Dad at 50

We were dressed for church in the fall of 1962, shortly after we moved from Montreal to the western fringes of the Toronto region. I had recently turned 15 in September, and dad was either 50 or a just a few weeks from it. During that summer, I'd had much of my growth spurt and was considerably taller than my diminutive, 5'4" father. I was probably inching close to 6' tall by then and on my way to being almost 6'2".The height difference doesn't show entirely in the photo because I am standing farther from the camera.

We lived in a cottage on the nursery on which Dad worked. Directly across  from our front door lay his greenhouse, actually two and for awhile three greenhouses. There were also two larger greenhouses in another spot on the property, and dad was in charge of them all. He worked hard to keep all his flowers ship-shape.

The view from our front door. Although I left for university in 1967, Dad kept on working there for about another 10 years.

Apparently, he was giving Sue and me a bit of a tour that day. He liked Sue quite a lot, I think.

It was nice to see the old guy in his middle-aged days in the first photo because I tend to picture him more readily in his more elder years, which is where I am at now. However, it is nice to be reminded of any age now that he’s been gone for 27 years.

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Then, after preparing the above, I had the notion to insert me at Dad's ago as he was in 1962. The only photo already on the computer that would more or less work was one of me at 59 compared to his 50. The the ages and appearance were close enough to make it work somewhat, I think, and so I composited as best I  could. The new composite pushed me farther forward that I was in the original photo, so I had to make myself larger because I was much taller than dad.

It was fun to try, and I think it was worth the effort. I know that lighting doesn't match up, but you work with what you have.

Father's Day Observed

The official Father's Day isn't until tomorrow, but our observances are already done. Sue took me out for coffee and a blueberry scone on Wednesday and to Generations on the Lake for brunch on Thursday  

I don't have a picture of us on the scone morning, but I did capture a photo of the lady at the far table engrossed in her book. I do like an interesting candid photo.

We did photograph our own likenesses at the  Generations brunch, which is a nice spot for dining out. I tried to get quite a bit of the grounds in the photo of Sue.

That is Mississippi Lake beyond, which later condenses into a narrow river as it flows through our town.

Et moi, wondering from where and whence came all of the wrinkles.

We did the pretty standard pizza and gift celly at Sha's last evening, leaving the kids free to honour their dad tomorrow. We missed Danica who got stuck at work, but I will see her on Monday to drive her to work, and she has promised to drop by for more of a chat someday soon.

Great idea: a chair-side table with power and USB outlets 

This morning

Our Odd Tree Bush

We planted a silk lilac tree in the backyard. It produced some blossoms on occasion, but it never did well. We removed the poor, spindly, failing thing two years ago.

Last summer, when the roots began to shoot up many branches, we left it to its own devices. It fills in a space, and our backyard is pretty well an unused space because it is close to a busy street and the afternoon sun can be very strong. The seldom used yard doesn’t need to be showpiece, so, we left it to do what it wanted.

It continues to do well as a bush, much better than it ever did as a tree, which seems rather odd. Currently it is producing quite a few blossoms (or flowers or whatever you call them). I find this quite surprising, so I decided to post about it.

from the back upstairs window

To change the topic: every now and then, I go for a little evening saunter, just up or down the street. Unusual for us, these are solo outings, for Sue is either in bed or getting close to it. I took this one around the corner at almost 10pm. The outcome was accidental because I forgot that one usually must hold the phone steady for a few seconds at night while the image is being recorded. As it turns out, I like it.

Loving My Spectrum

A dispersive prism can be used to break white light up into its constituent spectral colours. It is typically a 3D-ish glass triangle (but with 5 sides) better described as a polyhedron. 

The diagram from Wikipedia shows how a prism works as the white light travels from left to right and passes through the prism

We have a piece of window film affixed to my den window. It allows light to pass through but scatters it into a rainbow-like spectrum. Strictly speaking, i guess it is not a prism because a prism, as described above, is made of glass. It is prismatic, however, in that it disperses white light into a spectrum of component colours.

It looks like this on the window when it is catching the light

In the morning at the right time of year (like now) and when the sun shines bright, the sunlight hits the window film and passes through, casting a spectrum of light across the den wall wall opposite the chair where I hang out and catch up on your blogs. On one particular morning it hit the coffee maker more vividly than usual, or at least I noticed it more than I usually do. Keep in mind that the coffee machine is 10 to 12 feet from the window. Also observe that the beams on the wall are travelling on well past the machine, going from right to left.

Look at the spectrum on the machine and particularly on the wall behind

The other morning when Sue entered the room, even farther from the window than the coffee maker, the colours reached her already glorious face. But you have to trust me on that, for I have no picture, and I don't think Sue would much appreciate an early-morning, pre-coffee photoshoot.

For this post, I had to learn that the dispersed light is not the prism as I had been wont to describe it, but it is the spectrum. Also, the window film attached to my window is not a genuine prism although it works like that well enough, so I have called it prismatic.

The window film is made by rabbitgoo [sic] and described as "Rainbow Window Films for Privacy, 3D No Glue Decorative Window Clings, UV Blocking Removable Stained Glass Tint Film, Privacy Glass Stickers for Home Office Door." A 2 metre/yard roll is priced at $20 on Amazon Canada.

Critter Encounters

I have new critter images to post today, but this one of the rabbit isn't new. I just posted it recently, but I decided to repost today because it fits the theme, and it is current.

When we walk the local trail, we come upon a house with bird feeders. On this day, we spied a very cute chipmunk on a bench by the feeder and shadowed by a giant Hosta.

Farther along the trail that day, we (as in Sue) got to chatting with a couple on one of the little bridges over the swampy area. Then a couple of dogs and their walkers chanced by and also stopped for a chat. The dog sat on Sue's foot, then on another lady's foot, and finally on my foot. Dogs generally go to Sue first and sometimes disdain me entirely, but this one finally gave the old man a blessing.

On another day, we sighted a heron where we certainly did not expect to. It was only our second sighting of the year, the first being on the pond where it up and flew too far away for our little cameras. It wasn't very close this time either, but I zoomed as much as I could and then cropped in a bit more.

I could tell that the bird was about to fly off and made an effort to go into burst mode, but I fumbled the quick attempt. Sue did get a shot, but I really wanted my own photo. sniff

Shopping and Showering

I do most of the grocery shopping and do well enough for the most part, but there are exceptions.

I purchased French Coffee because it was on sale. Right now, I am glad that I don't live in France. I don't normally put sugar in my coffee, but even with sugar, this coffee is too bitter for me. Live and learn . . . perhaps.

We tried Chapmans  Premium ice cream, Chocolate with Salty Caramel & Peanuts. It was quite special. After finishing the container, I carefully chose it again on my next shopping outing. When it was time to treat ourselves to a dish, I discovered that I had picked up Butter Pecan instead. It was very good but not what I wanted. I do this too often, reach for one item but look away and grab the wrong one. It's a silly habit that has sometimes led to very weird things in my shopping cart.

Bought some brats for the bbq. Cooked them, took a bite and found my mouth aflame. I did consume a few but passed the rest on to JJ who likes things spicy. I don't mind a bit of heat, so I tolerated it to some extent, but my spicy wife doesn't like spicy food, so off half of the sausages went to my grandson.

The final item isn't shopping related, but I didn't expect to have to put on the heater to warm up the bathroom sufficiently for a shower in the middle of June. It really is disappointing for the mid-year shower that I look forward to every year. I will now have to live in anticipation of my annual autumn shower. :)

After High School

For another purpose, I needed to write a short piece about what I did right after high school. I decided to post it here.

When I was in high school in Ontario, a thirteenth grade existed. Indeed, it existed for a long time after the sixties, but in a somewhat less rigorous form. Back then, the majority of our final mark was derived from how we fared on a set of departmental exams at the end of the year, which were set and graded by unknown people in an unknown location.

I had not been a good student up until then. Indeed, my grade twelve yearbook listed undone homework as being my favourite possession. Grade thirteen being what it was and considered to be the equivalent to first year university in other jurisdictions, I decided that it was time to apply myself a little more diligently.

That resulted in somewhat better marks and the realization, for the first time, that I might be a candidate for university. Sending me to university would have been an impossible financial burden for my family, so I determined to take a year to take a gap year of work between high school and university.

I secured a job as a production clerk at ITE Circuit Breakers. Among other items, they made the kind of switches that you see at power stations or at the top of some poles. They worked like regular household switches, either turning the power off or on, but on a whole different scale.

My job was to take the blueprints from the engineering department and to make work orders for the specific things that the factory worker must do to fabricate the switches.

I made seventy dollars per week, but in a little over a year, I was able to save enough money to get me through my first year at University of Guelph where I majored in geography with the goal of becoming a teacher.

I achieved an honours Batchelor degree after completing eight semesters in three years by choosing to study in the summers as well as in the traditional fall and winter semesters.

After completing another year at College of Education at University of Western Ontario, I did achieve my goal and went on to teach high school for thirty years.

Orphaned Photos 1

I fairly recently posted random photos that were left lingering in my blogger folder. Well, I have some more, and I think I shall now call them orphaned photos and number the posts like I do with Caturday.

Way back in the middle of April, I took some photos of flooding in the park, but I never got around to posting this one, which I like quite a lot.

In late April or early May, Sue finished her second afghan of the winter.

Since then, she has turned her hand to jigsaw puzzles. I think she's presently working on her third or maybe fourth. It's a good thing we don't eat at this table.

Signs of Lanark County was the first puzzle. It was missing one piece. You can see a gap over the Lanark 511 sign in the bottom left photo. I had AI fill it in in the bottom right photo. Sue did know ahead of time that the piece was missing, for Shauna did it first and informed her.

This redwing blackbird photo is also from late April. For some reason the red epaulet didn't show up, so I posted it in b&w back then. Only later did my plodding brain realize that I could fill in the red. It is still better in mono, but ya gotta wonder why it took me so long to think of the fix.

I will leave off with one more orphan . . .  for now. It's a more recent photo of a rabbit in the park. It didn't stir when we walked by and stopped to shoot it, so to speak. For some reason, the light and colour were really off, so I made all but the rabbit b&w.

Caturday 92: Sabine Shows Her Disdain

Sabine exhibited typical disdainful cattitude on a recent drop-in.

In actuality, this was just a brief timeout from much friendliness. She had been very happy to see us and to greet us, but a girl needs to recompose sometimes. Introverts understand this need.

Yesterday, we had planned to go out for lunch at a restaurant by the lake for their Friday fish n chip special. It had been my idea, but it was so hot and steamy that once the day dawned, I didn't want to take a hot drive to eat a hot dinner. The weather people tell me that things will become more tolerable tomorrow and for awhile thereafter. That will be nice because it is rather early in the season for such torridity. 

And just because . . . here are pretty grasses by the pond waving at you.

Any Excursion Can Become a Photo Op

We tried to sneak out for our walk before the rain hit. As we neared the trail, the sky opened, so we diverted to Tims and took our coffees to Riverside Park to consume in the car. In the event, it became a photoshoot — of course it did.

It began with selfies.

I shot through the droplets on the windshield. It was worth a try but looked better on the phone than it does here.

The rain was falling on my side of the car, but Sue rolled her window down, and she was the one with the park view.

When she lowered her camera, I took a shot. Whenever I can get a bench in the frame, I am interested. Of course, the trees help a whole lot.

A guy walked by with unusual headcover. Hey, when it's raining buckets so . . .

When there was a lull in the storm, Sue headed out to take a pic suitable for her POTD.

I was able to find two little scenes that interested me before it was time to retreat back to the car. In both cases, I liked the framing around the subject.

It turns out that just about any excursion can be turned into a photo op, particularly when you have conditions in which you wouldn't usually be out. I saw the park in somewhat unusual conditions for me at this time of year, and I liked the look.

Checking on the Poppies

I wanted to keep checking on the poppies, so we returned to the scene from just 4 days previously. Life moves apace, and the first poppies from that walk were at the floppy and fading stage. I did find a few fresh blooms at another house on the same block. I keep experimenting with soft backgrounds in portrait mode.

The same house will soon have more poppies. It's nice that they are coming into flower at different times to extend the short season just a little bit.

An allium from the same neighbourhood.

Once again, the phone camera did the trick. I would not have been able to shoot photos like these, with the soft background, with a normal camera unless I knew ahead of time what specific lens I would need, assuming of course, that I had such an expensive lens in my possession.

Togetherness

Every now and then, Amazon Photos sends me a short slideshow, the most recent one featuring Sue and yours truly in various photos from June 2019 to just recently. Not too surprisingly, we're sometimes drinking coffee in the car. :)

I cannot embed the slideshow, but I have linked the photo to it. Just click on the image and go although you will get a click confirming a redirect. There are 15 frames in the 46 second show.

A recent togetherness outing took us on our second Tim's Coffee Walk of the season. There was a fire engine out when we passed the firehall, so I snapped a picture from the sidewalk.

We kept on walking to The Junction where we perched at a picnic table to sip our coffee. Unlike on the first visit of the season two weeks ago, there were hordes of young kids and parents around the play structure. You  are not going to see them per se in the background because I focused on the coffee cup with a wide aperture in portrait mode and the background is very much blurred.

The Ugly Stuff Artisan

 At Dark & Deadly on Sunday morning, we enjoyed a very nice caramel coffee (I forget its actual name) and a really scrump breakfast sandwich. It was so good that it will be tough to enjoy the Timmies or McDonalds versions, not that we often do that. In point of fact, it has possibly been years since we last frequented McD's, and if we do get Tims, it is usually a turkey-bacon-club sandwich at lunchtime (again, infrequently).

However, what I am primarily posting about is what we saw at D&D and not about the food and drink that we consumed. Take a look.

The apparatus intrigued me more than the art, at least at first. The stand held both a phone and a light to help him both see and record what he was doing, and I think that is darn cool.

These is one of his items that he displays at the café: a mug, or rather a clay face somehow attached to a pre-made mug and selling for $60. It suits the Dark & Deadly theme very well.

These were all smaller creations.

The artisan is on Etsy as DWCUglyStuff where he has sold almost 2000 items. He said that he sells all over the world and more to Americans than Canadians. Here ↓ is a sample from his Etsy page.

I don't even know exactly what they are, I mean what they are made of, as Sue was talking to him more than I, but I am calling it clay for now until I know differently.

It was interesting to see him puttering away and to learn just a little about his work. And it was very cool to see his phone and light setup. It would be appealing to have a stand like that, even though I have no earthly use for one.

BTW, if you are close to local (I know there are a few of you), you should drop into Dark & Deadly someday if you are in the area. It's a unique café with good coffee. It is located at the orange balloon to the centre-right image below. This is the link to open the real, scrollable map in Google Maps.