Birthday Hat and Cookies

Two years ago with the advent of the pandemic, Sue had to settle for a drive-by salute from the family. Last year, with yet another phase of COVID raging, we suffered through a cold garage party. This year, with everyone well vaccinated (although the kids will just get their boosters today), we had a more comfortable get-together.

As we waited for the pizza to come, Sue opened gifts. I don't know where my head was, but I didn't think to take pictures. But this is an image of the front of the card that I made.

Shauna made Sue don a funny hat, and we did take a round of photos.

Instead of the traditional cake, we had some of Sue's favourite cookies: maple with walnut and white chocolate.

Danica quite liked them. We all did, but no one more than Sue.

Happy 75th

This ↓ is m'lady, who is 75 years young on this day, which I hasten to add is also the Celtic New Year and the New Year date that Tolkien used in Lord of the Rings. (I think I have always mentioned this, ever since I learned of it, because I think it is so darn cool.)

I actually took this ↑ photo five years ago, but since it is in my blogger folder, it is the one that I shall use today. I am sure that I have posted it once before, but I believe that I re-edited it not too long ago, and that is why it has found its way back into my blogger folder.

Let's do a few retro photos too, shall we? This ↓ is her college grad photo that had a place on my desk at uni.

I think this ↓ was her first visit to my house for Sunday dinner after church. She had a the same hair style as above. We lived on a nursery where dad tended the greenhouses; he was pleased to show her around.

After that visit my mother reported that he really liked Sue.

A Different Look

I showed you this ↓ photo almost a week ago.

 

But I took a vertical photo too. It is often a good thing to take as photo both ways, but just as often  I forget or remember but can't be bothered. This time I did remember, but I wanted to process it differently than the first one, so here it is.

Aside from the edit to b&w, you may notice that I removed the wire that ran across the top of the bar, sort of paralleling the fence. I had removed some other wires in the colour version, but I had left this one in because I mistakenly thought that it electrified the barn and was part of the story. But when I looked more closely, I saw that it just ran past the barn. Removing that wire was not a difficult undertaking.

It did take me more time remove the pennants from in front of the fence. They were a distraction to me in this version because I was aiming for a more authentic, retro feel, which I think suits this barn.

I liked the result ↑ quite a bit but also wanted a more horizontal version. At the same time, I didn't want to be bothered going back to the original horizontal colour photo and doing all of the editing and removal work again, so I cropped the above photo into this ↓ rendition.

While I was pleased with the original colour version, I think I like the monochrome result more.

I Was Sooo Cold

You may recall my New Years Eve fireworks photos. Goodness know that I showed enough of them. But here's another to refresh your memories. It's the building — the old schoolhouse — on the right that is the main subject today.

Now that there is much less snow, I had it in mind to try for a dawn or even a sunrise photo featuring the schoolhouse, so I headed out yesterday morning.

This  wasn't the photo that I came for. To get a sunrise, I would have to be way over to the left. I never got there. I will explain, shortly.

There was a bit of a glow where my car was parked, so I took a photo while I waited for more light. By the way, both photos required 30 second exposures.

It was perishingly (spellcheck does not like that word) cold. The wind resulted in a feels like temperature of -10C/15F. It felt colder than that to me as the wind bit through my layers. Frankly, it was too much for me.

For a few minutes after squeezing off those photos, I sat in the car desperately trying to warm up. My plan had been to wait for the sun, but I couldn't justify idling the car for another half hour or so, and I would have had to keep it running because I felt so cold. Besides that, it was a cloudless sky and it wouldn't have likely made for a very good photo anyway. I do hope to return on a less frigid morning.

So, there are no wonderful photos to be seen, just a record of the morning.

For what it is worth, I also did a version of the schoolhouse ↓ in b&w. I kept it pretty dark and gloomy, which is not far off from what I was seeing at the time.

I can tell you that was a three-cup coffee morning (cups not big mugs) — one upon arising and two afterward to get me closer to being warm again.

Sunny and Sheltered

 This is a rite of spring. I look out my window and see this.

There are two in the frame. You see the guy clearly, and that bit of blue behind him is his wife. They are facing the neighbours driveway to their left/south. Their neighbour is over there, and they're having a chinwag.

They do this a few times in spring. They are sheltered, and the stronger sun keeps them warm in their coats, even when it is a crispy and windy day.

I have shown you photos of the fire hydrant almost completely obscured by snow, so we have come a long way. Since our property faces the wrong direction, our yard has further to go.

Now, I would like to tag on this video at the end. It's from a Montreal Canadiens hockey game last week. In the runup to the game, they filled the ice with the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Then a cellist and pianist played Imagine. It was quite stirring and worth watching in my opinion.

It can be said that the Montreal Canadiens do tributes better than any organization. One journalist humourously points out that it they are on a par with the House of Windsor in this regard.

Looking Up on our Main Street

Last week, Sue had a Looking Up theme, so we headed downtown. It was also a b&w theme, so I processed some of mine that way too. I used my longest lens although I did not have it extended all that far — just around the half way mark of my 400mm

I deliberately blew out the sky, by overexposing, on these photos of St Andrews Presbyterian church. It is technique that is sometimes effective, but I am not too impressed by these results. You probably can't see the 1887 date at this size, but it is there. A few years ago, the property was sold to the All Nations congregation.

As is plain to see ↑ I decided to put two different detail photos into a diptych. It was  last-minute decision, and I hadn't processed the two photos with the same tones, the tower being a bluer tone. I didn't think this diptych is important enough to edit further.

That is quite the ornate tower for a church. As ornate as the architecture is, however, I can’t exactly endorse the interior pews, for I once attended a concert there, but my gamey back couldn't hack those old-fashioned pews. People must have had strong backs in the late 1800s, but I am nothing other than a weak, modern homo sapien. 

I do like the next photo of the tower on the old Federal building that once housed the post office and inland revenue. It is now privately owned. We were in there for an open house tour a few years ago, and I remember being impressed by the commodious vault.

With that green patina on the clock tower, I couldn't face turning this ↑ into a b&w photo. 

Too bad neither the clock nor the bell still function, but as the building is now in private hands, I don't think the proprietors are about to invest in an expensive restoration project.

There is also a masonic temple in town, and it still serves that function. We have toured that too. Only the upper half serves as the temple. The stores at street level provide revenue. It has always been this way from what I can tell from historic photos.

My final UP photo was looking Way Up at the flag flying above the clock tower at town hall. (I emphasized Way Up in honour of The Friendly Giant, a kids tv program that older Canadians might remember.)

It was a very windy day, but I managed to get one photo with the flag revealed fairly fully. I also thought that our fine flag deserved to be left in colour.

Banal Sunday Morning Post

Good Sunday Morn. It is still dark out there at 6 o'clock, but I don't see water on the window. I sure did yesterday when it rained quite a lot. This helped the snow in the backyard to begin to disappear — to the point where we began to see some ground. However, the pile in the front from clearing the driveway all winter, remains quite high. Progress though.

So, while Mother Nature gave the car a free and much needed wash, no one in this household even stuck their heads outside. One of the things we did was binge-watch Unforgotten. We had watched 2 of the 6 episodes on Friday evening at and after supper.

We usually watch a program at both lunch and supper — a program — but on Friday, we watched 2. At lunch yesterday, we intended to watch 1 more, but then we thought, it is Saturday afternoon, and we're not going anywhere, so let's keep going.

I had broken down and purchased the series on Apple TV. It's a favourite British series of cold cases. It is really produced and acted well. We had seen the first 3 seasons on either Britbox or Acorn, but series 4 hasn't made it to those streams. It's a PBS series, and we don't get PBS at the moment.

It's not often that I would rent/buy a series like this, but Unforgotten is special. Along with Endeavour, we find it the best of the current crop of British mysteries. We are also currently watching The Bay. It is pretty good but doesn't reach of the level of the other 2.

One other thing I did was to make little cards for Sue with information about her sister's, Heather's, visit next month. She is coming for a visit and book talks at two local libraries and one in Ottawa. While all of these places will promote the event in their own ways, Sue likes to hand out information for those whom she might meet with in the interim.

So, I made a little card for her — 4 on a sheet that she can cut out and place where she will.

So, I think that is my banal, morning post. I will add that we have a new coffee-maker. I am still getting used to it, and after all of the fiddling with correct water and coffee levels, I forgot to place the cup under the drip. Fortunately, I noticed before there was too much spillage.

Hey! Things like this can happen at 5 o'clock in the morning.