Circles

Last weekend, we journeyed to Perth to watch Sue's grand nephew (the son of her nephew, whatever the proper name is. I can never get it straight.).

The dad, Matthew, was a good friend of our daughter, Allyson. And she was his attendant at his wedding, his best man as it were.

After years of living quite far away, Matthew and family have settled in Kingston, which is only about an hour and a half away from us. Still, it's not exactly a quick drop in, so we don't see them very often. But when his son had a ball game only a half hour away, we couldn't pass t up.

Here are father and son, and son is about the age of Matthew when he used to visit us for a week or so in summer. I think he visited twice. Gotta how the circle has spun around.

And a few more.

And they're back in another nearby town today for another game, so we're going again along with Sha, Dani and JJ. It will be nice for the cousins to have a little visit although Lucas will be mostly involved in his ballgame.

Cycling Again

Cycling is likely too grand of a word for it because we're not exactly doing the Tour de France, doncha know. But what else can you call it?

After many years of letting our bicycles lie dormant, we got them tuned up, and we've been riding them around a bit. Our biggest outing so far was only about 10km roundtrip, which isn't far, but it will probably be about as much as we will manage. In the more distant past we would do perhaps 80km in a day, but I think those days are behind us.

Still it's good to get out.

We have a couple of trails around here. For example: when we biked to our seniors' exercise class yesterday, we could do almost half of it along the trail near us, and the rest was on quiet residential streets.

This ↓ is a photo from that 10km trip. This trail is very narrow, and is not highly used, but others hereabouts are wider, and there's room for both pedestrians and riders.

And these were taken at a spot where we had to walk our bikes where the path got narrow near the river.

As you just might be able to tell, we are enjoying getting back on our bikes.

The Museum Garden at Evening

I post photos to Flickr, Facebook, and lately Instagram, and sometimes I forget what I have posted where.

One recent evening I wanted to back and take more photos of the poppies. This time I went earlier, hoping to catch backlight, but the tall trees behind still blocked the light. So, I moved on to the garden y the museum. It was buggy and shady, but I caught a bit of backlight in some shots.

I don't know what flower this is, but I like it.

A peony with some light filtering through.

A flowerbox catching the light.

A closeup of the same flowerbox with one flower poking through the fence.

A somewhat impressive planter.

A bench in an alcove. You wouldn't have wanted to rest there on this very buggy evening.

Peonies and the Mill

When I was out pedaling my bike on Monday morning, I spotted peonies in the park with the old MacArthur Mill behind. I resolved to return with camera and tripod. As it turned out, I remembered both but forgot the little thingamabobie that connects the camera to the tripod.

Without going into the whys and wherefores (for a change -- just to spare dear reader), pulling off the shot was problematic. But here are two results. The golden light of the westering sun was hitting the building, while most of the rest was in shade.

I took two other shots while I was there all the while under attack by voracious mosquitoes. The reflections were awesome that night, and I like this view of townhall framed by the trees.

I also took another of the [former] mill with the dam in the middle of the frame.

To My American Friends

Unless you've been in hiding, I can understand why you would be in these idiotic times, you know that your Trump verbally attacked our Prime Minister after the G7 meetings.

After. After he left. On Twitter. Because that's how he rolls. Some might call that cowardly.

This article in The Globe and Mail, widely regarded as Canada's national newspaper, writes that Trumps Owes Trudeau an Apology.

It's a brief article so don't hesitate to click and read, but in case you don't here are a few excerpts.

Decent people do not belittle or mock their allies or their enemies. Decent people do not engage in juvenile name-calling. Decent people do not resort to personal attacks when they don’t like the outcome of a meeting ... 

We are respectful and decent people. Over the past 70 years the U.S. has led the construction of an international order based on mutual respect, and worked on improving the joint and interconnected interdependence among nations. 

But this recent behaviour is abnormal: Someone has to call out Mr. Trump.

We on this side of the border are pretty well all onside, for this is not an liberal-conservative issue. In fact Parliament has voted unanimously in favour of tariff reprisals. Unanimous voted, don't often happen, folks. (More here.)

I read everywhere in social media that Americans are appalled by this man's uncouth behaviour, but I am mainly writing this to say that we understand that this is not so much a Canada-USA brouhaha as it is a petulant man-child acting out.

I can say that I've never met an American that I haven't liked. Now, I am sure that they exist, but I haven't personally met any.

 I just wanted to say that to y'all, eh: those last two words being an Americanism and a Canadianism.

Swamps and Poppies

I wander about and try to keep my eyes peeled.

I found these Pheasant Backed Mushrooms, which is the name I was told, on a tree by a path in a swamp in a local trail.

Those were taken with a 90mm lens, so I went back a few days later with my 70-200mm lens, but it didn't bring me much closer. I cropped this a lot because it was so bright on either side of the tree. Maybe I need a longer lens. I have close to purchasing one, but I have resisted.

Just to show how swampy it was the first photo below was taken right beside the tree, and the other was taken from close to the same spot but looking at the other side of the path. Yes, the mosquitoes were very active.

Also, while out cycling with Sue, we passed a garden with poppies by the roadside. I seldom see poppies, so I went back that evening for a few shots with the 70-200 lens still on. I was a little late to get the backlight that would have been really nice -- in theory anyway -- but a few are  acceptable. I may also get around to getting back to these but a little earlier in the evening. I don't think they won't last much longer though.

Sisters

Sue and her sister, Heather (the author) have a lot of fun when they're together as they were for a short time this week.

Heather drove to Ottawa to accompany Sue to a meeting at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier hotel, a prestigious and venerable landmark and accommodation.

This is how they looked heading off to the meeting (repost).

While waiting for their meeting in the hotel lobby, they had a brief encounter with fame, for lo and behold, the president of France and his wife entered the lobby, passed not far from the ladies and he actually nodded to them. The man greeting them in the photo if our former governor general, David Johnston.

The sisters live far enough apart that they can usually wear the same outfit and nobody will notice. As Heather was leaving they both put on their blouses for a fun photo. They also donned the identical hats that they wear when the sun is beating down at Celtfest in July.

It's plain to see that they have fun together.