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.

Remembering Lacey

This is the first anniversary of Lacey's crossing of the rainbow bridge. Although I certainly posted about her passing at the time, I left a few photos in the queue from the preceding days and weeks, just to post today.

She, perhaps, paid her final visit to my lap almost three weeks earlier, or at least the last of which I managed to grab my phone. While she was not my lap cat, she knew that treats might, somehow, appear.

She was Sue's lap cat. I remain thankful that Lacey was able to get her portion of loving up until the end.

She ate a good final meal before we took her into the vet. Her jaw was cancerous, so she had been having difficulty getting the food out of the dish. That morning I sat on the kitchen floor with her and rolled up bits that she could pick up. I remain thankful that I thought to do that for the poor, old girl.

The Moon at 4

With the current meds for my ear, my sleep has been quite fitful, even more than usual. It's mostly from the decongestants, which the doctor declared that she ordinarily would not like to prescribe to a 79-year-old man.

When I awoke to unowat at 4, I was stunned to see the full moon is a spot where I had never seen it, just over the trees before it would soon begin to dip out of sight.

It was 4am. I went back to bed chair. My inner voice whispered, “No, John. That won’t do. You really must get up and try to get a photo.”

I didn’t want to waken Sue by pulling out the screen, so I shot through it and also through the window pane that I could have opened more had I not been tiptoeing. I pressed the shutter, with the phone commanding me to hold for 2 seconds, or maybe it was 3. That’s hard, but I did my best  

Those were not ideal circumstances, but I tried regardless, and with a little help from photoshop to remove extra window reflections, I think the photo is good enough to post here.

I did, eventually, get back to sleep until 6, which gave me a total of 5 hours — not great but just about enough to keep me from getting too crotchety.

Spick and Span

In a recent comment (of course I forget to whom) I recently used the phrase (not technically a phrase but you know . . .), spic and span. And then I wondered, where the heck did that come from. We all know the phrase means very clean to the average person, or "spotlessly clean and neat" according to dictionary.com.

What I didn't realize until I did my bit an internet sleuthing as that it should be spelled spick and not spic. Of course it was Spic and Span in the old cleaning product. I say old because I haven't seen it on the shelves or at least not noticed it on the shelves for quite awhile.

What interested me was the history of the phrase, and I discovered that it dates to the 16th and 17th centuries when it came to mean new and fresh. That is because spick was the word for nail, which a workman would use to fashion something new. The span part probably dates back to Norse, referring to a chip of wood, as in newly carved wood. If you put them together, it seems that you would be nailing something new with wood.

Although its secondary meaning can still refer to fresh and new, over time the spotlessly clean and neat meaning has become dominant.

I wonder if it is one of those phrases that will become lost as we are succeeded by a generation with new and rapidly evolving vocabulary.

===================

I searched for the cleaning product and found that it can still be found at Walmart, Amazon and fine retailers everywhere. I must remember to look in my own grocery store.

False Frost Warning

It was odd on Monday to receive a frost-warning popup on my phone because the projected low night temperature was only 6C. In the morning, I asked Alexa what the overnight low had been, and she replied with a curious 22C. I think she got stuck in the wrong month. 

I was later able to scrub back on the weather app on my phone and saw that the low temperature was 5C. We remain frost-free for the time being, but the highland parts of the region have already experienced frost and even a hard frost. 

This is one year when part of me wishes for a hard, early frost because, as I have previously written, I have the flicker of a  hope that a hard frost might unplug my almost-deaf left ear.

I have my doubts that a cure will wrought by a frost, but we walked over to the health centre yesterday to consult with our doctor to see if there was anything else I could do in the interim, other than the antihistamine and nasal spray that I have been taking daily.

As we waited, I made a guess that this young fellow’s complaint might have to do with his foot. Do you concur?

Then, I was called. As the nurse and I began out walk to the examining room, she asked, "So, what are you seeing Dr X about today?"

I replied, "I am here to see Dy Y."

We stopped our progress, and she went back to check and discovered that it was a different John's turn. John isn't as common a name as it used to be, but there were two of us on the premises. I know there were once three of us in one of my classes when I was a boy, but the name is not so common anymore. Even my grandson is a Jonathan rather than a plain John although he is named for me. Poor boy.

I returned to me seat but was called again soon after, and when the doctor checked my ear, she saw fluid that the student doctor missed last time. I don't think that miss matters much because the treatment doesn't really change. However, I will be on a stronger anti-histamine for a bit and I will add a decongestant to the protocol for 3 days to try to boost a reaction. 

My seniors' drugs are largely covered except except for a small dispensing fee, but I was charged full price of $90 for 60 tablets on this occasion. There are a few medications that aren't covered by the system, but this surprises me. I will check with the pharmacy with crossed fingers later this morning to see if this was an error.

Meanwhile, the doctor continues to think that the blockage is being caused by an allergy. When I told her that I had once been tested and that it was determined that I pretty well have no allergies, she replied that there are many that the test might have missed. Certainly my stuffy and runny nose and frequent sneezing indicate that there is something plaguing me. She also felt that I should continue to use the nasal spray even when the current blockage clears up because that has been my second bout of the year. In other words, she wants me to use the spray for the rest of my life to try to prevent future occurrences.

On the way home we stopped at Dark & Deadly for coffee and a breakfast sandwich — in our case it became a lunch sandwich. The favoured coffee of the day was blueberry. It was good, as was peanut butter and jam the other day. A few of you were thinking that you couldn't abide a pbj coffee, and I admit that I was dubious. However, I tell you that I cannot discern the flavours, other than to appreciate that they go down pretty well. I mean my peanut butter and jam coffee certainly didn't taste like pbj to me. Same with blueberry, a fruit that I otherwise eat almost daily.

======================

I think I understand the frost warning now. It's a general warning for  broad region but does not apply to every bit of the region. We are in the Lanark section of the green, but our town was not included in the specific paces mentioned in the accompanying material.

Do You Deserve a Tip of the Hat?

I use all but one. If you know and use most and/or you can guess which one I don't use, I tip my cap to you. (My answer will appear somewhat below the next photo.)

keep scrolling




The only word that I don't use cattywumpus, but maybe I should try  

How did you do?

Hand and Band

Yesterday, I donned my red-black jacket for our walk. Heaver than a windbreaker but lighter than a winter coat, it seemed the thing to grab for mid-fifties weather. I also wore one glove a la Michaël Jackson — on my heft hand that holds the cane, because it would be continuously exposed. The other hand, I could shove into my pocket at will.

It did get warmer before we were done, largely from sun warmth more than temperature warmth. 

As we continued past the bridge we began to hear music.

We got closer and saw and heard the bagpipes. This is just a few second clip.

I took a few snaps from a distance. The photos were awful with distractions, so I extracted two of the musicians from their compatriots and composited them into a cheesy image. It's terrible, but I unashamedly reveal all here. Well, maybe not all, but I reveal much — both the good and not so good.

A street was blocked for for a march by the three bands, but we found a space on the grounds behind the Legion building where people were gathered and there was seating available. The three bands took their time marching, each finishing its song and march before the next one started. We couldn't see very much, not enough to bother with photos, but we could see some and hear well. It was an unexpected pleasure on a Sunday morning.

Cold Sunrise

She who runs at an out-of-kilter temperature was surprised when she came into my den yesterday morning. Because. I had the heater on by my computer chair!

Not only that, but I was wearing my winter sweater.

The nights have been cold. Alexa informed me that it was only 2C/36F outside at 7:15.

As you know, our game is to not turn on the heat until the end of October. We have made it to the end of October only once as far as I can recall, but we give it a good shot. We'll see how we do this year. The countdown isn't on yet, but some nights are getting very cool. At present (written yesterday morning), I am heating the bathroom in preparation for my biannual shower. ;)

There was a bit of colour over the opposite rooftops at 6:30. I shot on an angle from the non-screen side of my little window. Come winter, I shall remove the screen, so that I can shoot from either side, likely to photograph the neighbours shovelling snow.

On Friday, the heron was at the pond. I shot at full 8x magnification and then cropped, so of course, the image is anything but sharp. But it's a heron! And the light is good enough. Eh?

Addendum (still referring to yesterday, Saturday)

When I went into the bedroom at 8 to gather my after-shower clothing, Sue had the windows open and was sitting in a very light, Mrs Roper, caftan. Oddly enough, when we go out, she often seems more concerned about the cold than I.

Things in the Morning

Friday morning was a bit unusual. We had a new driveway paved three years ago, as many in neighbourhood had done. A few days ago, we saw that some owners had found a local company to top it or seal it or whatever you call it. When we saw the posted sign, Sue called, and they came the next day.

By 7 o'clock!

They were done by 8, and it was time to pay: by e-transfer please.

Okay then. Phone out. It took me awhile to locate the app.

Then, I had to remember the 16 digit code, which was new because they just dropped a new bank card on me. Believe it or not, I remembered. You see, I don't want the number to remain permanent on my devices, so I have to commit such numbers to memory.

Next, came my 17 digit password. This is a lot on the spot, one-finger typing on a tiny phone for an almost-octogenarian.

Of course, I had to add a new contact. Eventually, I handed my phone to the fellow to make sure of the email address. Good thing: I had it wrong.

Finally, the payment was made, and he got the deposit notification on the spot.

By then, Sue was more than ready for a second cup. I suggested that we could go out for it, but she wasn't ready yet, so I volunteered go and bring coffee back. Off I went.

In a morning of little hurdles, I was about to encounter two more.

I got to the nearest of the two Tims, but it was closed for renovations. I drove to the other one, but with the first Tims being closed, I couldn't even get into the parking lot with cars being lined up onto the street to go through the drive through.

I could have gone to McDonalds, but Dark & Deadly is closer, so I parked and went in.

Their flavoured coffee of the day was the new, Peanut Butter & Jam. It know that it sounds atrocious, but they gave me a mini cup to try. I thought it tasted fine, so that's what I brought home for Sue and me.

Of course, we now can't use the driveway until Sunday when it shall be sufficiently dry, but I did find a close spot on the street without spilling a drop.

At walk time, we opted to leave the car in order to keep our precious spot. Over to the park we ambled and also slightly along the trail with me dragging my wretched foot.

We have one spot where we can see the river from a gap in the foliage that lines the riverbank. Although most colour is just beginning (as in the background), this tree was already blazing. I seem to observe that trees by the water, sometimes almost in the water, perhaps change colour earlier.

Needs Must and the Devil

Needs Must. We all say it or think it, don't we? I just thought it a few minutes ago upon considering that I might have to do something that not only would be forced to do something that I would hope to avoid and that, in doing it, I would likely need to make the second best choice because that is what would work best overall.

Don't ask.

However, it was only recently that I came across the original full phrase in a novel: "Needs must when the devil drives." Google AI explains it thusly: "You have no choice but to do something difficult or unpleasant because your current situation forces you to do it."

I see the full saying as just a little bit more nuanced than the "Needs must" that we all commonly say.

Further information that, apparently, was posted on Tumblr. I do not know how to get to the original post to cite it correctly, but it seems that gloriascott93 reposted from cupidford.

The phrase is old. In earlier texts it is almost always given in its fuller form - needs must when the devil drives. that is, if the devil is driving you, you have no choice. This dates back to Middle English texts, for example Assembly of Gods, circa 1500: “He must nedys go that the deuell dryues.”

Shakespeare used the phrase several times; for example, in All’s Well That Ends Well, 1601:

Countess: Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry.
Clown: My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go that the devil drives.

The phrase became pared down to needs must during the 20th century and, even in that short form, it is rather archaic-sounding and is fading from popular use. This despite a high-profile appearance on TV in Blackadder II, 1985: “Needs must when the devil vomits into your kettle.”

 

A Classic Beauty

I am not a car guy, perhaps because I have never been able to afford a hot ride. Who knows? I purchase practical cars that are close to what my budget will tolerate although they are always too expensive. Then, I try to get the most out of them, the present car being a 2010 model that we purchased used in 2014.

Budgetary issues aside, I don't think I ever would have been a car guy, but if I were, I'd be drawn to two classic models: the '57 Chev and the '65 Mustang.

Yesterday, we spotted a 57 Chevy in the grocery store parking lot. While I do not prefer the colour, I shot the car regardless: one photo from the front and one from the back. When I got home, I was inspired to extract them from the busy distractions around them and put the two extracted photos into one frame. I asked AI for a deserted urban parking lot, and it decided to give me a parking garage, but at least it was deserted as requested.

You may have noticed that I have been invoking AI more than usual this month, and I have run out of credits until almost the end of the month. This is very sad news. I could purchase more, but I would have to purchase more than I require, and they would be erased at the end of the months, which is extra sad news.

Candle and Benches

I posted this candle last week but decided yesterday that it needed both a flame and a message. I played with it a bit in the morning before walkie and shopping.

On our walk, I photographed a red bench ↓ with the subsequent bend in the adjacent path. Sue was looking for bends that day, so I looked too.

At home, I discovered that a tighter crop works better for me. I don't know why I didn't see it on site, but I did have the bend in the path in mind, and I can have a pretty one-track mind. Also, I am more patient in the editing phase than I am with the camera.

As you can see by the colour and the maple leaf, it is a very Canadian bench.

I found another bench in the same park. In processing, the subtle beginning tinges of autumn were more visible than in person. Somehow the editing overdid the colour, but it suits me and the season too, I think.

Five Tidbits

Blogger is being weird. Back in the mists of time, I guess I asked for comments to be forwarded to my email. They never were, not more than maybe 3x for the occasional random comment in all of the years. Now, while nothing else seems to be working properly, I finding forwarded comments in my mailbox. Go figure. Note: I wrote that yesterday, and I think the emails ave stopped again already so soon this morning.

For those having trouble getting into Feedly (as an alternative to Blogger's blogroll), I forget the specific signup procedure because it has been so long since I had to do that, but I know that the process isn't onerous. I think what you have to do from there, is to find the url of the site that you wish to follow, and paste it into the search box (magnifying glass). From there I believe that you can follow the site in perpetuity if you so choose. I know it seems like a bit of a procedure, but once it is established, it should work for you for a long time.

======================

We went back to the door in the fence because Sue required cobblestones for a prompt. There are no cobblestones that we could think of in this town, but then, I remembered the little path to the door in the fence. Sue got her photo, and I took another shot because I wanted to get even lower than last time. I don't know why; it is just how I wanted to photograph this object.

With my phone at ground level and me not, I couldn’t see what see the screen, so before I got that ↑ photo I got this ↓ unexpected, funny shot.

======================

I really don’t mean to @ you with every bicycle ride, but we got to the end of our little section of the trail this time, so I captured Sue with the signage when we stopped to turn.

In case you can’t read it the small section up top says Trans Canada Trail. 

Only 6k but two consecutive days leave the old legs a bit rubbery. I’ll take some solace in the fact that it is not the easiest riding because it is a rough path, not asphalt. Of course, that wouldn’t have bothered me once upon a time. 

One more thing: wild asters were glowing by the watery section when we stopped for a little break. 

======================

Sue shot a selfie, or I guess you could call it more of a self-portrait because she set the camera up and wasn't holding it in typical selfie fashion.

I liked it as was, but I softened the background and lightened the facial shadows, just a touch.

===========================

Do you remember the baby that the flamingo lily was birthing. It is now about one-third thee size of the only other flower om the plant. This plant moves so slowly. It has taken more than a month for the flower to progress from being almost unnoticeable to one-third its eventual size. This is truly remarkable to me.