On the weekend I, with the family, celebrated the completion of my 72nd trip around the sun.
It began on Friday with lunch out with friends and continued on Saturday with a bacon and egg breakfast.
On Sunday morning, I was presented with a shirt. More often than not, I am given a shirt on either Fathers Day or my birthday or both. It makes us all smile as there are so many pictures like this, year after year, decade after decade.
Sunday afternoon and evening was the celebration with family. There were a few presents to open. This one is a phone holder for the car. But, of course, the presence of family was the best present.
Then it was off to dinner.
Cake at home afterward.
On Monday, we took a spin to the nearest lock on the historic Rideau Canal. Danica had never seen a lock in operation. JJ decided that video games with his friends were better than any old lock.
They (left) are watching the gates close after the boat has entered,
They moved to the other end to watch the rising of the water. It has already come up a long way but still has a few feet to go.
I may do the whole lock sequence in another post, but this post was to give an overview of the weekend.
The couple, Erin and Curtis, schedule one more butterfly event with more than 40 Monarchs to be released and, hopefully, begin their migration to Mexico.
The kids were back from their holiday week down east, so we volunteered to take take them to see the butterflies.
Fortunately, we got there early enough to get close to the box because it got very crowded shortly thereafter.
Unfortunately, once again, I didn't think to bring my polarizing filter, and so the shots through the glass were very so-so.
Also once again, Councilor Linda showed up in a new and special outfit to mark the occasion.
I pretty well knew that photography would be difficult because of crowding and how quickly the monarchs fly off, but I thought that I perhaps could catch something on a video where I didn't have to time shots.. I don't shoot videos often and am not very adept it doing it, but I decided that it was worth a try.
You will see below, especially at the beginning of the clip, how much of a crowd had gathered by release time. It was quite stunning, really.
Then the kids congregated around in front of the box, which was both good and not so good.
It was good in the sense that, first and foremost, you want the kids, especially, to experience the occasion. But there was a problem. Unless a child got to the front, he or she probably wasn't able to see much, particularly if they were shorter than the others. For that matter, the adults couldn't see much either. Our kids didn't get to the front, so I don't think they were able to appreciate the awesomeness of experience to the fullest.
Erin and Curtis, are doing a marvellous thing, but I think they were overwhelmed bu the huge turnout and didn't quite know how to handle the situation. If they do this again next year, and I really hope that they do, I think a solution would be to have the children sit on the grass just a little way back so that all of the children, and even also the adults, would have a fair chance at seeing the butterflies fly off.
Nevertheless, I held the camera high and managed to capture a few Monarchs making their departure.
It has been quite a wonderful series of events, and I am thankful for having been able to witness them, especially the emerging of the butterfly from chrysalis in the first release. That was extra special.
The release was covered by the community paper; you can read about it here.
One final thing: I decided to composite my various photos of the Emergence of a Monarch from Chrysalis into one image. The various stages are chronological but not to scale as I shot from somewhat different angles and zooms and didn't know that I was going to attempt to do this.
Due to extended family members who suffer from cat allergies, we generally keep the bedroom door of the guest room closed. But one day, when I couldn't find Lacey, I had a premonition.
Not only was she in the guest room but happily ensconced behind the pillows. The pillows! Can you believe it? In a room designated for cat-allergic people?!!
But not early enough. Despite being licked awake by the cat at 4 o'clock and the alarm being set for 4:45, I didn't get up until 5. It's not as though I slept through the alarm, for after being awakened by the cat, I shut it (the alarm not the cat) off to keep from disturbing Sue. I had thought that I was quite awake and didn't need it, but I did drift off again for a few minutes.
Even then, I couldn't quite get going, so I was a bit late out the door. I sat in the car in the driveway wondering where the heck I should go and decided on the local trail by the river. It's just a few blocks away.
Once upon a time, I had taken a decent sunrise shot there, but with the water full of algae on this day, I turned away from the river.
And I simply shot the sunrise in the other direction. There are houses in the frame, but I don't think they are too distracting, and I like how a v-shape points to the sunrise I was also keen to get the crescent moon in the shot.
Since I was there, I did a landscape (horizontal) shot too, but that misses the moon.
I began to drive the few blocks toward home but decided to check out the park since I could see that the sky was still pretty nice.
None of these are worthy of printing, and I knew that would be the case, so I even shot hand-held for that reason. But I did see a decent sunrise with my own two eyes, and I like some of the photos too. Just not enough to print, I don't think.
It has been a little while since I arose early looking to capture a sunrise. I demurred when the alarm went off at 4:45, but I eventually capitulated. You will notice that I set it for 4:45 rather than 4:15 as I did earlier due to the sun rising later and later now.)
What I didn't realize when I set out was that there was quite a lot of fog in some patches. I wasn't finding driving in the fog and dark very appealing, so I pulled off and never did make it to my destination.
I pulled off at a garden centre which had a corn field for a neighbour, over which there was quite a wonderful glow from the rising but not quite yet risen sun. So, I suppose that I trespassed just a wee bit to get these photos. The photos are very similar but with somewhat different crops and edits. I am not sure if I prefer the second or third image.
There was a second releasing of the Monarchs although there were fewer this time. They perhaps could have waited for more to emerge from chrysalis, but once the butterflies are ready, it is not wise to make them wait for too long.
I brought up the concern of one of my readers that Monarchs released in this way cannot migrate, and they were quick to disavow that. You see, Monarchs can be tagged, and those tags have been found in Mexico. It really doesn't make sense anyway since all they are doing is protecting the pupae from bird predators while they are incubating. Otherwise, the attrition rates can be quite high. The insects are not interfered with otherwise.
I have some photos of this event too. Largely, I went so Sue and Shauna could witness the event, which they missed the first time. They are on the right in this photo.
There was much crowding around the box. They used glass doors this time instead of mesh to make photographing easier, but I found that there was too much glare and reflection. Others may have done better. Perhaps if I had brought my polarizer filter . . .
They did have a few insects in another tent, but nothing exciting was happening like it did on the previous day. The first wasn't ready for chrysalis and the pupa wasn't close to emerging in the second photo. Still, we could see them up close.
When the door was open, most of the butterflies took off lickety split. In these photos, first there were three, but second later there was just one. I was surprised to see than I caught a bit of one taking off. I had thought that I had missed completely.
Bob got me in this photo when I was trying to capture the above photos or something similar.
All but one of the nine released disappeared from the premises pronto, but that one did sit on a flower for a long time.
Linda showed up a little late, but she didn't disappoint with her outfit. She never does.
Addendum: Erin, who along with her husband, Curtis, who takes on this project, also has a blog on the subject. This post (←this is a link) addresses the issues of migrating and raising the butterflies in the way that they do. It also informs us that there will be another release on Thursday evening. Although I have witnessed this twice, the kids are back from their eastern excursion, so they might like to see it.
Ever since that recent post about my victory at Sudoku, I swear, the game is trying to get back at me. Maybe Miss S reads my blog and is provoked with me.
I said at the time, that expert-level challenges came along infrequently. I certainly wish it had stayed that way, but it seems that ever since that post, they are all very hard at best or expert at worst.
I am able to solve some puzzles but find myself asking for hints in other games, perhaps because it becomes too tiring to exert any more of my rather limited brainpower.
Although I have managed to solve two expert level puzzles in less than a half hour lately, \they can take double that time if it is a particularly sticky puzzle.
It's just not every morning that I want to wrestle that long and hard. Sometimes, I would just like a 10 minute medium puzzle. I mean, for me the game is about engaging the brain and being forced to apply logic, and I can still do that with a less difficult puzzle. If I do want to make it more challenging, I can try to complete it without resorting to notations, which I often do.
Oh well, as I said, the last one I managed in less than 30 minutes, which isn't too terrible, but I just don't want to do that every day. Sure I can choose not to play the daily puzzle and choose my own level, but after so many months of seeing every day filled in, I hate to stop.
