

Danica was a baby.

front of card

Now, she is a lady.

inside of card

Those 18 years went by in a blur.

Puschkinia scilloides

At the crocus patch, I became mesmerized by accompanying very tiny flowers that I hadn't noticed in previous years. At first, I thought they they might be newly emerging crocuses. but that didn't seem quite right. When I got home, Apple photo ID revealed that they were Puschkinia scilloides, more commonly known as striped squill or just squill. It seemed like such a wonderful discovery after just attending Claudia's wildflower poetry presentation.

Of course, I am about to display a number of photos, some single exposures and some doubles. Please keep in mind that no matter how large these flowers appear in these images, they are actually very tiny. I would say that one of these blooms may be smaller than about 1/4th of the size of my littlest fingernail. 

Single Exposures

Double Exposures

I would have been pleased enough just to photograph the croci one more time, but I was right chuffed to also discover these tiny wonders.

Addendum: when all was done after I had written the above text and pictures, I began to think that this is one flower photo that just might, possibly, look good in b&w. While I was at it, I did two things that I don't normally do. First I added a border, and then I added a title. 

It was a conversion of the first photo of the post, cropped a little differently.

The Croci Photoshoot of 2025

The lest vestiges of that stubborn snow pile left us on Sunday, April 13*, so on Monday morning, I announced to Sue that I was going to put on my macro lens and see if I could find some crocuses to lie down with, or to put it another way, to lay myself down with, assuming that I can be excused the terminal preposition.

There are two accessible spots where I might find crocuses, I posted a couple of these spring beauties in the park last week. But there is another spot where I might find more. It is by the derelict Baines Machine Shop building where someone must have planted bulbs years ago. I have now returned to this spot for the fourth consecutive year after not finding these wonderful spring flowers for many preceding years.

Behold! they were in bloom, and I did lay my body down and got my pants even muddier than they were after that first shooting last week. I got down and made a conscious decision not to move any debris such as leaves or twigs. It seemed like the right thing to do but maybe because I am just lazy. Once images began to take shape on the computer, I did occasionally remove distracting elements, sometimes just by cropping.

Usual single exposure photos

A cluster of croci

Two double exposures. I like them, especially the first one.

I also came across another, new-to-me, tiny spring flowers, but I think they deserve their own soon-to-come post.

* The snow pile that I have gone on and on about gave up the ghost on that day, April 13, but a small patch, back in the shade of the house, persisted until the next day.

Double Exposures at Riverside

As I have already posted, yesterday, we had a little saunter in Riverside Park on Sunday after having more or less being barricaded out of the park by snow since early December.

On this day, I ported my real camera and my longest lens because it is a stretch to photograph across the river, and that is where many of my photo attempts took me.

I have been here in this park with my camera many many times previously and on many many nice days but our world is still a dull brown and will remain so for awhile yet. So, with the scene looking extremely dowdy, I went  back to attempting double exposures. I figure that if the double doesn't work, I still will have the original single photo on my camera.

Across the river lies an unused boathouse. I have very nice old photos of it in winter when the door still had better colour. In fact, I made prints of them way back when, and they were quite good, even if I do say so myself.

On Sunday, I took an initial photo that included the boathouse, and for my second, overlay photo I turned the camera to a nearby stand of birches. I have two variations, below. The following two photos are both double exposures as the camera did them. and I did not merge in Photoshop this time around. Of course, there was still cropping and/or adjusting in post, but the overlay itself was done in-camera.

I keep my eyes out for benches for Flickr use as these is a bench meme there on Mondays, and I did two double exposures using benches. In the second, I made the stylistic choice to highlight the bench with a pretty bright green, for the green on the bench had gotten a bit lost in the overlay. It’s a bold green that is not meant to be the actual colour of the bench  

This bench has its feet in the water at this flood stage.

Then I went to town on another double by redoubling an original double exposure from the camera with more layers that I subsequently added manually in post. After that I applied other filters. I never have a vision or goal in mind but just try this and try that to see where the picture goes. It's pretty abstract, but the trees still hold their shapes pretty well. It’s weird, but I like it.

Who knows where I am going with these double exposures. Maybe next time, I will revert back to blending manually in Photoshop rather than accepting the camera's rendition. Time will tell, but in the meantime, it is adding some variety to my photography, especially allowing me to explore familiar places differently because I don't often get to new places these days.