Back to School 2021

I almost forgot the first-day-back-to-school photoshoot that the kids' stepmother had planned, but I rushed out at the last minute to participate a little bit. She was busy taking photos of the kids holding signs when I arrived, so I just hung about for a bit. My first snap was of the three older kids, who will be in the same school, with JJ in the centre and Dani on the right.

Later, I was able to get all four of them on the balcony to reprise a photo that I have done in previous years. I did alter it a bit; the youngest on the far left looked better in a different rendition of the photo, so I swapped her head into this one.

When stepmom later posed the pair at the front door, I took a series of quick shots and decided to make them into a strip.

To make a single photo, I took the two snaps on the right, above, and put Danica's head from one into the photo that I liked best of Jonathan.

I think my favourite photo of the brief shoot was a quick candid of Jonathan. I prefer this one in bw, but I will show both versions.

For some reason, we didn't do a proper portrait shoot this year. By that, I mean that we didn't take the time to go a nice location in good lighting and then set up shots with greater thoughtfulness, like these two from 2019, which look good on prints displayed in my den.

Another Blue Hour, Another Gas Station

My sleep patterns have become more irregular in the past few months, so I haven't been getting out as early or as often as I was in June. It's not that I am sleeping worse, and it may even be that I am sleeping better. It does mean, however, that I am sleeping differently. In addition to perhaps sleeping a bit longer, on some days at least, I have been tending to go to bed later. Consequently, I have also been getting up later.

Fortunately, sunrise has also been occurring later. Although I have been more interested in blue hour than sunrise recently, it also means the blue hour is happening later as well. So you have recently seen some photos of a car wash, a medical centre, a big pharmacy, and a gas station.

My most recent escapade took me to another gas station. I didn't quite get the same angles that I got at the first station here, but I like the results well enough regardless. You have to work with what is in front of you. My original idea of shooting from across the street (off left in the photo below) put too many wires in the frame for my taste.

Serendipitously, there was also a bit of sunrise.

I wanted to get more sky, so I turned the camera to take a vertical photo. That meant that I couldn't get the whole building in the frame, so I took a sequence of photos (4, I think it was), and had Lightroom merge them together. Of course, I see that it is better with less sky, as above, but one has to try things. Perhaps if the sky had interesting clouds, I would feel differently.

Finally, I zoomed in on the store in the background. There was sky in the original, but I decided to crop down to the roofline in edit. The black line at the top is the edge of the roof, but I think I should have cropped it away.

As usual, I converted each to mono. Of course, the blue sky is a major feature, but sometimes I like the impact of bw. I'll just post one, however, to save my dear readers some repetition.

One problem with going out later is that morning traffic will soon be heavier. I will miss the solitude of very early mornings.

La Hosta, Baby!

As I have reiterated from time to time, we mulch our backyard, mainly because grass didn't grow well there and also because it was a chore to take the lawnmower from front to back around the neighbouring property. So, we opted to mulch and place a few flower pots about. It is a pretty clean look, or it was until hordes of petunias decided to pop out of the mulch en masse.

Aside from the flower pots, there isn't much else except the joe pye of a recent post and one large hosta back in the corner.

On the evening when I tried to photograph the bees, I also noticed one fresh stem blooming on the hosta. It's was very late bloomer, indeed, for all of the other flowers were long since spent and even deadheaded.

I had my camera out already, so I decided to try a few photos. I rather like the results.

These were photos with which, ideally, I should have taken my time and used a tripod, but I like them anyway.

How strange that my perennials have already come and gone for the year, and I have hardly taken any photos. You may recall that I did photograph the last daylily, and this post is of the very last hosta flower, which a day after the photos was rather limp and bedraggled.

As an afterthought, I decided to play with the above photo. I applied various transformations and filter and came up with this result.

That's almost it for the perennials in our garden and certainly for the hosta which was pretty limp even one day after I took these photos. We do have annuals in pots, however. They should last the month, and the new pots of mums will  probably continue well into October.

i cannot follow the instructions for putting on underwear

Do you even know how to put on underwear? If you are like me, you probably don't. At least you probably cannot follow the proper instructions. 

Curious? Follow along for the backstory.

Sue was texting with her sister, Heather, on Friday evening when this popped up. I swear that I am not making any of this up, and we have proof (later. below) that Heather wasn't telling porkies although she does author fiction and can tell a good yarn. This, however, is not one of those yarns.

(Heather) Okay, go pee before you read this. I ordered a pair of underpants from Amazon. They came with instructions on how to put them on: 1. Bundle the waist and pull it to the groin. 2. Insert the hips and pull up to the bottom of the navel. 3. Lift your hips, place your hands in your shorts, and put them in your hip pocket. 4. Pull it up until the navel is hidden at the end.

Oh, and they said, Thank you.

(Sue) Oh my dear, that is too funny.  What kind of pants did you order?????

Just a plain black pair with tummy control. I've managed to put them on all by myself for years

I'm now stuck on the third step. It's like a game of twister.

Too funny

Easy for you to laugh. Your hands aren't in your shorts searching for your hip pocket

Sue handed me her laptop to let me read what she was finding so hysterical before continuing texting with Heather.

I just handed the laptop to John to read the instructions and the puzzled look on his face was hysterical. I think he will probably want to blog this.

He's welcome to it. It's just so funny

To think all these years we've managed to put our underpants on without written instructions

Well, I need a rest after these gymnastics. I'm off to bed 

Just a little later.

I just rechecked and what I wrote is exactly what it says. I'm laughing out loud again.

As proof  that this is genuine.

Subsequently, Heather posted this to add to the mirth.

Like Ikea for underpants         I admit that the ad offered 'tummy control' which for me was a big selling point but I had no idea that bladder control would be an issue. I peed my pants laughing       I'm afraid to put them on because I'd have to reverse the instructions

Sue subsequently posted the following online for the benefit of her friends along with the instructions image. She repeats what Heather had written to her.

Now I have seen everything.  The order just arrived for underpants.  They came with instructions.  Yes, instructions.  Who knew that I had been doing it wrong all these years.  Number 3 really has me puzzled.  I don't know how to find my hip pocket while my hands are inside my shorts, while putting on my underpants.   I think I'll keep doing it the old way.

Then Sue commented on my reaction when I was reading it and trying to make sense of it. I think this may have been the funniest part for Sue. 

I must admit that these instructions had me in gales of laughter, but just seeing the puzzled look on John's face when I showed him the instruction, sent me into even more fits of laughter.

I have probably done it wrong my whole life, but then I am not sure because I am still overly perplexed by the instructions. Although I am still working on #2 — inserting the hips — it is #3 where I completely lose my way.

3. Lift your hips, place your hands in your shorts, and put them in your hip pocket.

Perhaps my problem is that I wear underwear that doesn't have hip pockets. However, if your underwear comes with such accessories, it probably all makes sense to you.

But from where would you obtain such a garment?

Birthday Dinner

The Birthday Event continued for one more day. Sha and the kids came for supper on Friday. I brought Mediterranean Chicken and salad home from the good ole SmokeBox, which Sha augmented with fries that she purchased from another food truck. The chicken was supposed to provide a meal for 4, but we were 5, and Sue and I also had enough for dinner the next night. Mind you, the additional fries helped.

After a cozy dinner around the kitchen table, we repaired to the living room for cake etc.

The cake is always marched in to a rendition of Happy Birthday.

Of course, in these times, we no longer festoon the cake with candles, but they put one on a single piece for me to extinguish with my hot breath. I did.so with gusto, despite the fact that the one-candle challenge is no longer daunting. But one has to play one's part.

With only one gift to open, much fun was put into the presentation and unwrapping. First I uncovered a ginger ale carton. Then, I pulled out several filler bags before finding a box to unwrap only to unveil yet another wrapped box inside the first.

The second wrapped box produced a plain cardboard box. Aha! We're getting to it. But no! There was yet another wrapped box inside. That cracked me up.

Eventually, an iWatch was revealed. It wasn't a total surprise, but neither did I have an expectation. I wouldn't have been surprised if it were something else.

As the last one in the family, including the kids, to get an iWatch, expert help was on hand to set it up, and JJ was glad to provide it. I was certainly glad of his help.

And here it is.

The first watch face that I have chosen is the GMT face. It can tell you both your local time and the time of another selected area. I have set it to Vancouver time where the child #2 resides, but that part wasn't set up at the time of this screen capture.

In the 4 corners, starting at top left and going clockwise, I have it set for sunrise. Next is the weather, followed by a calculator (bottom right) and a moon indicator (left).

We most certainly don't always bestow such pricey gifts, but sometimes there is enough of a need or want that it seems like the thing to do is for everyone to chip in.

By the way, although I am the last in the family to get an iWatch, and was also the last to get a smart phone, I reminded everyone that I had been the very first to get an iPod. That was back in 2005. Who knew back then that phones and tablets and watches were coming along in such rapid succession?

But my reminder of how I had once been at the forefront of technological adaptation was met with hoots of laughter.

Well, I'll Bee, Joe

They say better late than never, but I am too often late and too seldom better.

When I go out to water both the potted and the volunteer petunias along with other plants in the evening, I notice many bees around our prodigious joe pye (Eutrochium ) plant. It really is a big plant, standing fence high and loaded with blooms. (If I think to take a picture, I'll post it at the end.)

The bees were all over the thing, flitting quickly from one petal to the next. I decided to take a picture, but they were flitting so fast that I couldn't track them and focus in time.

This was the best that I could do. Actually as I look again, it isn't that bad, but the bee is not tack sharp, which is what one wants.

As time passed, I must have gone out to do the watering a lit later, or maybe it was just darkening earlier, I noticed many bees being very quietly on the plant and not flitting furiously. Thinking that might have a chance to get a better photo, a few nights later, I set out with my macro lens and a flash.

Dang it all, I was thwarted again. They were now few in number and those few were flitting again. Sigh.

I did get a few photos that I don't like better than the one above. They are somewhat sharper, but the flash is harsh.

The joe pye, at least at this stage, is almost spent and is not attractive. I did attempt to blur it a bit in this this more cropped version of the same photo as above.

I have two other photos to share. They're not terrible, but they sure aren't noteworthy either.

Do bees like Mums? I don't know. I will have to keep an eye on the newly purchased pots.

Oh, I did remember to photograph the joe pye. It's a big-un, a perennial that grows from nothing to this size every year. This impresses me because it must begin anew from under the ground every year. I do find it remarkable, and the bees do like it, even if they won't stay still for a photo. But perhaps you can see why it might be difficult to get a prime photo under the circumstances.

Birthday Breakfast

I had almost forgotten about my birthday, or at least it wasn't on my mind when I got up. When I turned on the computer, however, I received a pop-up notice that a longtime friend had sent a Jacquie Lawson card. She sends me one of these beautiful, animated cards every year. Sadly, I can only show you a screen capture of one frame.

My second surprise was of Sue coming into the den with a gift. We are planning a little family celebration this evening, so I wasn't expecting anything yesterday morning.

It's a very light-weight hoodie, very handy for offering a bit of protection from the biters when  I go out for one of my buggy photoshoots in summer. Yet, with the long sleeves and hoodie, it also offers somewhat extra warmth on a cool morning in the house, which yesterday most definitely was.

I was expecting the next thing, however – breakfast on the patio. Although the day was chilly, it's still a grand spot. (The pano does show distortion on the right, but that doesn't matter.)

Despite the coolness, I enjoyed breakfast.

Sue remembered the obligatory selfie, which I would have forgotten.

On the way home, we stopped for our usual Fall Mums, but we strayed a way from the standard yellows and oranges although there is still some yellow in these baskets.

When we got home, I had to get a snap of this.

Two work crews arrived to the same spot on the same day. One to do something or other in a backyard, and the other to remove the old neighbourhood mail boxes and install the new ones. I'm sure it was a most unappreciated synchronicity by both crews.