Saturday Trip

On Saturday, Shauna and I drove 2.5 hours to visit my ex-brother-in-law, Brian, at his very rural abode. I hadn’t seen him for 8 years, mostly because of the ex designation and all of the concomitant complications therewith. As is evident by all of the green on the map, there are a lot of trees to pass by on the route from us in Carleton Place (right part of map) to Brian's (orange marker in Kawartha Lakes). Shauna took the somewhat quicker dark blue route, but Sue and I would often drive one of the two light blue routes when we had oodles of time at our disposal  

It was good to meet with Brian after so long and also good to see the property once again, for we have spent many happy recreational weeks there in the past. Of course, I had to take pictures. It was a terrible day or time of day for photos, but after 8 years it was a necessity.

First: people and dogs. There have always been dogs, but these two were new to me, and we got along well. Griz, the one on the left, both top and bottom, expected me to go on a woodsy walk with him (bottom left), but that was not to be. Leesi (bottom right) was the more touch-friendly one of the two.

In two of the above photos, we were standing in a lavender patch. Brian has created a lavender garden, actually two, over the past three years. It's a pretty impressive feat in the geographic conditions (soil and climate) that he has to deal with.  He has taken some marvellous photos in sunrise light, and maybe I will find and post one at the bottom,  but I did what I could on that day. The photo at the bottom left of the collage is of the secondary lavender bed.

Another thing that Brian has just begun is the raising of honey bees, The two 'hives' are in the left in the next composite. In the centre, I managed to snap a not-too-terrible pic of one of the flitting bees in the lavender. The photo on the right has nothing to do with lavender or bees but is the part of the river where we used to swim. We'd do down the bank on the bottom left of the image. The slope has become steeper over the years because it is the nip slope of the meander, so the river will cut in that direction (toward the camera). As always, this and all photos are embiggable with a click.

Photography is all about the light, and Brian certainly caught the light in the next photos, the first on one of the smokey days. The sun could not rise in a more opportune location.

Oops, I forgot to post this, Over the years, I enjoyed taking many photos of this old barn, and now I have been able to add one more to the collection.