Saturday Photos on Sunday

Quite unexpectedly, Saturday turned out to be a successful day for photography although it took quite a bit of editing to obtain results that I liked.

I recently posted a quick pic of geese in the field beyond. On Saturday morning, the poor things were back. I put a little more effort into editing this one. For one thing, it was a big crop even after shooting at full telephoto. Then, I used an upscale algorithm in photoshop to make it bigger again.

Later, while walking downtown, we checked out the site where we might find snowdrops in a sheltered spot with a warm south-facing wall behind. Due to their spot, they can bloom pretty early, and we were happy to see that they were out. In the past, I have brought my macro lens, a tripod, and even a stool to sit on to try to get down to their level. This is a mere phone photo with lots of editing to try to minimize the rough and distracting background. It's tough photography, but it has become a rite of spring in the past few years.

Leaving the tiny patch of snowdrops, I took a picture of reflections in the river as we walked past. It's quite abstract.

We walked on to the Blue Spoon Atelier where we purchase the blueberry scones that I go on about. Alas, other people have also discovered them, and they were all gone. Not to be defeated, we bought cheddar cheese with caramelized onion scones, two delicious chocolate chip cookies, and one sourdough loaf. No, those scones were not as good as the blueberry ones, but we didn't suffer too much.

As a lagniappe, I present the fun Canadian Resistance Army - Not Your 51st State. Enjoy.

New and Old Photos

Red asked if this picture of JJ and me were backward. The answer is yes. It happens sometimes on certain selfies. I did notice but not before I posted. I think I may have fixed that from happening again, but we shall see.

But now that it has been mentioned . . .  Ta Da.

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Milady and I trend rather heavily toward the British tv that we find on Britbox and Acorn, more Britbox than Acorn. However, we are currently quite into The Pitt. We consumed the first season relatively quickly and are presently galloping our way through the second season. We both approve with definite thumbs up. 

Update: Apparently, we are now caught up with the series and must wait for one drop per week. This is very disappointing. 

By the same token we have lukewarm feelings about Scarpetta. Given the source novels and the star power actors, we were rather disappointed. The show was over-written and over-acted, which made it quite uncomfortable at times. I think that The Brits have perfected the mystery genre. They get on with telling the story, which is interesting enough on its own merit without reverting to hyperbolic acting. It's not that I wouldn't watch a second season of Scarpetta if it were offered, but it wouldn't be at the top of my list.

I recently uncovered in my files a newspaper page that I scanned quite some time ago when it was already yellowed with age, so I removed some of the yellow. Here's how my grad photo appeared in the local newspaper. 

Fourth in second row in case there is any doubt.

You see that were living in Guelph at the time, so I was included in the newspaper, but we only lived there together for s year while I was attending university. From Guelph, we moved to London where I spent a year at Althouse College of Education, University of Western Ontario. Then, we moved to Sarnia where I taught for thirty years and lived for 34 years.

Speaking of Guelph, Sue brought home this photo of Sue from her visit with Heather. We were entering the house where we had a basement apartment. It was the day of our wedding, which took place at 11am. After the ceremony, we had a luncheon reception at the church in Toronto before driving the hour to Guelph. We didn’t take too long to get organized before travelling on to Stratford where we spent our first night. I don't know why we don't seem to have this photo in our own collection, or we haven't until now.

Spring hath not Sprung

It's especially true in this vernal equinox morning.

I had been yearning for blueberry scones at the Blue Spoon Atelier downtown, but we will likely stay home where Sue is attending to her knitting. 

She was counting the stitches. She missed one of 97 in that row.

Meanwhile, the geese hunker down in the field opposite as if quietly resigned their fate.

And I also reluctantly accept my scone-less fate. Dangitall.

Licensed

Before we even left the house, we learned that Jonathan had passed his driver's test. We do have a graduated license plan here, so I don't have his road permissions all straight in my head, but I think he's able to drive around town on his own and on secondary highways as long as he has a fully licensed driver riding shotgun. Later in the process, there will be another test to pass.

The drive into Ottawa was interesting. The highway was clear on a sunny day, but once we hit the city, we had to approach intersections with caution because we could hardly see the snow-blasted traffic lights from Tuesday's big blow. Here's one picture but some lights were even more snowed than this one. 

Once we arrived, the food was good, and my almost-79-year-old wife was looking pretty good too.

The Snow and the Driving Lesson

We had plans to head into Ottawa yesterday, but the likelihood of a fierce wind blowing newly fallen snow onto a rural highway dissuaded us. So, the trip and lunch are on the agenda today. But I must say that it looked pretty yesterday morning when I first looked out.

The bright snow at the bottom was on the window ledge.
I included it deliberately.

But it was not fun to be out there, and we weren’t about to go for walk in the frigid gale.

I keep wondering when the final shovelling session
will occur, but it probably won't be for awhile yet.

The day before, Jonathan had asked if I were available for a driving lesson. Sue requested that I take some photos of the event, so I sent a few back to her to composite for me. She sent many layouts, but I will limit myself to only including four of them here. Some versions are whimsical. Well, maybe they all are whimsical to some degree. 

When we say "driving lesson" we mean that I will mostly just sit there in silent mode while he wanders about the streets and into parking lots to practise parking.

Before I leave, I present a selfie with the boy.

Checking In

As March grinds on, I seem to have less to write about than usual, which, I suppose, many must count as a godsend. While it went up to 13C/55F yesterday, it is presently -6C/25F and bright and white after an overnight snowfall. Unfortunately, it will get even colder as the days goes on. Nevertheless, we shall, possibly, still drive into the city for a pre-birthday lunch.

We have gotten out for little walks but kept to the neighbourhood yesterday. The milder weather, as noted above, was pleasant enough, and we heard some birdsong, particularly a Mr Cardinal who was calling from a treetop up the street. We did the bridge trial walk on Sunday, but it was almost bitterly cold, partly because I underdressed. While photo ops seem few and far between in mid-March, I did take one of Sue shooting a boarded-up window, and I photographed the window too. Fortunately, or otherwise, my shooting did not break any glass.

A few days before that, we did a different sort of selfie in a downtown window. It's all reflection.

On another downtown stroll, I photographed a mural in a narrow alley between two buildings. Even using a wide angle plus a pano sweep, I could not capture it all in that narrow space and missed some of the top. Pano distortion also resulted in a curve although the wall is really straight. Fun stuff.

Since we are here, all together like this, I'll show you the old clocktower once again. It is a mono conversion of the colour version that I posted not too long ago.

I guess that's a wrap for today.

Caturday 89: At the Cat Show in 1971

I've recently been digitizing more old slides. It being SatCaturday, I found some that I could post.

Being friendly with a cat lady back in 1971, we were encouraged to enter our household pet in a cat show just for fun. Off we went to London, Ontario with Dusty in tow.

One of the judges liked her and awarded her a ribbon: second place, I believe. She behaved well.

A friend of our friend was showing Persians, and I very much liked this little red classic tabby kitten.

We took Baron home. He grew a bit although he never became a big cat.

Here is a somewhere blurry photo of a very hairy me, holding the pair of them. You can see how calm and happy they were to be held.