Welcome to my blog, in which I post photos from recent travels and photography ideas.
These are posted irregularly, so log in at your leisure to catch my latest ramblings.
95th Birthday Party
We were in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, last Saturday (August 12) to celebrate my Aunt Aili's 95th birthday.
My mother's younger sister was born in the Sudbury area in 1922. After she married, she moved to her husband Will's home, Milwaukee.
She certainly does not look 95.
Aili with the members of her family, two daughters, children, grand children, and great grand children.
The celebrants, before cutting the cake.
It was difficult keeping the background numbers properly aligned as 95.
A great party! Thanks to everyone for helping Aili celebrate.
August 7 - Revisiting Wildlife Fujichromes
It's been a slow summer, at least for photography. So recently I've been optimizing scans of some of my wildlife images, photos that I made back in the day that I used Fujichrome Velvia in my Leica cameras. Here is a selection of those images.
Gray Wolf, Montana (captive)
Red Fox, Killarney Provincial Park, Ontario
Coyote, Montana (captive)
Cougar, a.k.a. Mountain Lion, Montana (captive)
Canada Lynx, Montana (captive)
Bobcat kitten, Montana (captive)
Sharp-tailed Grouse on lek, Manitoulin Island
Arctic Ground Squirrel, Yukon
Columbian Ground Squirrel, Glacier National Park, British Columbia
Hoary Marmot, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
Pronghorn, Yellowstone National Park, Montana
July 7 - Where Is Summer?
We've had a lot of rain recently, and not many sunny days. The upside to this is that the wildflowers have been abundant. This photo shows the lupines at our driveway entrance.
Here are some other photos that I made of wildflowers in and around our place.
Our celebration of Canada Day concluded with the fireworks over Ramsey Lake.
Following Canada Day, we had a great visit at the Merwin camp at Whitefish Falls (with our friends Marilyn and Bob who took us to their daughter's place). This is the deck with a serene view of Bay of Islands.
This photo shows the Canada Day sunset over McFarlane Lake at the Wilkinson home.
We are trying to be optimistic: summer is coming.
June 11 - Beat the Heat and Compose a Blog
This was our hottest day of the year, with the temperature here reaching 32.7 C. So I thought that it was time to show a few of my recent photos.
I like to sit at this window to read and to take in the view as spring gradually changes the landscape and summer approaches. Fiddleheads and rhubarb are a couple of the wild plants that are delicacies of the season that I look forward to. Today I baked a rhubarb custard pie.
We recently visited Manitoulin Island to spend time with our friends Nancy and Rick. While there I helped Rick assemble and put in his new dock.
How can we get together and not enjoy good dinners with fantastic wines? These are a given.
I have also found time to photograph the season's landscapes around my home territory. Here is a selection of these images.
These two images I made just down the road from my house.
A variety of spring colours at Naughton.
These two wetland images I found within the city limits of Sudbury.
What photos could one make of Canada without at least one of a hockey rink, or a former hockey rink!
The previous five images are from Manitoulin Island. This following photo I made in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, at my cousin's home.
May 17 - South-Western Ontario
We just returned from another road trip out of town, this time to the south west of Ontario. We drove with Marilyn and Bob Wilkinson to Thornbury, where we stayed at Bob's brother's place. He told us about this great pastry shop just south of there. So the next morning we stopped at The Blackbird Pie Company in Heathcote for our morning coffee, and a treat.
That day we wound our way through rural Ontario to New Hamburg. Here we met Doug Arnold to pick up our new vehicle.
From the dealership it was a short drive to Goderich to the Bartz home. Harry's neighbour Paul took me for a long-promised ride in his 1956 Meteor.
That evening I ventured into farming country looking for photo ops as the sun was setting.
The following day we were on the road again, to Newbury for a retirement tribute for Monte's father, Gary, who had recently sold his Home Hardware store. He was presented with this painting of the business as a memento.
On our way to Mt. Brydges to visit Kate and Monte and Annie I made this photo illustrating mechanized crop planting.
One characteristic of the geography of south western Ontario is its flatness - endless flat farmlands. It is after all part of the prairie grasslands.
Next day we visited Point Pelee National Park, because it is well known for its spring bird migration. But it was not a day for migrating birds. But I was not skunked as I did make a few images of a wild turkey displaying.
The farm lands of this part of Ontario can be interesting photo subjects. I made this photo on our way home near Stayner. The wildflowers were profuse!
We are on the road again this weekend. I'll post some images from this trip on my next blog.